I. New ML online world records
We are happy to announce that we would like to recognize scores achieved at the ML World Tour (memoryleague.com) as ML online world records as long as certain requirements are met:
1. Scores were done with the two-camera setup and an official supervisor.
2. Scores were achieved at a Slam (Pan-American Open, Asian-Oceanian Open, African-European Open) or an ML World Championship.
II. Details
Up until now, the formal requirements for world records in the Memory League format (Modern Format) have been that a world record can only be achieved at a live offline event, not online. It was also mandatory that new faces and new images need to be used in order to make a score eligible. We have intensely debated whether these requirements should still apply.
- Online/offline records
In our opinion, anti-cheating measures have become good enough that scores achieved at an online event should not per se be disregarded. On the other hand, we acknowledge that the atmosphere at a live event is generally seen as more intense and as containing more potential distractions compared to participating from home. That would probably in many instances have an effect on the difficulty of reaching certain scores. Therefore, we would like to retain the current ML world records category on our statistics page (https://iam-stats.org/records_ml.php) as an ML live/offline world records category and would like to introduce a separate category for ML online world records .
- Previous requirement of new images
For the Images event, it is our understanding that the images database is extremely large (larger than it was when the above rules were developed), so repetitions of images are rare and we believe they do not influence scores in a major way. Preparing for Images by “learning” all Images (something the rules wanted to avoid) does not really seem feasible. In our opinion, this justifies changing the existing rules for world records and recognizing Images scores that fulfill requirements I.1 and I.2. - Previous requirement of new faces: rationale
For the Names events, the idea behind the rule was to have at least some aspect of novelty and improvisation at a Names event, similar to how it is done at the Classical ten events tournaments where there are always new faces and new names (see also the reasoning for the Images event). - International Names
For International Names, we see this condition as being satisfied: even when the training faces are used, the International Names database is very large in size. In our opinion, this aspect justifies changing the existing rules for world records here as well, with considerations similar to those for the world record rule change at Images, and recognizing scores according to I.1 and I.2.
- National Names
For National Names, the situation was less clear-cut and thus harder to evaluate: Currently, in its online form, this event has a rather small database of names and also rather small database of faces. This allows for extensive preparation. An element of improvisation, which the existing world record rules had in mind, seems to be missing.
The question was how to remedy that fact. The size of the small database of names is hard to remedy because national names are limited in number. On the other hand, it might be debatable whether a change towards using new faces for National Names at the ML World Tour would add such an element of improvisation or not.
We feel this is an open question on which opinions might be split. Therefore, we would like to try out having new faces for National Names at the last two Slam events of 2022 (AOO and AEO) and see whether this leads to a difference in scores. The AOO have already concluded, new faces have been tested there and the data is being reviewed.
If it is being found that new faces lead to a difference in scores, we would aim for having new faces at National Names also after the AEO 2022 and would recognize National Names world record scores which fulfill this requirement. If, on the other hand, the scores do not seem to differ, then we would not aim for new faces for National Names in tournaments after the AEO 2022 and would also accept the past National Names scores achieved on the ML World Tour (since PAO 2021) which fulfill requirements I.1 and I.2.
Your IAM team