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Re: Season 11 of American Ninja Warrior on NBC


All-Stars first!

Team competition: It's good when the hosts are trash-talking each other. Lol at Akbar's intro "Okay, but we'll be the most entertaining team yet!" Also funny how much harder Jeep/Tire Run is in the special eps! I guess it's because people are trying to go fast on it now, and everyone went slow on it in the regular season!

I'm split on the new Stage Three rule... it ensures that the stage takes enough time for the broadcast and allows all teammates to contribute to the score regardless, but (if a tiebreaker is needed), the new system actually punishes people who take longer to fail an obstacle. For example, it's more time-efficient to fail the first ledge of the Cliffhanger than it would be to fail the last, and I would hate to see a team lose because of that.

Kristine was lowkey happy she lost because she didn't have to jump in lol. I will be sad to see her go, in a way. "We'll see if your time holds up against Team Matt." That quote basically made me assume that both teams cleared the same number of obstacles, and that was indeed the case emoticon

Glad we got a bit of every challenge, even if the three hours did drag a bit!

Spider Climb: Only four players instead of eight was good. It meant we actually got to see the whole challenge this time. Did the last ten feet not seem a lot farther apart than that, though? Maybe it's an illusion, but looks like bad measurement. Chris's race was CLOSE!

Wicked Wingnuts: Wow, it actually is in Stage Two now! This new setup seems a bit more cumbersome because you have to change direction on the first grip, but I guess they don't want people falling back onto the starting platform and getting injured. I'm guessing Drew was forced to sit-out to make it less predictable who would win emoticon The original was better.

Doorknob Drop: This Doorknob Drop is hardly mega - it seems like just one small uphill panel has been added, and the first two have less doorknobs on them! And whoa, that was an easy win for Geoff! *is secretly happy* The injury he got was weird though, and the fact that they decided who would replace him based-on the results of two entirely different heats!

Striding Steps: They just called Murray the 2018 Striding Steps champion, but said that the Giant Jump Hang clip was from 2015 - there's inconsistency for you! None of these races were very close, lol. Matt did not look happy when Jake Murray sat down, lol. I feel like just stopping and waiting for the other guy to fall often works out in this one lol. Welp, as I expected I much preferred the individual one - not only are you able to pay more attention to one runner, but it makes the runs better. Here, one of the two always fell and the round was essentially over immediately. With the old format, you didn't know you were safe because you were competing against everyone else and you ran separately. Well, they definitely won't go back to single, so I'm guessing the step challenge will be gone next year entirely.

Super Salmon Ladder: I wasn't a fan of them not showing the time because it gave me the feeling that time wouldn't become a factor (and I was right!). They both fell at 16, which was weird. Barclay actually did really well (after failing the Criss Cross Salmon Ladder just minutes prior!), which was good to see. This is the only challenge to have appeared in every All Stars special. Time for something new, methinks.

Double Dipper: At first I was like "Is the audience actually rating the jumps or is this a joke?" But the hosts rating is weird enough! Highlights included Sean's first attempt, Jake's cannonball and Brent's slipup. Comedy highlight to Sean's second attempt. But I do think that only got a perfect 10 because his first one should have. I feel like them going out of order is unfair because the judging criteria clearly changed (his amazing first one got a 9 from Kristine, but Drew's double Dipper (see what I did there?) and Sean's comedy got 10s). Exposes a flaw with the format. It was still fun, and would love to see one or two rating comps again next year. Was funny to see Kristine actually getting into things with a bigger role! I would like to see more of that, shame she seemed unbothered most of the other times emoticon

I enjoyed this episode, but a few of the challenges are growing stale. Wingnuts and Salmon Ladder seem to be maxed-out, and the Steps are a bit meh. The Double Dipper is definitely an exciting new idea, but the Doorknob Drop is hardly supersized and the Spider Climb has also had its time (unless they want to add it to the Tower for the actual season next year.. emoticon ).

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3/Jun/19, 12:12 am Link to this post    PM Messup434
 
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Re: Season 11 of American Ninja Warrior on NBC


LOL that's a lot of post to respond to.

I saw the season premiere. The second and third obstacles were deadly. I really liked the balance obstacle, we've seen it with balls but never with plates before. Fifth obstacle and the new rules for the Mega Wall both felt just a little contrived for my liking... xD.

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5/Jun/19, 3:36 am Link to this post    PM WateryMimosa
 
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Re: Season 11 of American Ninja Warrior on NBC


Quote:

WateryMimosa wrote:

I really liked the balance obstacle, we've seen it with balls but never with plates before.


It's called Diamond Dash... and we did see it last year. The one with balls is called spinning Bridge, it's an entirely different obstacle (even though they are very similar).
5/Jun/19, 7:49 am Link to this post    PM Takeshi1
 
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Re: Season 11 of American Ninja Warrior on NBC


^Edited the title to make it simpler since this is our big new thread.

Also, I'm finally reviewing the LA episode!

There were so many changes, it took me a week to write this post emoticon But there actually were quite a few, which I'll comment on after we introduce the obstacles...

Shrinking Steps aren't my favorite obstacle, but it is good to see the start of the course being varied-up again this year. I just wish we could get away from the steps in general. Also wondering if the steps are meant to shake by design?
Walk the Plank (calm down TBS.. not the Takeshi's Castle version emoticon) wasn't quite as fun as I was hoping, but it did a lot more damage! I remember commenting on the diamond seesaw looking Beastmaster-esque back in March, but the steps up to it look like they're right from it!! A recycle obstacle, but not bad.
Spring Forward has a great concept. I feel like these bouncy bars deserve to have a long future ahead of them since they completely change the game in that respect. This obstacle is good, though I feel we hardly saw any of it.
Diamond Dash produced a couple more crazy moments, but hanging balance stuff is getting old. But not as old as the SPINNING and BROKEN BRIDGES which both return later on emoticon
Spin Hopper is a fun one. Seemed a slight bit stiffer than it was last year (before the city finals nerf), but it still got its people.
Mega Wall new rules are good in my book, though I feel it will lead to more clears but less money given out, both hampering the Mega Wall excitement. [SPOILER:]And I do have the gift of foresight, having just seen Atlanta emoticon Scott Wilson being the sole person to clear it was amazingly unexpected.

Power Tower: This matchup was equally unexpected! I must admit, I never guessed the Godfather would get to compete in this, and the attention he got made it amazing. I was rooting for him, but both competitors were amazing, and that was quite the race! Note that I only saw the Finals version of this obstacle (in Cincinnati) in-person, I went home before on the first night!

Right away, the new obstacle names compared to the old ones look weird. They are longer and more punny, which isn't bad. The difference between the first and last three obstacle's names does strike one as odd, though! I do think three-word names are a bit long, especially after people were annoyed with Crank It Up and Catch & Release.

I do think all obstacles should be introduced. That's just an expectation for me. Especially since they've made the unfortunate decision of extending the pre-break segments even more AND sticking music on top of it all. That's the one editing choice I can think of that has made things slower this year.

That includes the guy who was looking for his sister and the segment after he cleared. I really hope he finds his sister, I just found it weird to watch. Those scenes with music at the end and dramatic camerawork feel like America's Got Talent.

The slow-mo shots with no audio also annoyed me, just because they feel "detached". It's small, but that bugs me.

The fact that the THIRD obstacle was the cutoff is insane. I think that's just because it was apparently raining as this was produced. Speaking of really low cutoffs, they didn't show the top five women leaderboard, but it's still there. Again, I feel like this has to be shown if they have it and I don't understand why it wasn't. I really hope they're not being underhanded and planning on claiming that all five women legitimately qualified for city Finals when they think we've all forgotten results. I will have my eyes peeled on that!

Having the timer behind the Warped Wall was a dumb move. Move that out of camera view, since the runs are shown to us out of order, and show us the screen clock more! Thanks.

The camera angles and snappier editing are interesting ideas. Some angles on Walk the Plank just struck me as stupid, but I think I will adjust to the faster shots and it's definitely not a bad idea to have them.

It kind of worries me how they have Matt call out stuff like "You have the fastest time of the night!" (to Godfather). I know it's hard to call it a spoiler because he didn't end up with the fastest time, but that tells you that everyone who runs before him in real-life (and I can make some educated guesses at who those people are) either fall or do worse than him. I also don't like the clock showing the time to beat being placed right behind the Warped Wall. It made it look dumb when the clock showed 2:03 as the fastest time yet, yet we never saw that run. Also, if we were to see the run later, we might be spoiled by the clock showing 2:03 earlier, because the person would be just on pace for that time, and we'd assume they cleared in that time and it'd spoil that they didn't fall. Or if the last person to run in real life set the fastest time, and they're shown earlier in the ep, it would look weird that their time isn't on the clock. Or if the last person we see run is on a pace that will blow all the other times out of he water, and we haven't seen a super fast time on the clock at all in the episode, we might suspect that they'll have a last-second fall. Of course, most people don't really know how the episode's order is so different to the taping order, but still. All in all, just don't have a clock on-set and add one on-screen more often.

Also when the hosts were saying how deadly Walk the Plank had been all night, they should've held all that back until after the montage, because it felt forced and we'd only seen like two people fall.

With all of the negatives, I have to remind myself that last year's premiere was very different from the other episodes as well. I think they like giving the premiere the most fresh feel.

I did enjoy having Zuri and the little exclusive segments she did. She is full of energy, and I can attest to that from being in Cinci emoticon

I enjoyed that most of the profiles were quicker, and some (especially the first few) were just silly and fun.

It's an episode that could have been great, but was brought down by some of the packaging (change my mind) and, I think, being first. I was going to receive this one roughly with how much they changed it, and I think my reaction to Atlanta will say more about how I really feel about the changes, since I'll have had a bit of time to get used to them!

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6/Jun/19, 5:37 am Link to this post    PM Messup434
 
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Re: Season 11 of American Ninja Warrior on NBC


I'd say last night's episode was a bit less extreme in the new editing than last week. I quite enjoyed it, even with less people in this region than we've had in the past. I do wonder where Jessie and JJ are though!

Shrinking Steps were once again a bit easy, good to see a couple fails in fast-forward
Off the Hook looked hard to me, don't know why almost everyone made it through this! To me it looked like the first ring was hardly even secured on the first hook (which wasn't even curved up), and the jump forced the ring to be turned about 90 degrees to catch it. I'm just surprised not a ton failed it as it actually looks harder to me than Walk the Plank.
Block Run comes to die (I assume.. hopefully!) in its birth place of Atlanta. It is definitely harder than it was in its first year! Block Run has gained an exciting element, and several people just barely made it to the platform tonight!
Bouncing Spider must be gaining a place in my heart. The main challenge this time was clearly the trampoline which made it feel a bit simple. I do wonder why some people were going below the drop line. Is that now a design element, or did they just not feel like holding people to that rule. Really curious.
Ferris Wheels was an interesting one. It had like mini Wingnuts hanging from it, and I didn't realize the swinging element from pictures. That adds a level of craziness to it all, since they swing a ton after every drop. Also, interesting choice in that going up require muscle-up strength (keep your Ls!) but less move, while going down takes less pull-up strength but more moves.
Mega Wall was insane! I thought we'd never see the day where they skipped a Mega Wall clear, but they skipped two! I wish they'd shown them, but it is interesting. I still think they'll give out less than last year though.

Power Tower battle was more expected than last week, but I most definitely liked it! Interesting to see what happens if someone falls - in my opinion you should restart it all, but I know they want a good race and all...

Two things that bothered me during the first run: That usual "Who knows how far she'll make it, but she's doing her best...". That just bothers me and seems insulting to these people. Also, landing on the Bouncing Spider trampoline again is an unnecessary disqualification.

I also suggest having a first segment where two people fail the same obstacle. That hasn't happened in yeeeears, and I almost thought it'd happen tonight, but then the guy made it to the Ferris Wheels. Just mix up the intros. I did think the first clear being a Mega Wall was a good surprise.

The poker segment was really surprising. I'm not sure I approve of betting and offering someone $120,000, but I suppose it was made to be a "fun run" or whatever. I like Zuri's "There's always next year." Those edits make things more fun/less serious, no thanks Matt and Akbar.

I was sure the Mom would make it after they said that no Mom had cleared the course in the 11 years, so I was actually surprised when her third attempt came up short.

Cool seeing more Bergstroms on the course. Also good seeing Travis back! And Drew, I was nervous for him this year so that was good...

The dog stuff was meh. Matt was waiting to make that snowball's chance joke.

I liked Akbar's comment about Drew running so fast they couldn't show their reactions that was funny.

Also funny: The Akbar thing at the end! I think they made it to be stupid, which I appreciated rather than their usual over-seroiousness! There were some good moments and their segment was actually worthwhile too. I have a feeling that was added because they won't show the pets stuff in reruns, but I guess we'll find out by whether they have it or not next week! It was fun and made me think of MXC lol. The randomness of it got me anyway.

Fun fact: Bouncing Spider has always come on a course with a theme or a sponsored obstacle.

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6/Jun/19, 1:39 pm Link to this post    PM Messup434
 
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Re: Season 11 of American Ninja Warrior on NBC


Quote:

Messup434 wrote:

I'd say last night's episode was a bit less extreme in the new editing than last week. I quite enjoyed it, even with less people in this region than we've had in the past. I do wonder where Jessie and JJ are though!

Jessie's in Tacoma, don't know about JJ though.

Quote:

Off the Hook looked hard to me, don't know why almost everyone made it through this! To me it looked like the first ring was hardly even secured on the first hook (which wasn't even curved up), and the jump forced the ring to be turned about 90 degrees to catch it. I'm just surprised not a ton failed it as it actually looks harder to me than Walk the Plank.

It was actually the hardest obstacle on the course! 26 people I think it was failed... yet they only showed 2 - quality editing there NBC...

Quote:

Block Run comes to die (I assume.. hopefully!) in its birth place of Atlanta.

DO NOT diss block Run! Just because it's old, doesn't mean it's bad! Broken bridge and diamond dash are the ones which really deserve the hate.

Quote:

Fun fact: Bouncing Spider has always come on a course with a theme or a sponsored obstacle.


That's very interesting.

Anyway, overall wasn't a fan of this episode - mainly due to editing. Course was fine other than bouncing spider but wow all those sponsor things really got on my nerves. Dog warped Wall... fine... I guess... The animals reacting to falls were wierd and that rabbit they kept showing was even more wierd - definitely would've been better left out but guess they want the money. Also 4 mega wall clears yet only 2 were shown... why NBC? Hoping that now we've got this out the way the rest will be better...? Please no more sponsored episodes NBC.
7/Jun/19, 6:15 pm Link to this post    PM Takeshi1
 
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Re: Season 11 of American Ninja Warrior on NBC


Quote:

Takeshi1 wrote:

Quote:

WateryMimosa wrote:

I really liked the balance obstacle, we've seen it with balls but never with plates before.


It's called Diamond Dash... and we did see it last year. The one with balls is called spinning Bridge, it's an entirely different obstacle (even though they are very similar).



Oh yah I kind of remember it! I think it was in the region with Jake Murray maybe? xD

The pet thing was bloody annoying, but the dogs were cute.

I hate the Ferris Wheel! The ring one did look hard too. The Block run is horrifying and the spider will not be winning any beauty contests lol.

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8/Jun/19, 3:13 am Link to this post    PM WateryMimosa
 
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Re: Season 11 of American Ninja Warrior on NBC


Yeah Diamond Dash was in Minneapolis last year.

In regards to the course.. tell me how you feel. emoticon

Quote:

Takeshi1 wrote:

Quote:

Messup434 wrote:

I'd say last night's episode was a bit less extreme in the new editing than last week. I quite enjoyed it, even with less people in this region than we've had in the past. I do wonder where Jessie and JJ are though!

Jessie's in Tacoma, don't know about JJ though.

Quote:

Off the Hook looked hard to me, don't know why almost everyone made it through this! To me it looked like the first ring was hardly even secured on the first hook (which wasn't even curved up), and the jump forced the ring to be turned about 90 degrees to catch it. I'm just surprised not a ton failed it as it actually looks harder to me than Walk the Plank.

It was actually the hardest obstacle on the course! 26 people I think it was failed... yet they only showed 2 - quality editing there NBC...

Quote:

Block Run comes to die (I assume.. hopefully!) in its birth place of Atlanta.

DO NOT diss block Run! Just because it's old, doesn't mean it's bad! Broken bridge and diamond dash are the ones which really deserve the hate.

Quote:

Fun fact: Bouncing Spider has always come on a course with a theme or a sponsored obstacle.


That's very interesting.

Anyway, overall wasn't a fan of this episode - mainly due to editing. Course was fine other than bouncing spider but wow all those sponsor things really got on my nerves. Dog warped Wall... fine... I guess... The animals reacting to falls were wierd and that rabbit they kept showing was even more wierd - definitely would've been better left out but guess they want the money. Also 4 mega wall clears yet only 2 were shown... why NBC? Hoping that now we've got this out the way the rest will be better...? Please no more sponsored episodes NBC.



Yeah, 28 actually failed Off the Hook (look at me now, trying to correct the person who corrected me emoticon ), according to Will's video. Why did we not see more of this? It's similar to Spring Forward last week, though that was made-out to be a bit harder at least.

Well, I don't hate the Block Run. It just irritates me that it started out as one of the jokiest obstacles and Ninja insists on keeping it. It's not a bad obstacle, but, similar to the Bouncing Spider, it seems like a one-off only. The new version does make things exciting and it probably is better than anything that hangs at this point.

That pets stuff will seem weird in three years. Of course, they could edit it out for reruns and add Ryan and Casey Suchocki's runs in, but I don't expect that.

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9/Jun/19, 3:59 am Link to this post    PM Messup434
 
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Re: Season 11 of American Ninja Warrior on NBC


By the way, we have an interesting new balance obstacle coming up this week! And then another in a couple more weeks, but they've swapped the order and stuck Tacoma before Baltimore (I'm guessing it's to space-out lame hanging balance obstacles with cool, creative ideas OR because Baltimore has a sponsored obstacle for Finals and it had to be moved a week later to better promote the movie).

I feel that this upcoming episode will be the biggest indicator of how this season will be edited. They always come on strong in how they edit ep 1 and they always do stupid stuff in sponsored eps. So this should be the most normal episode yet (even though it might have a sponsored fifth obstacle).

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9/Jun/19, 4:08 am Link to this post    PM Messup434
 
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Re: ANW 11


Hey this thread changed! You have to warn me so I can find my way back to it Messup lol.

Also i didn't dislike the course, thank you very much I'm just.. critical lol.

I thought this episode was the best one so far.. though there have been 2 XD.

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9/Jun/19, 4:24 am Link to this post    PM WateryMimosa
 


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