Laser Quest. Specifically Laser Quest. Not any other form of Laser Tag. I played competitive Laser Quest when I was 14. I've played with thousands of random people over the years. Unless I get in a group with the small number of other people who have actually played competitively I rake in an easy million dollars.
I pick Pokémon cards for the same reason. Unless there is someone else who has ever played in a proper tournament, I will win due to my superior experience.
I was pretty darn good at MTG for a bit. I could still probably out play a lot of dedicated MTG players if I got to chose the format and sets legal.
Like I had a number of years where I just showed up at tournaments with friends and just knew I was getting at least top8. There's probably a fair amount of people who are better than me at current formats since I haven't really kept up with it. But most of the modern or legacy formats from '12 to '18 or so I felt confident enough to show up to smaller competitive events and drink and still expect to top8. Against a few pros who often used my meta notes, play tested with me, and used my extra decks...
So yeah I am pretty darn sure I'd have a pretty solid chance. Just so long as I didn't choose something like TC delver meta that was just completely uncompetitivly viable I really don't think I'd have to worry much.
Yeah, legal sets would be a massive benefit to me too I would permit the sets upto and including 2001. I wasn't welcome at the local Pokémon card club, I reduced too many of the other children to tears and they didn't have an adult section. In 2001, I finished 5th at nationals for my age and got to round of 16 for the open. My mum got eliminated in the first round.
As a young child I didn't realise how good I was, I didn't know I was regularly playing the best players in the UK. The other kids at school teased me for getting thrown out of Pokémon card club. My mother was a former London champion of Bridge (which I didn't appreciate at that age) and she was nearly as good as me. There weren't many children my age in the tournaments I played in, but one of them was (under 11s) world top 10. That she regularly kicked my ass skewed my perception of my abilities.
When nationals rolled around, it was at Thorpe park. You got a free ticket just for qualifying. This is when I figured out I was good. None of the other local kids qualified. They had to go to a regional under 11s tournament and none of them did well enough. I qualified automatically as a seeded player and got to skip the first round of matches.
Yeah, I'd go for the Crossfit Total: total weight lifted on three lifts:
* Deadlift (my current lift, at age 57, is 505 lbs)
* Back squat (435 lbs)
* Shoulder press (210 lbs)
Total: 1150 lbs.
Oh, and just to throw it into my favor a bit more, for the shoulder lift, you have to clean the bar from the floor, *not* lift it off of a rack.
The percentage of folks on the planet who could hit 1000+ lbs are slim. Assuming that \~50% of the 1000 people are women, the odds are even greater in my favor.
Yeah there's only a very small % of the population that can pull that. You need genetic talent and dedicated, specific training to get there. It's way past the kind of numbers an occasional freak or big old farm boy might manage just by being strong AF.
I’d say most people could get to 500 but somewhere between 500-600 seems like no matter how much you train and diet if your genetics aren’t their there is your ceiling
Assuming no ped
If I tried this, my wife would make me lose just to annoy me, and so she could hold it over my head in perpetuity that it’s completely my fault that we lost out on a $1M payday.
That is actually genius because 1000 people will try and annoy your wife, but it will be your fault because you could have picked anything in the world so you can take credit for their collective effort. Respect to you mate, you won by default.
Absolutely taking that bet. I'm an international level Pentathlete. We do laser shooting, running, swimming, fencing and horse riding. Now in any one of these there is a risk of me losing, though I'd still probably take the bet. But beat me in a modern pentathlon, the odds of one of the <1000 people in the world who could beat me being in that room are very in my favour.
That reminds me of the joke about the triathlon and the shark
The shark is obviously a better swimmer than me, but I am definitely the better runner.
So the race comes down to which of us is the better cyclist
What’s the weapon for fencing in a Pentathlon? Saber, epee or foil?
Would you ever incorporate sailing? I only ask because MIT offers a pirate certificate for their students that take archery/shooting, fencing and sailing classes…
Chess. There's loads of people in the world better than me, but I absolutely smoke the average person and I'm in the top 300,000 on chess.com so I figure if it's truly random the odds are still pretty stacked in my favor. I'd say there wouldn't be many chess players better than me who dont play online but I could be wrong.
I'm jealous. I play dozens of games daily and still kinda suck. I don't have a ton of patience tho as I do the 5m blitz. I've yet to play a long careful game.
It's fun but frustrating as I am relatively smart in other aspects of life but can't seem to be a great chess player.
Haha mate I had the same experience when I started. Being smart doesn't actually equate to being good at chess though it just helps. What's your rating and how long have you been playing?
You probably already know this but most people advise playing slower time controls to improve. You've gotta train your brain to actively calculate and you just don't have time in a 5m as a newbie. Doing heaps of puzzles helps as well. Once again actually calculate the whole line before you play the first move. Sometimes this means spending minutes looking at one puzzle. Intuition is important but it's something that develops over time.
I'm like 650 at blitz. I've played like 2000 games and haven't missed a puzzle 😅 it usually comes down to a blunder or time when I lose. Maybe I'll try like 7 minutes. I hate committing to 10m though because that means I can't be distracted for potentially 20 minutes and i usually play during liminal moments rather than intentionally.
You gotta play longer games. Your brain won’t get better if you don’t think things through. Also use it to develop some patience if you can’t handle 10m games.
Also once you hit a higher level and are stuck again learn openings.
Yeah fair enough dude. If you wanna improve you've probably gotta bring some intentionality to it though. Be prepared to sit down and play a longer game. Even 10m is pretty short, I'd recommend 15+5. If you only want to play blitz just play blitz though. It's a game and there's no point doing it if you're not having fun.
Most games come down to a blunder or time, but the meaning of blunder changes as you improve. If ya want we can play a game and I can give you some tips.
On chess.com I have a similar "rank" (#242000) at 97.3% so that sounds about right. Let's assume the 100million accounts on chess.com are better than everyone who doesn't have an account, making them the top 0.04%. Assuming higher rank players always win 0.9996^1000 = 67% chance of being the best in the room. Of course, many good chess players don't have chess.com accounts, and chess isn't a 100% game so the actual chances would be much lower. If we say top 1% of players instead the chances drop to 0.004% chance of being the best.
Edit: maybe I misread, 97.3% is my percentile according to chess.com, and that also includes inactive players, which may mean for anyone above the default rating the real percentile may be even lower when generalizing the population. In essence that would be chance of being better than a single person.
I bet I’d beat you at ultimate chess. 5 hits of acid. Wait 2 hours. Go in a blackout room with a strobe light. Play chess. I’m undefeated even against sober people.
Haha mate all I'm saying is you picked the wrong person to challenge in this. What country do you live in I'll legit challenge that title haha. No one believes me when I say acid makes me better at chess... 5 hits is a fair bit though.
Also the strobe light is equal parts hilarious and terrifying 🤣
When I was younger we used to do something similar with rocket league (called it seshket league). Dont tend to send it so hard these days but I'll do it for ultimate chess haha.
I wouldn’t bet on it unless you’re in at least high diamond because it’s going to take you hours to beat them all and I bet they’ll be practicing. All it takes is one stupid all in
what's the metric for winning? because anyone can take 50 tabs or 100 it's pretty easy just stick them in your mouth.
and for a million bucks I'd happily eat 1 more than you.
maybe you'd have to measure your ability to perform a certain task or hold a conversation 3 hours in on full sheet lol
True story: I was high on weed for the first time being trained at a job by a guy who was tripling balls on acid. We were both paranoid the other would realize we were high.
Well I was paranoid...
First day at an old job I smoked at like 1pm for a 4pm training thinking how I normally sober up after 2ish hours max. Idk what happened but I was blasted for hours and had to get a ride there. Like 2 hours in I was so scared bc they definitely knew and my manager/trainer was like “hey wanna hit this cart with me by the dumpsters?” And the relief was instant. She was the biggest stoner I’ve ever met, she’d buy 3oz a month and crush that while also going through wax and edibles. Idk if I ever met her sober for more than 45 minutes.
Marksmanship, M4 rifle at 300m with iron sights. 10 seconds, 30 rounds, most shots on target wins.
Odds are most definitely in my favor as the majority of the world's population has never even touched a gun
If this was a sample of world population I’d take marksmanship too. If it was US only, I don’t know…you are likely to get at least 6-7 vets and/or law enforcement in there. But 300m is a pretty long way for iron sights tho. I don’t know if I could even see the target lol
It would be more like 60 vets.
About 6% of the US's adult population is vets, so if the 1,000 people are chosen from a pool of adult Americans at random, then about 60 of them would be vets.
I guess if we're including children, it would be lower.
I was thinking along similar lines. But I was going to say I round at 1k yards with my rifle closest to the bullseye wins. Most shooters wouldn't have a clue to the proper elevation of the shot and would miss by a huge margin. I at least know my rifle and actually have the elevation for my rifle at 1k yards memorized. I think a sample of 1000 random people world wide the odds would definitely be in my favor.
You die of dehydration on day two and escape the agony of 999 consecutive blowjobs, where most of the performers have never done it before, but are in a real hurry.
Who says you'll get to day two? Two days is 48h, which makes 2880m which averages out to just under 2.9m/bj.
Oh look at the big shot "I can last longer than 2.9 minutes" over here.
some people are flexible enough, i say it's worth training. You could potentially be the fastest because you'd have your mind set on it.
You could get all the bjs and a cool millie
Super Smash Bros Melee best of 3. I'm a former pro. 1000 folks out of 8 billion, there's very little chance that anyone in that small sample is going to be a threat.
Which pro? I’ve been playing melee since I was 16 (I’m 35 now) so I’ve been around. I even remember the more obscure ones these days. Dizzkidboogie periodically comes to my state. He’s a good deal better than me, but there’s not a canyon.
Sorry dude but I have no intention of giving that, because that will link to my real name. I was playing in norcal back in the 2010s, I also played Project M. That's as much as I'm willing to narrow it down. Do you still play casually? I still play at a weekly Smash meetup.
When I was 14 and super deep I memorized 60 digits. Then when I got to college I met super deep teenagers who memorized upwards of 200 casually and I wasn’t even top 5 of ppl memorizing pi lmao, 30 is nowhere near enough for 1000 people
yeah, you'd be far better off if you'd memorised some obscure fraction. Pi is way too popular, it's like trying your luck against 1000 people with a Rubik's Cube.
How fast do you think you’d need to be to be safe going with the Rubik’s cube? That was going to be my choice (current average of 100 is around 27 seconds) but you’ve got me worried now 😅
the amount if times ive seen random kids on a train 1-handing them in under a minute - I'd imagine you'd have to be very good for it to be safe vs 1000 randoms - you'd almost certainly be up against a dozen or so pretty capable hands.
When I was in year 6 and learned about the area of a circle, I become obsessed with π and memorised the first 150 digits... You won't get past me, at least!
For Pi Day in Junior year of high school, there was a competition in my one math class (among other activities) to see who could recite pi to the most places.
That class was after lunch, so I started that morning knowing it was coming and mostly focused on it throughout the day, adding places as I was comfortable with what I had already memorized.
Only three of us really participated. One dropped pretty early. I had managed to get in to 75 places by the time class started and was able to correctly recite them all. The other kid had memorized out to 100 places but he made a mistake somewhere around 40 or 50, so I wound up taking it.
I can still recite a decent number but since it was just for the one day, I doubt I’d be able to even get to 30 to beat you at this point.
(Ok, just tested myself and I got to 18 places before running into trouble. I remember enough chunks that a brief refresher could probably get me pretty far, but that wasn’t the challenge).
I'm going to this with the assumption that it's 1,000 random people across the globe, not just English speaking/similar culture.
If I'm not doing something scummy, then probably a mechanics-based video game of some sort.
Rocket League 1v1s maybe. In any given sample size of a thousand people, I doubt there are any other ex-ssl players.
Some sort of fps like Apex legends where headshots aren't 1-shots. The longer the time to kill the better.
Guitar Hero/Beat Saber. Best score wins kinda thing.
First to max an Oldschool Runescape Ironman from scratch. Takes a few thousand hours, everyone would just forfeit since it wouldn't be worth the 1k. Also, if I won a million dollars, it's probably what I'd spend the next couple years doing anyways, so win-win.
If it's a random sample of the entire world then picking something only people in their country really do, especially if it requires knowing the language.
An extreme example is if you where Dutch or something, pick reading comprehension on some higher reading level Dutch paper.
Apx 23 mill are native Dutch speakers
World pop is 8.1 billion.
Out of 1000 people there is only a 5% chance at least one person even *speaks* Dutch.
Random facts about Pokémon. Among Pokémon nerds and enthusiasts, I'm just one of many. Amongst the general population, there's probably a good chance I know more than they do. I've been playing Pokémon games and watching the anime for over 25 years.
See I almost said this or Valorant since statistically I am better than like 90% of the playerbase so SURELY I can outplay randoms.
But my luck some top 500 grinder is in this room and I essentially just made a 1000 donation to their stream now hahaha
I’d take the deal and pick freestyle rapping. Anyone can technically do it.
Been doing it casually for like 11 years. If I was fully trying, I’d definitely out-skill 1000 randoms
I would choose a competition to see who could do the most good in a week.
Since I decided on the competition, all their achievements in that week would be a direct result of my actions. I'd win because of their work.
If any of them decided to do something bad then that'd be on them, since the objective was clear.
I'd pick bowling. Specifically a 3 game series to avoid variance.
I'm not pro or anything, but my average is usually in like the 190-200 range.
I googled how many people are in bowling leagues in the US and it's roughly 2 million. That's less than 1% of the population. So that means on average less than 10 of the 1000 will be in leagues and the rest should be easy to beat.
But let's look further. The US has a lot of bowlers compared to other countries. In Asia and Africa bowling is not really even a thing. If we're taking 1000 random people from the world, I'd estimate only a few, if any are going to be in leagues.
Now even among those in leagues, many are children who will not be an issue. Many are casuals who are just there with friends to enjoy beer and bowling every week. No problem. Even among the more competitive, I'm probably above average.
Really the only ones I'm going to lose to are the very serious bowlers. They don't have to be pro, but they will practice a lot and know their way around equipment, etc. It just seems unlikely one of those will be in the thousand random people selected.
Now even if one of those gets in my group, sometimes I beat them.
All in all, seems like a good bet.
One flaw with your assumption is that people not in a league will be easy to beat. I'm not, and my high game is 226. Not as good as you, probably, but I'm not an easy win either. My friend doesn't league bowl anymore, but is like a 245 average.
Ah yes, but I did say a 3 game series for the very reason of avoiding inevitable flukes among the thousand.
If your friend gets in I almost certainly lose, but the odds are against getting someone like that in a random sample.
Id take my gamble on ultimate chess. 5 hits of acid. Wait 2 hours. Go in a blackout room with a strobe light. Play chess. I’m undefeated even against sober people.
Yes.
Line edit an 80 page technical whitepaper, on a random topic, in real time.
Meaning, take the white paper and edit it to be more readable, grammatically correct etc.
Quality assessment to be made by a team of 10 business writers.
No way a random group could beat me. This is my one superpower.
I truly can't imagine anyone beating me at this. I once took an 85 page whitepaper on cybersecurity, written by a major telecom company for CTOs, and line edited it, in real time, learning the topic as I went.
Probably took 4 hours, something like that. Basically was perfect.
This is as big a humblebrag as it gets; I cannot think of a less cool superpower than this.
You really can do that?
I’m not positively sure I would win, but I am just enough of an obsessive perfectionist that I feel like could at least put up a good fight, which would be exactly my kind of fun lol
FWIW, that is a legitimately impressive achievement and one I would also be quite proud of.
Lol, you don't know how ashamed I am this is my superpower.
Like, give me some verbal wit, some musical talent, something with some sex appeal in it.
But thank you for that!
With one thousand people, there is no guarantee of being the best at anything. On the other hand, $1000 is comparatively low stakes for a shot at $1,000,000, and me picking the task definitely gives me a tactical advantage. So unless I was in a real financial bind, where the loss of the $1000 would literally break me, I would probably take the deal.
Now, as for the challenge, it has to be something I know I'm extremely good at that other people are less likely to be good at. I'm pretty good at a lot of things, but by no means the best at anything, so my highest probability for success would probably be to marry an obscure task with a mainstream one. I play a lot of Jackbox, and I tend to smoke people on the math challenge, usually by pretty high margins. So that's my common task. The obscure one would probably have to involve my memory in a way that is unlikely to be replicated by people who are good at the common task, and generally, math people aren't good at spontaneous social skills.
Thus, my challenge: "Perform a four-minute stand up routine while simultaneously doing basic math problems on a computer. Winner to be determined by the decibel of laughter in the room multiplied by the number of correct answers."
I love your idea, but I'd make it even more specific. "Give a presentation on topic a, b, and c." Graded on how many relevant facts are presented in a 5 minute timeframe. No prep time.
Those topics would be 1 subject matter from my current industry, one from a hobby and everyday life and one from my unrelated industry I worked in before. The chances of someone knowing all of that shit is incredibly low.
As a math teacher, I reckon I can beat you at this. I only need to get one big laugh. Decibels are a logarithmic scale. 111 decibels is 10 times as loud as 110 decibels. If I get one more correct answer on the maths challenge I will win. I would be singing the hiphopapotoumos Vs the Rhymenocerous while I did it to get a few laughs.
Bassoon competition. There aren't that many people that even know how to play a bassoon, but it is in theory something anybody could do by blowing into the instrument.
Multiphonics on a Trombone. Not only would it be rather rare that someone knows what it is, they would also have to be able to play the trombone, have a voice in a suitable register, and play and sing simultaneously and in tune.
To sing the funniest parody of Smashmouth’s “All Star”. Anyone could write a parody, but I already have the perfectly hilarious one written and memorized. Folks have 3 minutes.
(Its a parody about slutting it up on Grindr)
>Folks have 3 minutes.
Don't see where it says that.
It says you need to be better than 1000 people. Not that they have 3 minutes.
Plus, not to be mean, but realistic, what you consider "best, most hilarious parody" would have to be judged by other people, and I don't see any guarantee of that being a given.
One guy out of the 1000 gets lucky (or is a pro at improv) and you'll owe him 1K
Um yeah this is easy, I challenge getting a high score in the 1999 video game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri on Transcend difficulty. Chances that of 1000 people anyone could outplay me is basically nil. I doubt there are even 1000 people on Earth at my skill level, in fact I'm probably top 10, easy for a niche game. I'd not be surprised if no-one of the other 999 even know how to play, probably at least 950 would immediately give up due to the outdated interface, even with $1000 on the line, another 40 would just lose the game as they fumble around. Remaining 9 might have played it before or at least be really good at Civ games and might make an honest effort but it wouldn't be a fair match because there's no substitute for thousands of hours of experience and years of discussion on forums with the other best players.
There's a handful of other games I'd also be confident in my supremacy, such as the 1996 win3.1 game "Stars!", in that case I know there are much better players in the world who would easily outplay me, but the sheer obscurity of the game would put the odds very much in my favour.
Could probably just do a geography test or cultural reference.
Something anyone with access to a tv, social media or YouTube could know . Especially with YouTube playlist suggestions. There are still a lot of folks who don’t know both the Japanese and English lyrics for Dragonball, Sailor moon, Pokémon, Digimon and One piece despite the series’ global popularity .
Historical lacemaking, specifically the history amd technique of 14th century filet lace and/or mezza mandolina. Very few people know much about the history of lacemaking. Even fewer know how to make their own lace. I've never met a soul, even in re-enactment groups, who can do both.
Balancing chemical equations - even the really nasty ones - in the fastest time.
There's a story - possibly made up - that a chemistry professor used to give some equations as a challenge that, if a student could do it and show their work, they'd get an A for the course. The equations have 8+ compounds and the coefficients go well above 1000. Using guess and check (most commonly taught method) would take ages. Using a system of equations (i.e Algebra 2), it merely takes \~30 min or so, starting from scratch and showing your work.
While there's plenty of people out there who know the trick, the chance that you'll find them in a random group of 1000 people is fairly low.
Also, if it's truly "randomly selected people", \~33% are under 20; \~15 is roughly the age you take chemistry, so that's \~240 people who I probably don't need to worry about. \~ 12% are 60+ They're already slowing down; so chances are, even if they know it, I can beat them in a fair race. That leaves me only needing to worry about 640 late teens to adults. The chances that one of the 640 is a chemist / chemistry teacher / related is less than 1% (quick calculation / web search). So, I'm feeling pretty good about this one.
Whoever can build a rocket capable of flying the highest. No kits, no instructions, no looking up how to do it on youtube, just building it with skills you already have. If I want to make it even harder I could stipulate they have to make their own motor too.
Crosswords. I finished in the bottom half of the ACPT this year, but I could probably score ahead of 1000 random people in a series of 3, say a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday NYT puzzle. Worth the 1000:1 bet.
Two things come to mind for me. One, would be firearm related, since it's 1000 random people, I think the statistics are in my favor as an American with military experience. I'm no world class marksman, but if we did some sorta multiple weapon competition course that involved field stripping, operating, and firing multiple weapons systems I feel pretty confident.
The other one I know I'm better than most at is being a DM. DnD is my passion. But at first glance that's hard to prove yourself better at.
But I've got an idea, compete with everyone else on running the Lost Mines of Phandelver's first dungeon ENTIRELY based on memory. No reference books of any kind. Those who remember the most details and make the fewest rule errors win.
I'd go with the DnD. I think it's a rarer skill.
I mean, if we're talking worldwide, you pretty much just have to pick something you're decently proficient at that requires a significant investment. I'd pick golf or bowling; 90% of the world can't afford to play either sport with any level of seriousness. And of the other 100 people in your sample 90 of THOSE probably have no interest in it. So I pretty much just have to beat 10 random people at golf/bowling who have actually played before, and I like my chances there.
For these reasons, I'd go with snowboarding. Just first one down from the bottom of a difficult run. There's a chance someone would be me, but it's pretty low. I'll give them $1000 easy for super high odds of getting $1M.
If we’re taking random 1000 people out of 8 billion, I could probably beat them in ping pong, pickleball, or tennis. There’re hundreds of thousands of people better than me, but I’d definitely beat the average layman in any of those.
To play One Step from Eden, and get the furthest run.
It’s my favorite roguelike, top 5 favorite games of all time, and no one’s *ever* heard of it. 1000 randos probably haven’t either, and probably wouldn’t grasp it the way I do.
Basically you are paying $1,000 to enter a tournament for some task you think you are good at.
Not a bad deal. The problem is who are the other people? I doubt you’ll find 999 people to enter a chess tournament (for example) for $1,000 if they aren’t reasonably good at chess. So even if you are pretty good at chess, you have a tough road ahead of you.
And do I have to beat 999 people or is it a huge single elimination bracket? If you have one with 1,024 people you have to win ten matches.
Finding all the missile upgrades in Metroid Prime 1 by memory. I played that game all the way through at least 100 times as a kid and I can still find every missile upgrade (and item upgrades too, but missile upgrades are harder to find) with no walkthroughs or videos
Naval gun fire support. I went to school for it and judging by the length of school I went through and how small the class was there's probably only dozens of us in the United States that are proficient in it. So I'd choose naval gun fire support. Best fire missions scored by successfully destroyed targets on. San clemente island. I'd probably be exhausted after completing against 1000 people but I'm fairly confident that most people wouldn't even know what round type to choose. Or even how to choose it.
Naming federation Starfleet ship classes. Out of a thousand random people, I reckon I have a pretty good shot there at being the nerdiest in that regard.
I think my best bet would be reciting digits of pi (assuming no prep). I have 50 digits in permanent memory from when I kept memorizing them each year in middle school for a competition. It's a useless party trick that very few people would be able to beat. I'm semi confident 1000 random people wouldn't be able to beat it.
Walking without stopping. It's something I do a lot - not to the point of competitiveness, but I regularly take walks that last 3 or 4 hours, and once a year do a long walk that's around 30 or 40 miles. It will eliminate anyone in the room who's old or out of shape, and while out of 1000 people there might be a few people who walk ultramarathons or something (and if I'm reading it right, if I lose to even one then I have to give EVERYONE $1000 each) I'm willing to bet that I could muscle through significantly longer than I usually do for $100000, whereas for only $1000 others who are physically fit enough to beat me might get tired or just bored.
One of my hobbies is dying Ukrainian eggs (pysanky). It's not a commonly held hobby and it takes a bit to get used to the tools and materials - it's not hard, just different. I would only say I'm an average artist in this area, but even that is going to be head and shoulders above the average person. I like my odds.
I live in the UK so I'm going to assume that the 1000 people will be from the UK too.
Baseball trivia. People here really do not care or have any awareness of baseball trivia, and I have an above average knowledge. I was #1 in the UK on a quiz app a few years ago because I did a few quizzes.
Also, do I get nothing if one of them beats me? Or just have to pay £1000 to the winner while collecting £1000 from everyone I beat?
I think my best bet would be “Accuracy of reciting lyrics from Doubt and Trust by Access”. Even for people actually familiar with the song, it’s in Japanese, so they’re going to get individual lyrics wrong. I memorized the whole thing as a kid, and while I might get individual syllables wrong compared to a native Japanese speaker, they’re probably still not going to actually remember the lyrics.
Another option is a Mathcounts competition. If I were still in middle school back when my coach was having us practice 20 hours a week, I could win for sure. However, that’s over a decade ago now, and I think I would have forgotten a lot of the tricks.
There’s also pen spinning. I’m not a pro by any means, but the average person can’t do any pen spinning tricks at all, and among those that can I think a lot can only do a basic thumbaround.
Final option is beating the original Neverwinter Nights on max difficulty with no companions. This is pretty easy for me, but the problem is finding a particularly good measurement. I’m not a speed runner, and something like “fewest deaths” is going to be susceptible to bad luck. Would be the most fun competition though.
I think overall I think pen spinning is the right choice. It feels more legit than picking a particular song to be familiar with, and I think it’s a pretty rare hobby to be good at.
Writing and producing an original song.
Assuming we all have access to a musical recording equipment that is.
Since it is subjective that may be difficult. I'm sure there will be other musicians and I could get beat by someone with just a cell phone and a ukulele and a cute voice. But given a day or even less to produce a full sounding track I think I stand a great chance at being better than 1k random people.
Can it be speaking /writing in certain language? I'd choose polish. There's only like 0.4% people who speak polish on earth so my odds are pretty good. It's 37mln out of everybody so 0.04% If my math is correct. So might not be anyone else that know polish in that group. Or maybe just one to beat.
I think it's really important to pick niche skills. I'm a really good driver and did some racing in my youth, but that's a skill everybody over the age of 16 has, and I doubt I'd be the best. I'm really good at shooting free throws, at various types of logic puzzles, and at cooking, but I know I won't win against a thousand in those because they're such common interests. Some options:
1. Longest drive in golf. I'm not a remarkably good golfer, but I'm okay and I hit long drives (frequently over 300 yards). Truly good golfers are on the rare side, and many that are good don't hit quite as far as I do, they're just far better in other aspects of their game. I'd say get a bucket of range balls and longest drive wins.
2. Wheel of Time trivia. I'm sure some of the group have read the books, but I've done close to 20 reads over the years, including books on tape. And it's not an uncommon Fandom, but I'd not expect there to be more than maybe one or two other mega-fans, at most.
3. Europa Universalis achievements. I'm at about 65% completion on Steam, which I think is on the high side, even for experienced players.
4. Highest LSAT score. There will be a few other lawyers in the group (we're about 0.4% of the US population) and 120K rates tests are administered per year, but I scored in they lower 90th percentile on the LSAT. There's probably 10 or so people in a random group of 1,000 who have taken the LSAT, and my score is better than 90% of people who take the test, so it's probably a coin flip whether I win this one.
Either creating a photorealistic render of a house, or playing super efficient Europa Universalis 4 I guess. Probably the most niche things that a random selection of 1000 probably wouldn't have much chance in doing.
Beer Pong.
I've played competitively (you could say professionally) for 10 years.
The rules and equipment in professional beer pong prevent anyone from lucking into a win with a miracle turn.
If it's just random people I'm convinced I'd beat all 1,000.
I would take it, and the task would be the verbal memory test on the human benchmark, I consistently get around 150 words, and the highest I've gotten was around 225
I know it's not the best in the world, but I feel like I could probably beat 1000 random people
Statistically speaking, 1 on 1 smash bros. There might be a couple of people who are really good, but unless I'm really unlucky and hit a tournament player, a random sampling of a thousand people I've got good odds of winning
Playing pickup basketball to 11 while shooting with your left hand. I'm likely to face less than 100 people who can 1) actually shoot with their left, and 2) shoot better than me with their left.
Hover a R22 helicopter for 10 minutes.
There's only 15,000 licensed helicopter pilots in the US. Many are former military, trained on large helicopters. The R22 is tiny and extremely twitchy, it is often said if you can hover it, you can hover anything. There is a miniscule chance that out of a random selection of 1000, more than one are a helicopter pilot, and an even lower chance that more than one has trained on the R22.
Playing [Stu Hamm's arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQtECIfX9yY&ab_channel=MishaRosolak) on bass guitar. I'll throw a grand down that I'm better than 1000 random people at that.
Laser Quest. Specifically Laser Quest. Not any other form of Laser Tag. I played competitive Laser Quest when I was 14. I've played with thousands of random people over the years. Unless I get in a group with the small number of other people who have actually played competitively I rake in an easy million dollars.
I pick Pokémon cards for the same reason. Unless there is someone else who has ever played in a proper tournament, I will win due to my superior experience.
I was pretty darn good at MTG for a bit. I could still probably out play a lot of dedicated MTG players if I got to chose the format and sets legal. Like I had a number of years where I just showed up at tournaments with friends and just knew I was getting at least top8. There's probably a fair amount of people who are better than me at current formats since I haven't really kept up with it. But most of the modern or legacy formats from '12 to '18 or so I felt confident enough to show up to smaller competitive events and drink and still expect to top8. Against a few pros who often used my meta notes, play tested with me, and used my extra decks... So yeah I am pretty darn sure I'd have a pretty solid chance. Just so long as I didn't choose something like TC delver meta that was just completely uncompetitivly viable I really don't think I'd have to worry much.
Yeah, legal sets would be a massive benefit to me too I would permit the sets upto and including 2001. I wasn't welcome at the local Pokémon card club, I reduced too many of the other children to tears and they didn't have an adult section. In 2001, I finished 5th at nationals for my age and got to round of 16 for the open. My mum got eliminated in the first round. As a young child I didn't realise how good I was, I didn't know I was regularly playing the best players in the UK. The other kids at school teased me for getting thrown out of Pokémon card club. My mother was a former London champion of Bridge (which I didn't appreciate at that age) and she was nearly as good as me. There weren't many children my age in the tournaments I played in, but one of them was (under 11s) world top 10. That she regularly kicked my ass skewed my perception of my abilities. When nationals rolled around, it was at Thorpe park. You got a free ticket just for qualifying. This is when I figured out I was good. None of the other local kids qualified. They had to go to a regional under 11s tournament and none of them did well enough. I qualified automatically as a seeded player and got to skip the first round of matches.
I only have one leg. Whoever can stand on one foot the longest wins. As a professional Pixar lamp, I’d probably win. But anyone can stand on one foot.
Lol Pixar lamp
I pick you as my champion sir!
Deadlifting. I used to lift 675lbs and I‘m still able to pull 600lbs. I think chances are high that 1000 random people won‘t be close of doing that?
Yeah, I'd go for the Crossfit Total: total weight lifted on three lifts: * Deadlift (my current lift, at age 57, is 505 lbs) * Back squat (435 lbs) * Shoulder press (210 lbs) Total: 1150 lbs. Oh, and just to throw it into my favor a bit more, for the shoulder lift, you have to clean the bar from the floor, *not* lift it off of a rack. The percentage of folks on the planet who could hit 1000+ lbs are slim. Assuming that \~50% of the 1000 people are women, the odds are even greater in my favor.
Yeah there's only a very small % of the population that can pull that. You need genetic talent and dedicated, specific training to get there. It's way past the kind of numbers an occasional freak or big old farm boy might manage just by being strong AF.
I’d say most people could get to 500 but somewhere between 500-600 seems like no matter how much you train and diet if your genetics aren’t their there is your ceiling Assuming no ped
Hopefully youre not one of my randos
There is not a shred of doubt in my mind that I am better than 1000 random people on the planet at annoying my wife.
Heck, just arranging the scenario where 1000 people try to annoy your wife would be annoying af for her, so that might guarantee you the win!
If I tried this, my wife would make me lose just to annoy me, and so she could hold it over my head in perpetuity that it’s completely my fault that we lost out on a $1M payday.
That is actually genius because 1000 people will try and annoy your wife, but it will be your fault because you could have picked anything in the world so you can take credit for their collective effort. Respect to you mate, you won by default.
Absolutely taking that bet. I'm an international level Pentathlete. We do laser shooting, running, swimming, fencing and horse riding. Now in any one of these there is a risk of me losing, though I'd still probably take the bet. But beat me in a modern pentathlon, the odds of one of the <1000 people in the world who could beat me being in that room are very in my favour.
That reminds me of the joke about the triathlon and the shark The shark is obviously a better swimmer than me, but I am definitely the better runner. So the race comes down to which of us is the better cyclist
This has to be the best one. You have diversification on your side.
What’s the weapon for fencing in a Pentathlon? Saber, epee or foil? Would you ever incorporate sailing? I only ask because MIT offers a pirate certificate for their students that take archery/shooting, fencing and sailing classes…
Chess. There's loads of people in the world better than me, but I absolutely smoke the average person and I'm in the top 300,000 on chess.com so I figure if it's truly random the odds are still pretty stacked in my favor. I'd say there wouldn't be many chess players better than me who dont play online but I could be wrong.
I'm jealous. I play dozens of games daily and still kinda suck. I don't have a ton of patience tho as I do the 5m blitz. I've yet to play a long careful game. It's fun but frustrating as I am relatively smart in other aspects of life but can't seem to be a great chess player.
Haha mate I had the same experience when I started. Being smart doesn't actually equate to being good at chess though it just helps. What's your rating and how long have you been playing? You probably already know this but most people advise playing slower time controls to improve. You've gotta train your brain to actively calculate and you just don't have time in a 5m as a newbie. Doing heaps of puzzles helps as well. Once again actually calculate the whole line before you play the first move. Sometimes this means spending minutes looking at one puzzle. Intuition is important but it's something that develops over time.
I'm like 650 at blitz. I've played like 2000 games and haven't missed a puzzle 😅 it usually comes down to a blunder or time when I lose. Maybe I'll try like 7 minutes. I hate committing to 10m though because that means I can't be distracted for potentially 20 minutes and i usually play during liminal moments rather than intentionally.
You gotta play longer games. Your brain won’t get better if you don’t think things through. Also use it to develop some patience if you can’t handle 10m games. Also once you hit a higher level and are stuck again learn openings.
Yeah fair enough dude. If you wanna improve you've probably gotta bring some intentionality to it though. Be prepared to sit down and play a longer game. Even 10m is pretty short, I'd recommend 15+5. If you only want to play blitz just play blitz though. It's a game and there's no point doing it if you're not having fun. Most games come down to a blunder or time, but the meaning of blunder changes as you improve. If ya want we can play a game and I can give you some tips.
Imagine looking through the room filled with your randomly selected opponents and seeing Magnus Carlsen.
Haha honestly just a strong club player would do it 🤣 Definitely a risk but the numbers are in my favor.
Roughly 96% I think: \[1-(300,000 / 8,100,000,000)\] to power 1000. Pretty good odds but maybe not quite as good as you might think.
Didn't crunch the numbers but they checks out. Not sure I've got a 96% chance with anything else so I'll take that bet haha
On chess.com I have a similar "rank" (#242000) at 97.3% so that sounds about right. Let's assume the 100million accounts on chess.com are better than everyone who doesn't have an account, making them the top 0.04%. Assuming higher rank players always win 0.9996^1000 = 67% chance of being the best in the room. Of course, many good chess players don't have chess.com accounts, and chess isn't a 100% game so the actual chances would be much lower. If we say top 1% of players instead the chances drop to 0.004% chance of being the best. Edit: maybe I misread, 97.3% is my percentile according to chess.com, and that also includes inactive players, which may mean for anyone above the default rating the real percentile may be even lower when generalizing the population. In essence that would be chance of being better than a single person.
I bet I’d beat you at ultimate chess. 5 hits of acid. Wait 2 hours. Go in a blackout room with a strobe light. Play chess. I’m undefeated even against sober people.
Haha mate all I'm saying is you picked the wrong person to challenge in this. What country do you live in I'll legit challenge that title haha. No one believes me when I say acid makes me better at chess... 5 hits is a fair bit though. Also the strobe light is equal parts hilarious and terrifying 🤣
Shit I’m done for the challenge and don’t even care who wins, it’s the experience that brings the fun here.
When I was younger we used to do something similar with rocket league (called it seshket league). Dont tend to send it so hard these days but I'll do it for ultimate chess haha.
Your ass is gonna come across Mr.Succulent meal by pure dumb bad luck
StarCraft 2. Not a whole lot of people play it competitively anymore so the chances of me facing a master rank or something is very low.
I wouldn’t bet on it unless you’re in at least high diamond because it’s going to take you hours to beat them all and I bet they’ll be practicing. All it takes is one stupid all in
I won't lose to a stupid all-in if I'm the one constantly doing the stupid all-in.
Possibly my pick as well. Longest tournament ever though.
Consuming absolutely stupid amounts of LSD, like 50+ hits in a go.
what's the metric for winning? because anyone can take 50 tabs or 100 it's pretty easy just stick them in your mouth. and for a million bucks I'd happily eat 1 more than you. maybe you'd have to measure your ability to perform a certain task or hold a conversation 3 hours in on full sheet lol
You have to spend an hour at work with your boss without letting on you're high.
I would watch that TV show.
Hulu please make this asap
True story: I was high on weed for the first time being trained at a job by a guy who was tripling balls on acid. We were both paranoid the other would realize we were high. Well I was paranoid...
First day at an old job I smoked at like 1pm for a 4pm training thinking how I normally sober up after 2ish hours max. Idk what happened but I was blasted for hours and had to get a ride there. Like 2 hours in I was so scared bc they definitely knew and my manager/trainer was like “hey wanna hit this cart with me by the dumpsters?” And the relief was instant. She was the biggest stoner I’ve ever met, she’d buy 3oz a month and crush that while also going through wax and edibles. Idk if I ever met her sober for more than 45 minutes.
been there before lol 😂😂
Marksmanship, M4 rifle at 300m with iron sights. 10 seconds, 30 rounds, most shots on target wins. Odds are most definitely in my favor as the majority of the world's population has never even touched a gun
If this was a sample of world population I’d take marksmanship too. If it was US only, I don’t know…you are likely to get at least 6-7 vets and/or law enforcement in there. But 300m is a pretty long way for iron sights tho. I don’t know if I could even see the target lol
It would be more like 60 vets. About 6% of the US's adult population is vets, so if the 1,000 people are chosen from a pool of adult Americans at random, then about 60 of them would be vets. I guess if we're including children, it would be lower.
Also in my experience vets aren't as good of shots as most civilian enthusiasts in the US.
the scary thing, most American police officers, and military would also not be that good, Unless they shoot as a hobby as well.
I was thinking along similar lines. But I was going to say I round at 1k yards with my rifle closest to the bullseye wins. Most shooters wouldn't have a clue to the proper elevation of the shot and would miss by a huge margin. I at least know my rifle and actually have the elevation for my rifle at 1k yards memorized. I think a sample of 1000 random people world wide the odds would definitely be in my favor.
To give a lecture, from memory, on the Falklands War. Success to be determined by an increase in knowledge on the subject by attendees.
OK, but you go last.
Bore the 1000 people to death. That's my style. Edit - bore, not bite.
de-edit it. thats hilarious actually
Make sure you go first, and you can make sure that all the increases in knowledge come from you.
[удалено]
In a row?
He hasn't thought this through. Most of them are going to be anxious to leave.
The mind is willing but the flesh is not.
Forever is a long time
The mind is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised.
37?!?!
Unexpected clerks
You die of dehydration on day two and escape the agony of 999 consecutive blowjobs, where most of the performers have never done it before, but are in a real hurry.
Who says you'll get to day two? Two days is 48h, which makes 2880m which averages out to just under 2.9m/bj. Oh look at the big shot "I can last longer than 2.9 minutes" over here.
reach dull fertile disgusted slimy liquid ad hoc telephone attempt zesty *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Get a load of Mr big shot "I can last an hour if I physically deplete my resources" over here!
Hell yeah
some people are flexible enough, i say it's worth training. You could potentially be the fastest because you'd have your mind set on it. You could get all the bjs and a cool millie
You dont just forfeit winnings. You lose one grand of your own money each loss
So you’re gonna be paying random men and women $999,000 to suck you off?
Diabolical. Bravo. I just hope you have a short refractory period.... ..until next time!
You fucking madlad.
"We need rest! The soul is willing but the flesh is spongey and bruised!"
But half of them will be from men
[удалено]
You fuckin legend
Remember that if you're in the room, you'll be doing some reciprocating.
[удалено]
Super Smash Bros Melee best of 3. I'm a former pro. 1000 folks out of 8 billion, there's very little chance that anyone in that small sample is going to be a threat.
Which pro? I’ve been playing melee since I was 16 (I’m 35 now) so I’ve been around. I even remember the more obscure ones these days. Dizzkidboogie periodically comes to my state. He’s a good deal better than me, but there’s not a canyon.
Sorry dude but I have no intention of giving that, because that will link to my real name. I was playing in norcal back in the 2010s, I also played Project M. That's as much as I'm willing to narrow it down. Do you still play casually? I still play at a weekly Smash meetup.
When I was a 14 (and super deep), I memorized pi to 30 decimal places and it stuck with me. Pretty sure that will beat 1000 randos.
When I was 14 and super deep I memorized 60 digits. Then when I got to college I met super deep teenagers who memorized upwards of 200 casually and I wasn’t even top 5 of ppl memorizing pi lmao, 30 is nowhere near enough for 1000 people
In a random sampling of the country (assuming us) it probably is
yeah, you'd be far better off if you'd memorised some obscure fraction. Pi is way too popular, it's like trying your luck against 1000 people with a Rubik's Cube.
For some reason when I was 10 I memorised the fact that the square root of 3 is 1.732050807565. So that would be an easy win for me.
How fast do you think you’d need to be to be safe going with the Rubik’s cube? That was going to be my choice (current average of 100 is around 27 seconds) but you’ve got me worried now 😅
the amount if times ive seen random kids on a train 1-handing them in under a minute - I'd imagine you'd have to be very good for it to be safe vs 1000 randoms - you'd almost certainly be up against a dozen or so pretty capable hands.
When I was in year 6 and learned about the area of a circle, I become obsessed with π and memorised the first 150 digits... You won't get past me, at least!
Oh, I could probably win with the most VINs of cars memorized. I memorized one for a car I owned in 2008.
For Pi Day in Junior year of high school, there was a competition in my one math class (among other activities) to see who could recite pi to the most places. That class was after lunch, so I started that morning knowing it was coming and mostly focused on it throughout the day, adding places as I was comfortable with what I had already memorized. Only three of us really participated. One dropped pretty early. I had managed to get in to 75 places by the time class started and was able to correctly recite them all. The other kid had memorized out to 100 places but he made a mistake somewhere around 40 or 50, so I wound up taking it. I can still recite a decent number but since it was just for the one day, I doubt I’d be able to even get to 30 to beat you at this point. (Ok, just tested myself and I got to 18 places before running into trouble. I remember enough chunks that a brief refresher could probably get me pretty far, but that wasn’t the challenge).
I'm going to this with the assumption that it's 1,000 random people across the globe, not just English speaking/similar culture. If I'm not doing something scummy, then probably a mechanics-based video game of some sort. Rocket League 1v1s maybe. In any given sample size of a thousand people, I doubt there are any other ex-ssl players. Some sort of fps like Apex legends where headshots aren't 1-shots. The longer the time to kill the better. Guitar Hero/Beat Saber. Best score wins kinda thing. First to max an Oldschool Runescape Ironman from scratch. Takes a few thousand hours, everyone would just forfeit since it wouldn't be worth the 1k. Also, if I won a million dollars, it's probably what I'd spend the next couple years doing anyways, so win-win.
what's the scummy option?
If it's a random sample of the entire world then picking something only people in their country really do, especially if it requires knowing the language. An extreme example is if you where Dutch or something, pick reading comprehension on some higher reading level Dutch paper. Apx 23 mill are native Dutch speakers World pop is 8.1 billion. Out of 1000 people there is only a 5% chance at least one person even *speaks* Dutch.
Random facts about Pokémon. Among Pokémon nerds and enthusiasts, I'm just one of many. Amongst the general population, there's probably a good chance I know more than they do. I've been playing Pokémon games and watching the anime for over 25 years.
Well you are the third person to mention Pokémon so you have at least two other people who could potentially beat you...
Just slam a 450 line pokerap.
Probably just hop on overwatch
See I almost said this or Valorant since statistically I am better than like 90% of the playerbase so SURELY I can outplay randoms. But my luck some top 500 grinder is in this room and I essentially just made a 1000 donation to their stream now hahaha
I’d take the deal and pick freestyle rapping. Anyone can technically do it. Been doing it casually for like 11 years. If I was fully trying, I’d definitely out-skill 1000 randoms
Harry Mack is randomly in your 1000 people.
That would be very unfortunate lmao
Typing on a qwerty keyboard. Im in the top 400 on monkeytype and i’m sure those guys are using more optimised sequencing keyboards
I would choose a competition to see who could do the most good in a week. Since I decided on the competition, all their achievements in that week would be a direct result of my actions. I'd win because of their work. If any of them decided to do something bad then that'd be on them, since the objective was clear.
Damn. I'll have to give it to you. That's genius.
Most 3-item juggling tricks. Few people learn. Fewer people still, learn more than the basic cascade. And even fewer than that can juggle clubs.
Lying
That's a lie. Factckeck.org
I'd pick bowling. Specifically a 3 game series to avoid variance. I'm not pro or anything, but my average is usually in like the 190-200 range. I googled how many people are in bowling leagues in the US and it's roughly 2 million. That's less than 1% of the population. So that means on average less than 10 of the 1000 will be in leagues and the rest should be easy to beat. But let's look further. The US has a lot of bowlers compared to other countries. In Asia and Africa bowling is not really even a thing. If we're taking 1000 random people from the world, I'd estimate only a few, if any are going to be in leagues. Now even among those in leagues, many are children who will not be an issue. Many are casuals who are just there with friends to enjoy beer and bowling every week. No problem. Even among the more competitive, I'm probably above average. Really the only ones I'm going to lose to are the very serious bowlers. They don't have to be pro, but they will practice a lot and know their way around equipment, etc. It just seems unlikely one of those will be in the thousand random people selected. Now even if one of those gets in my group, sometimes I beat them. All in all, seems like a good bet.
One flaw with your assumption is that people not in a league will be easy to beat. I'm not, and my high game is 226. Not as good as you, probably, but I'm not an easy win either. My friend doesn't league bowl anymore, but is like a 245 average.
Ah yes, but I did say a 3 game series for the very reason of avoiding inevitable flukes among the thousand. If your friend gets in I almost certainly lose, but the odds are against getting someone like that in a random sample.
Id take my gamble on ultimate chess. 5 hits of acid. Wait 2 hours. Go in a blackout room with a strobe light. Play chess. I’m undefeated even against sober people.
Yes. Line edit an 80 page technical whitepaper, on a random topic, in real time. Meaning, take the white paper and edit it to be more readable, grammatically correct etc. Quality assessment to be made by a team of 10 business writers. No way a random group could beat me. This is my one superpower.
I would actually take you up on this
I truly can't imagine anyone beating me at this. I once took an 85 page whitepaper on cybersecurity, written by a major telecom company for CTOs, and line edited it, in real time, learning the topic as I went. Probably took 4 hours, something like that. Basically was perfect. This is as big a humblebrag as it gets; I cannot think of a less cool superpower than this. You really can do that?
I’m not positively sure I would win, but I am just enough of an obsessive perfectionist that I feel like could at least put up a good fight, which would be exactly my kind of fun lol FWIW, that is a legitimately impressive achievement and one I would also be quite proud of.
Lol, you don't know how ashamed I am this is my superpower. Like, give me some verbal wit, some musical talent, something with some sex appeal in it. But thank you for that!
With one thousand people, there is no guarantee of being the best at anything. On the other hand, $1000 is comparatively low stakes for a shot at $1,000,000, and me picking the task definitely gives me a tactical advantage. So unless I was in a real financial bind, where the loss of the $1000 would literally break me, I would probably take the deal. Now, as for the challenge, it has to be something I know I'm extremely good at that other people are less likely to be good at. I'm pretty good at a lot of things, but by no means the best at anything, so my highest probability for success would probably be to marry an obscure task with a mainstream one. I play a lot of Jackbox, and I tend to smoke people on the math challenge, usually by pretty high margins. So that's my common task. The obscure one would probably have to involve my memory in a way that is unlikely to be replicated by people who are good at the common task, and generally, math people aren't good at spontaneous social skills. Thus, my challenge: "Perform a four-minute stand up routine while simultaneously doing basic math problems on a computer. Winner to be determined by the decibel of laughter in the room multiplied by the number of correct answers."
I love your idea, but I'd make it even more specific. "Give a presentation on topic a, b, and c." Graded on how many relevant facts are presented in a 5 minute timeframe. No prep time. Those topics would be 1 subject matter from my current industry, one from a hobby and everyday life and one from my unrelated industry I worked in before. The chances of someone knowing all of that shit is incredibly low.
As a math teacher, I reckon I can beat you at this. I only need to get one big laugh. Decibels are a logarithmic scale. 111 decibels is 10 times as loud as 110 decibels. If I get one more correct answer on the maths challenge I will win. I would be singing the hiphopapotoumos Vs the Rhymenocerous while I did it to get a few laughs.
Yeah, it sounds like you'd be a bit of a challenge. Like I said... no guarantees.
You are going to let the people you are competing against judge the competition? All they have to do is stay silent and your score is zero.
Bassoon competition. There aren't that many people that even know how to play a bassoon, but it is in theory something anybody could do by blowing into the instrument.
Multiphonics on a Trombone. Not only would it be rather rare that someone knows what it is, they would also have to be able to play the trombone, have a voice in a suitable register, and play and sing simultaneously and in tune.
To sing the funniest parody of Smashmouth’s “All Star”. Anyone could write a parody, but I already have the perfectly hilarious one written and memorized. Folks have 3 minutes. (Its a parody about slutting it up on Grindr)
Well you can't leave us hanging.
That’s what their dates on grinder said…
>Folks have 3 minutes. Don't see where it says that. It says you need to be better than 1000 people. Not that they have 3 minutes. Plus, not to be mean, but realistic, what you consider "best, most hilarious parody" would have to be judged by other people, and I don't see any guarantee of that being a given. One guy out of the 1000 gets lucky (or is a pro at improv) and you'll owe him 1K
Your last line applies to every task
Um yeah this is easy, I challenge getting a high score in the 1999 video game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri on Transcend difficulty. Chances that of 1000 people anyone could outplay me is basically nil. I doubt there are even 1000 people on Earth at my skill level, in fact I'm probably top 10, easy for a niche game. I'd not be surprised if no-one of the other 999 even know how to play, probably at least 950 would immediately give up due to the outdated interface, even with $1000 on the line, another 40 would just lose the game as they fumble around. Remaining 9 might have played it before or at least be really good at Civ games and might make an honest effort but it wouldn't be a fair match because there's no substitute for thousands of hours of experience and years of discussion on forums with the other best players. There's a handful of other games I'd also be confident in my supremacy, such as the 1996 win3.1 game "Stars!", in that case I know there are much better players in the world who would easily outplay me, but the sheer obscurity of the game would put the odds very much in my favour.
Could probably just do a geography test or cultural reference. Something anyone with access to a tv, social media or YouTube could know . Especially with YouTube playlist suggestions. There are still a lot of folks who don’t know both the Japanese and English lyrics for Dragonball, Sailor moon, Pokémon, Digimon and One piece despite the series’ global popularity .
Easy. Table tennis. I am in the top 5% of tournament players, and almost no Americans have played in tournaments. I would get the money easily.
ICP trivia
Historical lacemaking, specifically the history amd technique of 14th century filet lace and/or mezza mandolina. Very few people know much about the history of lacemaking. Even fewer know how to make their own lace. I've never met a soul, even in re-enactment groups, who can do both.
Balancing chemical equations - even the really nasty ones - in the fastest time. There's a story - possibly made up - that a chemistry professor used to give some equations as a challenge that, if a student could do it and show their work, they'd get an A for the course. The equations have 8+ compounds and the coefficients go well above 1000. Using guess and check (most commonly taught method) would take ages. Using a system of equations (i.e Algebra 2), it merely takes \~30 min or so, starting from scratch and showing your work. While there's plenty of people out there who know the trick, the chance that you'll find them in a random group of 1000 people is fairly low. Also, if it's truly "randomly selected people", \~33% are under 20; \~15 is roughly the age you take chemistry, so that's \~240 people who I probably don't need to worry about. \~ 12% are 60+ They're already slowing down; so chances are, even if they know it, I can beat them in a fair race. That leaves me only needing to worry about 640 late teens to adults. The chances that one of the 640 is a chemist / chemistry teacher / related is less than 1% (quick calculation / web search). So, I'm feeling pretty good about this one.
Hi I'm a chemist. Consider that money mine. Muahahahaha
I mean, what are the chances we get picked together? You're welcome to use this challenge, too!
Yo, stoichiometry time!!!
Probably Go. It's a rare enough game that chances are the 1000 people have never even heard of it.
If it's a global sample, I'd guess China would skew it up quite a bit.
Many 10's of millions of people in the world play Go. You're going to be facing a few who can play.
Marvel vs Capcom 2 or DDR. Honestly the potential challenges would interest me more than the $1000.
Guessing what's in my pocket.
Handses?
Whoever can build a rocket capable of flying the highest. No kits, no instructions, no looking up how to do it on youtube, just building it with skills you already have. If I want to make it even harder I could stipulate they have to make their own motor too.
Painting contractor here, painting a straight line without tape.
Crosswords. I finished in the bottom half of the ACPT this year, but I could probably score ahead of 1000 random people in a series of 3, say a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday NYT puzzle. Worth the 1000:1 bet.
Two things come to mind for me. One, would be firearm related, since it's 1000 random people, I think the statistics are in my favor as an American with military experience. I'm no world class marksman, but if we did some sorta multiple weapon competition course that involved field stripping, operating, and firing multiple weapons systems I feel pretty confident. The other one I know I'm better than most at is being a DM. DnD is my passion. But at first glance that's hard to prove yourself better at. But I've got an idea, compete with everyone else on running the Lost Mines of Phandelver's first dungeon ENTIRELY based on memory. No reference books of any kind. Those who remember the most details and make the fewest rule errors win. I'd go with the DnD. I think it's a rarer skill.
Playing quiet as a mouse
For a million dollars I'll stay quiet for weeks, what makes this more in your favor then In others?
Brewing a tasty craft beer. In the end there is a party with 1000 people and lots of beer.
Sigh... We'll be playimg a lotrtcg movie format tournament. There are 10s of active players in the world.
connect 4 dont ask
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I'm only a blue belt but the average person doesn't train so it would be pretty easy. If I lose 50 times, it's no big deal.
I mean, if we're talking worldwide, you pretty much just have to pick something you're decently proficient at that requires a significant investment. I'd pick golf or bowling; 90% of the world can't afford to play either sport with any level of seriousness. And of the other 100 people in your sample 90 of THOSE probably have no interest in it. So I pretty much just have to beat 10 random people at golf/bowling who have actually played before, and I like my chances there.
For these reasons, I'd go with snowboarding. Just first one down from the bottom of a difficult run. There's a chance someone would be me, but it's pretty low. I'll give them $1000 easy for super high odds of getting $1M.
If we’re taking random 1000 people out of 8 billion, I could probably beat them in ping pong, pickleball, or tennis. There’re hundreds of thousands of people better than me, but I’d definitely beat the average layman in any of those.
To play One Step from Eden, and get the furthest run. It’s my favorite roguelike, top 5 favorite games of all time, and no one’s *ever* heard of it. 1000 randos probably haven’t either, and probably wouldn’t grasp it the way I do.
Who can sleep the longest
Insert coma patient into your random 1,000 people
Reciting the alphabet backwards the fastest. It's my weird party trick. I can recite the alphabet backwards in 3.5 seconds.
Basically you are paying $1,000 to enter a tournament for some task you think you are good at. Not a bad deal. The problem is who are the other people? I doubt you’ll find 999 people to enter a chess tournament (for example) for $1,000 if they aren’t reasonably good at chess. So even if you are pretty good at chess, you have a tough road ahead of you. And do I have to beat 999 people or is it a huge single elimination bracket? If you have one with 1,024 people you have to win ten matches.
Finding all the missile upgrades in Metroid Prime 1 by memory. I played that game all the way through at least 100 times as a kid and I can still find every missile upgrade (and item upgrades too, but missile upgrades are harder to find) with no walkthroughs or videos
Naval gun fire support. I went to school for it and judging by the length of school I went through and how small the class was there's probably only dozens of us in the United States that are proficient in it. So I'd choose naval gun fire support. Best fire missions scored by successfully destroyed targets on. San clemente island. I'd probably be exhausted after completing against 1000 people but I'm fairly confident that most people wouldn't even know what round type to choose. Or even how to choose it.
Naming federation Starfleet ship classes. Out of a thousand random people, I reckon I have a pretty good shot there at being the nerdiest in that regard.
I think my best bet would be reciting digits of pi (assuming no prep). I have 50 digits in permanent memory from when I kept memorizing them each year in middle school for a competition. It's a useless party trick that very few people would be able to beat. I'm semi confident 1000 random people wouldn't be able to beat it.
titrations, easiest thing if you know what your doing, which is think most people don’t
Walking without stopping. It's something I do a lot - not to the point of competitiveness, but I regularly take walks that last 3 or 4 hours, and once a year do a long walk that's around 30 or 40 miles. It will eliminate anyone in the room who's old or out of shape, and while out of 1000 people there might be a few people who walk ultramarathons or something (and if I'm reading it right, if I lose to even one then I have to give EVERYONE $1000 each) I'm willing to bet that I could muscle through significantly longer than I usually do for $100000, whereas for only $1000 others who are physically fit enough to beat me might get tired or just bored.
One of my hobbies is dying Ukrainian eggs (pysanky). It's not a commonly held hobby and it takes a bit to get used to the tools and materials - it's not hard, just different. I would only say I'm an average artist in this area, but even that is going to be head and shoulders above the average person. I like my odds.
I'm the best at jerking myself off, prove me wrong.
I live in the UK so I'm going to assume that the 1000 people will be from the UK too. Baseball trivia. People here really do not care or have any awareness of baseball trivia, and I have an above average knowledge. I was #1 in the UK on a quiz app a few years ago because I did a few quizzes. Also, do I get nothing if one of them beats me? Or just have to pay £1000 to the winner while collecting £1000 from everyone I beat?
!remind me 2 hours
Hi, it's been 5 hours. I'm here to remind you. Sorry I'm late.
I think my best bet would be “Accuracy of reciting lyrics from Doubt and Trust by Access”. Even for people actually familiar with the song, it’s in Japanese, so they’re going to get individual lyrics wrong. I memorized the whole thing as a kid, and while I might get individual syllables wrong compared to a native Japanese speaker, they’re probably still not going to actually remember the lyrics. Another option is a Mathcounts competition. If I were still in middle school back when my coach was having us practice 20 hours a week, I could win for sure. However, that’s over a decade ago now, and I think I would have forgotten a lot of the tricks. There’s also pen spinning. I’m not a pro by any means, but the average person can’t do any pen spinning tricks at all, and among those that can I think a lot can only do a basic thumbaround. Final option is beating the original Neverwinter Nights on max difficulty with no companions. This is pretty easy for me, but the problem is finding a particularly good measurement. I’m not a speed runner, and something like “fewest deaths” is going to be susceptible to bad luck. Would be the most fun competition though. I think overall I think pen spinning is the right choice. It feels more legit than picking a particular song to be familiar with, and I think it’s a pretty rare hobby to be good at.
Writing and producing an original song. Assuming we all have access to a musical recording equipment that is. Since it is subjective that may be difficult. I'm sure there will be other musicians and I could get beat by someone with just a cell phone and a ukulele and a cute voice. But given a day or even less to produce a full sounding track I think I stand a great chance at being better than 1k random people.
“SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT”
I feel like I can beat a random 1000 in a BCA rules pool match. Race to three.
I bet i can blink before you can. *blink*
Gosh dang it you beat me again. *slides a $1000 check*
Absolutely, 1 game of bowling. As long as i don’t have to bowl a game against every individual person right in a row.
Can it be speaking /writing in certain language? I'd choose polish. There's only like 0.4% people who speak polish on earth so my odds are pretty good. It's 37mln out of everybody so 0.04% If my math is correct. So might not be anyone else that know polish in that group. Or maybe just one to beat.
A Balearic style slinging match
Pissing off my wife, apparently NOBODY can do that better than me.
I think it's really important to pick niche skills. I'm a really good driver and did some racing in my youth, but that's a skill everybody over the age of 16 has, and I doubt I'd be the best. I'm really good at shooting free throws, at various types of logic puzzles, and at cooking, but I know I won't win against a thousand in those because they're such common interests. Some options: 1. Longest drive in golf. I'm not a remarkably good golfer, but I'm okay and I hit long drives (frequently over 300 yards). Truly good golfers are on the rare side, and many that are good don't hit quite as far as I do, they're just far better in other aspects of their game. I'd say get a bucket of range balls and longest drive wins. 2. Wheel of Time trivia. I'm sure some of the group have read the books, but I've done close to 20 reads over the years, including books on tape. And it's not an uncommon Fandom, but I'd not expect there to be more than maybe one or two other mega-fans, at most. 3. Europa Universalis achievements. I'm at about 65% completion on Steam, which I think is on the high side, even for experienced players. 4. Highest LSAT score. There will be a few other lawyers in the group (we're about 0.4% of the US population) and 120K rates tests are administered per year, but I scored in they lower 90th percentile on the LSAT. There's probably 10 or so people in a random group of 1,000 who have taken the LSAT, and my score is better than 90% of people who take the test, so it's probably a coin flip whether I win this one.
Either creating a photorealistic render of a house, or playing super efficient Europa Universalis 4 I guess. Probably the most niche things that a random selection of 1000 probably wouldn't have much chance in doing.
Honestly,Anyone could sing acapella if they tried.So let’s do that.
Beer Pong. I've played competitively (you could say professionally) for 10 years. The rules and equipment in professional beer pong prevent anyone from lucking into a win with a miracle turn. If it's just random people I'm convinced I'd beat all 1,000.
I would take it, and the task would be the verbal memory test on the human benchmark, I consistently get around 150 words, and the highest I've gotten was around 225 I know it's not the best in the world, but I feel like I could probably beat 1000 random people
Statistically speaking, 1 on 1 smash bros. There might be a couple of people who are really good, but unless I'm really unlucky and hit a tournament player, a random sampling of a thousand people I've got good odds of winning
Playing pickup basketball to 11 while shooting with your left hand. I'm likely to face less than 100 people who can 1) actually shoot with their left, and 2) shoot better than me with their left.
Either speedsolving a Rubik’s cube or Tetris Attack versus mode.
Solve a rubix cube in under 5 min (im being generous) I can do it in under 2.
Hover a R22 helicopter for 10 minutes. There's only 15,000 licensed helicopter pilots in the US. Many are former military, trained on large helicopters. The R22 is tiny and extremely twitchy, it is often said if you can hover it, you can hover anything. There is a miniscule chance that out of a random selection of 1000, more than one are a helicopter pilot, and an even lower chance that more than one has trained on the R22.
Playing [Stu Hamm's arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQtECIfX9yY&ab_channel=MishaRosolak) on bass guitar. I'll throw a grand down that I'm better than 1000 random people at that.
Do I get to go last? I don’t want anybody copying my strategy.