5 Worst Tournaments and 5 Worst Obstacles

[tns8597]

So I'm bored writing my uni thesis again, so here goes....

5 worst tournaments and 5 worst obstacles in your opinion; completely unrelated but I figured why not just merge two posts into one.

These are mine in no particular order.

Tournaments:
1. SASUKE 26 - I said no particular order but this is firmly my least favourite. We knew most of the results before the actual airing cos of G4, too many people got FF'd or cut, underwhelming results, just generally a really disappointing tournament. 
2. SASUKE 13 - so promising after the tournament beforehand, but the obstacles and results were so underwhelming, Nagano reaching the final for the third time was awesome af but a boring/expected result. 
3. SASUKE 28 - don't think I need to explain this one ....
4. SASUKE 20 - boring af, underwhelming results, barely better than 19 which was way harder in Stage 1 and 2. Levi I'm also not a fan of as I think he's quite arrogant.
5. SASUKE 27 - unpopular opinion for many I'm sure, but had many of the editing issues of SASUKE 26 with so many fast forwards and messing around with the running order; this is slightly more forgivable because there were 27 clears. Stage 3 was a joke except for the UCH; I defo mark this tournament down because Stage 1 and 3 were made way way easier so clearly they were trying to get someone to win, which to me just ruins the fun of seeing who can beat the revamped Stage 3 first.

Obstacles:
1. Hang Move - Literally a piece of s*** obstacle that shouldn't be anywhere near SASUKE, let alone Stage 3. Mind you, Katsumi Yamada actually had trouble on it, but I think that says more about him than the obstacle.....
2. Net Bridge - SASUKE 18 was so full of the desire to revamp and create new obstacles that they were always going to run out of ideas; and this is the result....
3. Bungee Bridge - Another SASUKE 18 exclusive, and yet another one on this list that can be completed by 4 year olds....
4. Narrow - Not sure why they'd replace the Tackle Machine with this......
5. Shoulder Walk - the third SASUKE 18 exclusive in this list, surprising that such a cool tournament with so many new ideas also had some of the worst obstacles in SASUKE's history. This was just a dumb replacement for the Wall Lift, not to mention dangerous; I swear if you fall with 40kg on your shoulders that could hurt real bad.....

[zoran]

How did Yamada have trouble with it?

[PizzaKing57]

I actually find 27 to be one of the best SASUKE tournaments because for a start, Nagano made a great comeback to clearing Stage 1 for the first time in four competitions and was able to reach the most interesting version of the Cliffhanger as well.

And it doesn't matter to me if some biggest stars like Kanno, Kongu etc. was spread around with very low numbers but aside from that, some continued to make it far.

In addition, the great Morimoto also cleared Stage 1 for the first time where his amazing campaign started to begin and a record of 27 people overall managed to clear, making the tournament even greater.

Even though 28 might have ended the All-Stars career on a sad note due to all of them failing Stage 1, it was a least a tournament with unique obstacles like the Quintuple Step and Spinning Bridge being moved to the third position but the main reason is cause the mat colour was changed to black for just one competition before red came back again.

Also about the Ledge Walk obstacle, it looked really terrifying because the steam coming from the pool either meant that the water was very very cold or very very hot and if any challenger failed there, then they would probably be shivering. I've also tried to do ledge walking in public, but for me it was almost impossible lol. I definitely liked the Tackle Machine more because it was revived about 15 years later and definitely wasn't terrifying, also Takeda is still the only person out of three to attempt both versions of this obstacle, although Shingo could too, if he doesn't screw up again on trampoline obstacles.

I'm afraid I'm gonna have to say that the Sky Walk is one of my least favourite obstacles because it was never attempted for a start, it was so identical to the Cliffhanger and lastly, it got replaced with the Swing Ladder for some reason.

And I honestly think that although the Rope Glider looked like a fun obstacle because of how high up it started from, it's probably just as dangerous as the Shoulder Walk as the velocity of the obstacle caused six people to get injured and this is the only reason why it's good it got replaced in the next tournament.

[tns8597]

Yamada kept missing the chains I remember; he was never on the verge of failing the obstacle but for how easy it is it defo wasn't a smooth execution imo.

Also that's fair enough about 27, but for me good results don't always define a good tournament, especially when the good results were a product of the course being artificially made way easier so that someone would win. The Stage 3 in 27 compared to 25/26 was an absolute joke, replacing the Roulette Cylinder/Doorknob Grasper combo with the f***ing Arm Bike like come on. It just wasn't that exciting to watch imo because you sort of knew people were going to do quite well.

Also isn't the water thing the case with basically every tournament? Also SASUKE 6 was filmed in the summer so it wouldn't be that cold; I'm always worried about the water temperature during winter tournaments, cos I swear unless the water is heated isn't it like a safety hazard? Either way, the Narrow just shouldn't have been an obstacle in Stage 2, it was almost hilarious watching the Kosugi brothers who are martial arts legends dealing with that atrocity of an obstacle haha

[casuallystranded]

If it weren’t for it’s downright comical editing (we all know that 62, 50, 20, and 85 are consecutive numbers) and the softening of Stage 3, 27 could have been a 10/10

[tns8597]

Jul 2, 2020 21:25:51 GMT -5 casuallystranded said:

If it weren’t for it’s downright comical editing (we all know that 62, 50, 20, and 85 are consecutive numbers) and the softening of Stage 3, 27 could have been a 10/10

Exactly my point. I can forgive the high numbers of fast forwards due to the 27 clears we got (unlike 26 which only had 10 yet still managed to fast forward/cut 70% of competitors), but I don't f***ing get why they just couldn't run them in order, it just ruins the whole idea of suspense waiting for your favourite competitors' runs. It also spoiled a lot of the results, because so many competitors were fast forwarded, that we sort of knew that the ones that weren't, like Matachi Ryo, were going to do well before he even reached the final. And with regards to Stage 2, who thought it would be a good idea to group fails by obstacle!?

[tns8597]

Jul 2, 2020 16:18:36 GMT -5 PizzaKing57 said:

Even though 28 might have ended the All-Stars career on a sad note due to all of them failing Stage 1, it was a least a tournament with unique obstacles like the Quintuple Step and Spinning Bridge being moved to the third position but the main reason is cause the mat colour was changed to black for just one competition before red came back again.

Also, with regards to this, I don't think 28 sucked because of the black mats on Stage 1. If we're speaking aesthetically, the Stage 2 was probably the best looking I'd ever seen, but that didn't really matter imo. 

What sucked about 28 was:
- Trying to retire the All-Stars when one of them had literally made the Third Stage in the previous tournament, and two of them were still in their mid-30s and have cleared Stage 1 since.
- Really lazy Stage 1 obstacles; like the Ni Ren Warped Wall and Jump Hang Kai
- That annoying af box lady
- That dinner event where clearly no one wanted to be there; the All-Stars looked so bored.
- The editing seemed super cheesy generally
- The Navi basically spoiled the results as the advertised 'new-stars' just happened to be the last 4 men standing; Asa in particular had never made it past Stage 2 so it was obvious he'd done well in that tournament, whereas others like Hashimoto weren't included so it was obvious he'd failed Stage 1.
- Finally, I'm certain the low number of clears were due to the lack of actual strong competitors invited. They didn't bother inviting Okuyama, Kongu, or any of the stand-out Americans, instead inviting a bunch of nobodies who all failed. There would've defo been more than 10 clears if the cohort from the previous tournaments were all invited.

[m4tt3r0x]

5 best:
23
24
25
21, 18

Didn't care too much for anything in 1-13 in particular really. 30 I thought was a mess and too easy. 34 I felt was a carbon copy of 33. Didn't love 20 or 22 at all. 26 I really didn't like although I was a fan of the concept for the Rolling Escargot. 28-37 is nothing spectacular overall.

Shin Sasuke and 25 just felt like the peak for me. 14-17 were enjoyable too as well as some other tournaments outside of that range.

[tns8597]

Interesting you say that because Shin-Sasuke was probably my least favourite era. For most of the era there was no real leading group of competitors. The All-Stars had started to decline and the Shin-Sedai hadn't really materialized yet. I would've been more fond of it if 18 had had the results it did and then we saw a slow improvement throughout, but they just kept making the course harder and harder and so the results from 18-21 were just lacklustre and boring imo. My favourite era has probably been the newer tournaments, in all honesty. I just feel like the obstacle innovation is much better as is the editing. I really wasn't a fan of the Monster9 editing and scrambling people's running order all the time.

My favourite were probably, in no particular order:
- SASUKE 12
- SASUKE 14
- SASUKE 35
- SASUKE 37
- SASUKE 1

Note the lack of a Kanzen tournament there. Personally, I don't necessarily think a Total Victory necessarily equates to a good tournament, especially in the case of tournaments like 24 and 27 where the results up until that point were either leading up to a total victory or the course was made much easier to allow for a victory.

[ChiBiJKT48]

Tournaments:
01. SASUKE 28
02. SASUKE 26
03. SASUKE 29
04. SASUKE 34
05. SASUKE 25

Obstacles:
01. Ni Ren Soritatsu Kabe
02. Hang Move
03. Bungee Bridge
04. Narrow
05. Shoulder Walk

SASUKE 28, retiring SASUKE All-Stars when clearly they was doing well in last tournament *three that compete get to at least Soritatsu Kabe*, not a good idea.

SASUKE 26, too many cuts and digests. Not helped by G4 spoiling results. And don't forget that infamous swap between Okuyama Yoshiyuki and Hashimoto Koji in Second Stage.

SASUKE 29, absolutely crazy time limit reduction in Second Stage. Yes, it is Speed Stage, but 90 seconds for that, it was just insane.

SASUKE 34, no new obstacle(s), the first time it ever happened. Just pure boring.

SASUKE 25, lottery to decide number. That was BS.

Ni Ren Soritatsu Kabe, urgh. Who had idea to put two Soritatsu Kabe?

Hang Move, no right for this obstacle to exist. Even Arm Bike, despite being more easier *in my opinion*, it was far better because it actually tire your arms out for Cliffhanger/Cliffhanger Dansa.

Bungee Bridge, a very easy obstacle in SASUKE 18 that was supposed to be the hardest tournament since it was the complete renewal after Kanzenseiha. Great Wall and Net Bridge also, but at least Great Wall took some victims, and Net Bridge was designed to be time waster in Speed Stage, so it is still acceptable.

Narrow, boring obstacle that kill the pace of Second Stage. Should just kept Tackle from previous tournament.

Shoulder Walk, replacing the iconic Wall Lift, and had potential to injure someone had he/she fall into the water below.

Honourable mentions:
SASUKE 32. That is how you say farewell to Nagano Makoto? By digesting runs of his fellow All-Stars? And didn't even mind show his speech to us? And don't let me start about the Second Stage, which is absolute joke.

SASUKE 33. Crazy idea to put Ultra Crazy Cliffhanger+Vertical Limit Kai+Pipe Slider combo, although I get that *maybe* someone like it that way.

Hariyama. Had potential, but simply just put in wrong place. Should serve as first/second obstacle, not last.

Backstream. Touching water = DQ. And now you had to swim through water. Again, there will be a lot of debate since most of you like Backstream, so better just agree to disagree.

[zoran]

Jul 7, 2020 7:30:33 GMT -5 ChiBiJKT48 said:

Tournaments:
01. SASUKE 28
02. SASUKE 26
03. SASUKE 29
04. SASUKE 34
05. SASUKE 25

Obstacles:
01. Ni Ren Soritatsu Kabe
02. Hang Move
03. Bungee Bridge
04. Narrow
05. Shoulder Walk

SASUKE 28, retiring SASUKE All-Stars when clearly they was doing well in last tournament *three that compete get to at least Soritatsu Kabe*, not a good idea.

SASUKE 26, too many cuts and digests. Not helped by G4 spoiling results. And don't forget that infamous swap between Okuyama Yoshiyuki and Hashimoto Koji in Second Stage.

SASUKE 29, absolutely crazy time limit reduction in Second Stage. Yes, it is Speed Stage, but 90 seconds for that, it was just insane.

SASUKE 34, no new obstacle(s), the first time it ever happened. Just pure boring.

SASUKE 25, lottery to decide number. That was BS.

Ni Ren Soritatsu Kabe, urgh. Who had idea to put two Soritatsu Kabe?

Hang Move, no right for this obstacle to exist. Even Arm Bike, despite being more easier *in my opinion*, it was far better because it actually tire your arms out for Cliffhanger/Dropout Cliffhanger.

Bungee Bridge, a very easy obstacle in SASUKE 18 that was supposed to be the hardest tournament since it was the complete renewal after Kanzenseiha. Great Wall and Net Bridge also, but at least Great Wall took some victims, and Net Bridge was designed to be time waster in Speed Stage, so it is still acceptable.

Narrow, boring obstacle that kill the pace of Second Stage. Should just kept Tackle from previous tournament.

Shoulder Walk, replacing the iconic Wall Lift, and had potential to injure someone had he/she fall into the water below.

Honourable mentions:
SASUKE 32. That is how you say farewell to Nagano Makoto? By digesting runs of his fellow All-Stars? And didn't even mind show his speech to us? And don't let me start about the Second Stage, which is absolute joke.

SASUKE 33. Crazy idea to put Ultra Crazy Cliffhanger+Vertical Limit Kai+Pipe Slider combo, although I get that *maybe* someone like it that way.

Hariyama. Had potential, but simply just put in wrong place. Should serve as first/second obstacle, not last.

Backstream. Touching water = DQ. And now you had to swim through water. Again, there will be a lot of debate since most of you like Backstream, so better just agree to disagree.

What was wrong with the swap in second stage of 26?It added more tension and made Okuyama more of a badass.

[tns8597]

I've always thought 26 never got as much hate as it deserved. I had just got into SASUKE in December 2010 so a month before 26 and I was so excited given how brutal Stage 3 in 25 was.

But the editing was terrible, so clinical, with competitors run out of order (almost as bad as G4's edits of Ninja Warrior) which made zero sense given that you could literally see their number; what's the point in running Hashimoto before Okuyama when you can clearly see that Hashimoto was the last run in Stage 2 wearing 98.

Also, seeing 4 Americans reach the Third Stage gave me the impression that we'd see a lot of new faces from the Japanese side of competitors in Stage 3 also, but we only got another 2 clears so basically the results were all spoilt.

I never liked Monster9's edits of Shin-SASUKE and this just confirmed how bad it got at one point.

[ChiBiJKT48]

Jul 7, 2020 9:07:32 GMT -5 zoran said:

What was wrong with the swap in second stage of 26?It added more tension and made Okuyama more of a badass.

Didn't we all mad with number ordering by G4? Why not the same with TBS? I don't care if it made Okuyama more of a badass, he run before Hashimoto, not after. Don't screw the order of the runs. The same applied to SASUKE 22 and 27, they also had terrible order of the runs. SASUKE 22 surely enter the Top Ten list, and SASUKE 27 is lucky to had Kanzenseiha and 20+ clears at First Stage to be removed from my list.