Stage 3 difficulty ranking

[dakohosu]

Inspired by vaderlim's post I figured I'd do a Stage 3 difficulty ranking. I'm going by x/10 rather than ranking hardest to easiest as that would take a lot longer, as well as grouping identical stages (in terms of exact same course down to a modification level) together.

Bear in mind I'm going with a ranking of perceived difficulty by today's standards, not based on failure rates or relative difficulty at the time, and not considering e.g. the fact that 28's Crazy Cliffhanger was a new concept, as otherwise we'd be here for days.

Also anything above 10/10 is what I would consider to be impossible, at least within a span of 4-5 tournaments, because as we all know we have seen some ridiculous Stage 3 courses in the past.

1: 1.5/10
2: 2/10
3: 1/10
4: 3/10
5-8: 4.5/10
9-11: 5.5/10
12: 5/10*
13: 5/10
14-15: 7/10
16-17: 6/10
18: 6/10
19-20: 11/10**
21-23: 6.5/10***
24: 6.5/10
25: 10/10
26: 9/10
27: 7.5/10
28-29: 7.5/10
30: 7.5/10
31: 8.5/10
32: 11/10
33: 15/10
34: 12/10
35-36: 9/10
37: 8/10
38: 9.5/10
39-40: 9.8/10
41: 10/10 (the next tournament has technically already been aired so figured why not)

*12's Stage 3 was technically identical to 9-11 but dropped it half a point due to the Cliffhanger landing platform being directly under the third ledge, given that it saved Takeda from failing it.
**Sending Climber was deemed to be physically impossible due to the placement of footholds where handholds should've been, meaning the obstacle was unfeasible to complete.
***Not factoring in the glitch that happened to Nagano on the Gliding Ring in 21, because I'm a firm believer that this was a malfunction and not an intended part of the obstacle. If the ring was meant to get stuck, why does it have a stopper, why is it on a downward track, and why is it called "Gliding Ring"? He was also allegedly offered a re-run, which wouldn't have been the case if his fail was considered fair.

[brz0ny]

By the way, do we know for sure Takeda cleared CH in 12 like that? I know it is the most likely reason why his CH attempt is the only one ever cut, but do we know that for sure?

[dakohosu]

Sept 1, 2024 8:28:50 GMT -5 brz0ny said:

By the way, do we know for sure Takeda cleared CH in 12 like that? I know it is the most likely reason why his CH attempt is the only one ever cut, but do we know that for sure?

It's never been full on confirmed but I refuse to believe that him being the only cut out of, what, 170-something Cliffhanger attempts, and on a tournament where the landing platform was notoriously right below the third ledge, is a coincidence. 

Other things too. Firstly, he'd never attempted the Cliffhanger Kai before, and hadn't even made it that far since Sasuke 8, so there was no rationale behind cutting his Cliffhanger clear. He also failed the same transition in both 13 and 14. 

It's a case of putting two and two together. Given that he failed the transition in 13 and 14, it's rational to believe he did so in 12 but was saved by the landing platform; this exposed an oversight on behalf of the production, so they just cut it so that people wouldn't notice. And as mentioned because he's the only competitor in history to have had a Cliffhanger attempt cut, there must have been a pertinent reason for it, which I believe the landing platform oversight to be the only plausible one.

[brz0ny]

Sept 1, 2024 11:55:55 GMT -5 dakohosu said:

Sept 1, 2024 8:28:50 GMT -5 brz0ny said:

By the way, do we know for sure Takeda cleared CH in 12 like that? I know it is the most likely reason why his CH attempt is the only one ever cut, but do we know that for sure?

It's never been full on confirmed but I refuse to believe that him being the only cut out of, what, 170-something Cliffhanger attempts, and on a tournament where the landing platform was notoriously right below the third ledge, is a coincidence. 

Other things too. Firstly, he'd never attempted the Cliffhanger Kai before, and hadn't even made it that far since Sasuke 8, so there was no rationale behind cutting his Cliffhanger clear. He also failed the same transition in both 13 and 14. 

It's a case of putting two and two together. Given that he failed the transition in 13 and 14, it's rational to believe he did so in 12 but was saved by the landing platform; this exposed an oversight on behalf of the production, so they just cut it so that people wouldn't notice. And as mentioned because he's the only competitor in history to have had a Cliffhanger attempt cut, there must have been a pertinent reason for it, which I believe the landing platform oversight to be the only plausible one.

Really wondering what would have happened if he Kanzened lol

[zoran]

They probably would have edited it the same way due to the time constraints from the typhoon and to avoid controversy. There's no strict/obligation for them to show a Kanzen competitors full runs.

[dakohosu]

Sept 2, 2024 8:29:34 GMT -5 zoran said:

They probably would have edited it the same way due to the time constraints from the typhoon and to avoid controversy. There's no strict/obligation for them to show a Kanzen competitors full runs.

Yeah probably.

It's not like Akiyama's Pipe Slider clear in 4 where that was literally the point at which he cleared the stage so they couldn't have cut that, as well as the fact that it wasn't immediately obvious to the average viewer that there was a support beneath him which he used to climb up. I didn't know this for a good decade until someone pointed it out. 

There's no strict obligation but it's never been the case so far, that said with how they never used to digest Finalists but they've now done so with Tada and Yoshi in 40, as well as digesting Yusuke's Stage 2 runs, I wouldn't put it past them.

In a way, I kind of want them to digest one of Yusuke's runs when he wins again, because now to a lot of people if he doesn't get digested onlike  Stage 2, it's a foregone conclusion that he'll win. While anyone who does get digested is immediately locked out of a win because of how it's historically worked. Bucking that trend and coming out with a surprise Kanzen would be kinda cool?