Part 2 of the 1st National Open on Memory Sports Review

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OK. I'm back. And if you are wondering why we're here, well, this is the second part of the review that I'm doing of last month's 1st National Memory Sports Open or the Philippine Friendly Memory Championships 2013. At this point of the competition, Erwin Balines, the Philippine's second ever Grand Master of Memory was leading the pack with 2,509 championship points. He was followed by Mark with 2,293 championship points and trailing at third is myself with 2140 championship points. There was not much changing of hands in the leader board except when Mark took the lead after the third event where he was ahead of Erwin by around 100 championship points and on the following event, the 10 minute cards, where I briefly took the second spot ahead of Mark. I think Mark made some awful recall errors where he was only credited with just 15 cards. I, on the other hand, just managed to get one and a half deck right out the five that I tried to memorize. This is one of those events where, due to lack of restraint, overzealousness, or hubris, I overextended myself and was left grasping at a number of hazy images that I thought was manageable. Unlike Erwin, who coolly settled for four out of four decks and went on to win this round handily.

All eyes on Mark! He might have felt the pressure from the
video cams as it didn't turn out well for him.

One thing I realized during the awarding for this event, was that there was such a thing as tie-breaker to determine the proper athlete's proper placing in the standings. That even if I were able to get a tie with Erwin with four decks, he would still be getting the Gold, since I declared more decks than him. So, here's a tip that I think is very much valuable, especially in marathon card events, go for a number of decks that you know you will get perfectly or that is very much manageable.

By the way, Axel Tabernilla came away with the silver medal here with three decks and I got the bronze for the adults but overall, Jamyla Lambunao and a host of other youngins had way more cards memorized than me.

Next up would be the five minute numbers. I think we only had one trial for this one because of time constraints. And that made a significant difference in the way a memory athlete would approach things. Normally, we have two trials for this event and most would either get a safe attempt at first trial and if they get perfectly, they'll go for broke and memorize as many as they can on the second trial. Buuut only a bunch of us minded the situation since most of them are just raring to go and enjoying the events of the day. With the event contracted, Mark would need to make up for his 41 point blunder in the previous event but he settled for a dominant 220 digits, which were followed by our safe 178 and 162 attempts, me and Erwin respectively.

The next event would be five minute random words where we saw Erwin Balines smashed the Philippine record with 60 words and Ms. AB Bonita tied it with her 50 words. Rounding up the third is Jamyla with just two short of tying it with 48. I'd rather forget how I did with this one, I landed smack dab in the middle (14th) with 16 words. I think I made a bunch of silly mistakes here, like remembering the image but not the proper word that it represented. I didn't know if it was supposed to be a missile, a cannon, or a rocket. Or if those were even the words. I just knew some projectile was shot... or was the word projectile? Hmm..

Mark's personal best with the spoken number Source

Anyways, heading into into the spoken numbers event, Erwin had a comfortable 782 point lead over Mark, which he would cut down to 577 with his 100 digit spoken number performance. He would have needed to replicate his personal best of 316 digits (2 points shy of the current world record) in this event to get an even chance going into the final event, the speed cards.

Going into the last event of the day, it was already a foregone conclusion that Erwin will be the inaugural champion of the first ever National Open on Memory Sports, at least if any of the results from the previous events were announced or posted. But we had to wait for the awarding ceremonies to get an idea of our performances for the day.

Intense focus at the final event, speed cards.

It was already around 8 pm when we started with the speed cards. And it was about to be done like the speed numbers that was limited to a single trial. We were seeking clarification from different arbiters if it was really be just a single attempt but the answers we get were varied as well. So we went on with the first attempt without knowing if we'll get a second one, which made me decide to go for a safe one minute and forty plus seconds. Buuut since I usually start my memorization after two minutes the chief arbiter says go, my arbiter insisted that I'd only be credited with the full five minutes. An unnecessary distraction that I had to iron out before the start of the recall phase. They eventually agreed to credit my original attempt just in time for the recall but all that trouble was for naught when I failed to get all the cards in proper order.

I was about to accept that my day would end with a sour note until the chief arbiter Rafi Delica, seemingly awed from witnessing kids memorizing decks of cards, suddenly announced that a second attempt will be squeezed into an already overdue event. Huge props to the wonderful venue at Alphaland that they allowed the event to push through way into the night. This second chance gave me an opportunity to redeem myself. I made sure this time that I had it all perfectly in my head that I ran through it for several times before I stopped the clock at exactly one minute and 15/100 of a second.  It was just enough to get another silver at this event as Mark did his cards a little over seven seconds faster than mine. And if I'm not mistaken, Erwin was not able to improve his time in his second attempt and settled for third. 

Division Winners: Jamyla Lambunao (Kids),
Princess Grace Mendoza (Juniors),
and Erwin Balines (Adults)

While we were about  to start the recall, I noticed that the arbiter misread my time as 1 min. and 15 seconds, which prompted me to correct him swiftly. But as he left after correcting the error, I did a double take at it because he corrected my attempt by removing a whole minute and credited me with just 15 seconds! If had I not notice it, I would have been just 54 points short of winning the championship and end up being a runner up. I wouldn't have known if I'd be happy for landing second or be very regretful for being just a few points shy of being the champion. Good thing that it ended the way it did though, it just showed me how much I needed to improve.

It is in this event, aside from the overall results not being included in the official world ranking, that an official arbiter would have been handy as there were two other people that managed to get under two minutes. Axel's one minute and forty seconds and Jamyla's quick one minute and seventeen seconds would have qualified them for a Grand Master Norm.      

Young up and comers

Much of what I have written were about the adult's division since I am in that category. The younger categories in the tournament ended with not much of a surprise either. The Kid's division was largely owned by  the 11 year old Jamyla Lambunao of St. Scholastica, where she won gold in every event except in speed numbers, she was just five digits short of winning that event. It was a very dominant performance by Jamyla that she almost doubled the score of her nearest competitor. Her scores were good enough to beat the older mnemonists at the tournament. But it was all to be expected from her. She was three years ahead of her division peers in training in memory sports and is a veteran of several international events including the World Memory Championships.  

AB and her students enjoying each others company
at the National Open on Memory Sports 

However, the performance from her competitors are nothing to sneeze at either. They were impressive for someone who had just a summer's worth of training. Much props must be given to their coach, Ms. AB Bonita, as well. She did a wonderful job at getting her students into competition mode. 

Much like in the Kid's category, the Junior's division was expectedly won by Princess Grace Mendoza, also a veteran of the 2012 Thailand Open and The WMC 2012. But she almost lost the championship to Robert Bryan Yee, one of AB's rookie players from summer, by just a mere four points. Robert Bryan was way ahead from the get go with a 269 point lead as they get into the random words event. But disaster struck for Mr. Yee when he only managed to get a single word correct in his recall for a measly 8 points. This blunder allowed Princess to slash the lead into just 21 points and eventually overtook him 408 point performance at the following event, the spoken numbers. 

Robert Bryan might be thinking about what happened
to his random words while Princess is  in deep concentration.

Being that the scores and results of the events weren't posted at the venue as soon it was available (as I said before, results were only announced during the awarding ceremony, and for the top three competitors only), I wonder how would that have affected the performance of the athletes, knowing that you were behind for such a margin or that coasting through the rest of the events would have clinched the championship? The results could have been very much different but we'll never know. I guess we'll just have to wait and see when they would meet each other again in another memory tournament. Speaking of which, there'll be another national memory championship (Philippine Memory Championship 2013) to be held at Makati Medical Center this coming July 20-21, 2013. I hope these kids might find it in them to join the said event and I'll have more details about it in my next post, maybe do a liveblog about it too!

That's about it!!!

If you want to take a better look, or reminisce, at the goings on at the 1st National Open on Memory Sports, take a gander at the event with Carlito Galamgam Jr's excellent video here:

     

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Photo and video credits: Carlito Galamgam Jr. at National Open on Memory Sport Facebook Page

A Review: The 1st National Open on Memory Sports (Philippine Friendly Memory Sports 2013)

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1st National Open on Memory Sport
(Philippine Friendly Memory Sports 2013)

As I mentioned in my last post, I am going to write a review of what transpired during the First National Open on Memory Sports or also known as The Philippine Friendly Memory Sports 2013. And here it is. As you all know, the event happened last May 25, 2013, being that I lacked the foresight of writing a review of the said event, I didn't have any notes during the day of the competition. That is why I’ll be going through this from what I can recall from my memory of the event, something that may or may not be entirely accurate. So, without further ado, here is my not so precise account of what transpired in the First National Open on Memory Sports (Or as the Official Stat Site would have it, The Philippine Friendly Memory Sports.)  

To join or not to join?

This way.
Photo by: Carlito Galamgam Jr.

It was quite a surprise to me when they announced this event with almost less than a month ahead of the said date. Being that I like to fancy myself preparing a bit longer than a month before heading into any tournament and that I've also been focusing my attention to my memory workshops leading into the  event, I had initially brushed off the idea of participating in it. I was even doubtful that it will push through given the time frame and what not. So I went along doing my thing until I came across an old colleague at the Gateway Mall in Cubao, who was apparently on his way to do an ocular inspection at venue hall. He confirmed to me that indeed, there will be a local memory tournament, and that it will be televised. He also said that there’ll be cash prizes and a possible trip to the First Hong Kong Open Memory Championship for the top three winners! That last bit caught my attention but I had to curb my enthusiasm at that moment. Knowing him, he has the proclivity to hype things up a bit.

But several sources told me about the same thing. That it will be an opportunity to determine the country’s best Memory Athletes and will determine which athlete will receive possible support in coming international events. Hoping that it will be more than just empty promises, I end up joining.

Start of a long day.

Opening ceremonies. Photo by: CGJr.

On the day of the tournament, competitors were supposed to fill up registration forms and hand in their playing cards before 8 am. So I woke up quite early that Saturday morning, only to get stuck at the MRT for about an hour. When I got to the venue, they were surprisingly just starting out the whole registration process, which was a relief since I was already thinking that I’ll just end up being a spectator because I arriving fashionably late, again. As I came into the venue hall, I’m glad to see quite a few familiar faces again that I haven’t seen for quite some time.

Events for the day... Hour cards, Hour Number,
and 30 Minute Binary. Yay! Photo by: CGJr.

As I settled down to my table, I was eagerly awaiting for the first event of the day. I realized that I have to wait a bit more since it was the very first ever memory event held here in the Philippines, there had to be quite a few explanations of the day’s proceedings to the uninitiated spectators. As I sat there impatiently observing, I made a comment to my seat mate, Grand Master in the making, Axel, that I felt bad about those in the audience who are going to be watching a whole day of people staring at papers. But they didn’t mind it at all even if it turned out to continue well into the night, as almost every after event there’ll be an explanation of the rules and regulations and shout outs to sponsors. They’re mostly eager supporters after all, parents, friends, and relatives of the participants.

Mr. Axelyancy Tabernilla enjoying some DVD collection.
Photo by: CGJr 

While we were listening to the order of events being announced, there was a sudden burst of ramblings coming from the competitors. It turns out that the announcer, some guy from the organizers, I’m going to be pulling a Ben here, as I am not as good in names as well, have announced that there will be an hour numbers and hour cards scheduled within the day! But the uproar from the worried mnemonists was quickly quelled when he corrected his announcement, which was a relief, especially to the kids. I think he was reading it from the event rules and regulations pdf file that was downloaded from the WMSC website.

Anytime anyone asks why I messed up memorizing,
I'd say "I got distracted!"        Photo by: CGJr 

As I look around the competition area, I saw quite a number of participants, mostly kids, and quite a lot of spectators as well. I’m glad that there were a lot more kids and juniors than adults, not because my chances of getting into the top three is higher, but that there are more and more younger people that are interested in the sport. And having more, younger mnemonists participate means there'll be greater chances of having more break out stars of our own, ala Jonas Von Essen, in the near future.

And so it begins…

The National Open Memory Sports followed the national standards events by the WMSC, it is just too bad that they weren't able to get an official arbiter to oversee the whole thing. It would have been nice if the results were reflected at the World Rankings, and as you’ll see later, a couple of titles were lost because of this. Anyways...

Your one minute of mental preparation, starts now!
Photo by: CGJr.

We started with Binary digits. Although I knew I’d get a respectable number here, I’m quite wary of this event because the last time I was competing, this was also the first event and I messed it up, giving me a difficult time with the rest of the events. But I knew I’d do well. So, I’m getting myself ready, prepared my location and cleared my watch, and then I hear the arbiter say… “Your one minute of mental preparation starts now.” So, I closed my eyes to have me prepared and then I hear the phrase that is quite unique in the Memory Sports world, “Neurons on the ready… ” Upon hearing that, I opened my eyes immediately to get my memory sheet and turn it over, but my paper is not there! I was staring at my desk looking for a sheet of paper that was obviously not there, and at that half second of surprise, a hand came into my view holding the sheets and placed it on the table just in time for the arbiter to say “Go!” And so, I immediately grabbed it and turned it over but to my surprise again, I was thinking, “Why is my binary sheet missing half of its rows?! Where’s the rest of it? Oh shit! I better start memorizing.” And so I did. After blasting through the memory sheets, there was still more or less a half a minute left, without anything else to memorize, I decided to just review them and run through the sheets again. Only to realize that what I was holding was already the second page! The damn thing wasn't stapled together and the first one was just right there on my desk. By the time it all came to me, the time expired and we had to start the recall stage. Good thing I managed to get most of it correct and had 330 digits which was good enough to get me third behind Mark and Erwin, something that will turn out to be a trend for the rest of the day.  

Ms. AB Bonita doing a live demo of her
names and faces prowess for Matanglawin.

But not so much for the next event, the Names and Faces, which was topped by Ms. Anne Bernadette Bonita with a score of 42. She was followed by Mark and his student Kevin Carl Aquino, with 38 and 37 points respectively. I generally suck at this event, and but I think it is just a matter of lack of practice. I barely train for it and I hardly use a reliable system for it as well.

The next event is the 15 minute numbers, which was won by Mark with  540 digits. It was his personal best and it landed him at 13th in the world at this event. Like with many of my competition, I manage to mess things up by attempting to memorize more than I could even handle in practice, which ultimately costs me some valuable points. I think I tried for 600 in this one and my recall was good enough for only 370 digits that landed me on to third place, behind Erwin.

The Abstract Kid.  Photo by: CGJr.

In a break of pace, I narrowly managed to win the most anticipated event of the day, the Abstract Images. It is very much anticipated by the juniors and kids most of all. I don't know what's up with them, as every time this event was mentioned by the announcer, they keep on yelling and jeering at this particular kid. I guess he's quite good at it. And that made me think we might have another person gunning for the Gold. And having hardly any practice with it, I tried to do a safe attempt here. But the lack of practice caused some major trouble as I got a bit lost from my usual journey and made the recall a challenge. What I thought should have been an easy win for me, had me scared a bit since, I got ahead of Erwin with only just two points separating us. AB rounded up the third.

Finishing the first half of the competition is the Historic Dates. Here is another event that I thought I should do well but my effort wasn't enough as Erwin did way more than Mark and me. At this point, if I'm not mistaken, it was around 4 pm already. And the whole program was scheduled to end at 5:30 pm.

....

To be continued..

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