Alex Manea

**Alex Manea** was a contestant on Season 2.

## Background

*Retrieved from CBC.ca*

If you’re a regular CSP app player, you’ll likely recognize this competitor — Alex was the top player on the app during Season 1 and continues to pop up on the leaderboard this season! An IT security executive and systems design engineering grad, Alex develops security solutions for mobile devices. Alex, who immigrated to Canada with his family when he was young, is a polyglot — he speaks four different languages and can understand three more! He’s also a keen chess player who’s won regional championships since he began playing at the ripe old age of three. We’ll see if this CSP superfan can translate his winning ways from the app to the TV studio!

Alex was the top player on the Canada’s Smartest Person App for Season 1 and continues to dominate the leaderboard this season!

Now an IT Security Executive, Alex has spent the past decade developing industry-leading solutions to keep mobile devices private and secure. Alex holds an Honours degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Alex immigrated to Canada with his family at a young age. He now speaks four different languages and can understand three others. Alex learned to play chess at the age of 3, won his first tournament at the age of 7 and has won multiple city and provincial team championships.

Alex considers himself an all-around Canada’s Smartest Person superfan and is out to prove he’ll be just as sharp on the Canada’s Smartest Person stage as he is on the App!

## Episode 205

Before Alex was summoned to the stage, a clip of him and the other three contestants, Jennifer Lam, Jakob Sanderson, and Barry Shulman, introducing themselves was shown. In this clip, apart from introducing himself, Alex stated that he wants to prove on the show that he could outshine for real and not just on the Canada's Smartest Person app. In the first challenge, Music Match, Alex got 3 correct answers. As a result, Alex finished in 3rd place and was awarded 2 overall points.

In the second challenge, Canvas Calamity, Alex was the last contestant to present his artwork based upon the theme of **magic** and it consisted of a white wizard taking advantage of both light magic and dark magic in order to create the ultimate fireball of yin-yang. Guest judge Sean O'Neill commented that the artwork looks good in spite of him not understanding what Alex was talking about in reference to video games. Sean ranked Alex in last place for his artwork and Alex was awarded 1 overall point as a result.

In the third challenge, Cranium Crash, Alex got 5 correct answers. As a result, Alex finished in 1st place and was awarded 5 overall points. In the fourth challenge, Teeter Tower, Alex successfully constructed his tower and broke his beam 1 minute and 10 seconds into the challenge. As a result, Alex finished in 1st place and was awarded 5 overall points.

In the fifth challenge, Spin-a-Speech, Alex was the second contestant to give a speech and had to break up with someone in his speech. He said, "My darling, my dear, our **smouldering** love has been going on for a long, long time and I really don't want to be a **villain** here. I know that we were planning to do a **shotgun** wedding and I **fervently** wanted to do that, but the reality is, I have a **mistress**. And you know what? It's my **secretary**. Now, I don't want to **shake** here too much and I don't want you to cry too many **tears**, but here, this is really just a matter of **biology**. You know, this is just a matter of pure, physical attraction. And I know that we were planning to **elope**, I know that we were planning to do that and–but think of this as an **opportunity**. This is an opportunity for you to find new **glory**." Alex received a score of 12 words. Guest judge Steve Patterson commented that he was impressed and that he wishes that they could've made this work. Steve ranked Alex in 1st place for his overall performance and Alex was awarded 10 overall points as a result. After the first five challenges, Alex had received a total of 23 overall points. As a result, he finished in 1st place and was congratulated by Jessi, along with Jakob, for qualifying for the Gauntlet.

In the sixth and final challenge, the Gauntlet, Alex gained the early lead on Jakob as the former completed the linguistic section. After unscrambling his final word though, Jakob was able to remain not too far behind Alex for the next couple of sections. Conversely, at the musical section, Jakob finished matching the pairs first, giving him a slight lead over Alex. However, at the physical section, Jakob failed twice at transporting three bricks across his teeter-totter, which allowed Alex to catch up and surpass him. Alex's flawless performance at the physical section along with a couple more failures by Jakob when transporting four bricks back across her teeter-totter allowed Alex to maintain a healthy lead over Jakob when proceeding to the logical section, which he breezed through. Ultimately, Jakob stopped at the physical section as Alex hit the buzzer, which signalled his victory and his spot in the season finale. After the challenge ended and Alex was declared the fifth finalist of the season, Alex and the other three contestants celebrated onstage with Jessi.

### Summary of Results

 2

  WON  This contestant won the final challenge and advanced to the finale.
  LOST  This contestant lost the final challenge and was eliminated from the competition.
  ELIMINATED  This contestant was already eliminated from the competition.
     This contestant qualified for the final challenge due to a sufficient total score.
     This contestant was eliminated from the competition due to an insufficient total score.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on linguistic intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on physical intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on musical intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on visual intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on social intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on logical intelligence.

## Episode 208

Before Alex was summoned to the stage, a clip of him and the other six finalists, Tim Blais, Anthony Craparotta, Marco Iannuzzi, Dan Tweyman, Jason Vander-Hoek, and Katy Warren, introducing themselves was shown. In this clip, Alex stated that he's already proven that he can win his preliminary episode, but now, he'll prove that he is Canada's Smartest Person. A narration also recapped in this clip that Alex was the top player on the Canada's Smartest Person app during Season 1 and that he continued his winning ways on the stage. Jessi greeted the contestants and made them take notice of an empty eighth podium to the left of Jason's. She then announced that it is a wildcard spot that would be taken by the contestant who had earned the highest total overall score without winning their preliminary episode's Gauntlet. This additional finalist was revealed to be Heather Whittaker, who joined the other finalists on stage. In the first challenge, the Speed Round, Alex received a percentage score of 33% during the **Beat It** mini-challenge and received an overall percentage score of 64%. As a result, he finished in 7th place and was eliminated along with Marco. Jessi prompted applause for Alex and Marco in spite of their shared elimination.

After the ninth and final challenge, the Super Gauntlet, ended and Katy was crowned Canada's Smartest Person, Alex and the other finalists, except for Marco, celebrated onstage with Katy's mother and Jessi.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 http://web.archive.org/web/20151222193347/http://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/participants/alex
2. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/meet-episode-5-competitors