Circle Cross? (spoilers)

[RiderLeangle]

Am I the only one confused of why Baltimore's 5th obstacle the Circle Cross did so much damage? I get it's a world premiere but it caused a ton of issues... Took out big name competitors like Chris Wilczeski (whose name I probably spelled wrong), Luis Moco, Jesse Vilareal (cut from broadcast), just to name a few, not to mention how many others it took out. And not only did it take out many, most of the ones who did clear it ended up struggling on it.

So just a bit confused on why this simple obstacle proved so deadly and want to hear everyones opinion on the matter

[thatoneuser]

Wilczewski (you were close)

I think people didn't think to use the first ring for momentum. The second ring was so far away from the rope that people who grabbed the rope and tried to swing across with their legs burned up their forearms and got nowhere. Pretty much why people failed the Floating Chains

[greenday61892]

Well.... who was it that said the rope was slick, Luis Moco? Plus momentum was definitely key to that obstacle which I don't think a lot of competitors realized.... but by the time they got to the 1st rope without the momentum there was almost NOTHING they could seemingly do at that point

[blah123]

I failed the Circle Cross and I can tell you that the red ropes were DAAAMMN slippery. They were way slipperier than any sort of Rope Junction-like thing I'd ever been on before. I knew I didn't have it as soon as I touched the red. They might have been wet, sweaty, greasy, or not at all--couldn't tell. Either way, that plus the huge gap to the second ring made them killer. This is only my opinion...but I think us North-Easterners again had the hardest qualifying-round obstacle (ANW4 was the tramp->jumping bars).

EDIT: They made the gap from the first rope to the second ring farther than what it was when they took us through the course to give us the rules and stuff.  Perhaps some people didn't realize this and were expecting the gap to be shorter, hence not planning on needing a ton of momentum.  Then once they actually get up there in the heat of the moment, are like "oh sh*t that's farther than I remember".  Just my 2 cents though.

That obstacle definitely weeded-out the weak.

[RiderLeangle]

How slick were the ropes compared to the Downhill Jump's rope? I can understand the slickness issue, the rubber tubes on the chains felt way harder to hold onto than the waxed rope from the DHJ, as soon as I gripped it I started to slightly slide and death gripped it and made sure to use both hands. The placement from the rules session may be the issue (wish I got to try the final versions, I asked if they needed anyone but they were fine...), from what I can tell the ropes were set to the spots the chains were, but friday it looked like the first rope was farther.

But yeah the first ring is the thing people overlooked, I dunno how much testing was done prior to tester day but I was second tester day run and I took a huge swing with the ring as soon as I jumped to it and flew through faster than any clear I remember seeing on it, I guess I should consider that it was so mental since both my fails in testing were mental (one worried of knowing the ANW history of it and the other when the plan I had for the Japanese version was impossible)

[nehcney]

Like others have said, and what I've seen from the TV episodes, the thing all the fails had in common was not enough swing. Those who failed weren't able to make it to the 2nd ring smoothly enough, and burned out hanging onto the 1st rope.

I heard from the FB comrades page that one person failed near the end, I think it was Bradley Smith? That's the only exception I know of to the above.

[RiderLeangle]

Yeah one guy did fail near the end, if I remember correctly he was up there a long time (after the troubke getting to ring 2) but just couldn't hold on.
It wasn't Bradley Smith though, his feet skimmed the water on the Downhill Jump and he failed there

[blah123]

One guy fell on the transition to the last ring because he tried to one-hand the second rope. Aint nobody got time for that.

[RiderLeangle]

Yep, I had assumed it was tiredness but maybe the slickness mentioned was a big issue in that run. Maybe it was more a mental error trying to hurry off of it (which is what happened to me on the RD), I two-handed it to be safe on chain 2 since those were also slick

[droid327]

Are ropes on the obstacles usually cotton or poly or nylon or what? After Moco made the observation about the ropes, I looked at them and they looked like schoolyard-grade polypropylene, the really plastic-y stuff, which would make sense if they're so slippery...but got me wondering if that was something that you runners weren't expecting, if ropes are usually cotton or poly or something with a little more "fabric" fiber.

[RiderLeangle]

Not sure what they're made of but I can confirm they're plasticy feeling (based on the Downhill Jump), I'm not sure what ANW used in the past.
But I can confirm those ropes are unforgiving, I had no grip issue on it (but then again I've been training it for years) but it was not pleasant on the hands, the best way to describe the feeling was like it was a flexible pole, except with ridges that abuse your fingers and palms. They weren't pleasant but grippier than the alternative...

On the other end of the spectrum, the rubber tubes over the chains on the Circle Cross (then "Ring Chain") felt much better on the hands with the smooth surface but with the loose nature of the tubes they were much harder to grip, at the same time the thick tubes over chains were also easier to dig into if the competitor has good enough grip, so they were a double-edged sword but due to the impossibility when wet they were scrapped here (but yet remained on the Metal Spin in vegas based on pics...)

So yeah, both had their disadvantages, in the case of this obstacle the ropes may have been better, but I'm not sure the slickness thing, maybe sweat got on them? Splashes are possible but few wipeouts were massive enough to send the water high enough to reach them, maybe humidity of being right on the Inner Harbor was the problem? (likely but if the DHJ was fine (in testing) doubtful)

EDIT: For reference
(Sorry for cameraing recordings but with my computer down I had no choice, I'm lucky I had copies on the SD card that the homebrew video player for Wii was on)