S07.E12: Military Finals

[OnceSane]

The top 30 competitors from the Military Qualifier tackle the Military Finals course. Obstacles include the Salmon Ladder, Arm Rings, Doorknob Arch and Spider Climb.

[Lantern7]

Damn, how many hands do you need to count the people who completed the regional finals course? Two?

[VartanFan]

I'm not sure what it is,but I'm not as interested inthe show anymore.I'm kinda bored. I hope Vegas is interesting at least.. .

[Machiabelly]

How come no one else tried to do the globes using one row and 2 hands? It looked easier

[Way Wes Jr]

I'm not sure what it is,but I'm not as interested in the show anymore.I'm kinda bored. I hope Vegas is interesting at least.. .

 

We've discussed the (high) difficulty factor of the City Finals courses ad naseum at this point.  And really, when 1-3 people are finishing the course, (and maybe 1-2 others make the "ladder climb,") every week, it starts to feel, "same ol', same ol'."  There is no feel of urgency when the late runners only have to finish the Salmon Ladder to make the Vegas Final - and heck, three competitors who washed out on the Salmon Ladder this week are advancing - as opposed to previous seasons where they at least had to make the penultimate obstacle by a certain time. 

[Taeolas]

Agreed. 1 finisher and 2 ladder fails is too low. But that all said, for some reason this course didn't seem as bad as the others. This one, I had the feeling that it was lack of experience that took out more Ninjas than anything. So many wiping on the salmon ladder is telling. The D rings have appeared before so shouldn't have been a huge challenge to experienced ninjas.

 

The globe walk may have been tough, but for those that made it to it, it felt like it had a decent fail rate; most of the fails happened long before it. 

 

Invisible Ladder, once again we see, you need to have your whole body in on it. Trying to power through with just your arms will kill you dead. Get your whole body in the swing of it and it seems to be a lot easier. Next year I suspect we'll see a lot more people finishing it now that people can see what worked. 

[kathyk24]

I think the Military Course was more to tell the contestants backstory not to get serious qualifiers. I wonder if this was taped around the Venice episode because they had no idea how to beat the invisible ladder.

[VartanFan]

And maybe for me it's the order thing.  We may see contestants we like or thought were strong but unless you're watching them in the second hour, they're not going to finish.  That also removes the suspense. 

 

I know some people find Matt and Akbar annoying because of their crazy screaming but I really like it when we can see them in their muppet box and it's obviously in real time and they freak over something. 

[SophiaD]

Wow. That was even more boring than the previous week.  I enjoyed the Qualifying Rounds this year, but the Finals have been duller than dull.  Aside from my attachment to certain individuals (i.e. Kacy, Jessie Graf, Sam Sann, Joe Moravsky), none of whom competed last night, there's really nothing to keep me watching.

 

And, was it just me, or was Akbar just going on and on and ON last night?

 

ETA:  I did like that moment when Sam Sann coached the guy who was having trouble on the Warped Wall.  That was sweet.  It was also great to see Jessie Graf again.

 

It was a little disappointing to not have more finishers, but I can see why.  These guys all have demanding jobs that require various levels of fitness, especially the ones who are still active-duty.  They can't take carve out three hours a day to train on a mock salmon ladder or whatever.  They have other priorities.  It was mildly impressive how many people made it through the crazy climbing obstacle that took out so many people in the Qualifying Rounds.

Edited August 18, 2015 by SophiaD

[Richness]

I have the usual likes (ninjas supporting each other, shirtless beefcake) and dislikes (tough upper body back half, background stories). I'm really hoping they deliberately designed the City Finals courses upper body intensive so as to prepare them for the always intense upper body segment of the Vegas course. It will just be somewhat unfortunate if we have someone succeed in Vegas who failed to complete both a qualifying and finals course.

 

However, what's REALLY annoying me this season besides the course difficulty, it's the interviews with ninjas BEFORE they run the course. They had two of them in this episode, and both of them took away from seeing the start of someone's run. If I don't want to see the inane Q&A after their run (or their background story), I sure as hell don't want to hear from them before their run. I thought this annoyance early in the season was just due to them using Kasey as a ratings hook before she was knocked out rather quickly. This episode made me sick and tired of hearing from or about Ryan Stratis, and I skipped just about everything other than the actual runs.

 

Anyway, I'll bring this to a close with the one thing that warmed my bitter and jaded little heart: "magic fingers", and the hosts doing them to show their support.

[jhlipton]

 This episode made me sick and tired of hearing from or about Ryan Stratis, and I skipped just about everything other than the actual runs.

 

That's what I always do.  That's the only part of the show I'm really interested in.

[Psychobunny]

Anybody else notice that the guy who finished didn't actually hold the globes put actually held the stalks they were attached to?  It seem like that was much easier.

[Lovecat]

It was a little disappointing to not have more finishers, but I can see why.  These guys all have demanding jobs that require various levels of fitness, especially the ones who are still active-duty.  They can't take carve out three hours a day to train on a mock salmon ladder or whatever.  They have other priorities.  It was mildly impressive how many people made it through the crazy climbing obstacle that took out so many people in the Qualifying Rounds.

I said as much to my boyfriend while we were watching.  Three hours a day?  Heck, some of those guys in the non-military city finals train for ANW full-time!

 

Anybody else notice that the guy who finished didn't actually hold the globes put actually held the stalks they were attached to?  It seem like that was much easier.

I did notice that, and wondered why no one else thought to do it.  I was half-expecting him to be DQ'd because of some rule that you had to hold the globes.