The night of Wednesday, May 15, 2024 will be remembered as one of the most exciting in the history of Pasapalabra. After more than 150 programs facing each other in a multitude of challenges, tests and questions to the limit, the contest prize pool has finally found a winner. It was Óscar Díaz who beat Moisés Laguardia, taking a total prize of 1,816,000 euros.
Hours before viewers experienced the highlight of his career as a contestant, the man from Madrid shared the set of El Hormiguero with his original rival from Alfaro. Pablo Motos had a relaxed conversation in which he tried to reveal the secrets behind his resistance in more than 400 programs combined. The winner of the pot was not far from his counterpart.
Óscar claimed to have dedicated the last two years to studying his participation, after having gone through a special program some time before. Being older, in his own words, it was a little more difficult for him to adapt to the routine. This consisted of looking at a multitude of donuts, writing down words that he did not know and detecting patterns of responses, a way similar to what Moses commented.
Another possibility discussed was the association of words, citing the former president of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, as an example. The translator used ‘record it tomorrow’ as a reference to remember the complex last name of the dignitary. Likewise, he also had a database of more than 70,000 words, capable of repeating questions depending on the result and thus creating a study calendar. He himself claimed that it cost more in the early days.
Regarding Óscar himself, his time on Pasapalabra was not new, after having participated in 2000 when Silvia Jato was its presenter. Six years later, he would accumulate 100 installments of Saber y Ganar: “It is not the most splendid program in terms of budget, but they make up for that with treatment and affection that you do not find in more industrial programs. I remember that when they eliminated me in 2006 it was like they took away a toy from me. “It was an almost childish reaction.”
On June 4, 2018, he returned to participate in the Rosco space thanks to a special edition, Pasapalabra en familia. There he appeared with his wife Patricia and his sister Lucía and would end up winning a total of 198,000 euros. He was later on, in the program Boom! by Juanra Bonet, where Óscar would become known as a member of Los Dispersos and would show his personality in more detail in front of the cameras. There he would add 324 programs and 1,546,400 accumulated euros.