S13.E02: Qualifier 2

[Lantern7]

I should take notes. All I really remember are more rookies, more inspirational stories, and Joe Moravsky scaling Mega Wall to get $10K. Joke’s on him . . . it’ll cost at least $5K to clean the announcers’ booth after Matt and Akbar’s reaction. We’re talking hazmat suits and everything.

[Rosenrot]

I wrote a haiku about Joe Moravsky, here it is:

"The weather man of doom

Please depart my TV screen, anon

For you bring the rain"

Thank you, thank you. I'm here all evening. 

Sadly, I have to admit that I cared about that one kid's adorable lizards way more than any human being in this episode. At least we caught a glimpse of Jake Murray! "Usually after our training sessions I go home and cry." Hee. If I trained, that's so what I would do. 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Rosenrot

[ams1001]

11 minutes ago, Rosenrot said:

Sadly, I have to admit that I cared about that one kid's adorable lizards way more than any human being in this episode.

I, too, cared more about the lizards. I hope they weren't stressed out being thrust at Ackbar like Matt was doing, and bounced around on the sidelines, plus all the screaming. I wouldn't want one as a pet, but they are cute in their way.

Also glad we didn't have to watch Zhanique's son doing backflips on zoom.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

ANW is doing a bang up job of making me root for every "teen phenom" to hit the water. Hard. And then struggle to not drown getting out.

 

[RedbirdNelly]

I enjoyed this--glad the course varied a bit. The teens are still amazing and nice to see 5 women finish in the top 30. 

[DEL901]

This season is really feeling like a changing of the guard.   I remember seeing Joe and Lance in this ep, and some of the vet women in both episodes, but mostly a bunch of new faces.  

[Ciarrai]

I do not care about Sandy Zimmerman. I was hoping she would fall for her entire run.

I'd be more impressed by her being the "first mom up the wall" if her children were toddlers.

[Good Queen Jane]

Any theories about why the under 19 competitors are doing so well? I'm amazed by the number of Teen/Rookies are making the cut. 

[DaWezl]

22 hours ago, Good Queen Jane said:

Any theories about why the under 19 competitors are doing so well? I'm amazed by the number of Teen/Rookies are making the cut. 

My completely uneducated guess is that when ANW was relatively new, you just had fringe athletes doing it, so the bar to entry was more about awareness than skill.  Over the past 5 years or so, it’s shifted to technique and experience.  Now we’re seeing the first generation raised on practicing those skills from an early age, so they’ve built up that experience and muscle memory at the peak ages for developing it.  We’ll get a few years where the teens seem to take over bc they are raising the bar in terms of what an elite ninja needs to know/do, and then it will settle down to where there’ll probably be a 75-25 split between veterans and young rookies.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

I think being incredibly lightweight (even compared to the relatively lightweight adult Ninjas) makes a big difference for most of these teen boys. Gravity literally doesn't affect them the same way. Combine that with the elite training they are able to do in various Ninja gyms from age 9 or 10 on (being mentored and trained by the adult Ninja stars as well)...and it's been sort of the perfect storm hitting the course this year.