S11.E05: Baltimore City Qualifiers

[Lantern7]

Tonight: Najee Richardson, Joe Moravsky, Alyssia Beird, Jon Alexis Jr., Jamie Rahn, and lots of other ninjas!

Wow "Mama's Boy Ninja" a capella send-off for the win.

Is there a map of the setup in Baltimore. I've been to the Inner Harbor a few times, and I'd curious how it looks beyond the cameras on the course.

Edited July 2, 2019 by Lantern7

[ams1001]

9 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

Wow "Mama's Boy Ninja" a capella send-off for the win.

I wanted to roll my eyes at that but they were pretty good (except for the fact that I've been singing Danny Boy for the last two hours...).

I'll take snakes over the bugs any day. (Though I always worry a bit about animals (other than service dogs trained to deal with crowds, at least) brought to the course with all the screaming and lights and everything.)

Little Brody was cute. Yay for his dad being first to finish.

'k, I missed something...what the heck was with the horses?

Put your phone away, Akbar.

[Chaos Theory]

Not the most exciting of the qualifying rounds.   Except for maybe The King Of The Walk-ons who definitely earned his name.

[enoughcats]

35 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

what the heck was with the horses?

The guy running the course was 'one of the four horsemen' probably because they weren't into literature.

Who is the ninja who we see everywhere, including filling is as a horseman?  Rough curly hair, tall-ish, broad toothy grin, big guy.  He might have run in the first episode this year.  I've seen him at every episode since then.  

Staying downtown in these cities isn't cheap, are the recurring ninja faces in comp-ed rooms? 

[ams1001]

12 minutes ago, enoughcats said:

Who is the ninja who we see everywhere, including filling is as a horseman?  Rough curly hair, tall-ish, broad toothy grin, big guy.  He might have run in the first episode this year.  I've seen him at every episode since then.  

Staying downtown in these cities isn't cheap, are the recurring ninja faces in comp-ed rooms? 

Grant McCartney? He's always on the sidelines somewhere. (Does he still work as a flight attendant? If so, he probably gets to fly for free.)

[Lantern7]

Lots of names, but two unknowns wound up running for the bye. I don't think either of them have an "official" nickname. I don't think "Part Ninja" or "King of the Walk-Ons" will stick. Most of the bigger guns either fell or failed to scale the Warped Wall. A couple of 2018-era phenoms got humbled, and it looks like Jon Alexis Jr.'s season is over. Great, now Akbar can't shout "FEE FIE FOE STEP!!!" or "BRITTEN'S GOT TALENT!!!!' this season.

I gotta find the clip of the penguin snapping at Akbar. I know, he's the goofier of the commentators, but it seldom comes off as outright mugging. And he handled that snake longer that Matt.

[AZChristian]

I was jealous and my mouth was watering at the quick shot of people eating steamed crabs.  Nothing on earth better than Chesapeake Bay steamed crabs.

It's the ONLY thing I miss about Baltimore (born and raised there).

[enoughcats]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

Grant McCartney? He's always on the sidelines somewhere. (Does he still work as a flight attendant?

Yes, thanks for the name.  I'd forgotten that he started out as being from Knoxville (where we do most of our shopping when we come in from the boondocks).  Now he's from Hawaii.  And 'used to be a flight attendant'. 

[ClareWalks]

The stories last night mostly sucked. "I was a teen dad." Or worse: "My boyfriend and I got a dog." 

[Good Queen Jane]

10 hours ago, ams1001 said:

'k, I missed something...what the heck was with the horses?

The competitor's nickname was The Stallion, although the stick horses were missing the part which would have demonstrated that.

[enoughcats]

2 hours ago, Good Queen Jane said:

The competitor's nickname was The Stallion, although the stick horses were missing the part which would have demonstrated that.

Coming soon to a reality show near you:

The Gelding

followed by

The Gomer

[Hellga]

14 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

I gotta find the clip of the penguin snapping at Akbar. I know, he's the goofier of the commentators, but it seldom comes off as outright mugging. And he handled that snake longer that Matt.

The snake was cute.  

6 hours ago, ClareWalks said:

The stories last night mostly sucked. "I was a teen dad." Or worse: "My boyfriend and I got a dog." 

Yup.   Though the teen dad was kind of unusual, made it seem like he had full custody, and that's rather unusual for a young boy.

I was surprised no one got up on that megawall when the other night we had something like seven or eight people get up there.  Maybe the sea air did make it slicker...

Edited July 2, 2019 by Hellga

[mlp]

23 minutes ago, Hellga said:

I was surprised no one got up on that megawall 

I think they are psyching themselves out.  Many of them aren't failing because they can't quite get to the top or because their grip strength isn't good enough when they reach the edge.  They're missing by a long shot like they haven't coordinated their footwork or something.  We saw the same thing happen in other cities so I don't think it was just that the wall may have been slippery although that may have affected Joe and Najee who should have been able to do it.

Quote

I gotta find the clip of the penguin snapping at Akbar.

Let us know if you find one.  That was hilarious.

Allowing the top 5 women to progress just because they're female has become ridiculous.  The #4 and #5 women from Baltimore both lasted less than 30 seconds.  There's no way they earned the right to advance.

Edited July 2, 2019 by mlp
Add comment.

[eel21788]

16 hours ago, enoughcats said:

Who is the ninja who we see everywhere, including filling is as a horseman?  Rough curly hair, tall-ish, broad toothy grin, big guy.  He might have run in the first episode this year.  I've seen him at every episode since then.  

He's going to run next week in Cincinnati. He's a guy who always like to be the center of attention.

[healthnut]

It seems like they changed the arch of the mega wall. I’m always afraid someone is going to get hurt, I don’t really like three attempts. The power tower is a good idea but with almost all of the big name ninjas going for the mega wall, it hasn’t been super exciting. 

How far did Abby Clark make it? Did they show her run? If so, I missed it. 

[ClareWalks]

3 minutes ago, healthnut said:

How far did Abby Clark make it? Did they show her run? If so, I missed it. 

She was the one who, gasp, got a dog! What a great sob story! 😉

[Chaos Theory]

14 minutes ago, ClareWalks said:

She was the one who, gasp, got a dog! What a great sob story! 😉

Why do you call them sob stories?   Some of them in the past have been hilarious.   They are back stories that they do because it is part of the format.   The new  ones need to be interesting enough so most go sad because it’s the best way but once you have gotten on the show you can do some of the funnier ones.  Hell Allysa Beird did one with her students that one time.  It was funny.

Edited July 2, 2019 by Chaos Theory

[ClareWalks]

14 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

Why do you call them sob stories?   Some of them in the past have been hilarious.   They are back stories that they do because it is part of the format.   The new  ones need to be interesting enough so most go sad because it’s the best way but once you have gotten on the show you can do some of the funnier ones.  Hell Allysa Beird did one with her students that one time.  It was funny.

Okay then, "back stories." It was lame. She got a dog. Wowza. I've seen good back stories but not that.

[Quilt Fairy]

3 hours ago, mlp said:

Allowing the top 5 women to progress just because they're female has become ridiculous.  The #4 and #5 women from Baltimore both lasted less than 30 seconds.  There's no way they earned the right to advance.

They're only advancing to the city finals, not Las Vegas.

2 hours ago, healthnut said:

It seems like they changed the arch of the mega wall.

I don't think they've changed the arch but they have changed it so there is practically no run-up to either wall.  Some of the shorter guys like Joe Moravski don't have much of a chance on the Mega-wall and I don't know why he was so hung up on it.  Is $10K that much of an incentive for the professional ninjas?

[eel21788]

4 hours ago, Hellga said:

Yup.   Though the teen dad was kind of unusual, made it seem like he had full custody, and that's rather unusual for a young boy.

From looking at his and his baby mama's facebook pages it appears as though they have joint custody. She's gone on to have two more kids, and he is dating one of his ex's best friends. It's pretty typical of a Teen Mom story.                                                                                           

Edited July 2, 2019 by eel21788

[ams1001]

4 hours ago, mlp said:

Let us know if you find one.  That was hilarious.

[Hellga]

3 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

 Is $10K that much of an incentive for the professional ninjas?

The really big names might have some ad contracts where they make real money, but the rest, my guess, have to make ends meet by whatever jobs they can get and get nothing from being ninjas other than a couple minutes of TV fame.  Joe is a "weatherman" but my guess is local stations don't pay much either. 

If I could get $10K all at once with only a little extra effort/expense vs. what I would have done otherwise - I would sure go for it.  Nothing to lose, $10K to gain.  

Edited July 3, 2019 by Hellga

[enoughcats]

5 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

but they have changed it so there is practically no run-up to either wall. 

Which might favor a sprinter...someone who is used to powerful take offs.  

If the episode were filmed down near the water, the night humidity would have made a lot of things more slippery. (I hated the running over cones.)

[Nonja]

1 hour ago, enoughcats said:

Which might favor a sprinter...someone who is used to powerful take offs.  

If the episode were filmed down near the water, the night humidity would have made a lot of things more slippery. (I hated the running over cones.)

I figure the wall MUST have been slippery with the way both Najee and Joe werent even close. You know they must have been training the 18 ft. wall all year. 

I also hated the running over cones.

[AZChristian]

10 hours ago, enoughcats said:

Which might favor a sprinter...someone who is used to powerful take offs.  

If the episode were filmed down near the water, the night humidity would have made a lot of things more slippery. (I hated the running over cones.)

It's filmed at the Inner Harbor.  There is nothing but water between the course and that tall building in the background.

[Necromancer]

14 hours ago, Hellga said:

The really big names might have some ad contracts where they make real money, but the rest, my guess, have to make ends meet by whatever jobs they can get and get nothing from being ninjas other than a couple minutes of TV fame.  Joe is a "weatherman" but my guess is local stations don't pay much either. 

If I could get $10K all at once with only a little extra effort/expense vs. what I would have done otherwise - I would sure go for it.  Nothing to lose, $10K to gain.   

I was  surprised that Jamie Rahn didn't attempt the 18 ft warped wall this year.  Last year he ran the course without shoes when he lost one shoe on the second obstacle.  I thought at the time that he didn't want to try the 18 ft wall shoeless. 

I'm guessing that all the ninja warrior contestants  could use a $10,000 payday.

[ClareWalks]

There's probably also some element of bragging rights, of being able to say "I got the Mega Wall" to other ninjas. It's probably a decent prestige thing. The money definitely helps, too, as there may be some sponsorship opportunities for the really big names but otherwise it's not a high-paying sport.

[Hellga]

With the high salaries of MLB, NBA, NHL and NFL it is easy to forget that most professional or high caliber athletes make next to nothing... I think during one of the recent Olympics I saw and infographics that average earnings for the members of the US National Team were in low five figures...  Don't quit your day job, basically.  

[djlynch]

Dear editors: When you WWWA a ninja who makes it to the buzzer in the second-fastest time of the night, and make a point of mentioning that, it kind of makes it obvious that he's not actually going to make it to the Power Tower.

[Ilovepie]

Aw, no, Joe! He's always been my favorite. I was bummed he didn't make it up the wall. I absolutely think it's about bragging rights/ninja cred and not the money that makes almost all the elites attempt it instead of going for fastest time, which Joe or Najee or Chris W. could absolutely have gotten. I think it was too slippery at this location. There's no way Joe or Najee were so off other than that - last year Najee got up it, and Joe got a hand on the top, and this time they were like a foot off, and both seemed like they had the energy to do it. I think I liked it better last year when they had one try at the Mega Wall but could then switch to the regular one. It's kind of disappointing when the most best Ninjas don't finish.

Although the show probably needs new breakout stars, I felt this episode had a lot of people I never have heard of, and it was more boring to me because of that. Plus, I just find the Power Tower boring when it's people I've never heard of. Maybe it's just me......

I said when this episode started and I saw Crank it Up that no woman was going to hit a buzzer in Baltimore. No wonder Jessie G. ran in Tacoma. That course was so much easier than this one, and I think they wanted her to finish the course. I hope Alyssa has better luck in the Finals......

[Nonja]

5 hours ago, Ilovepie said:

Although the show probably needs new breakout stars, I felt this episode had a lot of people I never have heard of, and it was more boring to me because of that. Plus, I just find the Power Tower boring when it's people I've never heard of. Maybe it's just me......

Nope, not just you.

[Rosenrot]

On ‎7‎/‎2‎/‎2019 at 9:09 PM, mlp said:

Allowing the top 5 women to progress just because they're female has become ridiculous.  The #4 and #5 women from Baltimore both lasted less than 30 seconds.  There's no way they earned the right to advance.

I kinda agree, but then, if they last less than 30 seconds in the qualifiers, they're likely not gonna get very far in the city finals anyway. So it's just like… whatever. 

14 hours ago, Nonja said:

Plus, I just find the Power Tower boring when it's people I've never heard of. Maybe it's just me...…

I actually found it quite refreshing to see new faces in the Tower. Maybe it's just because I find so many veteran ninjas annoying (I'm not sure why). 

One of the veterans I don't find annoying is Jamie and of course they WWWA'd his run. 😑

I, too, think there was something off with that Mega Wall. Najee got up last year, so why wouldn't he be able to get up this year, after yet another year of training? 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Rosenrot

[enoughcats]

9 hours ago, Rosenrot said:

I, too, think there was something off with that Mega Wall. Najee got up last year, so why wouldn't he be able to get up this year, after yet another year of training? 

The more I think about running on a slick surface next to the water, the more I think that the guys needed boat shoes.  If you've ever looked at their soles, you'll see a subtle, close together cutin zig zag.  There are times when I wore them on our boat and had no problems staying up right and I'd see people on other boats (also fiberglass) sliding dangerously.

I'd also guess that shrimp boat boots might have been a secret power that didn't happen to get used

[realdancemom]

On 7/4/2019 at 10:07 AM, Rosenrot said:

I kinda agree, but then, if they last less than 30 seconds in the qualifiers, they're likely not gonna get very far in the city finals anyway. So it's just like… whatever. 

I actually found it quite refreshing to see new faces in the Tower. Maybe it's just because I find so many veteran ninjas annoying (I'm not sure why). 

One of the veterans I don't find annoying is Jamie and of course they WWWA'd his run. 😑

I, too, think there was something off with that Mega Wall. Najee got up last year, so why wouldn't he be able to get up this year, after yet another year of training? 

Both Najee and Chris made it up the Mega Wall last year.  Joe was really close.  So it probably was slippery since all three of them weren't even close this year.  Don't remember if there was a longer ramp up last year.

I know the King of the Walk Ons didn't have to wait this year.  I hope it's true for the following years.  If he won the Power Tower, he deserves to be a regular now.

[Destiny74]

17 minutes ago, realdancemom said:

Both Najee and Chris made it up the Mega Wall last year.  Joe was really close.  So it probably was slippery since all three of them weren't even close this year.  Don't remember if there was a longer ramp up last year.

I know the King of the Walk Ons didn't have to wait this year.  I hope it's true for the following years.  If he won the Power Tower, he deserves to be a regular now.

I am probably wrong but it feels like the run up was slightly longer last year.  It looks super short this year.

[eel21788]

20 minutes ago, realdancemom said:

 I know the King of the Walk Ons didn't have to wait this year.  I hope it's true for the following years.  If he won the Power Tower, he deserves to be a regular now.

I really wish they would explain their reasoning as to who gets invites and who has to go to the walk-on line, as well as how many of each get to run the course. That's the kind of thing that interests me a lot more than the contestant backstories.

[djlynch]

I don't think there is any logic to decide who gets an invitation other than who they think is going to make good television. Under the previous format, they never explained how the "wild card" ninjas who went to Vegas despite not getting out of the city finals were selected, either.

[kili]

Quote

 I know the King of the Walk Ons didn't have to wait this year.  I hope it's true for the following years.  If he won the Power Tower, he deserves to be a regular now.

I kind of got the impression that the show was using him as their archetypal walk-on. They weren't giving him a ticket so they could talk about how long he's waited to be a walk-on. He was a contender with a lot of days on the walk-on who would walk-on again next year. I think that if you make it to nationals, you should get a courtesy acceptance the following year. 

This year, with the random draw for walk-ons, he might not make it if they make him walk-on again. He's been to nationals twice and just had the fastest time/won tower of power. He's a credible enough athlete to not have to have been made to walk-on last year.

[enoughcats]

The favored this one and guaranteed slot that one may have worked in the past.

There's a problem with a group who have been around for (maybe) going on ten years.  They get older. Truth.  Their bodies get older and they might even get some wear on some joints that slow them down. 

We're already seeing some of the most successful contestants go out earlier than expected .  Extrapolate five years.  How do you tell a guy with high name recognition and a great fan base that he's too old/slow/creaky to get a guaranteed slot?  

My solution would be to plan ahead and look in five years to a Senior Circuit. Same course but age dependent. 

Keep those of us who are old/slow/creaky watching (and advertisers who target us interested) as well as build up young guns group.

[little black cloud]

On 7/2/2019 at 5:58 PM, eel21788 said:

From looking at his and his baby mama's facebook pages it appears as though they have joint custody.                                                                                           

If this is the case, I’m irritated at the whole “single dad” thing, then. I’m not saying it’s easy, but “single dad” isn’t the same thing as “dad who has an active co-parent in the picture.”

[eel21788]

15 hours ago, little black cloud said:

If this is the case, I’m irritated at the whole “single dad” thing, then. I’m not saying it’s easy, but “single dad” isn’t the same thing as “dad who has an active co-parent in the picture.”

The baby mama's facebook page is full of comments about how the father of her other two children is such a wonderful "father figure" for Brody, too.                           

[realdancemom]

16 hours ago, little black cloud said:

If this is the case, I’m irritated at the whole “single dad” thing, then. I’m not saying it’s easy, but “single dad” isn’t the same thing as “dad who has an active co-parent in the picture.”

26 minutes ago, eel21788 said:

The baby mama's facebook page is full of comments about how the father of her other two children is such a wonderful "father figure" for Brody, too.                           

The show made it look like the mom was out of the picture.   When they started showing the "single dad", I also wondered if he lived with his parents so they could help raise their grandchild.  But they didn't show that either and I don't care enough to search the internet.  I'm glad that Brody has parents/stepdad that are helping raise him but the show definitely did not show the whole truth.

[Meushell]

On 7/7/2019 at 7:20 PM, little black cloud said:

If this is the case, I’m irritated at the whole “single dad” thing, then. I’m not saying it’s easy, but “single dad” isn’t the same thing as “dad who has an active co-parent in the picture.”

Yes. I hope Mr. Single Dad, But Not Really did some major apologizing to her for making it seem like she walked out on her kid. 

[enoughcats]

Time for city finals tonight?

Unless a cold front blew through, the wall might just be slick again tonight.  That could make getting to the second half of the competition really iffy.

[TimothyQ]

2 hours ago, enoughcats said:

Time for city finals tonight?

Unless a cold front blew through, the wall might just be slick again tonight.  That could make getting to the second half of the competition really iffy.

It's been six weeks since the qualifiers, I'm sure the wall has dried out by now. 😉

🤣

[sd dude]

On ‎7‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 12:41 PM, djlynch said:

When you WWWA a ninja who makes it to the buzzer in the second-fastest time of the night, and make a point of mentioning that, it kind of makes it obvious that he's not actually going to make it to the Power Tower.

What is WWWA?

[eel21788]

Just now, sd dude said:

What is WWWA?

While We Were Away (aka run relegated to during the commercials).

17 minutes ago, TimothyQ said:

It's been six weeks since the qualifiers, I'm sure the wall has dried out by now. 😉

🤣

Naw. They hosed it down just for continuity purposes (also sarcasm).