My memory had never been better. But there was a new format, so I wasn’t sure if I would qualify for the finals. Traditionally, there were 4 disciplines: names, poetry, numbers, and cards. I would survive the first 3 and then run up the score in cards. But this year, cards was dropped. Poetry was replaced with images, and then there were 2 new events from Lumosity. I’m terrible at images and I had very little experience with the Lumosity games. So I didn’t assume that I would make it to the finals – no booking my ticket to Orlando yet. The qualifier would be online, but the final would be face-to-face in October.
About a month before the qualifier, I started training for
the Lumosity games. The first one is Memory Match Overdrive. You flip through
cards with different shapes on them. For each card, you have to remember if it
matches the one 3 cards before it. I quickly realized that doing it “properly”
with memory palaces was just too slow. But without those techniques, my memory
is nothing special. I also had no idea what was considered a good score in that
game.
The other Lumosity game was Rotation Matrix. It starts with
a blank grid. Then some squares briefly light up. The grid is rotated either
left or right. Then you have to reconstruct the pattern and rotate it
accordingly. The squares light up for only a second, so I didn’t have enough
time to apply the memory techniques. I just tried to recognize different shapes
and patterns. I figured that some Lumosity enthusiast who had been playing
these games for years would probably crush me.
Each of the 3 main memory organizations has a different
format for images. I always focused on the other events that they have in
common. One month of training in images is not enough to catch up. Tournaments
that count toward the world rankings use International Names, not regular
English names. I have done much more training for International Names, so my
results for English names had never been outstanding. Numbers was the only
discipline that I was confident about. I had spent 2020 upgrading my approach,
memorizing numbers in groups of 3 instead of 2. This is more efficient, but
making the switch is a tremendous amount of work. But by 2021 it was paying off
and I was shattering my old records. The plan was to avoid embarrassment in
everything else and then excel in numbers.
As the training progressed, my confidence inched up. My
Lumosity scores were improving and I broke a bunch of personal records in names
and images. But I still didn’t know how my Lumosity scores compared to everyone
else. I did know that my results in names and images weren’t world class (to
put it mildly). But only a few people in the country can memorize an 80-digit
number in 40 seconds. I had a shot.
August 7 was the big day. I started with some warmup
exercises in numbers. The online tournament started in the afternoon, which is
when my energy tends to dip. So I also did a bit of weightlifting in the
morning. Not a full workout – I figured I had enough nervous energy to make up
for the rest. Then lunch and followed by the pre-tournament Zoom meeting. There
were supposed to be 100 competitors, but only about 30 were at the meeting.
Maybe the rest skipped it. Maybe they dropped out of the tournament. I didn’t
know. I didn’t worry about it. The Lumosity games would be the first two
events. We had 15 minutes to play Rotation Matrix and 10 minutes for Memory
Match Overdrive. We could play the games multiple times. Only the best score
would count.
I started with Rotation Matrix. My first score was modest.
But it didn’t bother me since I still had plenty of time to repeat the game. On
the next trial, I broke my personal record, scoring 28,050 points. I briefly
wondered if I should quit and move on to the next game. But only the top score
counts, so if I keep playing, my score cannot go down. After a few more modest
results, I broke my record again right after my time expired. I took a short
break before Memory Match Overdrive. Again I didn’t get a great start. But soon
I scored about 32,000, just shy of my record. I was doing exactly what I needed
to do: hit my targets in Lumosity so I was still in the running if I did well
in everything else. Later it was announced that the top scores in Lumosity were
69,400 for Rotation Matrix and 56,600 for Memory Match Overdrive. But I didn’t
know that at the time and thought I was having a good day.
We reconvened for the Zoom meeting. Attendance was still
low. I was starting to think that a lot of people had registered and then
decided not to play. Many of the big stars weren’t there. The top 10-12 advance
to the final, so if they aren’t taking up those spots, the rest of us have more
of a chance. The Memory League games were modified for this tournament. Instead
of having a maximum of 1 minute, we had up to 5 minutes. They stressed that
accuracy trumps speed. There is a bonus for finishing in under 5 minutes, but
only if you are perfectly accurate. There were 2 trials for each event. Only
the higher score counts. I didn’t know the formula for the time bonus. I
thought about asking but decided not to. I didn’t want to be mentally
calculating my score and wondering how that stacked up against everyone else. Just
focus on getting stuff right.
Images came first. We had a sequence of 30 pictures to
memorize. Then they were scrambled and we had to put them back in the proper
order. Since accuracy was so important, I decided to go slowly and then review everything
once. This took 55 seconds – a very slow time, but I got it all right. In the
second trial, I went for speed and skipped review. I was done in 38 seconds.
This is still a very slow time, but for me it was almost a personal record.
Unfortunately, I made a few mistakes. Nevertheless, I had no regrets. Even a
beginner can get a perfect 30 if you give them 5 whole minutes, and accuracy is
more important than speed, so I needed to get at least 1 perfect score. Having
secured that, I could focus on speed and my score can’t go down since only the
top one counts. I just needed to avoid disaster in my weakest event – and I
did.
Names. I had never done it in this format before – 5 minutes
for 30 names, with 100% accuracy required to get a bonus. Again, I started by
playing safe. Go slowly and review everything once. About 2 minutes later, I
stopped the clock. Everything was clear and I got a perfect score. For the
second trial, I decided to go faster. But I was caught off guard by a few names
that I hadn’t seen in training, like “Daryl.” We try to make everything visual
and put it in a memory palace, but some names are harder to visualize than
others. For example, “Ross” is easy (think of floss) and so is “Sam” (ham). But
what do I do for “Daryl”? I decided to go with pterodactyl. A few names like
that slowed me down and although I got another perfect score, my time was worse
than in the first trial. But I was still happy with my performance so far. I
had gotten through all my weakest areas. Now I could flex in the last event:
numbers.
Safety first. I took 65 seconds to memorize the 80-digit
number and review it once. I easily got a perfect score. In the second trial, I
skipped review. But I was unable to turn on the speed. It took almost 47
seconds to finish. Normally I am in the 35-40 second range. But it was still
good enough to take the top score. I knew I was nearly guaranteed to
make the finals.
We had a short break while the organizers tallied up the scores.
I took 3rd place! My best result ever. Though I was 12th
in the Lumosity events, finishing 1st in Memory League was more than
enough compensation. I was so relieved. It felt like I had been carrying a
burden for the last several weeks, and now it had been lifted from my
shoulders. I enjoyed an extra long piano practice session and the next day I
celebrated with family. In the finals, I will be facing a relatively weak field
and have a real chance at winning. This could be my year!!
