The 2019 Canadian Memory Championship

The 2019 Canadian Memory Championship

By Matthew S. Wilson

I almost didn’t go.

You have to train to get better. This is certainly true in the long run. But it’s not always true in the short run. I had been training for about 2 hours per day, but right before the tournament, my results suddenly plummeted. For about a week, I was 10-20% worse in everything. I didn’t understand why. It was so frustrating. I had been thinking about going to the tournament, but I didn’t want to drive all the way to Montreal and then suck. A few days before the event, I tried to memorize a deck of cards and failed. Again. I decided not to go.

But on the next day, I looked at the situation from a different perspective. I had been making a lot of progress this year. Even on a bad day, I was still better than the Matt Wilson who qualified for the US championship finals. So if I had been willing to go to US championship in the past, then I should also be willing to go to this tournament. I signed up. Three days before the championship, my poor results vanished as quickly and mysteriously as they had arrived. In training, I posted my highest scores ever. The tournament wasn’t going to be a disaster!

Since I’m not a Canadian, I couldn’t become the Canadian Champion. But there was a section for foreigners (the Open section) that I could win. I considered myself to be the clear favorite unless Livan Grijalva showed up. He is a top American mnemonist who sometimes goes to Canadian tournaments. I can compete with him in some of the disciplines, but he is much better at memorizing cards and numbers. In the Canadian section, Braden Adams should win easily. Since we were in different sections, we weren’t competing against each other, but of course I still hoped to outperform him (though I knew that was very unlikely).

I drove to Montreal a day before the event. I might have gotten a Canadian Border Patrol agent interested in memory techniques. He enjoyed testing me a bit (e.g., “What was the second question that I asked you?”). I was afraid that he wouldn’t believe me when I said I could memorize a deck of cards in under 5 minutes. But he let me through. Maybe he’ll be at the competition next year.

Since my entry was so last minute, I wasn’t fully prepared for all 6 events. Luckily, Livan wasn’t there, so I would probably win the Open section anyways. The first discipline was Images and I wasn’t quite ready for it. A few years ago, there was a split in the world of memory competitions. One set of tournaments used abstract black and white images, like the ones here. The Canadian championship and many other tournaments used pictures of everyday objects like bicycles or computers. But all of the other events were the same in both kinds of tournaments. That’s why I focused on the other events. As a result, I’m not very good at memorizing pictures. A talented beginner might be able to beat me. We get 5 minutes to memorize as many rows of pictures as possible. Each row has 5 pictures. Then in the recall session, each row is scrambled and we have to put them back in the proper order. I attempted 25 rows, which is typical for me. One of the competitors had requested an extra sheet, since he planned on memorizing more than 40(!) rows. I thought it was going well, but during recall, I found myself guessing a couple of times. My guesses must have been wrong; I only got 21 of the rows right. But I didn’t know that during the tournament. The results weren’t posted until a few days later.

My poor preparation affected me again in Words and in Numbers. Usually when I train, I have 5 minutes for each of these two disciplines. But in the Canadian championship, we had 10 minutes. I got off to a good start in numbers, but then I struggled to maintain my focus in the second half. I wasn’t used to having an extra five minutes. After attempting and reviewing the first 288 digits, I still had an extra minute or two. Should I review more? Or memorize more? If I had just picked one and stuck with it, I probably would have been okay. Instead, I tried a bit more review, changed my mind, switched to more memorization, and changed my mind again. Combine this with my loss of focus in the last 100 digits, and we have a disappointment. I got 17 rows of 12 digits correct and half of the last row. This yields a raw score of 210 (17x12 + 0.5x12 = 210). This is barely any better than my results with 5 minute numbers. The other 7 rows had mistakes; the extra 5 minutes had been wasted. I was planning on memorizing 90 words in 10 minutes and found myself in the same situation: what do I do with this extra time? Again I was indecisive. I tried an extra column of 10 words mixed with review. I felt okay, but then during recall I realized that several details were hazy. For example, I wasn’t sure if one of the words was “magic” or “magician.” Then there was a part where I knew the word was similar to “cut,” but it wasn’t actually “cut.” I went through as many synonyms as I could think of, but none of them felt right. Mistakes like this can be quite costly due to the scoring system, so I only scored 72 points out of the 100 I attempted. Only slightly better than what I usually do in 5 minute words.

I was ready for Names and Faces. We had 5 minutes to memorize as many as we could. Then during the recall session, we saw just the faces and had to write down their names. I had trained for this. Usually I spend the first four and a half minutes on memorization and then quickly review the first part for the last thirty seconds. Inexplicably I got too cautious and spent more time on review. I think I remembered nearly everything I tried to memorize, but I didn’t memorize enough. Just 45 names! Usually I get more than 50. There is no penalty for writing the wrong name, so there is no reason for spending a bunch of time on review trying to get everything perfect. You probably see the pattern here: I don’t handle the pressure well. I have to be AMAZING in training so that even when I collapse in a competition, my results are still respectable.

I wasn’t ready for the Exam Cramming discipline, an event unique to the Canadian tournaments. They give you notes and 15 minutes to study. It has information about made up historical events, geography, and other subjects. It’s all fictional to ensure that no one has an advantage from studying these areas ahead of time. I had attempted this sample exam at home. My practice result was a disaster: just 51%. A lot of it was just hard to memorize and I got flustered. The format of the practice test took me by surprise as well. To make matters worse, my printer had run out of color ink, and trying to distinguish the black and white photos of different praying mantises was tough. It’s very hard to practice for this event, so I just hoped to avoid a complete meltdown. Thanks to the practice exam, at least I knew what to expect. When I came across something that looked hard to memorize, I just skipped it instead of getting flustered. Then I came back to it later. Again I found myself with extra time. But I stuck to the plan: don’t try the bonus questions, just review again. All the pictures were in color, which helped. I felt good about my performance, but in view of how badly the practice test had gone, I didn’t want to get too optimistic. If I got 70%, I was happy.

I scored 90%!!! I had not dared to even hope for a score that high. Even Braden Adams, who had dominated the previous 4 events, couldn’t keep up with that. It feels great to beat an entire country at something.

The last event was Speed Cards. We had to memorize a deck in 5 minutes or less. I was a bit nervous about this discipline. Even though I had largely recovered from the disastrous results I had a few days before, I was still wobbly in cards. Just a day before the tournament, I had screwed up a deck. Maybe I’m still traumatized from botching the first deck at the 2018 US championship. There were 2 attempts, but what if I messed up both times? I decided to be extra slow and careful in the first round. I memorized the deck and then reviewed it once. That took 70 seconds. Slow by my standards, but it dazzled that Canadians. While I waited for everyone else to finish, I went through the deck in my head. I was pretty sure I had it. During the recall session, I took another deck and rearranged it to match my recollection of the first deck. I double checked and was confident that I had it. We had 5 minutes to recall, but I finished early. I didn’t want to start second guessing myself and ruin a deck that was almost surely correct. But when the judge was checking my results, I suddenly got nervous near the end. It was outside of my control now. But I had recalled it perfectly. Now that I had secured a decent result in round 1, I could afford to take risks with the second deck. By “take risks,” I mean going faster, which makes a mistake more likely. Since only your best result counts, this is the right strategy. I was hoping to memorize it in under a minute – something that I routinely did at home, but doing it during a competition with all the pressure is another matter. I zipped through the deck. But during review I suddenly realized that I didn’t know if a certain card was the 10 of Hearts or the 10 of Diamonds. I lost a few seconds double checking, but it didn’t throw me off. I finished in 62.333 seconds. If I hadn’t stumbled, maybe I would have done it in under a minute. But I was happy with this time. Usually I don’t perform well under pressure, but here I was just a few seconds slower than I was at home. I reviewed the deck in my head while waiting for the rest of the competitors to finish. A few details were hazy, but I thought I would probably get it. What I like about cards is that you can use the process of elimination. For instance, in this video this video, I wasn’t sure if a certain card was the King of Hearts or the King of Diamonds. I went through the rest of the deck in my head and realized that the King of Hearts came later, so this card must be the King of Diamonds. The same trick worked in Canadian Championship. Everything fell into place. I had recalled the deck perfectly. Meanwhile, Braden took 88 seconds to memorize his deck. Everyone else was much slower. Once again, I had beaten an entire country at something!!

I clobbered my rivals in the Open section (full results here). Though I was ineligible to be the Canadian Champion, I still hoped that I could beat the top Canadian. Unfortunately, Braden’s dominance in the first 4 events outweighed my victories in Exam Cramming and Speed Cards. He still would have won even if we disregard all the extra bonus he got that I was ineligible for. I finished 2^nd overall. We’ll get ‘em next time!