S14.E07: Semifinals 2

[Lantern7]

Quote

The semifinals continue in Los Angeles, where the competing ninjas will face up to 10 challenging obstacles, including, for the first time, Hopscotch and Box Office; the two fastest ninjas will face off on the Power Tower for a Safety Pass going into the National Finals.

[Lantern7]

Lance Pekus: Horrible Mustache, Great Human Being. Pity he’s not going to Vegas.

ETA: They’re not mentioning Asaf’s time on The Challenge. Gee, I wonder why? Aaaaaaaand he splashed down on Clockwork.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Lantern7

[ams1001]

6 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

Lance Pekus: Horrible Mustache, Great Human Being. Pity he’s not going to Vegas.

Agreed.

Glad Mady Howard left her baby home where it's quiet this time.

[Lantern7]

Got-damn, Josiah “Country Boy Ninja” Singleton has some hardcore supporters at home. “Looneys” fits those guys just right.

Kyle McCreight has the funniest/saddest elimination. Flipped on his back after clearing the giant balls, then fell backward into the water.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Lantern7

[SophiaD]

This has to be one of the most boring semifinals that I've ever seen.  Only one finisher so far.  I did like the cocky teen with the single mother.  And Lance Pekus is a great person.  

Other than that, it's not holding my attention at all.  Bummer.  

Edited:  Great, now we have a "Power Tower" matchup with a nice, quiet kid against the "Country Boy" ninja.  Also, the commercials are terrible.  At this point, I'm watching to see who made it into the final and to view the previews for next week.  

Ugh.  And, quite possibly, the most annoying competitor of the night gets the "safety pass."  Groan.  I think next week, I'll just DVR the show and watch the ending first.  

Edited July 26, 2022 by SophiaD

[Lovecat]

14 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Got-damn, Josiah “Country Boy Ninja” Singleton has some hardcore supporters at home. “Looneys” fits those guys just right.

No kidding.  I thought that girl on the right was going to fall on the floor and start frothing at the mouth.  Dial it down a notch, ma'am.

[Rickster]

We noticed that one competitor (not a woman) made it to the finals after falling 41 seconds into his run. There’s something wrong with that.

There also seems to me something wrong with having a face off for the safety pass when only one competitor finishes the course. Just give it to him/her.

[Taeolas]

I agree, going for the safety pass should, as a minimum, require BEATING the course. So if there's only one finisher, it should be an auto win. 

But I guess since they have the Power Tower setup, they have to have someone run it.  

I'm sure as they realized this was about to happen, the producers were debating and cross checking the rules they had established, since this is pretty much the definition of an edge case that probably shouldn't happen. But Hopscotch and Box Office in combination took out too many ninjas. (And the dragon knocked out the few that made it). There was a LOT of upper body challenge this round. 

Really, the course should have had Hop Scotch OR Box Office in that position, and a more 'normal' obstacle in the Hop Scotch slot. Hop Scotch was probably too hard to introduce in the 5th slot, since that seems to be the one that took out most of the field. (To the point that the fastest to get to hop scotch snagged the final spot)

[enoughcats]

My fingers ached half way through the show.  If anything, there was too much hand strength required last night.  

But.  The women competitors were not having their finest show.  One made it through, on her merits.  The next two best only made it to obstacle 4.  Do they have any chance in the finals?  Well, at least they are more rested than most of the other folks going to the finals. 

If there were a goal of bringing a professional mountain climber through to Las Vegas, last night's array of hand work would have been THE design to follow. (Where has Meghan Martin been this cycle? And the guy who was a professional mountain climber from Chattanooga who won the first Mount Midoriama climb for big money?)

Edited July 26, 2022 by enoughcats

[ams1001]

3 hours ago, enoughcats said:

Where has Meghan Martin been this cycle?

According to a reddit post I just found (from 5 months ago), she isn't on because of scheduling conflicts.

[mlp]

10 hours ago, Lovecat said:

Josiah “Country Boy Ninja” Singleton has some hardcore supporters at home. “Looneys” fits those guys just right.

This is the kind of thing that is gradually ruining ANW.  It's becoming more like a circus than a sport.  All the hijinks, screaming, stunts and other nonsense are total turn offs AFAIC.  You know a lot of it is planned ahead when Matt and Akbar have props in their booth.  

I've always liked Sean Bryan so I hated to see him fall so close to the end of his run.  I'm glad he made it to Vegas.

[TimothyQ]

12 hours ago, mlp said:

This is the kind of thing that is gradually ruining ANW.  It's becoming more like a circus than a sport.

I get your point, but there’s always been some sort of circus atmosphere to Ninja Warrior back to the original Sasuke. Remember the guy that would always bring an octopus to the start with him? Lol The most serious contestants were no-nonsense about it and I do feel like that’s mostly true today. People like Lance, Jesse and Joe (and even to some extent the young contestants) keep it pretty serious without gimmicks. But yeah, there is that middle group that seems to out for the social media fame. 

That said, boring episode.

[Taeolas]

Yeah, this series has always tread a fine line between Circus fun and serious competition. Though since I tend to FF through most parts except the runs I don't see the circus aspect quite as much.

As noted, the serious ninjas do take it quite seriously; but most do have a fun streak too. And even some of the fun Ninjas take it seriously too. (Like Captain NBC Jaimie Rahn) 

[MsVixen]

I have to admit to being shocked that Elijah Browning didn't make it but I bet he's going home and practicing like a mad man!

This season's challenges were out of Lance Pekus' skill set.  It appears that aerial stuff doesn't favor him.  However, I'm seeing more of my usual favorites are starting to slow down quite a bit and the young'uns are moving up.  Except for the really old pizza delivery guy who has been on every season....

[Ciarrai]

On 7/26/2022 at 2:45 PM, enoughcats said:

But.  The women competitors were not having their finest show.  One made it through, on her merits.  The next two best only made it to obstacle 4.  Do they have any chance in the finals?  Well, at least they are more rested than most of the other folks going to the finals. 

I wouldn't even say on her own merits; she failed at the warped wall. In any other set of obstacles and challengers, she would have failed miserably.