S08.E10: Philadelphia Finals

[OnceSane]

The top 30 competitors from the Philadelphia Qualifier tackle the City Finals course.

[slf]

Alyssa Beird did really well for her first time (she was a rookie, right?), I think she did about as well as Meagan Martin usually does. I hope she comes back next year.

I didn't catch the guy's name, who ran after Alyssa, but hey! Another shortie representin'! Only 5'2 but made it up the wall. 

Oh, man, poor Torres. He went out because the bar rolled backward? That would irritate the hell out of me, lol.

Daaaaaamn. I would've bet on Moravsky getting through, if no one else. 

I was disappointed for Warnky, and surprised how she went out but it was still cool to see so many women in a finals.

I can't believe Stratis was able to do the shelf grab thing with his shoulder still healing.

Labreck was great! She's such a champ, so tough. I really hope she and the others come back next year no matter what. We need more female regulars.

Britten is an amazing, unrivaled competitor and I was stunned when even he couldn't finish this course. 

Edited August 23, 2016 by slf

[Lantern7]

". . . and you're gonna watch them faaaaaaaaallllllllllll . . . " Sorry if it sounds like I'm hating. It's just that shoving the "Fantastic Four" down our throats gets exhausting. The real story is that nobody completed the course. Shades of the one Sasuke when 98 contestants wiped out on the first leg, and the other two couldn't handle the Salmon Ladder. I'm thinking that the course designers don't get bonuses for making that hard of a course. If one or two people make it? Then the money is earned.

Holy crap, "Flex" Labreck killed it. I kept expecting Matt and Akbar to stop cheering long enough to change their pants. Well, maybe just Akbar.

Watching Joe Moravsky before 9 is like seeing Nikki Glaser playing "Tindr Tapout" on her show. You know he's going to screw up, because no way would we see a finisher that early in the show. Imagine my pleasant surprise when he made it to Invisible Ladder. Downside: his kid stayed in the stroller. She is very cute.

[sab85]

When Moravsky and Brittany can't finish the course you might have made the course too damn hard.

[SophiaD]

Quote

 Sorry if it sounds like I'm hating. It's just that shoving the "Fantastic Four" down our throats gets exhausting. The real story is that nobody completed the course. 

For some of us, having four women in the final is the real story.  Watching a show that women never succeed in is boring for me, especially right after the great Olympics.  I've been looking forward to this episode since they qualified.

Edited August 23, 2016 by SophiaD

[Chaos Theory]

Despite only one of the four women making it to Vegas they all did fairly well.  Rolling Thunder was a bitch.    As for highlighting of "The Fantastic Four" I do understand why.  It's a big deal that four women made it to city qualifiers.  I've seen a thousand commercials with Geoff Britton supposed redemption as one angle and the second is that four women made it to the the Philly city final....Hell three have made it to Vegas.  Has that ever happened?

Edited August 23, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[AZChristian]

I had just finished saying to Mr. AZC that I was done with Jamie Greenhair.

Then they showed the background piece with his Yorkie - complete with green hair on his forehead, and I was a goner.  He stole my heart.

Edited August 23, 2016 by AZChristian

[slf]

9 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

I had just finished saying to Mr. AZC that I was done with Jamie Greenhair.

Then they showed the background piece with his Yorkie - complete with green hair on his forehead, and I was a goner.  He stole my heart.

The getup is gimmicky but he seems like honestly such a decent guy and the dog was super cute with his little cape and green hair. 

I really should've paid closer attention to the names of the new obstacles but that one with the bar that Britten went out on was stupidly difficult. You've really got to have a lot of control, and putting it after the Rolling Thunder was just mean lol.

[Taeolas]

Rolling Thunder was probably the main killer; but I think the Stair jump was the ultimate failure for this course. Knock a few pounds off of Rolling Thunder, and maybe increase the friction on the Stair jump and it would probably have been a fair course. That jumping obstacle had no 'grip' on it, so the bar was sliding all over the place. If the bar didn't slide so much, we probably would have seen a few more people finish it; and finish with enough energy for the Invisible Ladder. 

[ClareWalks]

I noticed immediately that they made Rolling Thunder easier for the finals course (they changed the plexiglass from being a full panel to a half panel). Surprised that Matt and Akbar didn't mention that. They just said there are more plexiglass panels, but they were smaller, so it was much easier. They definitely made this course too hard, IMO. That Rolling Thunder could have been ten feet shorter and it still would have taken a lot of folks out. It's just *ridiculously* long.

[Chaos Theory]

All the courses this year were a lot harder.  Remember the LA course?  There was one finisher on that one.   i forget about the others but o think this year was purposely harder and there were a lot less finishers on each of the courses. This one there were none.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[JenMD]

Yeah, for all that they were "OMG, NO FINISHERS", they still ended up with more competitors going further than LA (where only 2 out of 30 made it to the 9th obstacle, with only 1 making it through to the end).  Here, at least 10 made it to the 9th (iirc Jesse Lebreck ended up in 10th place, not sure if she took the longest to get there).  Still, it seemed an unevenly difficult course. 

Great job from all the ladies.  But what kills me about their excitement over the 4 women narrative and how they would all do is they showed Jesse making it as far as the Flying Shelf Grab in the previews.  Way to give stuff away, show.

[riverheightsnancy]

Really want to see Geoff and Joe have a great run in Vegas and my new favs Jessie and Jesse.  I love that "Flex" went to school at U Maine, my alma mater. She seems like a truly wonderful person. I would like Geoff to repeat and win with Joe a close second. 

[Chaos Theory]

Geoff Britton is awesome but his wife is the best.  I adored watching her as he runs the track and her jumping into the water when he fell to get to him....??????

Of all the people who aren't women I want Geoff Britton to win.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[healthnut]

I could tell the rolling thunder was easier, seemed like they shortened it, too. I was so bummed Michelle Warnky fell, she was soooo close. I'm glad Jesse "Flex" made it and too bad Geoff couldn't make it eight buzzers in a row, but I will be rooting for him in Vegas for sure.

I agree they gave too much away for Jesse's run next week.

[Quilt Fairy]

If they had a back stop on each stair of that stair jump obstacle (so that once you made it onto a particular stair you couldn't slide backwards) it would have made it a little more secure but still hard, IMO.  How many guys made it past that to the invisible ladder? 3?

Are the finals spread over 2 weeks or is it just one more show?

Edited August 23, 2016 by Quilt Fairy

[ClareWalks]

14 minutes ago, Quilt Fairy said:

Are the finals spread over 2 weeks or is it just one more show?

I think stage one is its own episode, since there are so many competitors, but stages 2-4 might all fit on one. Can't remember how last season went :)

[SanLynn]

22 hours ago, sab85 said:

When Moravsky and Brittany can't finish the course you might have made the course too damn hard.

Yeah I hope they take this lesson for next season (are we getting another one?). That rolling thunder is a back half obstacle. Even easier that obstacle was a killer.

Edited August 24, 2016 by SanLynn

[healthnut]

Last year, stage 1 was two weeks and stages 2-4 were one long episode. 

[Guest]

I assume that they have test runners run the course to check the difficulty level and make adjustments as needed.  It makes me think some test runners completed it, or at least one, or they would've toned it down.  Though maybe something changed in the conditions for the taped show.  

[Chaos Theory]

I am not sure what the rules actually are but it looks to me that each obstical on its own is possible but combined the difficulty level has been jacked up a little too much.  Adding one new super obstical for finals is one thing but like Britton said the finals track felt like level three Vegas,. What is Vegas going to look like?  

[Fukui San]

The finals course switches to the original Japanese format.  Everything we've seen in the qualifying is an amalgam of all four stages of the original format course.  In the Vegas finals you can expect that the stages separate the different skills into separate stages:

Stage 1: A variety of balance and speed based obstacles with a 2-3 minute time limit.  Not much grip strength but some possible grabbing and climbing. You can definitely expect the Warped Wall here, probably the Jumping Spider.

Stage 2: A 3-4 minute stage which is usually dominated by one main element like the Salmon Ladder but with others that could eliminate you.

Unlike the qualifying stages if you fall or run out of time in the first 2 stages, you're eliminated period.

Stage 3: All of the arm endurance torture obstacles. No time limit. 3 or 4 grip obstacles, some sort of Cliffhangar variant, then a few more climbing obstacles before a difficult dismount to qualify for the 4th stage.

Stage 4: Some sort of timed climb.

[Kromm]

ANW reinforces how shameless they are, pumping the "Fantastic Four" thing SO hard.  I guess some genius felt that as long as ONE of them made it, they could justify the approach.

And once again I love how they won't let the Geoff Britten is the First American Ninja Warrior thing go, because yeah.  They need a less of a surly asshole than Isaac Caldiero to hawk. Man, despite being able to laugh all the way to the bank, I bet that pisses Caldiero off.

On 8/23/2016 at 8:12 AM, ClareWalks said:

I noticed immediately that they made Rolling Thunder easier for the finals course (they changed the plexiglass from being a full panel to a half panel). Surprised that Matt and Akbar didn't mention that. They just said there are more plexiglass panels, but they were smaller, so it was much easier. They definitely made this course too hard, IMO. That Rolling Thunder could have been ten feet shorter and it still would have taken a lot of folks out. It's just *ridiculously* long.

 

On 8/23/2016 at 7:25 PM, healthnut said:

I could tell the rolling thunder was easier, seemed like they shortened it, too. I was so bummed Michelle Warnky fell, she was soooo close. I'm glad Jesse "Flex" made it and too bad Geoff couldn't make it eight buzzers in a row, but I will be rooting for him in Vegas for sure.

I agree they gave too much away for Jesse's run next week.

I think we've all learned not to expect too much transparency/honesty from this show.  So... of course they'd never admit making something easier!

On 8/22/2016 at 8:10 PM, slf said:

Labreck was great! She's such a champ, so tough. I really hope she and the others come back next year no matter what. We need more female regulars.

Even with more competitors every year, don't they still have a certain number of wildcards in Vegas?  We may still see some of these women in those. (Not that those wildcards are anyone's favorite thing here) 

 

Oh.  We got to see The Curse of Akbar in action again, when he opened his big mouth and said...

Quote

I've got a real good feeling about Michelle Warnke on Rolling Thunder

Lets all say it together... "Shut up Akbar!

Edited August 25, 2016 by Kromm

[Kromm]

On 8/22/2016 at 11:01 PM, SophiaD said:

For some of us, having four women in the final is the real story.  Watching a show that women never succeed in is boring for me, especially right after the great Olympics.  I've been looking forward to this episode since they qualified.

The problem I think is that to some degree some minor shenanigans may be involved. While these women were amazing, part of me wonders if part of the idea of a course that knocks everyone out before the warped wall is to equalize things somewhat.  That gives advantage to two types of players: speed demons for sure are one. But the other are those who simply get one obstacle further even if nobody finishes.  Ergo, the key is to make a course with TWO really impossible obstacles in hopes that a decent number of women get past the first of those two harder than average obstacles. And that's what we had here. A trampoline obstacle that kills a lot of course runners equally regardless of gender, which equalized the numbers a lot before anyone got to the big impossible rolling thing nobody could beat.  

[meep.meep]

10 hours ago, Kromm said:

ANW reinforces how shameless they are, pumping the "Fantastic Four" thing SO hard.  I guess some genius felt that as long as ONE of them made it, they could justify the approach.

And once again I love how they won't let the Geoff Britten is the First American Ninja Warrior thing go, because yeah.  They need a less of a surly asshole than Isaac Caldiero to hawk. Man, despite being able to laugh all the way to the bank, I bet that pisses Caldiero off.

I only tuned in for the last 20 minutes so I was spared the Fantastic Four comments, but got to watch Flex's run.

And of course, Britten going down.  He's a great competitor but even he was starting to get a little desparate looking about the whole "7 buzzers!" thing.  Caldiero beat him in the end, even though he has now turned into "he who must not be named."   And, it's the show's own fault - they could have had *two* American Ninja Warriors because that was how they hyped it all during the season.  Survive the fourth stage and you become the (cue the Akbar voice) American Ninja Warrior.  They decided not to pay out two prizes.  Serves them right.   Especially if Caldiero is holding out for appearance money.

[Chaos Theory]

11 hours ago, Kromm said:

The problem I think is that to some degree some minor shenanigans may be involved. While these women were amazing, part of me wonders if part of the idea of a course that knocks everyone out before the warped wall is to equalize things somewhat.  That gives advantage to two types of players: speed demons for sure are one. But the other are those who simply get one obstacle further even if nobody finishes.  Ergo, the key is to make a course with TWO really impossible obstacles in hopes that a decent number of women get past the first of those two harder than average obstacles. And that's what we had here. A trampoline obstacle that kills a lot of course runners equally regardless of gender, which equalized the numbers a lot before anyone got to the big impossible rolling thing nobody could beat.  

The problem is with Vegas you kinda need both speed and strength (or whatever).  Look at Jessie Graff who was one of two people to get past the wedge,. It took her twice as long to do it.   I think Meagan Martin took some time as well and she made it to Vegas as well.  Vegas is a timed course so it likely that all three women will run out of it half way through the course.

[simplyme]

10 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

The problem is with Vegas you kinda need both speed and strength (or whatever).

Yup. 

Scuse me for flogging the dead horse one more time, but this is where not having the optimal body type really hurts you. Yes, someone like Kacy Catanzaro can in theory complete the jumping spider, as she's landed it in practice, but since she'll pretty much be stretched straight out, I can't see her having much leverage to move through it, and it will take her longer to complete. Also people with larger body masses will tire out faster hauling them through the strength portions and be more likely to fail.

I'm not saying this is a course design flaw. It's just an observation. I think it's good this way, but the viewers should recognize that it isn't a level playing field. There are a few I've seen (mostly elsewhere on the InterWebz) who act like people who don't finish are failures their one-legged grandma could take in a fight, so they should go hide in a cave and cry in shame. Okay, that was hyperbole, but hopefully people know what I mean.

[slf]

On 8/25/2016 at 3:29 AM, Kromm said:

The problem I think is that to some degree some minor shenanigans may be involved. While these women were amazing, part of me wonders if part of the idea of a course that knocks everyone out before the warped wall is to equalize things somewhat.  That gives advantage to two types of players: speed demons for sure are one. But the other are those who simply get one obstacle further even if nobody finishes.  Ergo, the key is to make a course with TWO really impossible obstacles in hopes that a decent number of women get past the first of those two harder than average obstacles. And that's what we had here. A trampoline obstacle that kills a lot of course runners equally regardless of gender, which equalized the numbers a lot before anyone got to the big impossible rolling thing nobody could beat.  

I mean, in general, I think they're probably wanting to physically exhaust the contestants (not to mention shake them) to decrease the odds of anyone winning in the long run- if I heard correctly the award this year is also a million, like last year. I doubt they actually want to pay out. But I don't think 'shenanigans' were involved in terms of choosing or designing the obstacles. Are these obstacles women are more likely to be better at than the men? If so, that sounds more like leveling the playing field. If not, then I really don't see how it's shenanigans. 

[JenMD]

On 8/25/2016 at 4:03 PM, Chaos Theory said:

The problem is with Vegas you kinda need both speed and strength (or whatever).  Look at Jessie Graff who was one of two people to get past the wedge,. It took her twice as long to do it.   I think Meagan Martin took some time as well and she made it to Vegas as well.  Vegas is a timed course so it likely that all three women will run out of it half way through the course.

Do you mean twice as long as Josh for Jessie to get through just the wedge, or through the whole course at that point?  By the end of the wedge, her run time was less than a minute under his at the same point and she actually completed the wedge faster.  Looking at the finish times across the board in the city finals, they're running in the 5-8 minute range, so some people really had to take their time to finish.  Geoff was nearing the 6 minute mark when he fell, so even his time would have been up there. 

Regarding Vegas, last year Jessie made it to the 6th (out of 8) obstacle, getting stuck on the wall with 40 seconds left and could have made it to the buzzer - it would have been tight, but totally doable.  She's not slow because she's a woman, she tends to be slow because she's cautious. 

[Chaos Theory]

Quote

Do you mean twice as long as Josh for Jessie to get through just the wedge, or through the whole course at that point?

Jessie Grath full run was a little over seven minutes.   I don't have everyones times from what I remember the average time for people who at least made it to the wedge was a little over four minutes.   Kevin bull got there in a little over two minutes.   Flip around three.  I think Grant was a little over four.     Jessie got to the wedge at the six minute mark.   

[JenMD]

Right, but a lot of those guys were running for speed, trying to be the fastest, because that's how they run.  The one person who made it through did so at a pace not that far off of hers, so I don't find her time too out there.  I don't think she's ever going to be the fastest, but I also don't think that's what she's shooting for.

[slf]

Oy, the 'need for speed' ones. I know they get paid extra if they're the fastest but it's not always fun to watch. I like it if they spend a little time on the obstacles, personally, I don't want to watch someone run the course in a minute.

[Guest]

I love seeing the guys who just fly through it.

[slf]

3 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

I love seeing the guys who just fly through it.

Heh, well at least the show has something for everyone. If it's a fairly boring obstacle I don't mind the super fast ones, especially if they make their runs interesting or have fun with it.

I was wondering earlier what happens if you get injured during your run and can't finish but it's not a major injury? Does it depend on how far you made it, like you only get to advance if you would have anyway, or do you get a wildcard, or are you just out?

[Ciarrai]

On 8/24/2016 at 9:06 AM, Winston9-DT3 said:

I assume that they have test runners run the course to check the difficulty level and make adjustments as needed.  It makes me think some test runners completed it, or at least one, or they would've toned it down.  Though maybe something changed in the conditions for the taped show.  

I tend to believe that the course tester(s) don't have to do all of the obstacles in a row. So for example, a couple of people tested Rolling Thunder. But, they didn't have to do all of the obstacles before it or after it; they just tested that one obstacle and maybe one or two before it or after it. Thus it wouldn't be the same situation as the ANW competitors who have to do the whole string at once.

Perhaps I'm mistaken in that assessment.

Did Jessie Graf have a pig in her arms during one segment? Because that was adorable.

[Kromm]

3 hours ago, Ciarrai said:

I tend to believe that the course tester(s) don't have to do all of the obstacles in a row. So for example, a couple of people tested Rolling Thunder. But, they didn't have to do all of the obstacles before it or after it; they just tested that one obstacle and maybe one or two before it or after it. Thus it wouldn't be the same situation as the ANW competitors who have to do the whole string at once.

Perhaps I'm mistaken in that assessment.

At the very least, if they DO have to do them all in a row, there isn't really time pressure, crowd distraction, Matt and Ackbar screaming and yelling from their little tower, endless waiting for your turn (killing your energy level), and other things the competitors have to put up with.