LAST DAY!!
I love all these events, and they"re probably my best.
Random Words
15 minutes to memorize as many random words as possible. The words are separated into columns of 20 and you get scored on how many columns you get perfectly correct. A perfect column gives you 20 points, one mistake gives you half that (10). I love this event because I get to use some journeys that have a really strong meaning to me....and I guess that"s why I"m pretty decent at it.
The world record is 300 words (insane!) held by Simon Reinhard (again!).
Spoken Numbers
This event is pretty impressive to watch. Most people would probably freak out at how well most competitors do, as it can seem kind of impossible if you don"t know how they"re doing it. Memorize as many digits as possible via audio (you don"t get to see the numbers) at a rate of 1 digits per second. What makes this event hard is that once each digit is said, you can"t go back online roulette and double check it - once it"s said, it"s gone. So either you got it or not. The other hard part is that it"s so damn fast! 1-digit per second can quickly become very overwhelming. But not with practice :)
The world record for this event is 300 digits in a row by Wang Feng. Pretty solid. My best is around 220 digits.
Speed Cards
Finally, the grand finale. Memorize a deck of playing cards as fast as possible. Years ago, it used to be impressive if you could do it under 50 seconds. But now it"s commonplace to do it under 30 seconds. I"m guessing a sub-20 second mark will happen pretty soon too. I"ve seen Simon Reinhard (who holds the world record at 21.19 seconds) attempt a sub-20 second time. Pretty sick, if you ask me. Either way, it"s a great way to end the competition and it"s a fun event to watch since you can pretty much feel the tention in the room as everyone speeds to the finish line.
There you have it. 10 disciplines over 3 days. The person with the most points overall is crowned World Memory Champion. I have a feeling Simon will win it this year, but you never know. Him and Johannes are always neck and neck throughout most competitions.