S09.E12: Denver City Finals

[Lantern7]

Quote

The top competitors from the Denver qualifiers compete one more time before the national finals in Las Vegas.

[mtlchick]

During Ian's run at the end "HE'S SLIPPING!" (landing pad inches up.)  That made me laugh. 

[slf]

Meagan was just too far over to the left. If she had been toward the center, well, I don't know if she would have made it but she wouldn't have fallen in that spot.

Anyone wanna bet Brian Arnold doesn't actually retire? That obstacle always gets to him.

This ep didn't really do anything for me, tbh. I mostly surfed the 'net while I watched.

[Chaos Theory]

So what do you do with a qualifying round that only has 8 finishers?  You add the wedge of course.  Plus a obstical created by an eleven year old.   Heh.  

[Lantern7]

One last city final, one last back half obstacle to make the ninjas cry. At least we're getting to Vegas, and there won't be any pre-emptions over the next few Monday nights. It much suck on the sponsor side to have your movie's name slapped on an obstacle, only for a precious few competitors to make it that far.

Did Ian Dory get the WWWA treatment in the qualifiers? Nice run . . . when was the last time he was in the upper tier? Also, I don't think Brian Arnold is retiring about tonight's results. He fell dismounting the Wedge, not trying to transverse it.

Is it wrong to think of Meagan Martin as "yummy"? I feel weird saying that out loud, but she is, at least for me.

[healthnut]

Why did these ninjas not use the switch grip on the wedge? Stupid. The walk on did (and made it) and the first guy that made it and fell said he should've gone with the switch grip. I was really surprised Meagen didn't do it. Just disappointed yet another city the eight obstacle took out pretty much the whole crowd.

No, Brian isn't going to retire. This show is his whole life. 

Kacy retiring. Probably a good idea. Besides she just signed with the WWE. Still, the sport wouldn't be where it is with all the women if it hadn't been for her, no doubt. 

[Chaos Theory]

Kacy hasn't been happy in awhile.  Plus she is at least going out on a high note.  She earned herself a trip to Vegas and isn't going there on Wild Card like she has over the last few years.  

Not sure how well she will like the WWE though.  It is not exactly known for being female friendly but then I haven't watched in awhile so maybe that has changed.  

Not to many people this round that I catechism about besides Meagan.  I am kinda sad that the guy with the crazy hopped ip mother fell early and did it during commercials.  Oh well.  

Damm that wedge.  I guess everyone can't be Jessie Graff.  Ha!

[ClareWalks]

I am so glad we don't have to see Screaming Plastic Surgery Mom in Vegas.

Ian Dory destroyed that Ninjago Roll. He was smart to just go backwards on it. That's generally the most advisable way to handle any bicep/back-intensive "grab and go" obstacles. 

[SophiaD]

Thank you, Ian Dory, for saving us from another course no one can finish.  His daughter is adorable.

I was actually glad for the WWA segments this time, so we didn't have to see the guy with the mother or the seven siblings again.  The JAG competitor was very tough.  Looking forward to seeing her in the future.

The whole city finals experience has been meh for me this year.  What's the point of having exciting new obstacles if everyone falls before we get to see them?  I understand that they don't want to city finals to be a cakewalk, but watching everyone fail and fall, even truly excellent competitors from years past is just boring and demoralizing.  I was doing other stuff while it was on, and it didn't hold my attention at all.

[Fukui San]

It's an interesting question. If you were setting out the course, how many finishers would you aim for? It used to be that they had more finishers than slots forward, and you had the 16th best finishing time being eliminated. I'd personally aim for 5-10 finishers per City Finals, but the producers are clearly aiming for 0-2 finishers. It's all arbitrary. 

[enoughcats]

19 minutes ago, Fukui San said:

If you were setting out the course, how many finishers would you aim for?

How predictable would the number be?
I think I'll argue very predictable.  They have seen a lot of these competitors before and there are some that are easily psyched out.  Then there are the ones who are too short to do, easily, what the lanky 5'10" can do with both longer arms AND legs.  

Gymnasts vs. mountain climbers vs. exercise geeks.  I think an equation could be written and tested on previous year's finals to predict finishers vs. fallers.

2 hours ago, ClareWalks said:

Ninjago Roll.

Two things:

If you get that far and are a man, there are odds that you are red green color blind.  Seeing the red there is almost a necessity for any chance of success.

I worried that someone/anyone would come out of that with a broken forearm.  A 150' unstable weight, that you are holdting on to with one arm, the thing moves and your arm gets slammed into one of the two horizonal struts that are keeping the tracks on either side equally spaced apart.  Would you instinctively drop or hold on?  Broken forearm or not?

[WInterfalls]

OK I'll admit it. The cancer survivor kid made me cry.  What he did was awesome! Having a friend whose son has leukemia it's amazing to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  He can regain muscle and fine motor skills that have been ravaged by chemo.  He can live a normal life down the road.  Even though he didn't make it through it was still really inspiring.  

3 hours ago, Fukui San said:

It's an interesting question. If you were setting out the course, how many finishers would you aim for? It used to be that they had more finishers than slots forward, and you had the 16th best finishing time being eliminated. I'd personally aim for 5-10 finishers per City Finals, but the producers are clearly aiming for 0-2 finishers. It's all arbitrary. 

I feel the same way a good course should have 5-10 finishers. Not 16 and not 0.  I wish the last obstacle was not that ridiculous elevator climb.  The climbing spider was just fine.  It would allow people whole could finish the other crazy obstacles to get to the end. 

[ClareWalks]

33 minutes ago, WInterfalls said:

The climbing spider was just fine.  It would allow people whole could finish the other crazy obstacles to get to the end. 

I dunno, I agree that the final obstacle nowadays is insane but I just watched season 4 again and they had this stupid "gimme" cargo-net climb, and it sucked. 

[WInterfalls]

5 minutes ago, ClareWalks said:

I dunno, I agree that the final obstacle nowadays is insane but I just watched season 4 again and they had this stupid "gimme" cargo-net climb, and it sucked. 

Agreed about the cargo net but on average how many people even get to the last obstacle? Maybe 4-6 and of that you are lucky if maybe 2 complete it.  I saw people fail on the spider climb but it felt fair.  This obstacle seems ridiculously hard.  And almost needless cruel. 

[Chaos Theory]

I know this wasn't her course but Jessie Graff would have 100% finished the course with the spider climb and almost definitely with the invisible ladder.  So I am torn.  I think the spider climb is a little too much of a gimme and the elevator climb is way too hard considering how hard the rest of the course is.

Edited August 29, 2017 by Chaos Theory

[gemmalogical]

Noah Kaufman was on the sidelines for both Meagan's and Ian's run. He didn't run this year or last. I wonder how much the gold jumpsuit while clearly commando had to do with him not being selected.

This season has been blah for me, in spite of Jesse and Jessie, and Meagan and a few others. I'm really glad we've gotten to Vegas. I think because, in Vegas, we will see difficult, but do-able, obstacles, as opposed the the insanely and sometimes downright sadistic, obstacles on the city courses.

[enoughcats]

1 hour ago, gemmalogical said:

Noah Kaufman was on the sidelines for both Meagan's and Ian's run. He didn't run this year or last. I wonder how much the gold jumpsuit while clearly commando had to do with him not being selected.

I didn't recognize him.  So you   remembered his face?  Well done.

[questionfear]

On 8/29/2017 at 11:46 AM, Fukui San said:

It's an interesting question. If you were setting out the course, how many finishers would you aim for? It used to be that they had more finishers than slots forward, and you had the 16th best finishing time being eliminated. I'd personally aim for 5-10 finishers per City Finals, but the producers are clearly aiming for 0-2 finishers. It's all arbitrary. 

I wonder how much of it is the show not realizing how tough some of the obstacles were going to be. They probably would ideally like 5-10 finishers, but they seem to have a hard time crafting the right balance for these courses; it's either a ton of finishers or only the super elite finish. It could be that the designers are trying to stay one step ahead of the athletes, who are increasingly prepared each year, but they overshot this year (I can see 1 or 2 city finals having low finishers, but they all had super low finishers)

[WInterfalls]

1 hour ago, gemmalogical said:

Noah Kaufman was on the sidelines for both Meagan's and Ian's run. He didn't run this year or last. I wonder how much the gold jumpsuit while clearly commando had to do with him not being selected.

I'm pretty sure he ran last year and this year, but he got knocked out in the qualifiers both times. 

[BTBAM310]

On 8/28/2017 at 9:34 PM, Lantern7 said:

Is it wrong to think of Meagan Martin as "yummy"? I feel weird saying that out loud, but she is, at least for me.

Nope, not wrong at all.

[healthnut]

8 hours ago, WInterfalls said:

I'm pretty sure he ran last year and this year, but he got knocked out in the qualifiers both times. 

 

10 hours ago, gemmalogical said:

Noah Kaufman was on the sidelines for both Meagan's and Ian's run. He didn't run this year or last. I wonder how much the gold jumpsuit while clearly commando had to do with him not being selected.

He wasn't selected last year. He ran this year, got the WWWA'ed and went out on the bouncing spider. 

[derriere]

Maybe it's just because I got into obstacle racing watching Sasuke and Ultimate Viking but I don't mind if few finish, or if nobody finishes. The course should be fiendishly hard.

 

These courses aren't impossible. I think a good 50% of the field have the physical chops to complete all the obstacles on their best day, it's just that they don't/can't deliver when the pressure is on. They choke.

[Quilt Fairy]

On ‎8‎/‎29‎/‎2017 at 11:13 AM, enoughcats said:

If you get that far and are a man, there are odds that you are red green color blind.  Seeing the red there is almost a necessity for any chance of success.

I worried that someone/anyone would come out of that with a broken forearm.  A 150' unstable weight, that you are holdting on to with one arm, the thing moves and your arm gets slammed into one of the two horizonal struts that are keeping the tracks on either side equally spaced apart.  Would you instinctively drop or hold on?  Broken forearm or not?

I don't follow your logic about being red/green colorblind (about 8% of men, according to Google) and someone's ability to navigate the Ninjago Roll.  Is it because the grip areas are red?  Certainly even a colorblind person would see something?  In any event, the grips are in the middle, as one would expect.

I do agree about the horizontal struts.  We only got a good look at them twice but when I saw them I thought they were tremendously dangerous to anyone who got over the first hump and started a good downward roll. 

And now we have an answer to something that has been bothering some of us (well, me, at least) all season:  When the press release describes the obstacles in the qualifying rounds, they sometimes include the obstacles from the back side of the finals course.   Because I remember in the Denver qualifier we were saying "Ninjago Roll? What the heck is a Ninjago Roll?"

[majormama]

6 hours ago, derriere said:

Maybe it's just because I got into obstacle racing watching Sasuke and Ultimate Viking but I don't mind if few finish, or if nobody finishes. The course should be fiendishly hard.

 

These courses aren't impossible. I think a good 50% of the field have the physical chops to complete all the obstacles on their best day, it's just that they don't/can't deliver when the pressure is on. They choke.

 

I haven't watched either of those. It is my understanding that Sasuke is a multi-stage course done all in one day, is that right? I get that they've had hardly anyone get to the end of the final stage. Has it ever happened that no one got past stage one? And then do they take the top 15 non-finishers and let them have a shot at stage two anyway, or is it over? 

 

I see ANW as a six-stage course run over a couple months where you don't necessarily have to complete stage one (qualifiers) and/or stage two (city finals) to get to stage three (stage one of Vegas finals). If no one got to the Vegas finals, that would be a boring show. So of course they let the top 15 in even if none of them completed. I'm definitely not opposed to the farthest fastest rule, but I do like to see at least a few finishers on preliminary courses. 

[Fukui San]

3 hours ago, majormama said:

 

I haven't watched either of those. It is my understanding that Sasuke is a multi-stage course done all in one day, is that right? I get that they've had hardly anyone get to the end of the final stage. Has it ever happened that no one got past stage one? And then do they take the top 15 non-finishers and let them have a shot at stage two anyway, or is it over? 

 

I see ANW as a six-stage course run over a couple months where you don't necessarily have to complete stage one (qualifiers) and/or stage two (city finals) to get to stage three (stage one of Vegas finals). If no one got to the Vegas finals, that would be a boring show. So of course they let the top 15 in even if none of them completed. I'm definitely not opposed to the farthest fastest rule, but I do like to see at least a few finishers on preliminary courses. 

Sasuke is basically American Ninja Warrior from the Vegas Finals onward presented as a single three hour special. The preliminary rounds are the invention of American Ninja Warrior. It is filmed all in one day. Stage one in the morning in afternoon, Stage 2 onward at night.

The hardest year saw only 2 competitors reach Stage 2.  It was only the second year of the new obstacle the Salmon Ladder which began Stage 2, and both competitors failed there. There was no Stage 3. The usual number of people to complete Stage 1 is from 8-15, with the most upwards of 20 finishers.

[craziness]

Have we ever figured out how much time (a day, weeks) lapses between qualifying and city finals rounds? I know in another thread, someone said the city finals was the next day.  But if Brian Arnold really broke his nose in qualifying (as he said), it didn't look all swollen and bruised in the city finals. 

[AZChristian]

44 minutes ago, craziness said:

Have we ever figured out how much time (a day, weeks) lapses between qualifying and city finals rounds? I know in another thread, someone said the city finals was the next day.  But if Brian Arnold really broke his nose in qualifying (as he said), it didn't look all swollen and bruised in the city finals. 

Icing something like that will delay any swelling or bruising.  Pretty sure they iced him up right away.  Might be interesting to see his face a couple of days later.

[healthnut]

6 hours ago, craziness said:

Have we ever figured out how much time (a day, weeks) lapses between qualifying and city finals rounds? I know in another thread, someone said the city finals was the next day.  But if Brian Arnold really broke his nose in qualifying (as he said), it didn't look all swollen and bruised in the city finals. 

It is the next day. For some people the same day because qualifying often goes til 4am or 5am. Or in the case of Kansas City this year, it rained and they finished qualifying right before starting city finals. 

Either Brian didn't really break his nose, had a tiny fracture, or didn't go to the doctor until after city finals and that segment was filmed later. 

[Guest]

I thought it was funny that they chiron the qualifier run clip as "2017 qualifier", now that I know this is the following night.

Ian Dory is amazing.  But I marvel at those chompers.  He looks like the dog on the Dentastix box.  I mean this in a good way.  

[eel2178]

On ‎9‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 0:32 PM, craziness said:

Have we ever figured out how much time (a day, weeks) lapses between qualifying and city finals rounds? 

Denver qualifier was run May 23. Denver finals were filmed May 24.

[VartanFan]

Quote

Noah Kaufman was on the sidelines for both Meagan's and Ian's run. He didn't run this year or last. I wonder how much the gold jumpsuit while clearly commando had to do with him not being selected.

He wasn't selected last year. He ran this year, got the WWWA'ed and went out on the bouncing spider. 

If anyone still has this taped, seriously - do yourself a favor and go back and watch the Kaufman WWWA bit because Meagan's reaction when he eats it is priceless.  

 

I was happy for an Ian D finish because he's not super annoying and I actually like Brian Arnold.  

[craziness]

Thanks everyone who answered my "when filmed" question. I knew it didn't make sense to have weeks between runs (too much gear to break down and reset up) but broken noses should take a while to heal. I guess they used lots of ice on Brian's nose.

[Guest]

Doesn't a broken nose typically bleed, too?  I guess the nose is cartilage so they can probably call any good nose smash (which his was) "broken" but still seems a bit questionable.