Did anyone have this feeling too? (Spoilers)

[Dazed (Wiin)]

This maybe a bit lateeee but...

They removed the last two obstacles from the first stage. They replaced the Double Pendulum which wasn't exactly an easy obstacle. They showed people like Yuuji, Ryo, Tomohiro, Darvish, Shunsuke going well on stage one in trailers. 

Did anyone else think there was going to be tons of stage one clears this tournament? 

[LusitaniaAngel313]

Honestly in my guessing game I had like... slightly less than 20 clears but this was before the TIME LIMIT was shown. As soon as we figured that out I had second thoughts...

[Deleted]

I thought there were more Stage 1 Clears (Rookies, Shingo, Takeda, Ryo, man I'm so stupid)

[TCM]

The way they were hyping the Dragon Glider, I wasn't quite understanding why people thought it would be an onslaught of clears.  The gap to the bar was farther than the Double Pendulum.  True, the stage ending at the Soritatsu Kabe was an x-factor but after finding out the time limit slash, I had a feeling people were in for a surprise.  Did I think only 11 people would clear it, absolutely not, it taking 60 people to beat was also a shock.  Even I would have guessed double digit clears in Stage 1.  I don't think it will do as much damage in 36, both from competitors understanding how it works (and I think production might try larger discs to prevent derailing again).  But it definitely is a game-changer and I don't see it leaving anytime soon.  

[Kane-Not-Kosugi]

Trailers in movies and TV shows in general don't always portray what actually happens (save the stage 4 attempt), but since I've been here I'm noticing a trend. Instead of thinking about different conditions for competitors, some people just say "Yusuke made Stage 4? He MUST get a Kanzenseiha!" And then are disappointed in the tournament not going their way. I think to an extent this is what you expected in Stage 1, but I guess this has taught us we can't say "Yuuji made it to the Tackle? He's gonna clear Stage 1!"

[YGK]

The way the time limit went I wasn't surprised that so few people went through.

The tackle + warped wall combination isn't the hardest thing on the course skill wise but the time limit adds to the difficulty. Of all the people who cleared only drew, Jun and yusuke went one shot on the wall and the former 2 have parkour experience so it's almost expected they do that. You can see how much of a toll the tackle takes from how long they spend doing the practice run that in the past only yamada/iketani would do like some ritual. Add in the time limit and you have people like ryo and yuuji scrambling through the first half to give themselves more chances (to rest) for the wall.

The way the Dragon glider took out people was "even more like what I expected than I expected" (If such a term exists). I figured it was only a matter of time before someone tried the double pendulum technique and it turned out to be takeda not letting go the first time.
I can almost see someone building a Dragon glider replica somewhere and there will be footage of them training on it shown next sasuke. Regardless the Dragon glider is gonna take out it's fair share of people because of its unpredictable nature. Unlike the double pendulum it's no longer just about hanging on and transferring to the next bar / pole. Now keeping the bar straight (enough) (see kong and kanno) and timing your release (just look at takeda) are so crucial.

Edit: also, we should take into account they might modify the Dragon glider so it may get harder / easier

[Messup434]

I thought about five would clear it.

Inui seemed pretty set on toughening-up the stage, so I actually expected it would be harder than it was!

[Philster]

Going into the tournament I was expecting the same amount of clears we got in SASUKE 34 (24) because they took the last two obstacles out. However, I didn't know the Dragon Glider was going to be that much of a ninja killer. I knew it was going to take out a lot of people but I was thinking that maybe the competitors would find a way to clear the obstacle and things would move smoothly. Like when Hioki cleared the Dragon Glider, I was thinking probably the other competitors would use that same strategy that Hioki used to clear but it turned out it didn't work out the way it should. So basically even though the 1st Stage was shorter, it still made it deadly with the addition of the Dragon Glider. So to answer your question, it wasn't a lot considering how hard it was to get to that many clears.

[Messup434]

No one can forget that there will always be a significant and pertinent time-limit change to go alongside a change in the course's length. They would never take out those final two obstacles and keep that lenient a time-limit for just seven obstacles!

There is a fair point that the course being shorter causes competitotors to be nowhere near as tired near the end of the course as single before, thus making it less likely for people to run out of time, but I'd say this particular time-cut was more than enough to make up for that and get people breathing hard, even before trying the Warped Wall.

Even things like the extra "bone" for the Fish Bone are those little changes that can cause a fall/waste some time. And, of course, the Dragon Glider is just totally savage

[Dazed (Wiin)]

Apr 7, 2018 19:01:37 GMT -5 YGK said:

I can almost see someone building a Dragon glider replica somewhere and there will be footage of them training on it shown next sasuke. 

[roy]

Apr 8, 2018 0:22:26 GMT -5 Dazed (Wiin) said:

Apr 7, 2018 19:01:37 GMT -5 YGK said:

I can almost see someone building a Dragon glider replica somewhere and there will be footage of them training on it shown next sasuke. 

Impressive.

But I have to say I think most competitors would be better served doing a few weeks of sprints and diagonal/sharp cuts and then just fooling about climbing and jumping around ledges and whatnot to clear the first stage.

[Kane-Not-Kosugi]

Honestly tho, I don't think people realize that changes on this show are mostly likely to be made harder. Stages 3 and 4 were in a way, but 3 is only to an extent because that combo would have murdered everyone. It was most likely this thinking that changes wouldn't make it harder that led to the Stage 1 shocks.

[YGK]

Apr 8, 2018 0:17:02 GMT -5 Messup434 said:

No one can forget that there will always be a significant and pertinent time-limit change to go alongside a change in the course's length. They would never take out those final two obstacles and keep that lenient a time-limit for just seven obstacles!

When inui saw one of the yamada gundan test the trampoline on the double pendulum and still clear with 20+ seconds left (back in 34) he probably decided it was time to cut the time limit down

[chase247]

While I didn't participate in the Sasuke guessing game this time, I still predicted 18 stage 1 clears in my head. Little did I know that I overestimated a tad too much.