S11.E10: Seattle/Tacoma City Finals

[JenMD]

Nice interview with Jessie in which she details her run, her return to ANW and getting back to strength after injuries.  I can't wait to see her in Vegas.

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“Going into the Northwest Passage, I barely had any strength left. But I was so excited that on the way down, I wasn’t holding my lock offs, but they were lowering slow enough to not have an impact. And when I got to the bottom of that one, I did my figure fours. They worked perfectly and then you don’t have to bring the pegs with you for the next couple moves. And so, the plan had been get two hands on one, do a big pull-up, grab two hands, big pull-up. Only the second pull-up, I couldn’t quite reach. I got my hand facing the wrong way and didn’t have the strength to pop it around the other way.”

The up section is one of the things that was bugging me.  As I watched it, I remember thinking that section should be stationary.  And if they don't even have to take the pegs with them, it's even more pointless that they come out.  There's challenging and then there's overkill.   I think this was overkill.  If they're going to use it in the future, I hope they take these results (most especially including the injury) in to account and make some adjustments.

Re: course design in general - I don't think they design any of the courses for a particular athlete or try to make them easier/more accommodating to get specific results.  The show never knows how even the most experienced ninja is going to do,, as evidenced by so many early exits from Las Vegas regulars in this city alone.

[Quilt Fairy]

4 hours ago, enoughcats said:

This also has implications for those that make it to the city finals.  They have had some access to the second half of the course while the first prelims are run.  Many the rings aren't up, but the superstructure and lights are there.  They can tell which parts of their bodies are going to be most stressed.  This time it was upper body and from the superstructures, that would have been obvious. 

They don't have to guess, the second half of the course is almost always entirely upper body for obstacles 7, 8, and 9.  The only 2nd half obstacle I can think of that wasn't upper body was that thing where they have to brace themselves horizontally and inch along it.  Sorry for the bad description, but it was similar to the 3rd or 4th obstacle on stage 3.  Occasionally there are obstacles where you have to use your feet as well, but I'd still classify them all as upper body. 

How many years did they have the Invisible Ladder for the last obstacle?  Two years?  And hardly anyone got up it because that made 4 straight upper body obstacles in a row and even the strongest contestants were burned out at that point.   I'm glad they went back to something Spider Climb-y.  

It surprises me that NWP made it through their testing phase.  As an individual obstacle it might be doable, but as the 9th obstacle in an already tough course it's a failure. 

[realdancemom]

On 8/7/2019 at 11:04 PM, AdorkableWitch said:

I hope we never see NWP again because it was not only ridiculous but also dangerous. It feels like way too many people have gotten injured this year. 

Agree.  If more people passed the floating monkey bars, I wouldn't have been surprised if other people besides Dan got hit.  I hope he did go to the doctor afterwards to check for a concussion.  I think it affected him during the Power Tower too.

[enoughcats]

Does anyone know if the edit changes from the Monday night showing?

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Edited August 9, 2019 by enoughcats

[ParadoxLost]

On 8/8/2019 at 7:55 PM, JenMD said:

Re: course design in general - I don't think they design any of the courses for a particular athlete or try to make them easier/more accommodating to get specific results.  The show never knows how even the most experienced ninja is going to do,, as evidenced by so many early exits from Las Vegas regulars in this city alone.

[RedbirdNelly]

I was disappointed no one finished. NW Passage looks clearly too hard. People didn't even make it to the last part of the challenge hard. I felt bad for Sandy and her tearful kid.

One of my favorite parts was the pig watching on facetime. I don't know why but I love stuff like that.