The registration is open for the 2014 USA Memory Championship:
https://www.usamemorychampionship.com/
The tentative date that was posted on Facebook is March 22, 2014.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10151745112367324&id=383572997323
If you are competing or attending the USA Memory Championships in 2014, leave a comment below.
I’d really like to come and watch again, if I’ve got the money and the time. It’s a great experience, even if you’re not American and can’t compete! 
Its a real shame that this is not an open competition as the USA is a vast country. If they opened it up they could still have there american champions and allowing other competitors in would stimulate the whole memory scene in the USA, maybe leading to more people organising there own competitions across the country. Also if foreign competitors where allowed in and the Americans get to see some grand masters in action I believe it would stimulate more interest in the World Memory Championships and hopefully we would see more american Grand Masters in the future as I think there is only Nelson Dellis at the moment (maybe wrong on this).
Also competitors from other countries would be able to share there idea’s with the USA competitors first hand which would make a huge impact. That opportunity to speak to Grand Masters first hand is invaluable and does wonders for new competitors.
Regards
Daz
Scott Hagwood is a GM too, though he qualified as one by the old standards, before they were increased ten years ago. And David Thomas sort-of-counts as American (he was allowed to compete in 2007, because he lived in the USA) and sort-of-counts as a GM (he qualified through the old, old standards, back in ancient times). But Nelson’s the only ‘current’ American Grand Master.
Perhaps they could have an American-style open event as well as the US championship? The way it works, the final eight appear in the televised final, and for publicity reasons I can see that they wouldn’t want to open that part to foreigners. Especially since the word-based disciplines would have to be translated into other languages, so it wouldn’t work so well for spectators…
Good point, I didn’t think about the translations. It wouldn’t be too difficult to split up the American and foreign competitors for the televised stages though.
Agree it’d be fun to have non-Americans compete. Either way, I’m looking forward to meeting the memory community!
I’ll be competing for the first time this year and am goaling myself to land in the top 3.
Erik
Hello,
A few months ago, I tried registering for this event and there was some glitch - although my information went through, it appears my payment didn’t. I have tried to follow up several times (seriously, like a dozen emails total to Karen Pinson and info@usa…) and have not received a response. Does anyone have any insight as far as getting in touch with someone there? I’ve been spending a bit of time training, and I just don’t want to get there in March and find out I won’t be able to compete. I tried going back to the site and re-registering, but it doesn’t seem the registration links are still up. Any insight would be appreciated!
Thanks,
If non-americans were allowed to compete, there wouldn’t be american american champions anymore.
Zach,
I haven’t been able to sign up either. They probably have no idea that the link is even broken. But we’ll get on there soon enough. Just make sure you check back with the website now and then. Registration is NOT closed yet, and if your application didn’t go through, you aren’t signed up and will have to do it again later.
To competitors:
Would you like to get together for dinner somewhere the night before? I would enjoy it very much if we could get a bunch of people together.
Oh, and Zoomy would be welcome also.
Is registration still open??? When I go to the registration page, there aren’t any links!!?
Yes, it’s “open.” As in, it isn’t over. These people are frankly just bad with organization.
I’d like to see that Erik
Tea party…
Tea party…
Tea party…
Thanks for comments! It’s good to know I’m not the only one facing difficulties.
I may go. At the moment, I think I am not properly prepared. I have not practiced spoken words or poetry even once. Names and faces is difficult. The only events that I would be good at are digits and cards. This also looks like a lot to memorize in one day. I can just hope that my practice starts paying off by then.
Last championship, all I was good at was digits and cards. I had done probably 15 poems, and names and faces about 3 times. Random words only maybe 5-10 times. (Even now, the only things I’m really good at are digits and cards…but I’m better at them than I was last year :). )
But in all honesty, I believe that I have as good a chance of winning this year as anyone else…and I believe that because four months is ample time to learn words, poetry, faces, and even the Tea Party and be among the best of them with daily practice. For cards and digits, you need to know a system really well. For faces, poetry, and words, you don’t need a system at all. All you need is a technique that you like to use, so improvement comes much more quickly for those events. The time it takes do gain proficiency in cards and/or digits is not representative and therefore potentially misleading. If you make up a lot of “sound-alike” images for first names, or learn the ones posted on the memory wiki, it can make a big difference in your N&F score, by the way.
But the championship was one of the best things I’ve ever done. In terms of performance, I saw that after a short period of time practicing, I could stack up against the best competing Americans. In cards AND digits, I did better than or equal to a small handful of people that had been in the top 8 before or were in the top 8 this year. If you like cards and digits, you could do the same. It doesn’t matter for the purposes of this conversation - I’d advise you to go no matter what you responded, but would you tell me your card and speed numbers personal bests?
Even if you were better prepared, you still probably wouldn’t win…because only one person does win. And if you didn’t win, you’d be in the same boat as everyone else - and none of those people regret going year after year.
But the other thing is that if you really do boost your scores over the course of 2014, and you know they’re good enough to give you a real shot at the title, you would be at a real disadvantage because you would have never experienced the feeling of being in that room and memorizing. I feel I am at a disadvantage this year because I haven’t felt what it is like to be on stage or memorize backstage. Those things make a big difference. So in spite of Foer, it is probably wise to assume that no matter your skill level, (within a reasonable range…) you won’t win until your second competition at least.
Good luck. Thank you for the advice for names and faces. I will be sure to do that.
This is good to hear. You can count me in for this competition (if they ever fix the website, that is). My best at home scores are
5minute digits:180
Cards: 1:41.83
I would expect things to be slower under pressure for accuracy reasons as you already know.
Those are definitely good scores. Especially the digits - much higher than I expected. Don’t know if you looked at the scores for the opening events last year, but those PB’s for digits and cards would have landed you in 2nd and 3rd place for those events respectively. You’re way to good to sit it out this year on account of being underprepared, so it’s good that you’ve decided to come. If you got those scores in competition, and got in the middle of the pack in the other two, you’d be a shoe in for the top 8.
http://www.usamemorychampionship.com/2013-event-rankings-553.html
I’m Lance, #11. Notice that my digit score was the only really good one relatively speaking, but still only 67% of your PB. At the time, my PB was 140.
I’ve said this many times on the forums, but it can’t be said enough: just make sure that for cards and digits, the events where you get two tries, your first run is a sure thing. You don’t need incredible scores to move on, so the worst thing you could possibly do is push the edge of your ability on the first try and mess up, because you’ll be terrified of making another mistake on your second run…
It’d be great to see the link posted again here once registration is active again for USAMC 2014.
Cheers all. Seems like it is gearing up to be a healthy competition.
Also, I’m in for a group dinner the night before.
where is the 2014 USA memory championships taking place? When?
Should be in March 2014 but I’m not sure about how to sign up - are there any updates.
I’ve been so busy launching my poker app (just launched tonight! Connecting to the iTunes Store.) for iPhone users that I’ve been out of the loop last few weeks.
I’m still shooting for the playoff rounds (like everyone else)
Cheers,
Erik