Q: Educational accomplishments during early childhood?

A: I always got excellent grades in math and Latin but was not really interested in school at all most of the time. I often knew already what matters and tried to ignore the nonsense.

Sam: Unfortunately, I suspect this is because the schools were more focused on memorization of information and teaching you what to think, rather than how to think. Naturally, your learning must have occurred more at home than in the classroom. . .. So

Q: How did you discover your mental calculation ability and what influences helped you develop your talent?

A: When my father finished his daily work, we normally were together and we played games or sport etc., or he taught me things in a way I enjoyed. He noticed that I was really interested in learning to read and write, later in calculation. And he showed me how to do it. I learned everything quickly and got a lot of recognition, so I was very happy then. When I was four years old, I could write very well – already then I had a very clean and “adult” handwriting in “my” block letters, but lost this skill, when they forced me to use script in school. My writing became greasy and hard to read.

Q: Can you share a specific example when you (or someone else) realized your calculation talent?

A: Calculation was only one thing amongst many others when I was four or five years old. I had fun with geography and could find every country on the globe and knew the capital cities and their population. Strange enough but I cannot do this anymore. I knew 250 chess positions in a chess book by rote --- father would say #187 and I set up the chess board to match position 187 from memory. I was very good in Sudoku and Sikaku and loved to play Jump’n Run games and car racing. That calculation was a special skill of mine my father noticed when my grandma got her 81st birthday and he asked me how many days grandma had been on earth. As a five-years-old I gave an answer within a few seconds. My father first though it was wrong but when he realized that I included the leap years already he was very impressed.

S: Of course, it’s only impressive if you include the leap years. In all seriousness, clearly your father realized your giftedness if he was asking you to do such calculations at five years old.

Chess and geography are two things that adhere to logical reasoning or categorization. I suspect any sort of information that was put in front of you --- if it was susceptible to logical reasoning --- you would have happily learned.

What about music? Musical talent seems to be often linked to mathematical giftedness in young children?

A: I really love music, but I cannot play an instrument and neither of my parents can. My father often said that he is happy he cannot play because, if he could, he might not enjoy a lot of music he loves. He is friends with some musicians and learned that musicians who appreciate the work of other musicians are rare. If you know how the sausage is made, it does not always taste good anymore.

Q: What are your hobbies/interests outside of calculation?

A: Other than music? Computer games, and I love to work hard physically sometimes and enjoy cooking and beer.

S: Obviously, you displayed a variety of “genius” and “prodigy” characteristics at a younger age. On a more personal level, were there . . .

Q: Any significant life events during childhood?

A: Most significant was that my mother got cancer when I was eight years old. So happy that she survived this hard illness, but these days were hard for the whole little family. In school

the teachers also treated me bad then and the trouble in school started and went on and on.

I was very delighted when I finally left this institution forever. When even possible I avoid contact with teachers since.

S: I am sorry to hear that. This must be quite a challenge to deal with for a young child. Let us go back to a more positive topic --- shortly after that you began competing in mental calculation.

Q: How did you begin competing in competitive mental calculation? What were the early successes and struggles?

A: In 2011 the 3. German MC championship took place in Münster. We lived 50 km away then any my parents thought I should take the risk to compete. I had no idea if I could be good enough because I only calculated on a higher level at home with my father. I was on a 6 or 7 grade level then -- I learned fractional calculation within 30 minutes. The greatest fear was if I could be so concentrated and had enough self-discipline to complete a 2-hour-test without speaking or making noise. But it went very well. I got second place and a special cup for being the first competitor in the competition history who solved a task in the style of 123*456*789.

S: This must have been quite an exciting experience. To go from knowing you were very good in the context of the smaller community you knew of, but then see that you still were very good in the context of people who were more experienced. I suppose once you saw you were very good on a much bigger level, it increased the desire to get better.

Q: What is your approach to practice/learning mental calculation? Influential people or events?

A: Mental calculation was becoming my favorite entertainment but I had other things as well. It was fun and still is but I was not really interested in learning methods. I do it like I am doing it. Jeonghee Lee was so kind and wrote to me years ago that I could even be faster than she is if I would start to learn soroban. Beside that I do not think someone can be faster than Jeonghee Lee, I do not think that I should change my way of doing calculations. It is just me. And when I am not good enough what does it really matter?

S: Master Lee’s talent is certainly extraordinary. I wish we could have seen her when she was younger. I wish she would have had more opportunities to demonstrate her skill and passion when she was younger.

Is it that you are not interested in learning methods or is it that you are not interested in learning other people’s methods? Learning other people’s methods takes something that is fun for you, like a game, a challenge, and turns it into something more like school, studying. Is that an accurate way of thinking about it? Because I know you have certainly improved a lot since you started and learned a lot of new things too. Certainly you are practicing or learning, just in a different way than others. But people might be interested in learning what that different way is.

A: I do not practice systematically. I just do what I am in the mood to do. That does not mean that I am not interested in other people’s methods. I certainly am but I do not search for them. Funny thing is that since my first competition in 2011, I know the cross method, but I never practiced it seriously. Last year I did just because I was in the mood, and I learned that it is really helpful even for me. I improved a lot since then and my 8-digits-multiplications are not that bad as 5 years ago. I need under 50 seconds for a task. I will never reach the level of Aaryan and you of course but I am getting average which is fine with me already.

S: Of course, there are different variations in approach to calculation --- we all have slightly different mental strengths and weaknesses, and one must figure those out. You certainly have figured out yours.

Q: What are some of your notable achievements in calculation?

A: Grandmaster MC in the MSO BLITZ (3xgold) and WC (2xgold). 3rd place MCWC 2018, 5th 2016 and 10th on first appearance 2014. Most Versatile MCWC 2018, World record in factorization 2016. 5x gold and 4x silver in JMCWC (3x gold in the senior competition -- when I competed, I won).

Q: Can you explain that first comment a little more? ---“Grandmaster MC in the MSO 3xgold and 2xgold WC.”

A: Up to 2018 the BLITZ competition was part of the MSO. BLITZ means 4 x 100 tasks in 25 minutes each. I competed three times and won each time gold. In 2018 I only missed the perfect score of 400 because of one wrong task only, and I solved the tasks in half of the allowed time (50 minutes). When someone wins a competition in the MSO twice, he gets the title grandmaster.

Q: What about setbacks or adversity in calculation?

Covid --- the mother of all adversity. The MSO changed 2020 the test I loved so much made by George Lane into an online “fun” event. So, no MSO anymore for me. The MCWC 2022 did not allow me to compete in Paderborn because I was not vaccinated. In a time when there were no official restrictions at all in Germany, the hosts would not even accept a negative test. When I saw the tasks later, I knew that I would have had a good chance to win the competition. It was very disappointing. No MCWC anymore for me. I became too old for JMCWC in 2022. No JMCWC anymore for me. 0+0+0 is: = 0. No calculation competitions for me anymore. I quit.

S: Well, let’s call that temporarily retired. Because even an indirect online competition with Aaryan doing a little bit silly calculations became rather intense and exciting. And I was watching that leaderboard --- you took very little time to post extremely impressive results (and in a format that would be considered by most to be “not your type”). I think you are still getting better, maybe significantly better.

Q: What things continue to motivate you to get better?

A: Without competitions it is hard to motivate me at all. There are only so very few and I cannot compete in these competitions anymore. I am very happy that the GMCA league has started. A regular competition is just a dream come true for me. To compete with top calculators every week is the real thing. To battle Aaryan Shukla or hopefully one of the great Japanese or maybe Chinese calculators will be the greatest fun I can imagine.

S: Of course, it is so necessary to grow mental calculation, to keep people engaged and bring in new people. The memory competitors seem to have a lot of fun with Memory League. If the MathHeads competition with Aaryan is any indication of what will happen in the league, it will be very exciting.

Q: How has mental calculation impacted your thought process or philosophy?

A: I am just a normal guy and do not think about things like my “thinking process”. “Thinking” is just a miracle already. Stupidity is a (more common) miracle too and often enough I’m quite stupid too. Calculating tasks means nothing. I am no genius. (But I am also no idiot.) It is just fun. Like any other sports. Like my father often says: running 100 meters fast as Usain Bolt only means that the lion will have him 5 seconds later for dinner than you and me. MC is not better than other sports like chess and memory, but I also cannot see why it should be worse. The GMCA league will surely prove that it is a thrilling sport and of course will not beat soccer and basketball in public attention but hopefully will create an entertaining home for those passionate or interested.

S: I cannot help but respond to the lion part. Maybe the lions stop after they eat “you and me” and Usain Bolt gets away? Whenever I see the lions hunt some gazelle or something on television, it seems like they just take the slowest one or the first one they catch. I cannot every recall them taking several gazelles at one time.

A: When I smell worse than Usain the lion will catch him instead of me no matter if he can run faster than I can. And if the lion is a real sportsman, he will chase him just to prove who is the king in running fast.

S: But to be serious --- I think --- to some extent --- humans have a desire to compete regardless of what the competition is, even if it is something silly. But calculation? I truly believe in the modern world, with the extent of information people are exposed to, much of it quantitative, having at least respectable calculation ability is of real value.

Calculation and memory are skills that can be directly applied to obtain results society deems of value. Chess though? Only indirectly. But the advantage of chess is the dynamism. Like a traditional “sport” or “game,” you must react to your opponent’s actions.

This is a difficulty for mind sports. The athletic sports that are simply a group of people all doing the same task independently, but together (for example, track and field events) --- they struggle to get noticed outside of the Olympics.

Q: So do you have any ideas, any thoughts, for improving the competition component or the “dynamism” component of Calculation League? Ignoring our current practical considerations, what would your ideal competition match-up look like?

A: Yes, it’s not easy to find a presentation form which fits to the calculators’ AND the viewers’ interests. My favorite form up to date as calculator is the old MSO test (up to 2019) and the JMCWC test, both made by George Lane. But these sorts of competitions have no worth for any spectator. In fact, the public is expressly excluded. A very silent and almost secret event. What could be more unattractive for the public? The big challenge in creating the league was to find a way to make it thrilling and challenging for calculators and for many other people too. At last, we developed the “race modus”, which is thrilling when two equal meet. For the other cases we have the “30-points-rule” which can make even “clear matches” interesting too because the winner can lose points and the loser gets points which might be very important in the standing.

Q: How have your thoughts on mental calculation changed over time?

When I realized that there is my way of doing calculations and the soroban way I knew that I had to decide if I continue my way or change to the other way. Although I do not know I could compete at all when I try the soroban way. I think I am too old already for learning and doing Soroban and to be honest I am not the type for it. It is too serious for me. I do not want to practice methods. It is my way for me or no way. Yes, winning is better than losing, but I do not have to win personally. When the price for winning is doing something I do not love to do winning is not something I have to have. I try to give my very best and when it is not enough, I cannot help it. But do not get me wrong: talking about “mood” and “fun” etc. does not mean that I take things easy when I am “in the mood” doing it. I am a very tough fighter and never give up before the end.

Q: What advice or lessons do you have for people who are seriously interested in practicing mental calculation

A: Learn Soroban.

S: Yeah --- good luck out Wenzeling Wenzel without it.

Q: Is there any research you think would be particularly valuable on mental calculation?

A: It is absolutely necessary and very urgent to find the hidden relations between hairstyle and MC skills. What’s on the head and what’s in the head? An essential question for mankind.

S: Haha. Unfortunately, Wenzel, I think we may need some improved gender balance before undertaking this study.

A: More ladies are always welcome.

Q: What tasks do you specialize in?

A: It depends on the mood I am in. Factorization is always welcome, tasks with primes too, but sometimes I also enjoy things like the MathHead battle I had with Aaryan. Doing the right thing very fast is fun too.

S: Another inherent human trait --- testing the boundaries of how far it can go. Even though the MathHeads format is rather elementary, it is difficult to stop. You just want to get better and better.

Q: Can you share your approach to some of the tasks that you specialize in?

A: When you want to solve a factorization task it is very helpful when you know the primes like you know the alphabet. In my case up to 1000,

When you do “Köpfrechnen” – the task I am especially specialized in – it is necessary that you learn to head a ball.

S: Okay let’s go into more details with the factorization --- because, to my knowledge, you are the undisputed best at that. So here are some random numbers:

-7819

-5475

-91315

-354652

Can you explain your process to doing one or more of these questions?

A: 7819 – I start with trying 3=no, then 7 and bingo 1117 (tried up to 31) is prime

5475 – 3=yes, 5,5 is easy, 73 is prime

91315 – 3=no, so 5 is clear, 7 is fine, 2609 is prime

354652 – 2, 2, clear, trying up to 293 to learn 88663 is prime

(Wow, very very hard task, I needed almost 5 minutes)

I simply do it the “classical” way: checking if a prime fits, starting with 2.

I know so many numbers that it is not getting difficult before 6digits.

[To be clear, Wenzel has tried up to the largest prime that is less than the square root of the number.]

And, separately, what do you think about the types of calculation that are very memorization dependent? Do you think it is all “calculation” or different parts of “calculation”? What about --- an idea for the future --- a sort of hybrid competition with memory competitors that used calculation but memory dependent questions?

A: It would be great when we could create such a hybrid competition. Maybe we have the good ideas which surely are necessary. I am not sure what the difference between memorization and knowing is. As a calculator you must know a lot of milestones. I personally know a lot of them, such as every product of ab*cd.

I know like other people know 27 is 3*9. Okay, not everyone, but at least 95%.

These products are results already so, yes, I memorize or know these results. But I simply need this “milestones” for much harder tasks. I also know a lot of other even bigger numbers (up to 8 or 10 digits) which I need for some calculations. I have a big library of milestones in my head.

Q: How would you evaluate your memory (mainly short-term) and how does this impact your ability to do calculations?

A: Maybe I do not understand the question right. Yes, I’m able to keep many digits (25-30) in mind and I’m able calculate with them. I think that is my main advantage.

S: I think the 25-30 is noticeably more than the average calculation competitor. Of course, the competition calculation community can remember the 2018 MCWC when you easily won the “surprise tasks” (most versatile calculator).

Q: How often do you “stored recall” factors into your calculations?

A: Depends which kind of tasks and how difficult the task is. In factorizations knowing the primes is very helpful of course. In MCWC tasks clearly under 10%.

Q: How do you develop versatility in calculation as opposed to simply excelling in one or two things?

A: It is not a development it is just the result of doing things I love to do. Adding for example was always quite boring for me. Multiplications and deeper roots were my first love. With the primes other doors were opened. Like the early day of my childhood, I just do what I am just in the mood for. When I am in the mood, I am very thorough, sometimes even doggedly.

S: Adding is boring to repeatedly practice. If the goal is brain training, then I understand adding. It is frustrating to try to improve in though --- at least for Westerners who will never be able to match the Soroban speed.

Do you think you like to do things that you are good at? Or you like things that are a challenge? Or for some reason you just decided that they interested you? Multiplication is sort of a natural thing to be the first preferred task. But can you tell me a little about doing “deeper roots” or how working with “primes” because a specialty.

A: I always love to calculate tasks which need a very long time. My father was mostly too lazy to create such long tasks, so he found out the easiest way for him: “Just give the boy a 7-digit number and when I am lucky, he is busy for an hour.” He often was lucky, and I was happy when I needed to find the primes in an hour. But I sometimes reached my limit then and when I failed, I got very angry and was disappointed. This disturbed my father later on and he finally stopped giving me such tasks anymore. Every calculator knows that it is hard to find someone who is willing to create tasks. I was lucky having my father doing this job (seldom enough) but his patience is limited too. Creating deep roots was a similar issue. Expressing a number with 20 digits needs up to 1 minute, knowing the result immediately after is very satisfying for the calculator but not very much for the task creator.

Q: How much impact do you think stress or pressure (live audience, competition, etc.) has on your performances?

A: I love to have stress. I mean calculation stress, any other form of stress, is not welcome of course. Under biggest stress I always have the best results. The former tests in London or in the JMCWC I really enjoyed. I also love to act on a stage. Performing “Köpfrechnen” or “Telepathy” is quite risky but when everything went well it is the purest joy. The joy you feel when you run from stage after a successful risky performance is a unique experience.

S: You seem quite comfortable on stage from watching the Russia performance.

Q: Outside of practicing calculation, are there lifestyle things that you do that you believe are important to your general mental functioning?

A: Listening to music and dance to the music (jump around).

Q: Between prioritizing speed and accuracy, what are your thoughts?

A: Speed makes no sense without accuracy. So accuracy. Although I like speed too sometimes.

S: I wonder if your unique approach to practicing calculation impacts this. So, for example, Memoriad multiplication. You do 10 standard questions. When I do it, if I am averaging 7-8 out of 10, I am not really concerned. If I truly approach it with the mindset that “I need to get 10 out of 10 most of the time” then I will slow down a lot and it will become not fun. But if I was doing a single task, obviously the expectation is it needs to be correct.

Q: Beside calculations you started some other things too. You created the mind sport “Köpfrechnen” -- which means mental calculation (German: Kopfrechnen) while heading a ball (German: “köpfen”). How did you get this funny idea to mix such seemingly very different things?

A: My father and me used to head a ball since I was very young, so I have the special feeling which is helpful when you must head a ball. In summer 2017 we tried again, but my father stepped in a mole hole and bent his joint. He could not walk for some weeks and encouraged me then just to head alone. Heading alone is very different from back and forth --- what I was used to doing with him. Almost every day I did this in the late afternoon when the sun does not dazzle anymore and in October, I was very proud when I made my new record: 36 times.

2018 was a wonderful warm year in Germany and in April I could try again in our garden. First days were quiet frustrating but from one day to another then – as if I suddenly flipped the switch--my performances “exploded.” Very soon I was able to head the ball more than 100x. So first, I have to thank the friendly weather god so very much for his kindness.

(This poor old god is very seldom praised in Germany but for me he did a perfect job in 2018 for sure.)

Q: And then you got the idea to try MC too while heading?

A: Yes, I tried it just for fun some day and my progress was very significant. Funny thing is that the heading got a lot easier for me when I calculate at the same time. Before I was concentrated on my heading, literally counting every heading and I would get nervous when I would get near a score I was desiring to reach. When I calculated while heading, the heading came sort of naturally. It is like when you ride a bike and think about some things, you do not really notice that you ride a bike.

In the last years I do not need to practice Köpfrechnen anymore. It is like riding a bike or swimming. I can do it whenever I want if the weather conditions are o.k.

Or just wake me up at midnight and give me a ball and a task not harder than 123*456*789 and I should be able to do it.

Q: And a few months later you were already in a big Russian TV show?

A: Four months later I stood in Moscow on this gigantic stage in the Mosfilm studio and performed it without any problems. This was a great experience because I did not know that I could do it on a stage at all. To be honest we would not try it in Germany because the risk seemed too high that I could fail and could embarrass me for the rest of my life. When this would have had happen in Russia it would have been awkward too but nobody in Germany would have noticed that.

Q: And after that you developed the “telepathy”?

A: No, it was always parallel. The “telepathy” idea has a different source and is something completely different. In 2017, at the MSO, Dr. Mittring came up with the idea to build a calculator team. He meant a kind of racing team then. We liked the idea, and this team idea brought us somehow to this question:

How can a team of calculators solve a problem as a team which is much too hard for every single member of the team?

We thought it would be necessary that some calculators had to put their interim results to a central calculator who must put the pieces together for the final result.

Problem was: How can the calculators send their interim results without speaking, signs etc. because it must be solved under MC conditions?

Searching for answers to this question was the origin of our “telepathy”.

We found some fine answers then, but it was extremely hard to do for us.

It was possible to do for us, although not really satisfying for us that way.

Q: This was without heading a ball, right?

A: Yes, we always dreamed of a way how we could bring these worlds (Köpfrechnen & Telepathy) together, but it needed almost 5 years until we got the right ideas. When this happened in 2022 everything went fast and easy like it was with Köpfrechnen 2018. Now I even can say while heading a ball what the result of a task is which a strange person wrote on a paper lying on the table. To make things easier to understand for the audience we work with cards too. Just chose a card, lay it hidden on the table and after heading the ball 20x I can say which card it is. We performed it live on stage on the London Magic Convention 2022 in Hammersmith Theatre and it went very well, and the people loved it.

Q: So this is what you really love to do?

A: Of course. I love calculating but I know that only very few people are really impressed when they watch a calculator calculating. They do not realize what an enormous risk the calculator takes. Only a few wrong solutions and the “genius” turns into a "fool" quickly. Because finding a wrong solution everybody can do. A lot of people do not like calculating at all. “Idiot convention” my teacher once called it, and she would not congratulate me. Of course, she was a passionate expert in witches, elves, hobbits and trobbits and whatever else existed in her mad fairy tale world.

From the days of my early small “successes” on I remember that a lot of people asked: “And can you do something else too?“

This always made me crazy. Is a fine young soccer player being asked that? A great basketball youngster? Surely not! But as a fine MC I had to hear such nonsense which sounds like I was do something very wrong. Yes, of course I can do other things and no, I cannot do everything well and you can bet a lot of things not at all, because I am no hero and never ever pretended to be one. I am a quite good calculator and can do a few other things quite good, and when I am bad in a lot of other things it is only natural and what does it matter at all?

In fact, that might be the hidden reason why I started Köpfrechnen. Just to show that I can do something else too. Now I hear sometimes that it is not good for my brain. Maybe, although I do not think so. But please do not care about my poor brain. A hard ball surely is much better for my brain than listening to some people.

Q: How do you think: (1) the rise of technology; and (2) the rise of big data, impact mental calculation as a skill? I suppose if Elon puts chips in people’s brains, then we are not going to have much interest left in mental calculation, memory, or even brain training in general.

A: Machines are nothing without power. An empty or defective calculator can calculate nothing. But I can even when I am sick, and I believe I even can shortly before I die of hunger and thirst. When we accept that they put chips in our brains we are completely doomed.

S: But the question was more directed to whether technology makes calculation (or you could say memory or mind sports in general) less valuable (as the average person would likely say) or more valuable (as I believe). Maybe at some point, AI becomes a practical tool for daily life activities. But, right now, the technological explosion has resulted in a massive amount of information, a massive amount of data available to the individual. If you think back many generations ago --- what would the average 18th century or American or European used calculation for? Arithmetic beyond counting would have been of limited value. Now we have data everywhere and a largely innumerate society.

A: The average person counted his children and harvest then. Not much more. The dealers and businessmen at all time were the people math was made for and it was and is today the most important elemental thing. It is basic. Excellent calculations (and a portion luck!) always meant welfare and power and freedom, bad calculations meant poverty and often tyranny. Calculation and money are brothers and sisters or maybe even two sides of the same coin. In the so called “rich countries” big parts of the societies in the last 50 years do not have to care seriously for money and they do not estimate calculations as they should. I think they must pay for it someday. When you cannot calculate your money, you will be a slave sooner or later. When the people in power cannot calculate, you will be a slave too sooner or later. I know this sounds pathetic, but I think sometimes life is just pathetic.

Q: What misperceptions do you believe society has about mental calculation?

A: That it is no fun. And that it is not useful. Second opinion is the reason why many people who cannot calculate properly have more problems in life than the ones who can. Surely the whole world would be a better place when more people could add 1 and 1 together.

Q: How do you think mental calculation benefits problem solving or logical reasoning skills?

A: I think children love to calculate because calculation is a very clear world. There is always only one correct result and yes is yes and no is no. To be clear means to be safe too and it makes life easier. With too many “maybe” or “let’s talk about it tomorrow,” it is hard to solve problems, or you even create more problems. Training the brain for clear results which are true without a doubt is something which can have a positive influence on logical thinking. But you always have to keep in mind that nothing is really true and the real world is complex and seldom acts logical. Truth seldom really matters. Truth is great for children. Sad but true.

S: Let’s get some thoughts about Calculation League. We are just starting this league, so obviously it is a bit of an experiment. Of course, after Season 1, we will have to reflect, ask people for their opinions, and do the best we can to improve the competition even more for Season 2. But we have already talked about the league a lot, so I will ask you the basic questions . . .

1. What additional types of questions do you think should be added?

A: The task pool should not be filled up permanently even after season 100. Every part of the math world should be represented. Calendar etc. too. Maybe even funny tasks too the kind my father asked me yesterday.

“When Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met on midday 16.10.1961 what’s the distance “The Stones” were “Rolling” on midnight 2.4.2024 (when they rolled 5 meters/second) since then?”

I needed almost 5 minutes for the solution.

2. What are your thoughts about the current “speed” of the competition --- in other words the difficulty level of the questions?

A: The speed is great, and the difficulty is fine with me. I was not really aware before that it is really a sport, it can be absolutely stressful, so physically fitness is very important. Playing a 30-minute match like the one against Hua Wei might be at my limit.

But I do not know it before I made this experience.

3. What do you think about the balance between multioperation and custom questions? To be clear, the original intention was to be less dependent on multioperation questions and have more of our custom questions --- but we came to the realization that the custom questions were overall too difficult to make the league as fast as we wanted. Certainly, we may need a large batch of easier custom question formats so that we can use those more without slowing down the competition too much.

A: Yes, in regular season some custom question might be too hard. In play-offs and final we must look how it works. It is important to work on these tasks on and on, so the pool is never filled. We should try to make the customs always surprising or unusual --- which does not mean necessarily that they must be too hard.

4. Do you have any thoughts on the logic of the multioperation questions? It was already changed once since the beginning of qualifiers, to prevent repetitive division in a possibly ambiguous format, i.e., 5*6/7*8/9, and to significantly reduce the number of questions where zero became an acceptable answer. Should there be a limit on the number of multiplications permitted?

A: Although I personally love multiplications I have to say, yes, there might be too many, but I am not sure.

5. Any thoughts about the match structure, the scoring, etc.?

A: The “race structure” is much better than expected and even more thrilling with the 30-points-rule when strong and weak match. It surely will produce a lot of great matches when equal competitors play. As an alternative – or even another “team”-league – we could do this:

Both/several players get the same task.

Only when one player does not find the solution within 30 seconds, his opponent(s) gets a point.

Finding the result “in the last moment” would be very appreciated.

6. Thoughts about the season structure?

A: 2 seasons starting spring and fall in a year would be great. Other competitions like MCWC should not be relevant for the league. It is a weekend only and so there is no need to build our league world around it.

7. Thoughts about what updates to the app or website should be prioritized?

A: A “News” page on the site would be useful. Maybe a “Match of the Week” page with video and tasks or even “A match of the Season/All-time Great” with video and tasks.

“Most thrilling” or “Most impressive” should be the main measure then.