S07.E08: Kansas City Finals

[OnceSane]

The top 30 competitors from the Kansas City Qualifier tackle the Kansas City Finals course, which includes such obstacles as the Salmon Ladder, Flying Shelf Grab, Body Prop and Invisible Ladder.

[VartanFan]

Noooooooooooooo, Meagan!

 

That body prop seemed about 100x harder than last week's ninth obstacle.

 

I hope Stanger and Meagan get WCs to Vegas. 

 

Happy for Pekus, y'all.

[Lantern7]

How do you cull a field of over thirty competitors? Install an insane Body Prop that only three runners can complete. Oh, and "Mighty Meagan" flames out on the second obstacle. She probably gets a wild card for completing the qualifying round, but that was brutal to watch.

[SophiaD]

With Meagan out, that means no women are left, since Michelle Markey and Kacy both didn't finish in their qualifying rounds.  Bummer.  :(

 

Kacy remains the only woman to have ever finished a finals course, although Jessie came really close this year.  I'm pretty sure Jessie, Michelle, Meagan, and, probably, Kacy will receive a Wild Card, but if the course is as impossible as these are, I'm not sure how interested I'll be in the outcome.

[MsVixen]

With Meagan out, that means no women are left, since Michelle Markey and Kacy both didn't finish in their qualifying rounds.  Bummer.  :(

 

Kacy remains the only woman to have ever finished a finals course, although Jessie came really close this year.  I'm pretty sure Jessie, Michelle, Meagan, and, probably, Kacy will receive a Wild Card, but if the course is as impossible as these are, I'm not sure how interested I'll be in the outcome.

 

Michelle went far enough to make it to the finals so we should be seeing her.

[SophiaD]

 

Michelle went far enough to make it to the finals so we should be seeing her.

 

Oh, yes, that's right.  Thanks for the reminder.  She and Jessie both.  That's good news.  I think Jessie would have finished her finals course, too, if she'd just been able to see a few other people go first.  Amazing run on a horribly difficult course.

Edited July 21, 2015 by SophiaD

[Way Wes Jr]

Jessie Graff doesn't need a wc, she qualified as #6/15 in the Venice Finals.  Meagan is almost guaranteed a wc, making the City Finals this year, and passing the Spider Climb at Vegas last year.  Kacy is 50/50 to receive a wc - just for the notoriety alone. 

Edited July 21, 2015 by Way Wes Jr

[Fukui San]

How do you cull a field of over thirty competitors? Install an insane Body Prop that only three runners can complete. Oh, and "Mighty Meagan" flames out on the second obstacle. She probably gets a wild card for completing the qualifying round, but that was brutal to watch.

Based on the structure of the competition, whether all thirty competitors finished the course or whether none of them did, 15 would qualify for the Vegas finals. 

 

I don't really fault competitors for going out before they "should". When you watch the competition over enough iterations, you'll see the unbeatable gods of one competition go out early in subsequent ones.  The first Japanese grand champion went out in the first obstacle a few tournaments later in the Japanese version.  Brent Stefferson here seemed like the best bet to win it all but didn't even make Vegas. It happens.  Almost every obstacle is capable of beating every competitor.

 

 

Kacy remains the only woman to have ever finished a finals course, although Jessie came really close this year.  I'm pretty sure Jessie, Michelle, Meagan, and, probably, Kacy will receive a Wild Card, but if the course is as impossible as these are, I'm not sure how interested I'll be in the outcome.

 

Just as a reminder, these "City Finals" courses are an amalgam of all four stages that we'll see in Vegas. The first stage generally tests footwork, timing, and cardiovascular endurance.  We'll probably see 15-30 of the 100 competitors pass that stage.  Half of those people will probably pass stage 2, which features the Salmon ladder and some wall lifting.  Stage 3 usually takes out everyone but maybe 1 or 2 of who's left.  Stage 3 is all upper body torture tests, like the Body Prop tonight.  Stage 4 is a timed climb up a huge tower.  If the Japanese show's results can be used to predict how the Americans will do, we'll see a total victory on average once every six or seven seasons.

[Richness]

I knew very few were going to finish once they described the obstacles for the second half. I'm surprised we had one finisher much less three. Granted, they got to rest between most of them, but they too were all extremely arm intensive.

 

At least we know that the Invisible Ladder isn't quite the killer that it seemed last week. The trick seems to be to get up it as quickly as you can. Granted, I skipped almost everything but the actual course runs, so I didn't realize at first they had made the original first half obstacles more difficult.

 

However, what I got most excited about tonight was that a rookie was the first one to finish the course. A course that slayed all but one of the "all-mighty" Wolf Pack. Come to think of it, wasn't the only one to finish last week a rookie as well?

[Quilt Fairy]

I was really surprised to see Brian Arnold's run reduced to a 'while we were away'. You think they'd show him a little respect as the American who's gotten the furthest in the finals.

[mlp]

I've been watching this show for four or five years now and I don't recall ever hearing anyone explain the criteria for wild cards or say who makes those decisions.  Does anyone know?

[SnideAsides]

I vaguely remember in one of the earlier seasons they said the wild cards were basically pity places for women, over 40s, and people they feel got screwed.

[mertensia]

Ouch. Three finishers. One was a rookies though. Ha! To the Wolfpack over that.

[Taeolas]

Three finishers, but while the body prop was difficult, I suspect the real challenger was the weather. They commented that they had rain during the day, which would make the course wetter. That alone probably made the Body Prop a LOT more difficult than they intended. Even if they dried it off from the rain, if it was still humid, when the temperature drops at sunset, it will be dampening like mad. 

 

Invisible ladder seemed a lot more doable as mentioned. It's still a killer, but much more doable than it seemed in Venice. 

 

Overall, I don't think I'd have many qualms with the course. They tweeked the first stage obstacles a bit which caught a few off guard, but all in all it seemed doable. Body Prop may have been a bit too hard, but that was as much due to weather as due to difficulty. Maybe next season they can make sure the body prop is in a dryer climate like Texas.

[MelinaBallerina]

 

dryer climate like Texas.

 

Ha.  Texas, especially Houston, has not been dry for a while.  If not the torrential rains, its the humidity and since we don't have much of a winter, it's always humid.  

[TiredMe]

Is it mean that I giggled a bit that the ER doc flubbed? I was sort of glad since I still can't un-see last seasons gold lame outfit.

But I was glad Biran Arnold and Isaac c made it though.

Poor Megan. I'm wondering if stress got to her.

[AuntieDiane6]

 

Kacy is 50/50 to receive a wc - just for the notoriety alone.

 

Sorry, but she doesn't deserve it.  She peeled off VERY early on the qualifier.  We have plenty of other women.  She can get a WC when she's 9 months' pregnant or over 50 or going through chemo.

[backgroundnoise]

I'd rather see Kacy try than another sob story.

[Vicky8675309]

I know 15 people move on but I would have liked more finishers. I think the weather played a crucial role in many of the obstacles.

Are there more sob stories this year then in the past? I would prefer less or shorter background stories. Why don't they make the show have more parts or less sob stories so we can see the "while you were away" (lol, like it is live….so annoying) runs.

[meep.meep]

 

Invisible ladder seemed a lot more doable as mentioned. It's still a killer, but much more doable than it seemed in Venice. 

 

 

Is it possible that some of them had seen it in Venice?  Once you see something, you can work out a strategy to beat it.

[jhlipton]

Jessie not only made the cut to Vegas, she was in the top half of the field.

 

I hope Megan gets the WC -- that seemed as much a design flaw as anything else.  And she looks awesome.

 

Now that more women are getting farther Kacy doesn't seem as important to me.

[MsVixen]

Sorry, but she doesn't deserve it.  She peeled off VERY early on the qualifier.  We have plenty of other women.  She can get a WC when she's 9 months' pregnant or over 50 or going through chemo.

When Bret failed the year before, he didn't get a WC and he'd gone further in the Vegas finals than anyone else at that time.  I really feel that most of the WC recipients should have made it to the city finals. 

 

Because I cried everytime their story was told, I hope the man whose wife is terminally ill gets a WC.

[mmal]

Invisible ladder seemed a lot more doable as mentioned. It's still a killer, but much more doable than it seemed in Venice.

Is it possible that some of them had seen it in Venice? Once you see something, you can work out a strategy to beat it.

Without a doubt, considering the fact that Venice was filmed on March 13th and 14th, and Kansas City was filmed on April 17th and 18th.

Having over a month to prepare for a specific obstacle is a huge advantage.

Edited July 23, 2015 by mmal

[Adira]

Although this one seemed really hard, it was kind of on par with Venice.  Only 3 competitors made it to the final obstacle in that course too, just like in this one.  Although I think the Body Prop worked completely different muscles, so the muscles needed to do the Invisible Ladder were rested when they got to it!

[Aliconehead]

 

Although this one seemed really hard, it was kind of on par with Venice.  Only 3 competitors made it to the final obstacle in that course too, just like in this one.  Although I think the Body Prop worked completely different muscles, so the muscles needed to do the Invisible Ladder were rested when they got to it!

Although Venice was similar, only 1 person completed the course, 2 others made it to the last obstacle but only 10 people made it to the back course.  So people that did not even make it to the Wall made it through. Compare that to Kansas City which at one point they mention that Body Prop took out 30 competitors. Which means that over 40 competitors made it to the back half of the course.  Venice was MUCH harder in my opinion.  And the obstacles more even difficult where in KC on obstacle took out the majority of the competitors.

Edited July 24, 2015 by Aliconehead

[Adira]

Oh, I totally agree that Venice was much harder!!  My comments were more towards people saying the Body Prop was too hard.  Since the beginning of the course was so easy, it makes sense they'd throw in something difficult to weed out the competitors!

[Aliconehead]

I agree.  I don't mind the fewer competitors that finish, but I did not like that one obstacle knocked out the majority of the competitors.  Venice lost a few on each of the final obstacles which was a good mix. Overall I think they took a look at Venice and decided to make KC easier, hopefully the up coming finals will have a better, more even mix that lets a few finish but not too many make it too the back obstacles.  I feel that all 15 that come out of the finals should make it too the back half but no more that 20 should finish the first part.  It needs to be challenging for all but not impossible for a few.

[Taeolas]

The body prop has been done before, and IIRC while it was a 'killer' it was still very passable. While the extra down part makes it harder, I suspect the rain/weather was the big modifier. If it had been a dry night, they would have had more traction and we probably would have seen more finishers. Now, the weather is certainly something they need to keep in mind on course designs, but maybe they underestimated the effect a damp/wet body prop would have on the difficulty. 

 

In any case though, at least this end of the course did have a variety of obstacles so it wasn't all upper body like Venice; that did make the invisible ladder a lot easier for those that did make it. (But man, their shoulders had to have been burning after all that).

[Kromm]

Kacy remains the only woman to have ever finished a finals course, although Jessie came really close this year.  I'm pretty sure Jessie, Michelle, Meagan, and, probably, Kacy will receive a Wild Card, but if the course is as impossible as these are, I'm not sure how interested I'll be in the outcome.

How impossible any City course is has little to do with the Vegas course though. That course is not built out of City course elements per se (many pieces of them, sure, but it's not a continuation of the City courses the way the City Finals are off the City Qualifiers).

The body prop has been done before, and IIRC while it was a 'killer' it was still very passable. While the extra down part makes it harder, I suspect the rain/weather was the big modifier. If it had been a dry night, they would have had more traction and we probably would have seen more finishers. Now, the weather is certainly something they need to keep in mind on course designs, but maybe they underestimated the effect a damp/wet body prop would have on the difficulty.

I caught an episode of the UK version of Ninja Warrior on YouTube and guess what innovation they had?

They built the damn course inside!

Think about it ANW. These wet courses are never very fair--and its even worse when it varies between different parts of the same round, like we've seen in previous years.

Here, you can get a sense of how they built the place from this video (BTW: notice this is their FIRST season and they already had several female qualifying winners).

Edited July 25, 2015 by Kromm

[QuantumMechanic]

Invisible ladder seemed a lot more doable as mentioned. It's still a killer, but much more doable than it seemed in Venice. 

 

I think it was more doable because the task that came before it -- Body Prop -- didn't use biceps (it used triceps) and didn't require the hands to grip anything.  So competitors actually in a way got to rest their hands and biceps -- which are precisely what they needed to use to climb the "ladder".

[SmithW6079]

I was glad to see Lance Pinkus complete the course. He's one of my favorites -- and not just because of his rockin' bod. He has what I always think of as an "effortless" masculinity -- not a poseur, just a man. I'll grant you that the "Cowboy Ninja" sobriquet is a bit schticky, but otherwise, he just seems like a genuine guy, much like my other favorite, Ryan Stratis.

Why did every woman's run have to feature Kacy Catanzaro? That made it less about the woman doing the course and more about Kacy. I know Matt and Akbar have hard-ons for her, but it's got to stop. She failed this time.

Edited August 5, 2015 by SmithW6079