S13.E10: National Finals 1

[Lantern7]

I’m about fifteen minutes behind. Interesting to see if the lil’ whippersnappers can continue to succeed, especially when it really counts.

[ams1001]

Can someone tell me if that last tire spins? I didn't catch it the 512th time Matt said it.

Poor Tiana. So close!

Adam Rayl almost got a little too relaxed...

So are the mom's tattoos real?

Is Daniel Gil the first to drop out because of catching covid?

"[Three-Piece-Suit Ninja] owns a gym now." I'm starting to wonder who doesn't own a gym...

Finally, someone takes the High Road!

Oh, no, Joe! 

[candall]

Final big tire does spin.*

 

I came here immediately to ask about those tattoos.

 

*ETA:  Oh, was that facetious?  I'm too distressed about that woman's tattoos to think clearly.

Edited August 31, 2021 by candall

[enoughcats]

Daniel Gil got more time than he might have, had he joined the WWWA finishers. Putting Morovsky at the end of the two hours redefined anticlimactic.  Especially after they had teased us with the montage of old timers (younger than me, so there) who we wouldn't see tonight. 

Of all the filler, young Miller's story is the only one I watched and heard.  And enjoyed.

 

Mr Ecats glanced up as they were going through an especially show-off-y group of personal training areas and he said, this must be a rich family sport. I couldn't argue with that reasoning.

[Lovecat]

Guess the blood of Christ wasn’t enough to protect Daniel Gil from COVID…

[I honestly don’t know his vax status.  I’m just sayin’…he seems the type.]

[Vermicious Knid]

Daniel Gil out due to Covid, hahahahaha. So that was 5 teenagers in the 12 finishers? I hope when they can do open auditions again they put the minimum age back up.

The only filler I watched was the guy whose family fosters dogs.

[TimothyQ]

Boy, Daniel Gil was really putting on the fakey fake during his interview, wasn’t he? Even worse than usual.

Overall, just not a great episode. And if next week is the last one - and we still have a number of stage 1 runners to go - that must mean a lot of people drop on stage 2. I have a feeling there’s no winner this year. 

[Dottie D]

Donovan's run last night just made me smile.  Good for him!  I felt bad for Joe.  That trampoline thing seemed like a tough one to navigate since one has to get the timing just right. 

[DEL901]

On one hand I felt bad for Joe, but on the other, he had plenty of time to take the other route and reduce the risk. 

[ams1001]

35 minutes ago, DEL901 said:

On one hand I felt bad for Joe, but on the other, he had plenty of time to take the other route and reduce the risk. 

I was thinking the same thing. I get wanting to try the new obstacle but I would have thought he'd take the safer route. I was glad at least one person managed it, just because I wanted to see it in action.

[SophiaD]

Donovan's run was the highlight of the night for me.  Just watching him soar over the water to the ladder made me smile.  Especially in that suit.

Yes, that was a seriously boring episode for me.  And did we really need to see that poor teenager throwing up?  It was also super-weird that some actual finishers, especially ones that the audience knows and likes, got the WWWA treatment.  I agree with the others, too much filler.  I'm also not thrilled that the teens who are making it are seriously affluent.  Like, I'm glad that your family has enough money to build you a ninja gym in a barn, but that makes you less interesting to me than Nick Hansen, who trains in Alaska, or Nicholas Coolridge, with his crazy parkour stunts.

Sad for Abel Gomez and Cam Bamgartner.  Quite a few of my favorites are out - a few made it through, fortunately, but, I don't know.  It seemed off and meh.  I was happy for Tianna that she had a great run, but was sad she was just a few seconds short.  

[ams1001]

1 minute ago, SophiaD said:

And did we really need to see that poor teenager throwing up?

No, no we did not. 

3 minutes ago, SophiaD said:

Yes, that was a seriously boring episode for me.

It probably says something that I keep noting how long some of the women's hair is getting (namely Flex and Michelle Warnke-whatever-her-married-name-is).

[Dottie D]

I haven't been able to figure this out, what is WWWA? Thanks!

[bigmag]

3 minutes ago, Dottie D said:

I haven't been able to figure this out, what is WWWA? Thanks!

Stands for "while we were away".  In other words, what happened during the commerical break.

[realdancemom]

5 hours ago, DEL901 said:

On one hand I felt bad for Joe, but on the other, he had plenty of time to take the other route and reduce the risk. 

At least he had a safety pass.  I think he and Reale (I think that's his name) had plenty of time to choose the other choice.  They should have done that.

[eel21788]

17 minutes ago, realdancemom said:

At least he had a safety pass. 

I hate the safety pass. I was hoping they had all gone to people who would never need to use them to advance. As far as I'm concerned, Drew never really won because it took a safety pass to get him passed stage I.

[mlp]

I too am sick of all the focus on teenagers but I must say that Vance Walker is really impressive.  He has CP and he's short but he hasn't failed at anything yet.  It must be very emotional for his parents to watch their child succeed after starting life with a scary diagnosis.  I hope he does well on Stage 2.

It annoys me to hear Matt and Akbar talk about Joe Moravsky being "old."  He's 32 for cryin' out loud.  Yes, he's twice the age of some of the kids but he's not exactly elderly.  

I don't understand why some people think Daniel Gil is fake.  He's had the same personality since his very first appearance.  That's just who he is.  I was sorry to learn that he won't be competing again this season as he's one of my favorites.

 

 

[ams1001]

19 minutes ago, mlp said:

I too am sick of all the focus on teenagers but I must say that Vance Walker is really impressive.  He has CP and he's short but he hasn't failed at anything yet.  It must be very emotional for his parents to watch their child succeed after starting life with a scary diagnosis.  I hope he does well on Stage 2.

Seems fitting that his name is Walker.

Also I hadn't noticed his nickname until last night: Walker Texas Ninja. 😊

[Omeletsmom]

9 hours ago, TimothyQ said:

Boy, Daniel Gil was really putting on the fakey fake during his interview, wasn’t he? Even worse than usual.

Overall, just not a great episode. And if next week is the last one - and we still have a number of stage 1 runners to go - that must mean a lot of people drop on stage 2. I have a feeling there’s no winner this year. 

They said last week there would be 3 more episodes, so not done next week.

[candall]

18 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

[...[

The only filler I watched was the guy whose family fosters dogs.

Foster dog guy!   Giving out belly rubs to frightened pitties.  🥰🥰

 

[Important note:  don't put me in charge--I would have walked over to the edge of the pool and handed him the whole million.]

 

.

[realdancemom]

3 hours ago, mlp said:

I too am sick of all the focus on teenagers but I must say that Vance Walker is really impressive.  He has CP and he's short but he hasn't failed at anything yet.  It must be very emotional for his parents to watch their child succeed after starting life with a scary diagnosis.  I hope he does well on Stage 2.

 

I liked Walker's story and the foster dog story. 

[PhD-Purgatory15]

The two biggest shocks were Cam the Bomb & Amer Malik failing on Stage 1. I sort of had a feeling that Joe having the Safety Pass would backfire on him..

This is the point (now) in ANW where the women (minus Flex & Jessie when she competes) really run up against it. Every additional arm swing they require burns up seconds that they don't have and that 2:45 time limit gets extremely dicey for all but the very very very best.

Since next week is the conclusion on Stage 1 and some (or all) of Stage 2, I'm guessing we "saw" about 2/3rds of the contestants run the first stage last night. So if 12 made it through, then I'm going speculate that we'll see another 6 to 9 Stage 1 finishers and that that'll give us somewhere between 18 and 21 contestants who will get to tackle Stage 2.

[Quilt Fairy]

Wow, nice guy Joe Moravsky was seriously pissed when he fell.   That high road option was so tricky I'm surprised anyone actually made it.  When they showed it originally I didn't realize that once you released the ring and raced down after it you still had to jump on a trampoline to reach it as it raced by.  

It seemed like they were trying to make Tire Run harder but instead they made it much easier.  The last time I remember seeing it, you had to land on the big tire at the end, not in the middle, and the tire did really spin.  Last night I didn't see it move more than a few inches and very slowly.

[enoughcats]

4 hours ago, Omeletsmom said:

They said last week there would be 3 more episodes, so not done next week.

Which is what I thought I heard, as well. But, then, I thought Monday night said two more episodes. 

Ninjaguide says two more, one is the second half of Monday night, and mid September is Stage 2 Final.

That link also mentions a three member family ninja competition, one of whom must be a (you guessed it) teenager.

[Vermicious Knid]

I assume USA vs the World is off the table but wonder if they will do the skills test after the finals again.

Quote

[Important note:  don't put me in charge--I would have walked over to the edge of the pool and handed him the whole million.]

Hey, he made it through stage 1 so he's still got a chance!

[EllenB]

5 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

Wow, nice guy Joe Moravsky was seriously pissed when he fell.   

But he made it clear he was upset with himself, not the course or anyone else. He didn't do anything to tarnish his nice guy image.

I wish they had two parallel spider courses, one for shorter people and one for taller ones. I hated seeing Nate fall on that. The short contestants have to launch themselves so much farther.

[tracyhmcd]

On 8/30/2021 at 8:13 PM, candall said:

I came here immediately to ask about those tattoos.

*ETA:  Oh, was that facetious?  I'm too distressed about that woman's tattoos to think clearly.

I sure hope those particular tattoos are temporary. I am hoping that her son will design her something that she would like to keep permanently.

[Fukui San]

That High Road was such a sucker trap. No one with time should’ve gone for that unnecessarily high risk play, even well dressed guy. I don’t feel bad about Joe Moravsky at all. His own dumb decision. 

[VartanFan]

Quote

TUESDAY AT 03:19 PM

   ON 8/31/2021 AT 2:58 PM,  REALDANCEMOM SAID: 

At least he had a safety pass. 

I hate the safety pass. I was hoping they had all gone to people who would never need to use them to advance. As far as I'm concerned, Drew never really won because it took a safety pass to get him passed stage I.

I wish I could love this 10 times.  Drew fell. Period.  And I’m surprised that after all the mess he created, they ever continued a safety pass.

I laughed right out loud when Joe fell and then put on his SO MAD, can’t get the Velcro off, performance.  I loved him the first few seasons, especially compared to his egomaniac cousin, but I feel like every year his sense of self becomes even more overinflated.  

Even though I can’t STAND Gil and am happy he won’t be mugging his way through Vegas, it had to be scary for him to catch Covid and I hope he’s fully recovered.  

[Ciarrai]

Did they say that Sweet T's mom suffered from gestational diabetes for years? Is that not something that only pregnant women can have? Was this woman permanently pregnant for years?