Image via CBC website
Stephanie “Missharvey” Harvey, a ten-year veteran of Counter-Strike currently playing for CLG Red, will be engaging in a competition this weekend featuring significantly (we hope) fewer frags. She’ll be pitted against a rugby player, a mechanic, a program director and the commissioner of a recreational hockey league in Canada’s Smartest Person. It’s lucky for Missharvey that the show isn’t Canada’s Most Canadian Person, because there is absolutely no topping that last contender.
As far as candidates for “Smartest Person” go, Missharvey’s a fine choice. On top of being a top-tier CS:GO player with multiple championships under her belt, a title which requires keen decision-making, sharp reflexes and tactical thinking to uphold, she also works for Ubisoft as a game designer. While she’s been on sabbatical this year in order to focus on her esports career, Missharvey worked on the recently released Far Cry Primal.
Like its grunting caveman protagonist, Far Cry Primal is not a smart game, but laying out the systems on which it was built couldn’t have been an easy task. Harvey is a polymath, at least within the realm of videogames, so as long as the challenges in Canada’s Smartest Person stick to that category she should be fine.
While I, a dirty Yank, have never previously caught an episode of Canada’s Smartest Person, a quick perusal of their available episodes suggests that “intelligence” is a pretty broad term on the show. Competitors might be tested on their “musical intelligence” and asked to compose a song matching a picture, or on their “physical intelligence” by seeing how long they can balance on one foot. Anything that requires hand-eye coordination and reflexes should be in the bag for Missharvey, unless that hockey commissioner is also a blackbelt or something.
Harvey has already won her placement round, and will compete on the show this Sunday. Canada’s Smartest Person is broadcast on CBC, a Canadian broadcasting company, so it might be difficult for non-Canadians to catch it. With luck, some kind northerner will record Missharvey’s run, so we can all figure out whether she’s Canada’s Smartest Person after all, or whether that rugby player will just rip everyone else to shreds and win by default.