arsenette
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Rambling Rican
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Post by arsenette on Jan 5, 2009 6:06:38 GMT -5
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lars072
Jessie Graff
10%
Posts: 1,001
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Post by lars072 on Jan 5, 2009 9:57:57 GMT -5
Thanks for the info on Akiyama Arsenette. He is awesome and despite his victory in Sasuke #4, he gets the least amount of attention of the All-stars. Nagano is my favorite too, but I have always respected Akiyama for his sheer determination and perseverance despite his poor eyesight. Seeing him finally clear the first stage in Sasuke #11 with only 0.03 secs left and Akiyama breaking down and the rest of the All-stars cheering him on brought chills down my spine. I respect him a lot! Then there's Mr. Crybaby...but that's a different story.
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Post by talledega7 on Jan 5, 2009 15:31:56 GMT -5
Sasuke 22 is going to rock. Akiyama's coming back, Yamamoto has a darn good chance of clearing this time, Yamada will probably have healed up by then, Shiratori, Nagano, and Takeda have all cleared before, Levi and Brian will probably be back, Luci (as an extreme outside possibility) could be back.
If Koji Yamada comes back and Shinji Kobayashi is finally shown and the pair of them perform well, this could end up being one of the best tournaments ever.
And thanks for the blog Arsenette. I've only briefly seen Akiyama's wife before and never seen his kids. They were a pair of chubby little guys then, weren't they?
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Post by supernovamaniac on Jan 5, 2009 18:16:42 GMT -5
aww man if you told me you were going to do something for akiyama, i would've tried to do something at least (after ignoring my parents that im crazy for sasuke). anyways, good to hear that he's coming back. I hope he passes 1st stage this time around!!!
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Post by VenusHeadTrap on Jan 5, 2009 21:26:21 GMT -5
Akiyama is truly one of the greatest of the greats, reading this felt so great and made me wish I thought of it You're so lucky to be able to contact him in general, but being so successful in doing so is the icing on the cake for you and us. Akiyama in 22, I can't wait. What I really hope he's prepared for is that warped wall. For those that have even done it many times in the past (Takeda, Yamada) it sometimes can get back at them and stall their time. What it would be like to see him pass the first stage would get me all worked up
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lars072
Jessie Graff
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Posts: 1,001
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Post by lars072 on Jan 6, 2009 2:33:04 GMT -5
If Koji Yamada comes back and Shinji Kobayashi is finally shown and the pair of them perform well, this could end up being one of the best tournaments ever. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We may not even be able to see it live first of all the way things seem to be going. Second, the producers may even make it harder after Nagano almost made it to the Final Stage. It's doubtful, but if their goal is to make the course unbeatable, then who knows? And we don't know who will attend yet, so there's lots of things up in the air right now. Having said that, it could very well be the best tournament ever and what we are all hoping for.
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joemello
Komiya Rie
#1 Unlimited curmudgeon
Posts: 515
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Post by joemello on Jan 6, 2009 14:46:57 GMT -5
There have been plenty of times when I have wanted to give the members of forums similar to this a good sound thrashing for compeltely missing "The Point", but it's things like this that reminds me why I'm still a fan. Good job to all involved, and if this story doesn't at least get a passing mention in the next Navi, I will be sorely dissapointed. make the course unbeatable As a long-term strategy, I find this to be a bad plan unless you insert the word "almost." Losing makes the victories that much better, but someone has to win for that to work.
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arsenette
Administrator
Rambling Rican
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Post by arsenette on Jan 6, 2009 16:23:17 GMT -5
I like the kids picture too. Don't remember exactly where that came from but it's one of my favorite pictures. It's not entirely that old either I think his kids are still under 5 years old (I have it written down somewhere but feeling too lazy to look it up). I just like it when the whole family is involved.
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Post by The Chief on Jan 7, 2009 2:25:37 GMT -5
And the winner for best story of the year goes to...Kazuhiko Akiyama for his (hopeful) return to Sasuke!
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lars072
Jessie Graff
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Post by lars072 on Jan 7, 2009 8:30:21 GMT -5
There have been plenty of times when I have wanted to give the members of forums similar to this a good sound thrashing for compeltely missing "The Point", but it's things like this that reminds me why I'm still a fan. Good job to all involved, and if this story doesn't at least get a passing mention in the next Navi, I will be sorely dissapointed. make the course unbeatable As a long-term strategy, I find this to be a bad plan unless you insert the word "almost." Losing makes the victories that much better, but someone has to win for that to work. So I deserve a sound thrashing eh? Why? For mentioning that the producers MAY believe that they want the course to be unbeatable? One of the producers did say that in the past you know. Anyways, of course it isn't 'unbeatable' unless they put the gap to the Gliding Ring at 20 feet or some ridiculous thing. But since Sasuke 18, we have only seen 4 competitors even get to the 3rd stage, let alone near the end of it. So we'll say that the producers may want the course to be 'almost unbeatable.' Is that worded for your liking now?
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joemello
Komiya Rie
#1 Unlimited curmudgeon
Posts: 515
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Post by joemello on Jan 7, 2009 18:25:02 GMT -5
Not really. You my took two statements--which despite being in the same post were meant to be separate--and put them in the wrong context.
The time the producers explicitly stated (at least "publicly") that the course was to be unbeatable was for Tournament 18, which not only makes sense, but I would wholeheartedly agree with. After a course win, you should want to punch the contestants in the mouth as hard and fast as possible. However, that's for 1 tournament. If the producers still think that the course difficulty has to be at least 3 steps above what the contestants can handle, it's not going to make for good television and the ratings are going to continue to drop. The best plan is to dangle the proverbial carrot out just far enough so that the right person can come along and snatch it at the right time.
Also recall that these same producers expected a modest amount of success on their "unbeatable" course
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Post by RiderLeangle on Jan 7, 2009 18:27:33 GMT -5
Didn't they want 17 to be the toughest ever at the time too? Well that didn't work out for them.
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scnoi1217
Administrator
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Ummm...not sure what to say here...
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Post by scnoi1217 on Jan 7, 2009 20:15:04 GMT -5
Staying off topic... It seems like Sasuke 15 was meant to be the hardest, or at least the last of the extremely hard tournaments. Notice that after this, the 3rd Stage got just a little bit easier and gave competitors a chance at making it to the Final Stage, instead of just failing at the Devil Swing. Sasuke 17 was really only supposed to be slightly harder than 16 in the 1st and 2nd Stages, but no where close to being unbeatable. Sasuke 18 was built with the intent of the 1st Stage being "unbeatable", but when numerous people made it to the Rope Ladder and the people that cleared the 1st Stage had tons of time left, they had to change something. Thus the changes for Sasuke 19. When only 2 people beat the 1st Stage, they made changes to make the course slightly easier. If they wanted to make it unbeatable, they would have left it the same or made it even harder. The producers want to make it the hardest obstacle course in the world, yet not an impossible one.
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Post by RiderLeangle on Jan 7, 2009 20:35:15 GMT -5
Well technicly wasn't Viking the hardest course as the Heartbreaker only beaten once and the Final Stage was only reached once and even then failed when theres a 100 second clock?
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Post by bigblind168 on Jan 7, 2009 21:40:57 GMT -5
in stats, but not in reality
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lars072
Jessie Graff
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Posts: 1,001
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Post by lars072 on Jan 8, 2009 7:04:27 GMT -5
Come on you guys. Let's just admit that Nagano is really the only one right now with a chance of clearing the 3rd stage and maybe even the Final Stage. So, if that isn't an 'almost unbeatable' course, then I don't know what is.
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Post by talledega7 on Jan 8, 2009 15:56:34 GMT -5
If we admit to Nagano being the only one with any shot at it, we lose most of the reason for watching the show at all. Half of the fun of Sasuke is watching for the Dark Horses and Unknowns who all of a sudden make a deep run into the course.
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davidyko
Satō Jun
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Post by davidyko on Jan 9, 2009 1:31:27 GMT -5
The other half, of course, being watching everyone else fail miserably.
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lars072
Jessie Graff
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Post by lars072 on Jan 9, 2009 8:24:36 GMT -5
If we admit to Nagano being the only one with any shot at it, we lose most of the reason for watching the show at all. Half of the fun of Sasuke is watching for the Dark Horses and Unknowns who all of a sudden make a deep run into the course. Of course the anticipation of not knowing who will pass each stage is great. And once in a while there's a dark horse that surprises us. But since the modifications to the course, only the best competitors even have a chance of getting to stage 3, let alone trying to pass it. Remember Nagano's run in #22? Absolutley amazing stuff. And he still failed stage 3. So, although I hope more guys make it to stage 3, the reality is that Nagano is the only one now that can pass the 3rd stage. IMO anyways.
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Post by talledega7 on Jan 9, 2009 10:37:46 GMT -5
Remember Nagano's run in #22? Absolutley amazing stuff. And he still failed stage 3. I assume that means you have a time machine if you saw his run in 22. And just about everyone knows how tough the course is and how few people could even get to the third, let alone pass it. But doesn't everyone act that way towards sporting events? There were some Detroit Lions fans who were sure that THIS YEAR would be the one the team would win the Super Bowl. There are people in Lithuania and Luxembourg who every four years are certain that THIS TIME is when their home country wins the World Cup. If you don't have a little bit of screwed up hope, watching something like a soccer/football game or Sasuke just isn't fun.
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