S14.E01: Qualifiers 1

[Lantern7]

Quote

The new season begins with the qualifying rounds in San Antonio, where competitors as young as 15 take on seasoned veterans; four new obstacles will be featured, including Carnival, Salmon Roll and more.

Watching. Flip Rodriguez and Alyssa Beird just got WWWA, and it looks like she’s out already. Now watching the return of James “The Beast” McGrath. Turns out he’s been recovering from a severe shoulder injury. I would’ve thought it was because he was associated with Drew Dreschel.

ETA2: Damn. Beast just scaled Mega Wall for $10K, and he proposed to Alyssa. He said he’d pop the question if he completed the course. Mega Wall was a great touch.

Gotta love the honesty of Abby Womback as she cheered on Heather O’Reilly. Zuri asked her and Julie Foudy if they’d ever give ANW a shot, Abby: “NEVER!!’”

[ams1001]

Yay for the Beast! (I was wondering if he'd ever be back...) Congrats to James and Alyssa!

(I must say, James's intro package and run was possibly the only one that I actually stopped what I was doing to fully watch.)

I must have missed something...why did Flip have a bandage on his thumb?

Carnival was fun. I was amused by the "prizes."

Edited June 7, 2022 by ams1001

[mlp]

I was annoyed 20 minutes in.  Why on earth do they spend so much time on someone who falls on the third or fourth obstacle?  That hyper girl with ADHD or something was nothing but irritating.  There were a couple more background stories on people who didn't make it to the buzzer too.  I wish they'd cut out most of the nonsense and show more runs.

I felt bad for Vance Walker.  That kid is the real deal.  

James McGrath seems like a nice guy but he always looks dirty.  I wish he'd shave.

[SophiaD]

RJ Roman!  What an amazing run.  He got the Mega Wall and the Fastest time?

Yay for the women ninjas, Casey Rothschild and Jordan Carr!  Those were some great runs.  

For some reason, the "backstories" annoyed me less than usual tonight.  Either they were topics that interested me (the three-legged dog was adorable) or I'm just in a good mood.  The young lady with ADHD didn't bother me - girls are often overlooked with those conditions.  

Happy that Flip moved on.  It's nice to see him.

I'm not a big public proposal person, but I'm happy for James and Alyssa.  The second couple's baby was adorable.  

[dmeets]

The only thing lamer than a game show proposal supposedly done on the condition of finishing the course and only after taking your shirt off in victory, is to be the second guy of the night to give a proposal supposedly done on the condition of finishing the course only to have it get the While You Were Away treatment.

Edited June 7, 2022 by dmeets

[Rickster]

I was surprised at how few venues they’re using this year. I thought we would go back to normal , visiting different regional cities, but maybe this makes more sense economically? Doing the course inside a dome allows them to shoot in the daytime, which is probably a benefit to everyone. Didn’t seem to be many spectators and I’d guess most were other competitors.

Not as annoyed by the kids as last year.

[Taeolas]

I suspect the COVID risks are still too high for them to risk the season on their normal City Tour, hence the three city plans (Houston, LA, Vegas) for this season. I don't mind it too much as long as they shake up the course a bit each week. Hopefully/maybe next year they can go back to regional multi-city qualifiers; but I suspect they may not. Logistically having everything in one city is a lot simpler and also makes it easier for the Ninjas as well; all the ninjas will basically compete at the same time.

Anyways, as for the course itself, I'm liking it. Roller Coaster looks fun while challenging, especially if you don't let go when you should. 

The serpant is a bit gimmicky, and I wonder if they need to better balance the split decision choices somehow. 

And I love the Carnival. It's a great balance of skill and challenge and randomness and it is just a fun obstacle by the looks of it. 

[Good Queen Jane]

Four women were in the top 30 and none of them were the Big Name women (Sorry, Alyssa). It’s time to eliminate the top five women qualifying. It’s not needed anymore. 

[eel21788]

1 hour ago, Taeolas said:

The serpant is a bit gimmicky, and I wonder if they need to better balance the split decision choices somehow. 

The choice really should have been a no-brainer: pick the longer obstacle you've never seen before and don't see many people attempting ahead of you or pick the shorter obstacle that you have been practicing for years, if not a full decade.

I didn't have much sympathy for people who flamed out after making the dumber choice (although I was amused by the guy who tried to reset the obstacle after going for a swim).

[djlynch]

On 6/7/2022 at 5:22 AM, Rickster said:

I was surprised at how few venues they’re using this year. I thought we would go back to normal , visiting different regional cities, but maybe this makes more sense economically? Doing the course inside a dome allows them to shoot in the daytime, which is probably a benefit to everyone. Didn’t seem to be many spectators and I’d guess most were other competitors.

Not as annoyed by the kids as last year.

I've never really understood why they do all of the shooting at night. Back in the G4 days, at least some of the qualifiers (the LA ones on Venice Beach, in particular) were done in daylight outdoors, complete with the obvious reordering of contestants as the sun angle changed drastically from run to run.

[Fukui San]

My assumption is that filming everyone at night lets them reorder them in whatever order they choose to tell their usual story. We usually see have 15 minutes of early splashouts, including a few upset splashouts, then a breakthrough first clear, and then some back and forth success and failure building up to the biggest storyline clear of the episode. You may not be bothered by obvious signs of order shuffling with the sun angle, but they are indicating with their editing choices that they are. 

What they'll never do is go back to the original, old school format of Sasuke and assign every contestant a number. They'll then film and present them in that order, which sometimes leads to the most anticipated run of the episode being an absolute bummer when the person we've waited all episode for fails immediately. I prefer the old school format, but I see why they do things the way they do now.

[Rickster]

I think the other thing about filming at night is that with the lighting focused on the course, it eliminates extraneous distractions that might be visible or occur in daylight. It’s a visually more controlled environment.

[enoughcats]

Last night I started out watching Episode 1 of this season.

A couple of things: the maniacal cheering crowd took some getting used to.  So many T shirts in garish colors with almost unreadable logos.  So many contestants who felt it incumbent on themselves to stop and cheer themselves because it's not a timed event ( close sarcasm).  I had it on about five minutes before I hit the mute button and went to CC as an alternative.  Fast forward remains my friend.  And I dozed off before it ended. 

[RedbirdNelly]

I enjoyed this. Some great runs. It's such a nice, fun summer show.

[candall]

On 6/7/2022 at 12:05 AM, SophiaD said:

...  (the three-legged dog was adorable) ,,,.   

Yes he was.  And the story about the guy being inspired by helping the dog build up his mobility and leg strength couldn't have been more appropriate.

But DAMN, that dog was shaking and panting and terrified.  Who brings a dog to a giant unfamiliar venue with screaming crowds and airhorns and klieg lights and then hands him off to people he doesn't know?

Hopefully, it was just one case of poor judgment and Trey can stay home and watch it on tv from now on.

[ams1001]

11 minutes ago, candall said:

Yes he was.  And the story about the guy being inspired by helping the dog build up his mobility and leg strength couldn't have been more appropriate.

But DAMN, that dog was shaking and panting and terrified.  Who brings a dog to a giant unfamiliar venue with screaming crowds and airhorns and klieg lights and then hands him off to people he doesn't know?

Hopefully, it was just one case of poor judgment and Trey can stay home and watch it on tv from now on.

It always bothers me when they have animals and infants on the sidelines. I think they've had some service dogs there, which are probably better trained for potential noisy situations, so maybe they're okay, but most pets are probably going to be scared by that level of noise and chaos. And babies who are too young to even know what's going on...I always worry about their little ears, at the very least.

[Bethanne]

On 6/7/2022 at 12:21 AM, mlp said:

I was annoyed 20 minutes in.  Why on earth do they spend so much time on someone who falls on the third or fourth obstacle?  That hyper girl with ADHD or something was nothing but irritating.  There were a couple more background stories on people who didn't make it to the buzzer too.  I wish they'd cut out most of the nonsense and show more runs.

I felt bad for Vance Walker.  That kid is the real deal.  

James McGrath seems like a nice guy but he always looks dirty.  I wish he'd shave.

She’s my daughter and she’s actually pretty fun to be around. 😜

Vance and James are lovely humans and are just as sincere and cool as they come across on TV.