Most disappointing competitors?

[tns8597]

Which competitors do you think had so much to show for/so much blatant skill and just never performed?

[GlobalNinjaFan]

I'm honestly disappointed by the "Stage 3 regulars" of today.

People like Hioki, Sato, previously Asa and to a lesser extent, Tomo are good competitors... but they haven't made progress in SO long that I've lost all interest in watching them run. Sure, they'll probably make Stage 3 again, but what's the point when they're 99% likely to go out in exactly.the.same.spot as the last five times? 

If the likes of Yuuji and Ryo can come back after a near ten tournament losing streak and beat the UCCH on their first try, what's the excuse of these "newer" New Stars?

[tns8597]

Yeah that’s a good point actually. I guess the Stage 3 regulars’ performances are so predictable I’m not really disappointed by them, more just numb to it now. Also you could argue that particularly Hioki and Sato are actually the opposite of ‘not realising their potential’, rather they’ve reached their absolute limits which is why they’ve failed the Cliffhanger 5 times.

For me the biggest disappointments are competitors who’ve got the passion, skill, and the potential to do well but just never managed to perform on the day. People like Kishimoto; even when he did reach Stage 3, I was confident he’d make the Final because of how insane his backyard course was, but even there he failed. Also for someone that committed to fail the first obstacle twice is super disappointing.

Others for me include Shunsuke Nagasaki, purely because he clearly has the skill; evident by him coming back after 6-7 years of not competing and immediately making the Third Stage shows how consistent he can be, but recently he’s just almost stopped caring which is why we’ve seen a gradual regression in his performances. It’s certainly not his age; he’s still in his prime.

Ryo is another one who I also think has just stopped caring; you can tell by his transition from an enthusiastic rising star to a very cold demeanour that he’s really only there because he’s known amongst the community. I think it was ever since he almost achieved Kanzen then effectively got robbed by Yusuke the next tournament. He disappoints me because I was excited by his comeback in 36, only to be further proven right by his s**tshow Fish Bone run in 37. I really hope he’s not done for career wise, but that depends on his commitment to training, which doesn’t seem to be there anymore given that he’s got quite podgy and out of shape in recent years.

[m4tt3r0x]

Takeda said in a Q&A recently on his YT community section he failed the Spider Flip in 24 because "of a lack of effort."

[PizzaKing57]

Frankly, the most disappointing challenger for me is Hioki aka Mr. Cliffhanger because of how he mostly beats the first two stages, only to just screw up every time at the Cliffhanger (no matter what version we're talking about) and after seeing him finally beat the first transition in 36, I was confident he'd progress further but just got worse in 37, despite the ledge not even moving. Because of this, I will not be excited to watch Hioki in the next tournament, as I know that he will 99% yet again fail the Cliffhanger especially since the motors will be switched on, giving him an even less chance to beat it which is why he isn't worth my time and that's the reason I like more challengers than him, including Ryo cause he's always beaten the Cliffhanger and has a more promising chance to reach the Final stage again, even if he's performed worse than Hioki in so many tournaments. And as much as it will be disappointing to witness Sato failing the same obstacle again (which will most likely happen), I can only hope he returns to the 3rd Stage in order to match Takeda's record.

Another one is Keitaro aka Stage 2 Terminator because of how he has always failed to clear the 2nd Stage, just by being a terrible swimmer which has caused him to slow down and run out of time later on in the course. I can't believe that even Araki has beaten Stage 2 when he only got there once before and that Keitaro has reached there four times and still not beaten it. I do want to believe that he is finally able to clear in this tournament as last time, he got even closer to reaching his target by timing out at the final obstacle, about roughly 3-5 seconds away from hitting the button. Honestly, if he instead fails before the 3rd Stage yet again, I'll actually break down as that would be the most heartbreaking failure for me in the whole tournament, no questions asked.

The only way Shunsuke is also considered problematic is because of how he has been treated like garbage by barely ever receiving fluff pieces and screen-time, with most of his runs getting digested as well as entering a slump that began in 2017 and I certainly hope in this tournament especially as he is running in lower range consecutively with two other Shin Sedai members, the poor guy will be shown fully this time and that I most certainly hope he will get out of his mental blocks and progress well again. Luckily in an interview before his run, he said that he trained intensively and will do his best to clear Stage 1 this time, which is definitely why I'm not that stupid to predict an unprecedented third 1st Stage failure in a row.

Ryo and Kanno are my other picks because of how their results have downturned after 2015, with almost all of them ending up with a 1st Stage failure. With Ryo, it's too bad that he suffered from a downward spiral as he was really close to achieving Total Victory in 2014 and after that tournament, was considered a serious threat especially when he was granted the coveted #100 for the next tournament, only to fail Stage 1 which would become repetitive in many more tournaments, probably due to lack of training and not being as much of a SASUKE fan as he was before. I was delighted though when he bounced back in 36, only to go back into his slump for the next competition and I think time is running out for him to still achieve Total Victory now.

And as with Kanno, it's been really frustrating to see his decline after 31, when he was making steady progress on the Crazy Cliffhanger until he finally beat it on his fourth attempt and was much closer to reaching the Final stage again. After that, it's been disappointment after disappointment for this lad mainly because of him sustaining too many injuries and skipping a couple of tournaments, which is why I'm feeling the most unconfident about him doing well this year. He also seems to have fallen into the Bunpei curse with a lot of injuries crippling his chances to do well in further tournaments which is unlikely to happen again.

[azn]

My profile pic

But seriously, I feel being inconsistent is more disappointing in my eyes. Ryo by far is the most disappointing for me right now, he has all the tools in the world to make it back in the final stage, but post tournament 30, he has given me Kobayashi Shinji/Akiyama vibes, basically having one deep run every 4/5 tournaments. Same can kinda be said with two aforementioned competitors, Shunsuke and Kishimoto Shinya, but the guy above summed up Shunsuke issues spot on, and Kishimoto had injury issues post tournament 30, so he was never able to fully break from his shell of the guy who bends frying pans for a living. But back to Ryo, it makes me so sad knowing how much talent he has, but it just all washes away in the first stage

Jun and Hioki are also disappointing, but they have shown signs of hope in previous tournaments, they both still have lot's of Gas left, and it sucks to see them go down by cliffhanger in various ways, but at least their going down by a formidable obstacle, instead of making errors in the first stage

I also wanna mention Kanno here, not because I think his slide is disappointing, I feel it's more sad seeing his slide to rock bottom, but as someone who has witnessed and experienced some form of injury to the heel, it sucks. Literally just watched a guy tearing his heel by just simply running back the other day so, I know his pain. Most athletes are usually never the same, and while some NBA guys who returned this season look great post Heel tear, other's don't return to form, and from the looks of things in Sasuke World, Kanno is starting to look like he will not be the same

[subtleagent]

Daisuke Nakata comes to mind, he had some amazing performances and yet he couldn't beat the Lamp Grasper for beans. After his injury he was never really the same. Although I will admit seeing him get past the Metal Spin in 17 with bad hands was amazing. And he made Stage 1 look easy in 21 only for him to mess up his hands on the Downhill Jump.

For all the hype Levi Meeuwenberg got I find myself disappointed that he never beat the Shin-Cliffhanger. He was clearly capable of doing it in 23 had he not messed up the transfer, hell he might've even made the Final, but he never really hit that stride again and then he ends his career flubbing obstacle 1. At least his farm life's doing good.

And then there's "Voldemort" who clearly had the potential to clear Stage 3 in 32 ~ 35, but thankfully never did and thankfully he lost out on tying Takeda's record by sliding onto the mat on the Backstream. Hell I was hesitant to call his ANW 11 victory legit due to the safety pass.

[tns8597]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought Levi was massively overhyped. I think he was so purely because he was very fast and also did well in a tournament where so many fell short on Stage 1 (Sasuke 20). But in my opinion there’s no point in putting down fast Stage 1 and 2 times if you suck at Stage 3, which seems to be the case with a lot of these parkour guys. He also struck me as incredibly fake in terms of how he responded to people failing or doing well and in post-run interviews.

[sasukefinnja]

Most disappointing Sasuke competitor?

Well that would be...

Definitely Jamie Rahn (no explanation needed)

[tns8597]

sasukefinnja that is a fair shout actually.....

I remember some people predicting he'd make it to the Final Stage lmao

[GlobalNinjaFan]

Dec 16, 2020 17:09:54 GMT -5 m4tt3r0x said:

Takeda said in a Q&A recently on his YT community section he failed the Spider Flip in 24 because "of a lack of effort."

Preeeeetty sure that was just modesty on his behalf. He was very clearly giving it 100% when you watch the footage.

[Walking Contradiction]

I'd say Kawahara Takuya, he has a good balance and technique and he did beat the hardest version of Flying Chute and never had a trouble against Jumping Spider but somehow he never made it to the second stage.

[m4tt3r0x]

Dec 17, 2020 5:13:29 GMT -5 GlobalNinjaFan said:

Dec 16, 2020 17:09:54 GMT -5 m4tt3r0x said:

Takeda said in a Q&A recently on his YT community section he failed the Spider Flip in 24 because "of a lack of effort."

Preeeeetty sure that was just modesty on his behalf. He was very clearly giving it 100% when you watch the footage.

He might had been referring to his training. Can't really tell.

[hoseasasuke]

I'm going to mention someone that has never been mentioned, and that someone is Nagano in his late 30s. I knew he had the potential to go deep into the course, as he had shown in 23. Sadly, because of some mental struggles and a bad habit, he wound up failing the First Stage 3 times in a row. Although he did eventually go deep in 27, it was too late. He could've put a final string of great tournaments before he eventually declined.

[tns8597]

hoseasasuke 100% agree.

He firstly robbed himself of a second Total Victory in 24, which set off two more Stage 1 disappointments. His comeback in 27 was a sort of ‘last stand’ comeback where you knew that nothing was really going to come of it, the kind where you just knew it would be followed by further decline. Especially as it was clearly obvious his head wasn’t in it anymore, which as we’ve seen from Ryo and Shunsuke has its negative effects

That’s also why I found Yuuji’s comeback so special. Returning to Stage 3 after 6 years signified to me that it was similar to Nagano in that he’d make one last strong run in his career before a few more early fails which would consolidate a retirement, but proved a lot of people wrong by not only doing even better, but almost making the Final at age 41.... really shows that age isn’t an excuse anymore

[Ninja Relaxer]

Nagano is actually a really good answer. In the same vein, I would nominate all the All Stars during the Shin-Sasuke era, say 22-28. This is one of the hardest eras of the show for me to watch, because the All Stars' decline is so disappointing and painful. So many unforced mental errors, it hurts.

[subtleagent]

Dec 17, 2020 4:00:26 GMT -5 tns8597 said:

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought Levi was massively overhyped. I think he was so purely because he was very fast and also did well in a tournament where so many fell short on Stage 1 (Sasuke 20). But in my opinion there’s no point in putting down fast Stage 1 and 2 times if you suck at Stage 3, which seems to be the case with a lot of these parkour guys. He also struck me as incredibly fake in terms of how he responded to people failing or doing well and in post-run interviews.

It's not that I don't like him, but I really do feel he had the potential to do so much better than he did and he might've actually kicked some a** in 26 had he not broke his wrist. But yeah he was definitely one of the most overblown competitors in comparison to say Kanno or Yuuji at the time who both had much more success by that point. And Sato at least has consistency on his side despite not really showing much chance of clearing, Levi never really did. He had two good runs, but usually biffed it early otherwise.

[darthvaderlim]

For me,
Yamada- Don't need to explain why.
Iketani- Can be considered one post Nagano era. He has also competed sporadically after Sasuke 28.
Akiyama- Another interesting one, since it's mostly due to his eyesight, but considering that he's much younger than Yamada, you'd think he would have made regular Third Stage appearances or even a Final Stage attempt with Nagano.
Omori Akira-Granted the era he competed was much easier, but considering that he had made the Final Stage three times, most people would have been quite hyped to see him achieve Total Victory.