The USA vs the World was awesome!!!
As mentioned above, a stage 1 record set and then crushed by 10 seconds! Nearly under 1 minute. Amazing.
As per my OP, what I love about this show is that you can cheer for everybody and fans of the sport seem to get that. It is all about personal total victory even when it is a team sport. Love it!
Cheers to Brian Arnold! Maybe next season we’ll have an American Ninja Warrior!
Recorded this, but won’t have access to the TV for any appreciable amount of time for a while, so for now, just addressing others’ comments.
Oh, and might I add…the thing I absolutely, absolutely looooove about this show is how amazingly, awesomely cool everyone is. Think about it. When three women made it past the 1st round of prelims, everyone cheered, and a few cheered like crazy. When Kacy Katanzaro (there’s a name I’m going to remember for a while!) cleared the 2nd round of prelims, the crowd celebrated like she won the WNBA title. When Jon Stewart made it to the top, they were inspired. When Jason “Flip” Rodriguez and Drew Dreschel took their inexplicable plunges, they wrere sobered. NO sexim, NO racism, NO bigotry, NO violence in the stands, NO heckling, NO bum-rushing the course, NO insane stunts (I’ll give Brent Steffenson’s climb a pass since he wasn’t endangering anyone else). How many bigtime sports can you name that are like this? And every time the camera was on a competitor, he was a gentleman, or a cheerleader, or just glad to be there. The worst it ever got was that he took failure too hard and was in tears. And no drug abuse, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, drunkenness, none of the nightmare-inducing embarrassments that have become routine in our major sports. Look at how much crap Zoe Quinn got for making a freaking freeware game, and Megan Martin turns a wildcard berth into yet another milestone and everyone celebrates.
BeepKillBeep - Yeah, love this show, easily my favorite reality TV show ever (and if NBC treated it like a serious sport, that would make it even better). After following it this far, however, I don’t really see how parkour figures into it. Oh, sure, having a parkour background helps in certain areas (I think the biggest advantages are Warped Wall and Half Pipe Attack), but for the most part athleticism takes a back seat to raw power, speed, tenacity, and of course an unshakable death grip. Parkour was hardly mentioned this season; it appears to be (sadly) being phased out.
Hampshire - I don’t get all the comparisons to Wipeout; pretty much the only thing they have in common is water landings. Stylistically, Wipeout owes a lot more to Double Dare, American Gladiators, Grudge Match, and similar prop-based contests than Sasuke. The main difference is that in Sasuke (and its short-lived spinoff Kunoichi), absolute perfection is demanded from start to finish, whereas on something like Wipeout, everyone’s expected to mess up frequently, and the winner is simply the one who doesn’t mess up quite as frequently as the competition.
N9IWP - The only “voting” occurs when the hosts choose the 15 wildcards. There’s been a little grumbling over the existence of wildcards, but the bottom line is that they improve ratings and encourage the bubble contestants to give their all, so they’re not going anywhere. I don’t recall any egregiously bad choices, so I don’t think you have to worry.
As for USA vs. Japan, it looked to me that the Japanese contingent was just plain unprepared. I almost couldn’t believe how badly they screwed up fairly routine things like Salmon Ladder and Giant Cycle. I can’t begin to say why.
Shalmanese - “Mount Midoriyama” is just one of those Americanisms. I’m sure someone at NBC is well aware of the redundancy, but once they repeat it enough times, there’s no changing it.
Loach - ANW4 very nearly had no one make it past Stage 2. The only one who cleared it was Brent Steffensen, and he hit the buzzer with three hundredths of a second on the clock. NBC will be generous in the preliminary stages (don’t forget the wildcards), but once it gets to Vegas, it’s 4 stages and no mercy. Absolutely NBC wants a Stage 3 every time, but it’s earned, not given. I don’t see how this makes ANW a lot easier. The only real difference is that the joke entrants and goofballs get taken out before Stage 1 rather than by it.
gatopescado - After USA vs. Japan and the recently-concluded USA vs. The World, if they were laughing before, I somehow doubt they are now. Japan, for whatever reason, just can’t compete on an international stage.
MaxTheVool - Totally agree on Caldiero. He just sounds like the ideal jock, an incredibly decent guy who’s great in front of the camera and just happens to be an absolute beast on the course. If anyone deserves to take the half-million, it’s him.
Yes, everyone’s attitudes are great. Even the guy who stopped and climbed off the course on the first obstacle, because he accidentally violated a rule. He didn’t wait to see if the judges caught it, he knew he was wrong and he admitted it and quit. He got my respect.
What do you mean?
Parkour was used by the captain of the European team that beat the Americans. When he went after the warped wall, he did his run up off the beams from the rope landing, rather than getting onto the course and backing up the short curve. That saved him several seconds, and contributed to his smashing the stage time record.
Parkour helps with knowing your foot placement and balance. It helps with leaping. The rock climbers tend to have more grip strength because they train that, but the parkour guys do better on jumping spider and the like.
Except, of course, now the top athletes train on obstacle courses, so you don’t have straight rock climbers or straight parkour guys, you have obstacle trainers. Yes, they still do their chosen sports, but there’s more crossover experience going on.
This.
Oh, that. Shoot, that’s just climbing a ladder. That’s much less risky than plenty of the parkour moves all over the submission videos. Like climbing an Ibeam column in a gymnasium 50 feet to the ceiling, hand walking like the Ultimate Cliffhanger off bridges over highways, doing handstands on the edges of building roofs, etc.
Yeah, but it’s a 30-foot climb on a surface that wasn’t intended to be climbed, and if anything goes wrong (an inopportune spot of oil, a missed placement, an electrocuted beam, what have you), there’s nothing below him but the cold, hard ground. Okay, in retrospect I guess he knew what he was doing and it was pretty safe, but you’d have to think some folks were reeeeally hoping he wouldn’t kill the mood in the worst possible way.
I finally saw the whole USA vs. The World, and I’m even going to do a full recap later…it was just too damn amazing not to. Yes, that was an incredible run, I don’t doubt that for a moment. But the upper body/raw power disciplines come into play pretty early, and by Stage 3 they take complete control. Heck, Stage 2 got a whole lot more upper-body intensive when they took out Balance Tank and replaced Slider Drop with Rope Jungle. Parkour specialist moving like the wind and looking amazing? Yes. Parkour specialist getting past Ultimate Cliffhanger? No. I actually think that Wipeout would be a better fit, since it demands quickness and body control a lot more than Darth Vader hands.
Do agree with your point on cross-training and how that seems to be the key to success now. You can actually draw a parallel with the evolution of mixed martial arts in America, how at first everyone only knew one thing and the winner was the guy who did the thing that prevented the others from doing their things, and then everyone eventually adapted and took what worked from the other things, to the point where MMA is virtually a discipline its own right. And while this admittedly takes out some of the thrill, if you care about the future of the sport, this has to be a positive development.
As promised!
USA vs. The World
Team USA: Joe Moravsky, Elet Hall, Paul Kasemir, Brian Arnold, Travis Rosen
Team Europe: Vadym Kuvakin, Tim Shieff, Miska Sutela, Stefano Ghisolfi, Sean McColl
Team Japan: Shingo Yamamoto, Hitoshi Kanno, Kazuma Asa, Yuusuke Morimoto, Ryo Matachi
Each Stage has total of three head-to-head-to-head runs. The farthest distance on each run wins; if more than one go the same distance, the fastest time wins. Stage 1 is worth 1 point per win, Stage 2 2 points, and Stage 3 3 points. If there’s a tie, it goes to a sudden death playoff on Stage 4.
Stage 1: Piston Road, Giant Ring, Silk Slider, Jumping Spider, Half Pipe Attack, Warped Wall, Spinning Bridge, Final Climb
Round 1: Moravsky, Yamamoto, Kuvakin
Joe Moravsky, who made it to Stage 3 two years in a row and made it farther than anyone in the recently-completed 6th season, wants to prove that he’s no fluke. Except for a little slip on Jumping Spider, he’s just about flawless, completing the course in a time of 1:12.72, the fastest Stage 1 time ever. For now. 
As Shingo Yamamoto gets to the Jumping Spider, Matt Iseman says that he’s “faced it 8 times and failed it only once”. Ever heard a basketball commentator call someone an “excellent free throw shooter”, and he proceeds to clank both free throws? Well, me neither, actually, but this reminded me of that; Yamamoto’s left foot is too far back and he takes the plunge.
Vadym Kuvakin, the Ukrainian acrobat, does his best and has what by any account is an excellent run, but just can’t keep up with Moravsky’s blistering pace; his clock runs out as he reaches the net.
USA 1
Round 2: Kanno, Shieff, Hall
A strange effort from Hitoshi Kanno. He sets a brisk pace through 5 obstacles (looking very solid on Jumping Spider)…and then slams into the wall. Literally, as he fails on Warped Wall three times, but on the fourth attempt…doesn’t even get close. He quietly bows out, something I didn’t imagine any of this contingent doing.
In the preview, Tim “Live Wire” Shieff boasted that he’d set an unbelievable time. Well, guess what…he does! (I know, right?) An absolutely blazing run, with the highlight being skipping over the freaking water at the approach to Warped Wall, cutting a hard left and going straight up the wall…and making it! (Boy, talk about night and day…) The time: 1:02.70, less than half the time normally allowed in Stage 1, and crushing the record Moravsky set just minutes ago. Ouch.
Elet Hall has been one of the strongest competitors we’ve seen, but outdoing Shieff’s Usain Bolt moment is just way too freaking much to ask. Whether due to pressure or simply going too fast, he splashes down on Silk Slider.
USA 1, Europe 1
Round 3: Kasemir, Sutela, Asa
Paul Kasemir is known as “Mr. Consistency”, which basically makes him the Atlanta Falcons of ANW; solid, always up there, never an embarrassment, but just not good enough to reach the top. Should have a good Stage 1, and he does. His left foot slips on Jumping Spider but he recovers, and he powers his way to an impressive 1:17.21. It’s just too bad that this had to be overshadowed by Moravsky and Shieff’s runs.
Miska Sutela is Finnish. And a chef. And a “superfan” (the commentators never explain what this means). Somehow I don’t like his chances. He actually looks solid, but can’t come close to Kasemir’s speed; he makes one unsuccessful leap on Warped Wall before timing out.
Kazuma Asa is determined not to repeat his compatriots’ mistakes. Which, of course, is exactly what he does, taking the plunge on Jumping Spider. Call me pessimistic, but I’m not liking Japan’s chances right now.
USA 2, Europe 1
Stage 2: Rope Jungle, Double Salmon Ladder, Unstable Bridge, Butterfly Wall, Metal Spin, Wall Lift
Round 4: Morimoto, Ghisolfi, Arnold
It’ll probably come as no surprise that I’m not a fan of Rope Jungle. It’s exactly the kind of screwball gimmick ANW simply does not need. This isn’t like Survivor, where they need to keep changing the rules to keep the contest fresh. The athletes are the story here, and there’s enough drama inherent in getting to the end.
Ah, well. Yuusuke Morimoto kicks off the stage. Much like Kanno, he looks very good (he blazes up Double Salmon Ladder) right up to the point where he looks awful. That being the jump to Butterfly Wall, where he misses the top by at least four inches.
Stefano Ghisolfi is an Italian rock climber; like Sutela, this is his first serious competition. His father Valter is in attendance, and every time the camera’s on him, I can only think one thing: “Pleeeease don’t be one of those out of control psycho egomaniac sports parents.” Ghisolfi cruises through Rope Jungle but completely botches the second rung of Double Salmon Ladder and goes straight down.
Now Brian Arnold, one of the superstars of this sport and the favorite of many to finally break through and win it all, has a layup: he only has to make it 3/4 of the way through with all the time in the world and the two points are his. His recent failure on Unstable Bridge is obviously weighing on his mind, and his pace is very cautious, almost timid. But it works; he clears Butterfly Wall without a hitch, and for good measure finishes the rest of the course.
USA 4, Europe 1
Round 5: Shieff, Matachi, Rosen
For some reason Shieff is doing this run instead of the final member of the European contingent. In stark contrast to his record-setting Stage 1, he’s slower and more methodical, taking care to avoid mistakes. Overall it’s a pretty good effort, but the tricky Metal Spin proves to be his undoing, as he takes a much too low jump and is in the water less than halfway to the platform.
Not much to say about Ryo Matachi…because he never gets past the first obstacle, flailing on the ropes for 43 seconds before succumbing.
So another American is left with two points for him to lose. Travis Rosen shows no weakness, sailing through Rope Jungle and flying up Double Salmon Ladder, and completing Unstable Bridge and Butterfly Wall in plenty of time to best Shieff. And he completes the job, taking out his nemesis Metal Spin and hitting the buzzer in an even 1:48. No just good enough-ing on this squad!
The red white and blue are rolling right now, and memories of the curbstomp that was USA vs. Japan are starting to loom large. The commentators assure us that This Contest Is Far From Over, because There Are a Lot More Points and therefore Anything Can Happen, but you have to think they’re getting a little worried.
USA 6, Europe 1
Round 6: Kanno, Hall, McColl
Kanno does better than Matachi…he flails on the ropes for over a minute and a half before the combined effects of fatigue and boredom overwhelm him and he drops.
Hall sets a methodical, workmanlike pace. He finishes without any real danger spots, but his time is longer than what Stage 2 normally allows. He must be counting on Sean McColl making a mistake or getting hung up at some point.
McColl is a rock climber, a first-time competitor, and…most remarkably, IMO…French. Say what you will about France’s war record, their international sports record is far, far worse. Heck, it’s not much better than Japan’s. So you can imagine the kind of pressure he must be feeling. Which he handles remarkably, as he not only shows no hesitation or nervousness, he pulls off two of the most jaw-dropping moves anyone’s ever seen on Stage 2, first grabbing the second board of Unstable Bridge from the front, then landing flat on his chest on the Metal Spin dismount, grabbing the platform, and pulling himself up. He clocks in at 1:46.51, crushing Hall’s time. You kinda have to feel sorry for Hall; he’s always been super awesome, and both times he had to be matched up against someone who was ultra super awesome.
Europe is on the board for Stage 2! The momentum has been killed! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a contest!
USA 6, Europe 3
Stage 3: Cannonball Incline, Doorknob Grasper, Floating Boards, Ultimate Cliffhanger, Propeller Bar, Hang Climb, Spider Flip, Flying Bar
Round 7: Asa, Kuvakin, Kasemir
Asa is desperate for redemption. Which he doesn’t get, as he transitions from the second cannonball to the third and just flat out loses the handle. He’s furious at his early exit. This is the third round in a row the Japanese contingent failed to get any result whatsoever, and now it looks like it’ll take a miracle for them to get on the board at all.
Kuvakin has strength and grace, but on an upper body grinder like Stage 3 you have to think he’s going to meet his match at some point. His agility serves him well on Floating Boards, and he even manages Ultimate Cliffhanger. But as soon as he reaches Hang Climb, it’s clear that he has no idea how to do that upside down funny bump traversing thing. He makes it about halfway before giving out.
Kasemir closes out the round. In a rare blunder for the normally smooth-as-silk American, he jumps from the second to third cannonball and swings well out of reach of the doorknobs. He hangs in there for a while but finally runs out of steam.
The Frenchman ties it up! La Marseilleislsialsse, vive la difference, je ne sais quoi, etc…
USA 6, Europe 6
Round 8: Morimoto, Moravsky, Ghisolfi
Morimoto has had by far the least embarrassing night of anyone on Team Japan, and he’s smiling confidently as he prepares to save what little remains of their face. He’s sets a cautious pace, never showing any fear, and sure enough one obstacle after another falls to him. He takes a long time getting up Spider Flip but manages it with ease. The commentators are raving about how no one’s ever finished Stage 3 before. Now make it one…one, because Morimoto hits the buzzer at 5:38.91. Team Japan has a spark of hope!
The last time Moravsky was here, he looked very good but just couldn’t solve Hang Climb. This time is more of the same, as he’s unable to use his feet effectively and his arms give out.
All eyes on Ghisolfi now. He can really put Europe in the driver’s seat, but he has to make it all the way through, no ifs, ands, or buts. Tries to skip a cannonball…can’t make it!..finally gets through, but uses up some time. Not good technique on Floating Boards; makes it through, but stamina starting to be a factor. Now it’s the Ultimate Cli…wait a minute, did he just reach for the six-inch bar, and get it, easily? Wow…all right, now the Propeller B…HOLY, HE JUMPED RIGHT FROM THE PROPELLER TO THE ROPE! This just isn’t fair folks! He’s completely flawless through Spider Flip and Flying Bar, clocking in at 4:46.89 and obliterating Morimoto’s lackluster time. Valter goes over and gives him a well-deserved hug. (Phew!)
Japan’s spark of hope gets stomped on by Godzilla, and Europe, which was falling behind, has now put up 8 unanswered points. You can’t script this, folks. (Thankfully. )
USA 6, Europe 9
Round 9: Matachi, McColl, Arnold
Matachi, a self-proclaimed Stage 3 specialist, is playing for pride now, and after his embarrassing collapse on Rope Jungle, he could use some. He also knows that time, normally not a factor on Stage 3, matters now, so there’s more than a little urgency. He attacks the course without the slightest bit of nerves and sets a good pace through Ultimate Cliffhanger, but just can’t keep it up. Still, he makes it all the way through, an achievement that seemed so incredible just a few scant minutes ago. Time to beat: 5:04.67.
McColl sets an impressive pace and doesn’t waver in the slightest on any obstacle. For a while it looks like he’s going to shatter Ghisolfi’s too-brief record, complete a sweep of Stage 3, lock up a resounding victory for Europe, and make an addition to the “Golden Snitch” page on TVTropes. Alas, while he certainly locks down the best time throughout 7 obstacles, he goes out on the third jump on Flying Bar. Jean Van De Velde! Zinedine Zidane! That tennis player! Etc…
So it all comes down to Arnold, who probably thought he’d need only a decent distance to ice the win and now has to come up with the run of his life just to force a playoff. He has never completed Stage 3, going out in the exact same spot McColl did twice. What’s more, he’s on the clock, so he can’t spend too much time chasing out the demons. If there’s any time to be hero, to live up to the potential, that time is now. He takes the course…one obstacle down. Two. Three. Ultimate Cliffhanger no problem (and I reflect on how utterly unconquerable it was in the first three seasons). Propeller Bar, easy enough. Hang Climb, he knows how to do this, no problem. Spider Flip…got it. (I’m more than a little surprised that now four people have taken on Spider Flip, Arnold twice, and no one has failed yet.) It all comes down to four unforgiving 5-foot jumps. First one, good. Second one, good. Third one…third one…thiiiirrrrrd ooooone…GOOD! Fourth one, also good! Final time 4:39.90, well ahead of Matachi’s! We’re going to see Stage 4 for the first time ever, folks! (Phew, about flipping time…)
USA 9, Europe 9
Stage 4 (sudden death playoff)
So after all the drama and excitement and tragedy, it comes down to man against man, the very well-rested Travis Rosen vs. the Sean McColl, fresh off his oh-so-close on Flying Bar. One has to wonder why Europe decided on him and if it’ll come back to bite them. The task is simple: Climb 77 feet up the rope and hit the buzzer, faster time wins it all.
Rosen goes first. The commentators note that he isn’t using his feet, but it doesn’t seem to hurt him. He misses the buzzer on his first swipe but gets it right after. Time: 35.77. That’s easily fast enough to clear Stage 4 on Sasuke, which has a shorter climb. Oh boy.
McColl has to be feeling the weight of a continent on his shoulders right now. As he goes up, he uses his feet and actually seems to outpace Rosen, but he slows as he nears the top. It’s going to be close…it’s going to be really, really close…five seconds left…three…two…one…
AND HE DOES IT! 35.46, a mere 31 hundreds of a second faster than Rosen! Liberte Egalite Fraternite! Abel from Street Fighter! Yeah, I got nuthin’…
So Team USA, which was threatening a Royce Gracie-level hegemony, gets shut down cold by the new kids, and it’s the Frenchman who springs back from disappointment to seal the victory and snatch MVP honors from Brian Arnold. Folks, I believe we’re going to have to do this every year. 
It was really pretty comical how the last few runs played out. Every single one going the way it had to go for maximum drama, particularly Matachi, with nothing but pride to play for, beating stage 3, so that if McColl fell off Arnold would still have to complete it, which of course no American has ever done. Then McColl flying through, making it look like it was all over, before falling off, and then Arnold actually beating it to force a playoff. Really remarkable.
What do people think about the way the USA vs X competition is set up? I think having stage 3 worth 3x stage 1 is a bit silly. Someone who can only beat stage 3 is never going to win ANW, because you need to do stage 1 AND stage 2 AND stage 3. The rounds should all be worth the same, imho. (Also it seems weird to have 5-person teams but only 3 run on each round…)
Also, it’s ridiculously unfair to have the international competition be between one team of ninjas all of whom have tried this particular version of Mt. Midoriyama, and all the parts that change from year to year, and others who have not.
“All of whom” might be a little strong. For example, Arnold didn’t try stage 3 this year.
He was apparently pushing himself too hard, and was just out of breath when he got to the warped wall. After 3 efforts, he knew that to beat it, he’d need to rest too long for it to be competitive. Either the other competitors would fail before this point, or they’d make the wall faster. No sense sitting down and resting for five minutes to get up and complete the course. So, bow out. Makes sense, but utterly embarrassing.
The silk slider landing is very tricky. It is a combination of small, bouncy, and slippery. People not sliding down low on the silks have too much vertical energy and bounce off. People trying to get low and use their full body tend to have too much horizontal velocity and slide off. The best landings use feet and hands to absorb the energy. Elet went for a foot landing and got too much bounce. He was pushing for time, and I assume thought he could shave a few bits by not leaving his feet, but it backfired.
Yeah, the combination of puzzle with effort was a bit strange. They did mention that the arrangement was different than when the Americans ran it the previous week, so at least they didn’t have that advantage, but I still think having been on it at all was some advantage over the others. A very weird obstacle.
This one height seems to play a factor. He jumped far with no vertical.
There’s no rule that they have to take turns, or go in sequence, or everyone has to take a turn. They have a team of five, but can choose any three to run.
Here’s the thing: watching the competitors the previous week, everyone was getting a really high grab on the chains, and then being off-balance and not able to get their feet onto the landing platform to stop their rotation. His strategy actually made sense, I was thinking it myself. Get a bit lower on the chain, have a little more slack in the chain, have room to get your feet onto the platform. He just missed the grab and ended up too low.
That’s a rock-climbing wall. The bumps are rocks, or rather cement forms that can be bolted to wooden platforms in any arrangement to create fake rock walls for climbing training. They are standard at rock climbing walls.
Rosen put on an amazing run. Unbelievably, he doesn’t use his feet for the first 3 or 4 stories of the climb - he’s hand over hand, just using one foot to trail the rope and keep track of it. When he swaps to using his feet, it is smooth and easy because he has control of the tail. Blistering fast.
McColl to me looked slower the whole way, yet somehow is a hair faster at the buzzer. I have no idea how that worked.
This isn’t an individual event, this is a team event. Making the scores go up means nobody is knocked out early. If all stages are the same, then the first team to 5 points wins, even if that’s the first 5 rounds. Thus stage 3 might not come into it at all. Making the points increase means stage 3 becomes critical, because it’s anybody’s ballgame at that point.
So the Americans won early, but a couple of good runs by the Europeans in the later stages and it was suddenly a very tight struggle for the Americans to stay in.
It’s have a pool of 5 to choose from, but pick 3 for any stage. Same way the olympic gymnastics team event runs. The girls had a team of 5, but Makayla Maroney was a vault specialist - she only competed on vault for the team event. You can either pick good all-arounders, or pick specialists, but you have a limited pool so you can’t have all specialists. You basically get 1 specialist, and everyone else needs to have 3 events they shine on, so you can field 2 competitors per event. For Ninja Warrior, there’s a little less specialization, but there is some. Rock climbing gives good upper body and grip strength, and there’s a lot of that, but stage one is not really primed for that. It’s got more running and jumping.
Sean McColl is NOT goddamn French. He is French-Canadian. He just trains/lives in France.
MaxTheVool - Two things. One, the tasks get harder in the later stages, so the producers obviously thought they should be worth more. Two, that “Golden Snitch” thing. Nobody wants this settled before the third stage is even over. Besides, there’s more tension when there’s more at stake. I’m not sure if 1-2-3-playoff is ideal, but I honestly can’t think of anything better.
One change I’d like to see is for everyone to compete the same number of times, but someone can go more than once in the same Stage. Not sure if NBC is daring enough to go for it, though, especially since it’s going to stretch out the contest.
yarblek - Dangit, I knew it was too good to be true! Seriously, this is the kind of thing that should come out during the profiles. We know they’re working hard, we know there’s a lot of pride at stake.
I was thinking about it some, and maybe there could be some cumulative time thing… so if the USA has been doing really well so far, and you come down to the last runners of the night, then the USA has a huge time lead and can be four minutes slower completing round 3 and still win, or something. So all the individual efforts matter and add up, but a sufficient choke on the final round could still make the difference.
(Although in that case I think you want to do something where if someone falls off, there’s a time penalty added, then they or a teammate can start over… something where you end up with a total-time-to-complete-the-stage for the entire team. No point in building up a huge lead but then you lose the entire competition when someone chokes on the cannonball incline.)
Two updates:
Team Ninja Warrior starts Jan 19
USA VS the World II airs Jan 31
I avoided this show. Based on its name I thought it would be a bunch of guys in black outfit playing with swords and throwing stars.
Then I caught the Las Vegas finals by accident and I was hooked.
I was hooked for exactly the reasons you described. I love the way the crowd cheers for everyone and the competitors cheer for each other.
Now I watch it when I get the chance. Today they were showing 2014 city competitions. Doesn’t matter they’re from last season. Still fun to watch.
There was a preview snippet from Team Ninja Warrior during the ninja-thon today. Looks like the format is this:
-Teams are two men and one woman, with a team captain (seems like the team captain is usually one of the men, but is sometimes a woman)
-There’s a single course, about the length of a preliminary course, built with two side-by-side tracks, ending at a warped wall (well, two warped walls)
-The three team members from team A compete one by one against the three team members from team B, on the course at the same time, side by side. Whoever completes the course fastest wins. Incidental contact with the water is not a loss, but falling into the water is. I assume that if neither ninja completes the course, whoever gets further wins, but that wasn’t totally spelled out
-Some of the obstacles are set up so that two competitors slightly cross path or interact, although they’re mainly in their own lanes
-The first two competitors earn 1 point for winning. The third (“anchor”) earns 2 points. In the event of a tie there’s an “instant death” tiebreaker of some sort.
-Four teams compete in each “normal” episode. A vs B. Then C vs D. Then the winners of each match against the LOSER of the other match. Then the winners of the second round play each other in the final match, winners advance to some final round later on
Things I like about this format:
-The head to head racing seems really interesting. The time pressure can make even really talented ninjas make mistakes. In the brief bit we saw, a lot of people who can normally make it up warped walls failed to do so, and people screwed up fairly easy things like swinging to a cargo net
Things I don’t like:
-I don’t like the second round with losers against winners, because it can easily incentivize a team to punt their first round match
-I like each team having a woman, but… I worry that the very small number of really elite female competitors are just way better than numbers 6 through 20 or whatever. There are plenty of men who can consistently make it through a fairly easily qualifying course, even the 30th or 40th best man can give the top guys a run for the money. But the qualifying course ends with a warped wall, and only 4 women have ever made it up a warped wall (if I recall correctly)
One thing that is so far unclear is how many different varieties of courses there are. Will all of the team-vs-team competitions each episode be on the same course?
Anyhow, looks like quite a bit of fun overall.
I saw it a couple days ago, and got pretty excited for the new season.
We saw this happen in the preview. It’s standard “furthest the fastest” rule. So, for example, one time we saw the leader of a leg fall on the unstable pegs (or whatever they’re called.) The run continued, as the second place dude had to complete the unstable pegs in order to have gotten the furthest the fastest. As soon as he got past the obstacle, the horn was blown.
This wasn’t what I took away from it. I may have missed something from my aggressive FFWDing through the non-racing parts, but from what I could tell:
Round 1: A vs B
Round 2: C vs D
Round 3: Loser’s bracket to determine 3rd and 4th
Round 4: Winner’s bracket to crown the champ
Eeeeennghhh. There it is again…lots and lots of nagging little doubts.
First off, let’s remember the origin of this event, a Japanese one-day amateur competition called Sasuke. (That’s where the “ninja” comes from, lalaith.) In the vein of most Japanese game shows, it features a whole bunch of weird and colorful contestants, a plethora of unusual-looking obstacles, and an overall freewheeling spirit of good fun. There are no prizes nor any special rewards for Total Victory; succeeding is supposed to be its own accomplishment. It’s not a “competition” in any meaningful sense of the word, and in fact a lot of contestants obviously don’t have a prayer and are just there for the publicity.
In its entire history, I have not heard of a single genuine controversy of any kind. Sasuke is not a serious sport and doesn’t pretend to be, and it’s exactly this irreverent spirit that frees it from getting bogged down in bitter divides.
So fast forward to September 2015, and Geoff Britten makes the climb for the ages. This, you’ll recall, is something that NBC has been hyping up nonstop from literally the moment ANW began, and now it’s finally happened.
So what does he get? Jack squat, because Isaac Caldiero got up in a slightly faster time, which means that he gets the million (which he totally deserved, don’t get me wrong). Never mind that there was zero indication in any prior episode that they’d be competing against each other (because, again, this isn’t supposed to be a competition), never mind that this doesn’t even make much sense, never mind that pretty much everyone hated it. There’s one king and everyone else is a peasant (because that worked so well for Dancing With The Stars). That’s the rule, and the rules are sacrosanct, and they can never, ever bend in the slightest, never mind that NBC made up the stupid rules in the first place, and it doesn’t matter how many millions of viewers are unhappy about it.
And now a team competition. With women competing on the same course as men.
One of the things I really liked about the way ANW was set up was that everyone competed on the same course. No handicaps, no chivalry. Pretty cool, and something that isn’t really a viable option for most sports. More than that, though, each person is competing for himself or herself and gets to set his or her own goals, or no goals at all. We get to see boundaries pushed, seemingly unremarkable athletes accomplish what once seemed impossible, and truly inspiring feats of strength and resourcefulness. This was amateur athletics in its purest form. No divisions, no qualifying scores, no damned expectations, just watch and be thrilled by what you see.
All that is gone for this event. Now every second matters, every tiny stumble matters, every fall is disaster, because they’re not just failing, they’re letting down the team. USA vs. The World could get away with this because they were the best of the best, people who had established themselves and were used to pressure. I’ve seen no indications that the selections here will be as accomplished.
Then there’s that nonsense about the 2-point “anchors”. Great, scoring tomfoolery to ensure even more furious arguments and take another bite out of ANW’s legitimacy as a sport.
And there are going to be women here? Look, I was as elated as anyone else at Kacy Katanzaro’s historical conquest of the City Final, and also Catanzaro and Meagan Martin setting a new milestone in Stage 1. But these were impressive achievements for women, and I was happy because I could judge them by that standard. Failing at Warped Wall would rightfully not be considered anywhere near impressive for Brian Arnold, or Joe Moravsky, or Elet Hall, or Geoff Britten. And I’ve seen how the female contingent did the last time. Graff was really good, Martin uncharacteristically stumbled but made the most of her second chance, Catanzaro ran into a bit of bad luck but did the same, Warnky was so-so, there was that one in the military episode that wasn’t too bad, and nearly everyone else flat-out stunk up the joint. Is NBC going to round up four who are willing to do this and won’t embarrass themselves?
Little doubts. Hoping that the actual event is a decent contest.
I agree that it was crappy the way that played out. That said, I’m 100% sure that in previous years, when discussing the four stages of Mt. Midoriyama, they had said “and if anyone completes stage 3, they will go to stage 4, and race for (the prize, was half a million and then later a million). If multiple people complete stage 4, whoever completes it fastest will win”. If anything, the problem was not that they had no procedure in place, it was that they had a procedure in place that turned out to suck… but presumably no one was seriously considering that two people would achieve ultimate victory in the same year, given that no one had ever even gotten to stage 4 before.
I really really hope that they’ll give Geoff Britten a special reward, with some money, and change the policy for future years, because I agree that what happened really sucked.
That said, while ANW has its origins in Sasuke, it’s clearly a different show, and stands or falls on its own merits. I think having a big prize is why so many really top-notch athletes have showed up to compete, so I don’t mourn the loss of amateur-status-pureness or anything of that sort.
Or, on the flip side, one fall does NOT immediately disqualify you because you have a team there to pick you up if you fail. A team sport always has a different dynamic than an individual sport.
There’s a very simple reason for that, which is to make for better TV. Even if one team wins round 1 and round 2, round 3 still matters. And I don’t see how it will lead to arguments, the rules are the rules. And ANW isn’t a sport, it’s a TV show. It’s not trying to be a sport.
Not sure what you’re saying here.
Women are always competing head-to-head with other women. Some women are better than other women. Whichever woman does best on the course wins a point for her team. Where’s the objection? (Or are you echoing what I said, that there seems to be a steeper dropoff of talent between the best handful of women and the others? Because I obviously agree, but what other solution is there? Have no women at all? They’re an integral part of ANW. Or only have 4 total teams, so that each team can have an elite woman?)