I was one of 12 who made it through the qualifiers back in July. We were joined by 4 champions: Wes Twiggs, Nelson Dellis, Ron White, and Lance Tschirhart. After my flight was delayed by 4 hours, eventually I made it to Orlando on the night before the competition.
The first event was Long Term Recall. Four weeks earlier, we were given spreadsheets on Preakness winners (horse racing), video games, and signers of the Declaration of Independence. In total, it was about 7 pages. We would have to answer questions about the material; 2 mistakes and you are eliminated. I got a slow start. A few weeks ago, I had memorized a ton of financial regulations for the Security Industry Essentials (SIE) exam, and it takes a while for the images to fade from my memory palaces. So I started preparing about a week late and was still shaky on the video games section. Luckily, the first round of questions was about the Declaration of Independence. Several of my rivals stumbled, and when it was my turn, I nailed it. The next round was about horse racing. Casey Porter, a newcomer, made his second mistake and was eliminated. I had no problems when it was my turn. Then we moved on to the video games. James Cumming made his second mistake and was knocked out. He has been competing for several years and always does very well in the qualifying tournament. Soon it was my turn. Fortunately, I got a question that I knew. We moved on to harder questions about the Declaration of Independence. Sara Morici, competing for her second time, was knocked out. Adam Deng was also eliminated. It was his first time in the championship, but he had made an impression by winning the qualifier. I had talked to newcomer Grace Luo before the event, and she seemed very prepared, but she made her second mistake was knocked out. I advanced to the next round.
Next was words. We had 15 minutes to memorize up to 300 words. I decided to memorize 106. For most of the competition's history, memorizing 100 had always been enough. But a few years ago, I had been knocked out for knowing only 100, so I was a bit more ambitious this year. Competitors are eliminated if they make 2 mistakes. Usually I make 1 error and survive, but this time I was perfect. Dhruv Thogarchedu, competing for his second time, was eliminated quickly. I had met him back at the French Open in March. The rest of the field did very well, but finally they started to crack after about 90 words. Erdem Dulguun has been competing for several years and has done very well in the past, but he was eliminated. We also lost 2-time champion Ron White. Makenna Good (winner of the 2020 online competition) was also knocked out. There is some controversy about her. In the last several championships, she has always been eliminated in words, but she posted stellar results in the online qualifier. So before the championship, one competitor had accused her of cheating. Meanwhile, former champ Lance Tschirhart flexed his skills by memorizing 166 words. He had come out of retirement but was showing no signs of rust.
The third event was the Tea Party. We watch videos where 5 people introduce themselves, telling us their name, birthday, occupation, etc. This is where I usually stumble; I was eliminated here in 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2024. Finalists are eliminated after 3 mistakes. I trained a bit more this year. There is too much information for me to absorb it all, but now I could handle more of it. I only had to skip about half of it, focusing on memorizing the other half. Then I missed the first question. But I got the next one right. I stumbled on my 3rd question. Reigning champ Wes Twiggs made a few minor mistakes and was knocked out. Newcomers Arnav Ayyalasomayajula and Steve Ruppel were also eliminated. I got my next 2 questions right. However, the remaining finalists were doing very well. Lance had one minor mistake, while Nelson and Jason Smith had perfect scores. I made my third mistake and was knocked out. I got 3 questions right out of 6, my best performance ever in the Tea Party. Overall I got 4th place, tying my best result ever.
The last event was cards. The remaining finalists were Jason Smith, former champ Lance Tschirhart, and 6-time champ Nelson Dellis. They had 5 minutes to memorize 2 decks of cards. One mistake leads to elimination, and the last man standing is the winner. Jason stumbled early. Nelson was answering quickly and confidently. He and Lance made it through the first deck with no errors. Deep into the second deck, Nelson finally made a mistake and was knocked out. Lance won his second championship.
Congrats Lance!!!
