National Ninja League [Season 4]

[thatoneuser]

Jul 17, 2018 5:18:43 GMT -5 pagar said:

Jul 16, 2018 17:30:33 GMT -5 thatoneuser said:

I mean we started just with the domestic league but with the "ninja arms race" to borrow a phrase it was in our best interest to affiliate with other international events such as the NCL in Australia and Barbados Ninja Throwdown. Additionally we have the International Qualifier which has seen athletes from all over the world. Perhaps one day we'll consider a rebrand to, say, "Global Ninja League", but right now it doesn't make sense rebranding when our name is so recognizable within the community.

On the other hand you'd probably want to rebrand before becoming known outside the community. The ninjas would adjust very quickly, but when it becomes known to the general public it's really too late to change.

According to the schedule we're getting close to starting up. Any news on streams this season?

Streams will be available for every qualifier (barring technical difficulties) on our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/nationalninjaleague

The first stream will be this Sunday starting at 10 AM local time (12 PM Eastern 9 AM Pacific).

[pagar]

Jul 17, 2018 16:36:45 GMT -5 thatoneuser said:

Jul 17, 2018 5:18:43 GMT -5 pagar said:

According to the schedule we're getting close to starting up. Any news on streams this season?

Streams will be available for every qualifier (barring technical difficulties) on our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/nationalninjaleague

The first stream will be this Sunday starting at 10 AM local time (12 PM Eastern 9 AM Pacific).

Sounds great, thanks for the info. Will they be posted to youtube afterwards?

[thatoneuser]

Jul 17, 2018 17:49:06 GMT -5 pagar said:

Jul 17, 2018 16:36:45 GMT -5 thatoneuser said:

Streams will be available for every qualifier (barring technical difficulties) on our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/nationalninjaleague

The first stream will be this Sunday starting at 10 AM local time (12 PM Eastern 9 AM Pacific).

Sounds great, thanks for the info. Will they be posted to youtube afterwards?

No, but they will be available on Facebook and we'll be uploading full runs from the top ninjas on YouTube.

[pagar]

Jul 17, 2018 18:55:26 GMT -5 thatoneuser said:

Jul 17, 2018 17:49:06 GMT -5 pagar said:

Sounds great, thanks for the info. Will they be posted to youtube afterwards?

No, but they will be available on Facebook and we'll be uploading full runs from the top ninjas on YouTube.

That's too bad. Facebook video is generally terrible quality compared to Youtube, although I don't really know if that is inherent to the service or just that people upload in crap quality.

[thatoneuser]

Jul 18, 2018 4:11:12 GMT -5 pagar said:

Jul 17, 2018 18:55:26 GMT -5 thatoneuser said:

No, but they will be available on Facebook and we'll be uploading full runs from the top ninjas on YouTube.

That's too bad. Facebook video is generally terrible quality compared to Youtube, although I don't really know if that is inherent to the service or just that people upload in crap quality.

While I've heard YouTube's codec is better, I think a lot of the quality issues have to do with the streams being recorded on a cell phone and the quality of the internet at the facility. While we could in theory set up the same quality as we had at this past year's World Championship, it would be extremely impractical. The full runs posted on YouTube will be from our GoPro and have much higher quality.

[pagar]

Finally had a chance to check out the stream. I hate to be negative, but it was pretty bad.

I assume the stored videos are exactly the same as the live stream as the quality varied wildly, from basically unwatchable to VHS quality or so. I'm going to guess that the variations are because of internet load at the site as the quality was at it's best for the young adults competition, at which time it was fairly empty.

Another problem was that the stored video is broken up into 10 or so pieces of varying length, only 2 of which were named. One of the pieces consisted entirely of 3 minutes or so of the cameraman struggling to get the picture orientation turned around as he was recording it sideways, and there was nothing actually happening anyway.

I understand quality of the live stream may be difficult to improve at some sites, but editing the video into parts that make sense (like different classes) and naming them correctly before uploading them to the video section is necessary if you expect anyone to watch them.

Like I said, I'm not trying to be difficult. I would love to see NNL grow, and putting out a product people can actually watch and enjoy would seem to be a major factor in that. Some of the streams available on Youtube from last year were very enjoyable to watch, and while I wouldn't expect that quality stream every competition, this one was below watchable for me.

[matt723894]

Jul 29, 2018 10:43:01 GMT -5 pagar said:

Finally had a chance to check out the stream. I hate to be negative, but it was pretty bad.

I assume the stored videos are exactly the same as the live stream as the quality varied wildly, from basically unwatchable to VHS quality or so. I'm going to guess that the variations are because of internet load at the site as the quality was at it's best for the young adults competition, at which time it was fairly empty.

Another problem was that the stored video is broken up into 10 or so pieces of varying length, only 2 of which were named. One of the pieces consisted entirely of 3 minutes or so of the cameraman struggling to get the picture orientation turned around as he was recording it sideways, and there was nothing actually happening anyway.

I understand quality of the live stream may be difficult to improve at some sites, but editing the video into parts that make sense (like different classes) and naming them correctly before uploading them to the video section is necessary if you expect anyone to watch them.

Like I said, I'm not trying to be difficult. I would love to see NNL grow, and putting out a product people can actually watch and enjoy would seem to be a major factor in that. Some of the streams available on Youtube from last year were very enjoyable to watch, and while I wouldn't expect that quality stream every competition, this one was below watchable for me.

Some facilities that do these comps have really awful internet, which makes the lag something to be expected. Ninjaforce for some reason had the worst lag of probably any competition ever. The quality of the live stream will always depend on the facility. For the naming thing, I get that, but the age groups happen at different times and so do the adult waves, so there will always be 5-10 live streams up in Facebook. I’ll agree that this live stream was pretty atrocious, but I don’t think this will be a running theme.

[pagar]

The quality is one thing; deleting the stored videos that aren't relevant and renaming the files must surely be possible? As is it just looks horribly unprofessional.

[thatoneuser]

Unfortunately the stream wasn't very good and we're working on getting better streams the rest of the season. We do have HD footage that we recorded locally that will be going up tonight or tomorrow on our YouTube so stay tuned for that.

[pagar]

Since I complained about the previous stream I want to say the ones this weekend were much better. Files being named is hit or miss and would be appreciated, but at least the events were very watchable this time, and I enjoyed them a lot.

[anime boy]

I spectated at New Era this weekend. The birdhouse and the cane lane/floating monkey bar mix was crazy but really entertaining. I really have to commend one of Drew's ANW Junior kids who finished the adults course (with 5 extra seconds over the adult Time limit) on a course only 3 people cleared. It was a fun course and had lots of original obstacles. Look out for the World Championship, if Drew is designing it, we're gonna see some wild stuff.

[Kane-Not-Kosugi]

When's the World Championships?

[imaadfahimuddin]

Dec 2, 2018 19:00:01 GMT -5 Kane-Not-Kosugi said:

When's the World Championships?

February

[cobrinha]

So how many competitors will advance to the World
championship finals from pro male category?

[Kane-Not-Kosugi]

Run order is out for the world finals

[Kane-Not-Kosugi]

Stage 1 was...wow. Sasuke 19 anyone?

[sportsfan1]

I enjoyed last year’s NNL championship more than ANW, excitement to watch high level competitors do their thing without the fluff. This year, the course is pathetic! No one passed the 3 obstacle on masters, hardly in any categories... boring, boring streams... The sport took s HUGE jump backwards with spectators having to watch the same three obstacles... Imagine making the trip out there in person.... NNL has the potential to reach out to a larger community of people. I can’t imagine the anger of the athletes who trained, flew out to go out on the first obstacle like so many... How can you differentiate second from thirty when most of the field got out on the second obstacle.

Past championship courses were designed as a team. Chris has his brother Brian, Brian Krestch had Alan. Glenn and Ryan Stratis... Drew really only had Drew. Yes, he had helpers but no one to really challenge his ideas. No one to say Drew, maybe you are creating a course only you can do well in... Nothing good comes out of the power of one.

[anime boy]

I enjoyed spectating today and the people I met today but the knockout rates are RIDICULOUS for stage 1. I think Drew over estimating the difficulty of the course really screwed over the whole field.
Here's some stats for you guys
In 4 WAVES we had
127 Steps Fails (RIP)
16 Jigsaw Fails (ok)
109 Monstro Swing Fails (WTF)
3 Wall Fails (All were course outs)
0 NNL Glider fails (literally easy)
7 Shape Escape Fails (mostly dq's)
0 Spider Trap Fails
And a Grand 3 clears...... 3/265...

Dangit Drew. Hopefully tomorrow results will be nicer.

[cobrinha]

The worst ninja finals ever and really stupid course from Drew..... no more and no less

[Messup434]

Negatives across the board from the experienced NNL fans, but I was actually so impressed as I'd never seen NNL Finals before!

I watched Stage 1 Wave 4 (dunno where the other three are, that's like my one complaint), and I loved it. Good commentators that actually made me laugh several times. And I appreciated how they were genuinely easygoing rather than hosts like Matt and Akbar who are "nice" but often harsh on competitors. It felt a bit more like Sasuke commentary, which was nice.

With just a bit of refining (and of course a lot of editing and cutting!), this could be a true production of its own.

Okay, the course was tough, but what do you expect. We saw the first few A LOT, but that seems relatively common for any course, doesn't it? And each obstacle had a trick to keep you on your toes. The Swivel Steps are great and I take full credit for it having made a very similar stunt and named it that back in 2016 .

The ropes were meh, but fine. The nunchucks were annoying when everyone missed, but the catches we're unreal. The single-handed catch was brilliant and I replaced the second catch we saw about ten times because it looked so perfect. Appreciate the Great Wall cameo.

NNL Slider is meh. Too easy. The shape bridge is meh, but for the opposite reason. Too difficult/random after the already slightly arbitrary third obstacle. Fun though.

The Lightning Bolt-type thing at the end was good, but would've been better with close finishes.

The course does seem to scream out "budget-cuts" after the Great Wall, but I think that's mainly down to Drew planning for that part to be for speed rather than really difficult obstacles. The unfortunate thing is that most people who cleared the nunchucks had plenty of time and didn't need to rush anyway. Actually, that's fourtunate, too, seeing as hardly anyone passed the nunchucks.

It was a great viewing experience for me though. I might suggest speeding up the first obstacle by only having the second and fourth steps swivel, but allowing the fourth to rotate a full 360 degrees. The jumps from the second and fourth steps are a bit shorter than the others, so there would be more emphasis on the spinning than the huge leaps AND you'd get a really dramatic dismount. It was cool already, though.

It looks so crazy having a second, identical course in the background, too! Where are the other four, though? Anyway, great job to crew on day #1 and thank you for two-and-a-half hours of pure awesomeness!