S09.E11: Kansas City City Finals

[Lantern7]

Quote

 

The top 30 competitors from Kansas City, Mo., vie for a chance to compete in the national finals.

 

[slf]

I could've sworn Matt said "this shitty finals course" when they came back from commercial after Alex Carson ran, lol. Enunciate, dude.

Thank you, Michael Bougher! Yay! I love it when showboaters wipe out!

I didn't get to see the rest of the competition because Trump had to give a speech.

[Taeolas]

Well they gave the POM wonderful run of the night early on, so you knew she would make it for the women, and either there would be a lot of finishers or no finishers. 

When the next guy made it to the final obstacle, I fully expected to see lots of finishers... but that damn broken pipe wiped everyone out. 

While we only saw 2 ninjas work it, Iron Maiden felt too easy for a backhalf challenge. If they had swapped Iron Maiden and Broken Pipe, I suspect there would have been a more interesting set of finishers. 

 

Hell, so many wiped on the Broken Pipe, there was a Top 15er who didn't even make it to the Warped Wall. That course was way too messed up. 

[enoughcats]

Maybe some kind soul in a non-eastern time zone will tell us how the last twenty+ minutes went on.  Or if this is replayed somewhere easy to find.

[heckkitty]

I usually watch it the next day on the NBC app. I assume they'll have the whole thing

[notcreative enough]

I turned over when Trump came on and went back periodically to see when he was done. I honestly thought I was going to miss that half hour but the picked up and went an extra half hour. I wish the just skipped it because this episode was boring. No one finished and most of the people went out early. I did laugh when Matt and Akbar said "speed kills" or something like that at the same time.

[Lantern7]

Gotta love a half-hour delay. I watch "live" and managed to catch the episode afterward, but it was still annoying.

The Broken Pipe had to be greased, right? I mean, a lot of the regional finalists got past that in the qualifier. Cut to tonight: so many causalities, and the Towers of Power were reduced to rubble. Broken Pipe would have ended Jessie Graff, it was that sinister an obstacle.

Forgot about Maggi's eyelashes. I wonder if they can grip stuff so she can rest her arms at key points.

The second-year Japanese-American guy . . . what does the kanji on his shirt say? I couldn't make that out from Matt. I immediately thought of Goku from Dragon Ball Z, but I'm certain the kanji is different.

[SophiaD]

What a boring episode.  I liked Maggie, the biochemistry guy, and Tyler Yamauchi.  The rest of it was just meh.  

I hope they figure out a new direction for the City Finals next year, because only having one (or, this time zero) competitors finish is seriously dull.

Edited August 22, 2017 by SophiaD

[Taeolas]

I think partly they need to stop making the last 4 obstacles all upper body/hanging obstacles. I suppose it's good for the camera to see the Ninjas jumping from challenge to challenge, but it is exhausting and makes it nearly impossible to finish (especially with the last climb at the end which should stay). 

Instead of 4 hanging tasks (constrained by Salmon Ladder and the climb task at the end), maybe do an Upper body task and a hopscotch type task, preferably one they can't just charge through. The Bamboo Forest type (where they clung to poles and had to pick their way through the poles to the other side) was a great one; it still uses some upper body, but it also lets the legs be used too. 

[Aliconehead]

I was thinking a leg press climbing across while hanging and supported. Kind of like a weighted bicycle type. There are NO leg strength obstacles, they seem to be all upper and balance. 

 

I think the broken pipe was the same or did I miss what they did to change it? This was all psychology. One great competitor wiped out and that got into the head of the next one and so on and so on. I personally enjoyed it. 

[healthnut]

I laughed hysterically when Dan Polizi fell on the pipes. But overall, a very meh episode. Wasn't really any runs to get excited about.  A lot of no names and just seemed like a weak field overall. I'm surprised the floating monkey bars took out so many and that even after they took out one of the cranks, the women still sucked, only Maggi could beat it. I've reached the point in the season where I am ready for Vegas, the cities have dragged on long enough. 

[Chaos Theory]

I am glad Maggi Thorne made it to Vegas.  If only because she cheers so damn hard for everyone else especially my favorite Jessie Graff.  Plus it tickles me that they use to be roommates so the juxtaposition of them making it to Vegas together is nice.

 

The course has a certain logic to it which is maintained throughout the qualifying/final rounds.  There is always an early agility obstacle which usually comes after some sort  of shakey obstacles.  There is a flying obstacle early on as well.  The last four are of course strength obstacles.  The irony is the Ninjas actually do prefer the strength obstacles to the agility ones.   You can work on things like muscle memory and grip strength.  Obstacles like the broken pipe are often just luck and bad timing.

[mtlchick]

I can see them throwing in the Broken Pipe in the second half of Stage 1 in Vegas just to mess with everyone. A lot of people face planted into that.

[LadyNebula]

13 hours ago, slf said:

I could've sworn Matt said "this shitty finals course" when they came back from commercial after Alex Carson ran, lol. Enunciate, dude.

Well, that wouldn't have been an incorrect description.

 

Am I the only one who can't stand The Towers of Power?  Their bro shtick is super annoying. Something about their attitudes during the last Team Ninja Warrior rubbed me the wrong way too. Like,"We're so awesome, we're bros, we kick ass, and oh... here's the woman we had to put on our team.  BROS!!!!"

[TimothyQ]

25 minutes ago, LadyNebula said:

Am I the only one who can't stand The Towers of Power?  Their bro shtick is super annoying. Something about their attitudes during the last Team Ninja Warrior rubbed me the wrong way too. Like,"We're so awesome, we're bros, we kick ass, and oh... here's the woman we had to put on our team.  BROS!!!!"

No, you're certainly not the only one. I just love when guys like that go out early, as they did. And that one guy than ran like a bat out of hell and totally wiped out.

I appreciate the ones that respect the course; they always seem to be the ones that do the best anyway.

[SophiaD]

You're not alone in detesting the Towers of Power.  Watching their endless bro-isms makes me want to bathe in estrogen.

[Lantern7]

I think the Towers' "bro-ing" is mostly tongue in cheek. While I'm thinking about it . . . is it me, or have a lot of top and second-tier ninjas fallen short of Vegas? At least Lance Pekus is back on the horse . . . after his failure last season and two uninspiring TNW stints, I thought he was done. Apparently, he's building on his Spartan experience.

[saber5055]

While I appreciate the ninjas training harder and getting better, I don't appreciate the show making these courses impossible to finish. I want my "heros" to make it to the buzzer, or at least a few of them. I agree with Matt's "misheard" evaluation: This "shitty" course. Too depressing to watch ninja after ninja fail. Where's the positivity in that? So, boo to the KC "shitty" course and this episode.

[ClareWalks]

The Towers of Power ARE annoying. Especially since they brag about how spectacularly tall they are, and hence the name. The one dude is 6'5", which is pretty tall, but the other one (Polizzi) is only 6'2". Bitch, please. That's basically a Midwest "average." 

[Chaos Theory]

1 hour ago, Lantern7 said:

I think the Towers' "bro-ing" is mostly tongue in cheek. While I'm thinking about it . . . is it me, or have a lot of top and second-tier ninjas fallen short of Vegas? At least Lance Pekus is back on the horse . . . after his failure last season and two uninspiring TNW stints, I thought he was done. Apparently, he's building on his Spartan experience.

I think a lot of the ninjas are getting "older" and with a lot of sports the younguns who have been watching and training since kinds are surpassing them.  

 

48 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

While I appreciate the ninjas training harder and getting better, I don't appreciate the show making these courses impossible to finish. I want my "heros" to make it to the buzzer, or at least a few of them. I agree with Matt's "misheard" evaluation: This "shitty" course...

I think it's a fine line.  I think this season there are some growing pains because the course has gotten a lot harder but then the last few seasons I thought it was super easy with many of the top tier zipping through like it was nothing.  I think it should be a challenge to finish.  I'd too many finish qualifying in under a minute then it's too easy.  If too many don't finish at all it's too hard.  A fine line.

[eel2178]

18 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

The Broken Pipe had to be greased, right? 

It was filmed the at night during the month of April. I'm guessing that it probably got wet and iced over a little bit.

19 hours ago, enoughcats said:

Maybe some kind soul in a non-eastern time zone will tell us how the last twenty+ minutes went on.  Or if this is replayed somewhere easy to find.

They usually show a rerun on Sunday night, although it is a week delayed (ie Kansas City finals should be shown a week from Sunday, not this coming Sunday).

Edited August 22, 2017 by eel2178

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

I think it's a fine line.  I think this season there are some growing pains because the course has gotten a lot harder but then the last few seasons I thought it was super easy with many of the top tier zipping through like it was nothing.  I think it should be a challenge to finish.  I'd too many finish qualifying in under a minute then it's too easy.  If too many don't finish at all it's too hard.  A fine line.

I think they need to stop doing a back course that is all upper body and then an elevator climb.

They need to either drop the elevator climb by  five or ten feet or put in one or two equally challenging apparatuses that give the upper body a reprieve in the back half.

[CrazyDog]

I agree, that frankly I'm kind of sick of upper body obstacles, one after another. Mix it up!

Is there more to Maggie's story? She's a good competitor, but "I got divorced" doesn't seem as dramatic as some of the other sob stories. 

I was rooting for Lance to make it. Bummer of a finals course.

[SophiaD]

I'd love to see them do a very tricky balance obstacle that favored women and/or smaller, lighter competitors.

[Morgan of Hed]

15 hours ago, CrazyDog said:

Is there more to Maggie's story? She's a good competitor, but "I got divorced" doesn't seem as dramatic as some of the other sob stories. 

Slightly more dramatic than several minutes of footage that can be summed up "he's in the Army National Guard, and his parents worry", followed by a splat on the 2nd obstacle.

[CrazyDog]

Yes, that is also lame. I wish they'd dispense with some of those, though in the bios, I do enjoy seeing some of the training some of the amateur ninjas rig up.

[enoughcats]

I wondered if the runs were so bad that they pulled out the 'we'll never use this boring footage' stories to fill the two hours.  Because they didn't want to show how disasterously bad the warped wall was and how badly psyched out some of their better competitors were.

[Chaos Theory]

On 8/22/2017 at 7:20 PM, ParadoxLost said:

I think they need to stop doing a back course that is all upper body and then an elevator climb.

They need to either drop the elevator climb by  five or ten feet or put in one or two equally challenging apparatuses that give the upper body a reprieve in the back half.

This is an interesting article on the evolution of the 10th obstacle from the gimme rope climb (which had a 100% finish rate) to the elevator climb which as it stands now is at about 47%.  When Kacy completed the course it was at  the Spider Climb which was still a relative gimme and at 91%.     Personally I liked the Invisible ladder.  It was a middle ground.  Not quite a gimme but it didn't seem overly taxing either especially after already completing 9 other obstacles.  

So the progression went like this

Rope Climb

Spider Climb

Invisible Ladder

Elevator Climb

 

https://www.americanninjawarriornation.com/2017/8/24/16197308/ninja-killer-the-elevator-that-never-reached-the-top

Edited August 25, 2017 by Chaos Theory

[majormama]

I didn't like the invisible ladder, myself, because you couldn't see how it progressed. There were people at the end of their strength who were still pumping away and not making any progress. With the elevator climb, we the viewers can see how the bar kind of pops out, moves up, and locks back into place (I'm probably not explaining that well).

It was a huge jump in difficulty from the spider to the invisible ladder. The elevator seems pretty similar in difficulty to the ladder, just more visually clear in how it works. Having no finishers makes for a boring course. I would be happy if there was something in between, but would rather have a gimme than no finishers. I understand some people won't want the gimme and would rather see something challenging, but if you make it that far it's nice to have more than a 50% chance of hitting the buzzer.

[Ciarrai]

On 2017-08-22 at 8:59 AM, LadyNebula said:

Well, that wouldn't have been an incorrect description.

 

Am I the only one who can't stand The Towers of Power?  Their bro shtick is super annoying. Something about their attitudes during the last Team Ninja Warrior rubbed me the wrong way too. Like,"We're so awesome, we're bros, we kick ass, and oh... here's the woman we had to put on our team.  BROS!!!!"

I also cannot stand them. I was actively cheering for them to fail hard during their runs this week.

[Guest]

It's funny how the 'towers' stand on the sidelines in firemen duds.  I'm sure NBC tells them to, but it's so cheesy.  

I thought that broken pipe looked a lot harder than usual.  When the camera showed the ninja's view of it from the start, I thought it looked impossible.  It seemed like you couldn't even see the second pipe because it was obscured by the center thingy, and it was much lower and also skewed to the right compared to the first pipe.  So without stopping on the center thingy, you'd have to just get really lucky or just leap over the second pipe, it seemed like.  

[healthnut]

I think you can see the second one but they weren't even.