Results of the WMCS 2009 Poll

Posted on 10. Nov, 2009 by Flauwy in Memory Championships, News

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The memory battle of the year is approaching: Many of you voted your favourite athlete and discipline, whether there will be many records or few and what Memory-Sports.com should focus on for the time of the competition. Here are the results.

How much do you train?

Well, this is a very interesting question. Memory skills are depending a lot on the amount of training you do. And since memorizing can be fun but also exhaust your mind it is difficult to establish a proper routine for your regular training. Besides who has time to train a memory marathon over three hours more than once or twice? Let’s see how you voted:

1. A little bit – not more than usual (27%, 8 Votes)
2. I train a lot – nearly every day (27%, 8 Votes)
3. Regularly – but I could do more (20%, 6 Votes)
4. Not at all (13%, 4 Votes)
5. I train like hell (13%, 4 Votes)

OK this is gonna be interesting. Eight people did the same amount of training like always and eight did train a lot. Six trained regularly with ambitions for more. And four each did train like hell or not at all. Impressive – 60% took it really serious this time. And 27% did at least the usual training. I want to see results, dear athletes.

Who will win?

Probably the most interesting question of them all. The result is actually less interesting:

1. Ben Pridmore (56%, 20 Votes)
2. Johannes Mallow (14%, 5 Votes)
3. Simon Reinhard (11%, 4 Votes)
4. Dr. Gunther Karsten (6%, 2 Votes)
5. Cornelia Beddies (6%, 2 Votes)
6. Someone else (6%, 2 Votes)
7. Boris Konrad (3%, 1 Votes)
8. Guo Chuanwei (0%, 0 Votes)
9. Liu Ping (0%, 0 Votes)

56% are certain that Ben is gonna win again. Well he is indeed the most ambitious athlete I have ever met. And he is a great guy with astonishing skills. But he is not certain himself if he can win again. And why not making it more interesting by crossing fingers for someone else? Johannes and Simon are following far away with 14% and 11% although both of them are extremely promising. Former World Memory Champion Gunther Karsten even got only 6%. And what about our Chinese friends? They’ve shown an enormous talent last year and I am sure that they will surprise us all again. So I think it will get very exiting.

Who will break a record?

This question was less difficult to answer. First of all you could vote more than once. And second of all we know our specialists.

1. Ben Pridmore (3 of 10 records) (71%, 24 Votes)
2. Johannes Mallow (2 of 10 records) (50%, 17 Votes)
3. Dr. Gunther Karsten (3 of 10 records) (26%, 9 Votes)
4. Boris Konrad (2 of 10 records) (21%, 7 Votes)
5. Someone else (12%, 4 Votes)

Of course Ben has won this round again. With three actual world records only in the World Championship disciplines we all hope he will go for another record (well at least as long as you are not hoping to win the competition  ). But look at Johannes: He got 50% of your votes which is excellent. If anybody is able to break the 405 digits/5 min and 110.5 dates/5 min it will be him. I am so gonna cross my fingers for him!

What I find very interesting is the fact that at least 12% gave their vote to the unknown fifth. This indicates the hope for a new face among the record holders. We will see.

How many world records will we see?

1. 1-2 – There is still a little potential for more (51%, 18 Votes)
2. 3-5 – There will be a lot of them (43%, 15 Votes)
3. 6-8 – It will be a great deal of records (3%, 1 Votes)
4. 10 – It will be just incredible (3%, 1 Votes)
5. None – It became to difficult (0%, 0 Votes)

Excellent result. It looks like an example in our math schoolbooks. You can see that there is hope and certainty that we will see at least one or two records (51%). I think it is great that 43% are optimistic enough for three to five records. And no one thinks that we will see no record at all. I just hope that our favourites are thinking the same.

Most interesting discipline

1. Speed Cards (33%, 12 Votes)
2. 60 Minutes Cards (14%, 5 Votes)
3. 5 Minutes Speed Numbers (14%, 5 Votes)
4. 15 Minutes Names & Faces (11%, 4 Votes)
5. 15 Minutes Abstract Images (8%, 3 Votes)
6. 30 Minutes Binary Numbers (6%, 2 Votes)
7. 5 Minutes Historic /Future Dates (6%, 2 Votes)
8. 60 Minutes Numbers (3%, 1 Votes)
9. 15 Minutes Random Words (3%, 1 Votes)
10. Spoken Numbers (2%, 1 Votes)

Expected result: Speed Cards is just the coolest piece on a memory championship. A little unexpected is the card marathon on position two though. It seems that cards are just more popular than anything else. Very unexpected for me are the Spoken Numbers on the bottom of the field. It is my favourite discipline after the cards marathon.

What you wanna see from me

1. The top ten of each discipline (24%, 8 Votes)
2. The entire scores (18%, 6 Votes)
3. Pictures from the event (18%, 6 Votes)
4. Videos from the event (18%, 6 Votes)
5. Quotes & Interviews (18%, 6 Votes)
6. The top three of each discipline (3%, 1 Votes)

Great – why have I asked for it? The top ten results of each discipline as soon as possible? OK I can understand that you are interested in more than only the top three. Therefor I will concentrate on reporting rather than competing myself. I have decided only to compete in the two marathons to try to get my Grand Master title. This will give me enough room for making pictures, videos and interviews. Since I have competed already in four competitions this season I think I have earned a break.

Watch out for the coolest coverage since the dawn of memory sports.

Tags: Ben Pridmore, Boris Konrad, Cornelia Beddies, Dr. Gunther Karsten, Gua Chuanwei, Johannes Mallow, Liu Ping, Simon Reinhard, World Memory Championship