SASUKE 25 REACTIONS *SPOILERS*

[sasuquest]

So, yet another great Sasuke broadcast is over!

First stage was fine. One thing I would change, though: add one more plate to that "3 hanging horizontal plates + rope" obstacle. It looked too easy.

Also, the second to last obstacle in first stage where you jump onto the hula hoop was a bit unfair towards short competitors, like Nagano.

Can't wait to see Yuuji or Nagano do Floating Boards in stage three with no legs used.

The new Cliffhanger is awesomely brutal. Love it.

[chackpop]

So many shockers, where to start?

Nagano's Circle Slider fail..
Takeda's Salmon Ladder fail..
Yuuji's Salmon Ladder fail..
Shingo's Balance Tank fail
Levi's Slider Drop fail..
Brian's Doornob fail..

[japantv1210]

It was a very good tournament in my opinion. Plenty of suspense, plenty of drama. The first stage was just alright for me. I was a bit disappointed. But I guess they made it relatively easy for the competitors to give more people a chance at the more radically redesigned 2nd and 3rd stages, which I loved. I really do despise the Log Grip being the fifth obstacle of the course though. IMO, that obstacle should be for getting rid of the weaklings early in the stage. Hopefully, they'll redesign it a bit though to make it a bit harder. I like the Circle Slider though. That jump to it's just brutal. I love how the third stage had that impossible feel to it again. And some redesigns to the second stage make it pretty awesome.

[quasikoz]

Mar 28, 2010 8:50:48 GMT -5 arsenette said:

I loved it. It had suspense and it had wtf moments. Finalists did a great job getting there and the unveiling and their wtf faces were priceless LOL Right now most of my thoughts are one continuous blur right now so I'll collect myself at one point and do the blog and do it there.

Overall I loved it.

I LOVED all the wtf faces when they unveiled Stage 3. We are going to be stuck watching people fail the new cliffhanger for a looooong time.

And: I felt bad for Kongu as he was stuck being the guinea pig as the first one up on the new Stage 3.

[artyfowljr]

I...dunno what to think. Watching Takeda and Shingo passing the First Stage was great, but their absurd failures shocked me. I kinda expected something like that from Yuuji (but NO I didn't expect him to end up holding to the bar hanging only from a single friggin stopper). I'm afraid Kanno is morphing into Yamada...the more I look at him, the more I'm convinced about that.
I'm sorry for Levi and Rich, and Naoya Tajima, that probably just rushed. I'm REALLY happy for Brian, tho.
Props to all the other stage 3 competitors. It's going to take a while until the Cliffhanger is cleared.
Nagano...oh my God. I'm just...disappointed, but not towards him. The Circle Slider, in my opinion, friggin IMPOSSIBLE to short people. Even people normal size could barely get both their hands on the ring with a proper jump...just look at that couple of one-handed clears. It's way too high.

These are my...fist impressions.

[scnoi1217]

Mar 28, 2010 9:05:07 GMT -5 arsenette said:

Mar 28, 2010 8:59:32 GMT -5 thebobmaster said:

Just out of curiosity, who was the UNCLI who failed the Circle Slider near the beginning? I think the announcer said Matachi Ryo, but I'm not positive.

Definitely it as Ryo UNCLI #2.

Btw.. Kawaguchi was there (non-UNCLI but still STQ'er we know) but was cut.

I believe he also died on the Circle Slider as seen by one of those commercial break digests.

[supernovamaniac]

The red shirt, you mean?

[sasuquest]

Mar 28, 2010 9:12:33 GMT -5 artyfowljr said:

I didn't expect him to end up holding to the bar hanging only from a single friggin stopper

That was an amazing display of pure strength and willpower in order to finish a stage. Despite Yuuji's failure, I admire him even more now because of that stunt. He will triumph in Sasuke 26.

[YoDaUO]

Mar 28, 2010 9:12:33 GMT -5 artyfowljr said:

Nagano...oh my God. I'm just...disappointed, but not towards him. The Circle Slider, in my opinion, friggin IMPOSSIBLE to short people. Even people normal size could barely get both their hands on the ring with a proper jump...just look at that couple of one-handed clears. It's way too high.

These are my...fist impressions.

I agree. Theres no way akiyama can pass that. Actually this time Akiyama almost got over the wall which impressed me. I hope he passes at least the wall in 26.

[lars072]

I wish I could share everyone's enthusiasm here, but I have to sya that I was very disappointed about the whole thing. Stage one was just one big Japanese infomercial - is this SASUKE or the travel channel? Seems like the main sponsor of the show was the Japanese Dept. of Tourism.

[rodprime79]

Favorite moment: When Brian Orosco and Lee Enchi gave each other an "Oh $hit!" stare when they revealed the new Cliff Hanger. That was priceless!!

[Badalight]

Mar 28, 2010 8:58:03 GMT -5 arsenette said:

I like the Circle Slider.. it's all technique.. people with almost no practice on Springboards are going to approach it thinking it's the trampoline and go WHIFF.. though I do admit.. the circle seems a wee bit higher this time..

Ryo totally did a trampoline technique on the springboard, look where it got him

[scnoi1217]

Mar 28, 2010 9:56:17 GMT -5 YoDaUO said:

Mar 28, 2010 9:12:33 GMT -5 artyfowljr said:

Nagano...oh my God. I'm just...disappointed, but not towards him. The Circle Slider, in my opinion, friggin IMPOSSIBLE to short people. Even people normal size could barely get both their hands on the ring with a proper jump...just look at that couple of one-handed clears. It's way too high.

These are my...fist impressions.

I agree. Theres no way akiyama can pass that. Actually this time Akiyama almost got over the wall which impressed me. I hope he passes at least the wall in 26.

He also had another 5 feet on that slightly elevated platform from where he started. He could have gotten more speed and made it to the ring.

Don't worry, it will probably be made easier next tournament. :/

[TCM]

Overall I liked the tournament. Gave us a good mix of shocking clears and fails. Had its good mix of rolled over obstacles along with the new ones. That new 3rd Stage is a KILLER. If anything changes, they may have to lower that 3rd ledge slightly on the Ultimate Cliffhanger. Just to give some slight leeway, but it'll still be a while before anyone passes that small ledge.

Then again, we all have 6 months (yay....) to prepare for 26. So who knows what will happen come September.

[obakemono]

In the grand scheme of things, it was probably an average tournament, which is no bad thing. For me it certainly didn't live up to the epicness that was 23, but it had its fair share of crazy moments, the granddaddy of them being the spectacular Salmon Ladder catastrophe. The new third stage is mental, absolutely mental, exceeded expectations in every way. Should be interesting to see how everyone copes in the coming tournaments, just a shame that we're back to a 6 month gap. We've been spoiled.

[2D2Will]

Sasuke 25: Your mind has just been F***ed. HARD.

[murdog83]

Pros:

1. First stage has green carpet, which reminds me of the old Sasuke courses.

2. The first stage obstacles are pretty straight forward, and most of them have appeared in past competitions. I feel this gives the best chance for as many All-Stars to pass the first stage (always my favourite part). The last generation was too unpredictable for my liking, what with crazy net jumps, and that flying chute insanity, never mind that Spider Jump which always scared me.

3. All of the first round All-star failures were legitimate and so I did not feel disappointed like almost all of the other tournaments since about Sasuke 12. Nagano is small, and so that massive leap to the ring is going to be tough. Akiyama is even smaller and so the Warped Wall is always going to be tough, but even though he was blind he made it past his nemesis The Jump Hang, and almost cleared The Warped Wall (I could have sworn his hand touched the top). Yamamoto passed because there's nothing that requires any thinking. Heck, with that extra run up on the Warped Wall, even Yamada may pass (am I asking for too much?) If Bunpei comes back he can definitely pass.

4. It's going to take Yuuji more than three tries to pass this version of Sasuke.

5. Finally, after I almost gave up on him, Lee En chi strings together two great runs to prove that all that climbing actually helped him (I'm a climber and I was beginning to think that I was wasting my time).

5. Brian Orosco making it to the third stage. I really like him and he always improves each time out. He also has a great attitude. However the one thing that gives him a massive advantage on stage 1 - his size - is also his biggest downfall on stage 3 (just like Paul Anthony Terek, in my opinion).

6. Yamamoto's hat fell off!!! Come on, am I the only one who thinks this is the highlight of every show?


Cons:

1. Takeda will never beat this version of Sasuke's 3rd level. I feel sad for him, and I hope I'm wrong. His new climbing training may help.

2. Yamamoto proves his brains are in his biceps. Seriously, how can you make that mistake? He could have passed for sure.

3. I'm sick and tired of seeing competitors' runs end because of sliding bars that fall off of rails. Although this version actually takes some skill to control, and so I guess I'll let it pass.

4. No pipe slider as the final obstacle of Stage 3. That was probably the hardest obstacle I've ever seen, given its placement on the course. Having to do the Jumping Bars, and then transition to the two Pipe Slider courses, and then finish with that massive jump would have guaranteed another 7 years of failures. I like seeing people pass, but I don't want to see five people in the final again. That was ridiculous.


Other thoughts:

It's so obvious that the top competitors this time around are so much stronger than those of the Sasuke 5-10 era that it makes me almost laugh. Obstacles that used to be dreaded - The Jump Hang - seem to be nothing to this new batch of stars.

The Jump Hang was always my favourite first stage obstacle. I'm glad it's back. I also like the placement of the obstacles in the first stage: Jump Hang after Rolling Maruta (did I spell that right?) looks difficult, and once again the Warped Wall is placed in such a way that you are certain to be good and tired before you try it.

Overall I'm very pleased with this new Sasuke course.

[thebobmaster]

Funny thing about Yamamoto is that he broke the hat rule.

First Stage: Hat stays on, he passes.

Second Stage: Loses his hat, fails.

[yamfriend]

Reactions:

-WTF NAGANO FAILED STAGE 1 AGAIN!?! He hasn't failed it twice in a row since his first 2 appearances in Sasukes 7 and 8.

-Circle Slider looks tougher/farther away. That can't be a good sign.

-My prediction for Takeda came true. I probably shouldn't have thought too hard about this.

-Plenty of other shocking fails. Levi, Yuuji, Yamamoto, Tajima, Kanno, etc.

-The "47 Japanese provinces" culture thing was all right, but could've been better if I understood what they were saying.

-The lottery was better than I thought it would be. It kept things pretty interesting throughout, in the process literally mixing things up.

-I was very glad to see Jun Sato make it past the Double Salmon Ladder. Upon seeing him reach it, I thought he had virtually no chance, especially after he failed the original version relatively quickly in the previous 2 tournaments. I guess he proved me wrong...

-Uhhh...Ultimate Cliff Hanger might take a while to beat (speaking of which, did Okuyama looking at the UCH after he failed it remind anyone else of the same this after Shunsuke failed the SCH in Sasuke 18? Creepily similar IMO )

And last but not least...

-I liked Mr. Octopus's new headband. ;D