Luckiest run?

[tns8597]

What do you think was the luckiest run? In the sense that so much could’ve gone wrong but the competitor seemed to have luck on their side/arguably didn’t deserve to do as well as he/she did?

[subtleagent]

Koji Yamada in 12. That Balance Tank save comes to mind.

[tns8597]

My personal choice is James Okada in Sasuke 7; the guy literally cleared Stages 1 AND 2 both with 0.1 seconds left, and then completely botches Stage 3 (arguably the worst Stage 3 performance we've ever seen) which served as evidence that he wasn't cut out for Stage 3 and indeed just got lucky; in fact I'd argue he didn't even clear Stage 2 but they just let him through for the 'suspense' finish, which is fundamentally what led to the buzzer being introduced in the following tournament.

[subtleagent]

I always figured since part of him got across in time, they allowed him in. But yeah Okada was pretty bad in Stage 3. Aside from Yamada in 4 he surprisingly had the most trouble with the Propeller Untei. And yeah his performance was definitely the worst aside from maybe Shingo in 23 (but he was injured and it was on an exponentially harder course so he gets a pass) and the Pole Bridge and Pole Jump were arguably easier than the Propeller Untei, but I'm not sure we should really count those because A: It was from 1 ~ 4 which was easy anyway. and B: Both of them were arguably more difficult (at least the Pole Bridge was, the Pole Jump I'm not so sure).

[tns8597]

Yeah but it was really inconsistent; sometimes they didn't stop the timer until half of the competitor's body got through, sometimes the whole body, sometimes like one finger, etc. It just seemed as though until Sasuke 8 they kinda bent the rules here and there to allow people through. Like Yo Takashi in Sasuke 1 'cleared with 0.1 seconds left' but the gunshot indicating a timeout actually went off but they just claimed he'd cleared.

But yeah, either way Okada got hella lucky especially as 90 seconds for that Stage 2 was very very lenient.

[subtleagent]

In Yo's case it was SASUKE 1 so I'm guessing they shot it too early?

Some others I would mention though would be...

Yuta Izumiyama in SASUKE 16. Despite being a sprinter known for speed, he barely beats Stage 1 and he's slower than even Yamada was in Stage 2 before he becomes the only competitor to ever fail the Delta Bridge (which was a crap obstacle).

Jake Smith in SASUKE 27. He only gets to Boot Camp after Frosti injured himself and is the only competitor I know who biffed the Tarzan Rope, while finally failing the Double Salmon Ladder.

Yusuke Suzuki in SASUKE 32. His Stage 2 run would've been a time out had the stage been even remotely difficult and his Stage 3 run was utterly pathetic to watch, struggling on the Drum Hopper before flubbing the Flying Bar.

Yoshinori Isa in SASUKE 37. Mostly because of his clearing of Stage 2 despite being nerfed as much as it was and him having a crap ton of errors.

[darthvaderlim]

Ishikawa in Sasuke 27, cleared with the lowest time in Stage Two with 0.06
Ken Hasegawa in Sasuke 1 also comes to mind. Saikawa in Sasuke 37. Johnny's Jr in Sasuke 38. Lee En Chi in Sasuke 26, took two swings on the Half-Pipe Attack and two shots on the Warped Wall.
Edit: Almost forgot Brian Orosco in Sasuke 21, cleared with the lowest time during the Shin-Sasuke era.

[tns8597]

Suzuki I can kind of forgive given that he beat a fully renewed First Stage, as well as the fact that he wasn't the slowest finisher on Stage 2. Also the whole 'he would've timed out if the time limit was x', you do realise that a lot of competitors would go faster if the time limit was less lenient (e.g. Morimoto often only clears Stage 1 with <10 seconds left, but he could go faster if forced to). But yeah agreed, he was defo the weakest link in Stage 3.

Surprised no one's mentioned Jovtchev in 8 given his photo finish, though the fact he then went on to easily clear Stages 2 and 3 did redeem him somewhat.

Edit: Another one I’d also add is Kanno in 23. The guy had several close calls on Stage 1 with the Curtain Slider and HPA, and almost failed the Salmon Ladder in Stage 2. But luck seemed to be on his side as none of those near misses resulted in a fail hence he made the Final.

[subtleagent]

Point taken, plus Suzuki's clear in 34 backs this up I suppose.

[darthvaderlim]

May 29, 2021 3:27:34 GMT -5 tns8597 said:

Suzuki I can kind of forgive given that he beat a fully renewed First Stage, as well as the fact that he wasn't the slowest finisher on Stage 2. Also the whole 'he would've timed out if the time limit was x', you do realise that a lot of competitors would go faster if the time limit was less lenient (e.g. Morimoto often only clears Stage 1 with <10 seconds left, but he could go faster if forced to). But yeah agreed, he was defo the weakest link in Stage 3.

Surprised no one's mentioned Jovtchev in 8 given his photo finish, though the fact he then went on to easily clear Stages 2 and 3 did redeem him somewhat.

Edit: Another one I’d also add is Kanno in 23. The guy had several close calls on Stage 1 with the Curtain Slider and HPA, and almost failed the Salmon Ladder in Stage 2. But luck seemed to be on his side as none of those near misses resulted in a fail hence he made the Final.

Speaking of Jovtchev, even Shoei almost timed out, though to be fair it was raining.

[tns8597]

Shoei’s run was less lucky, more ‘almost unlucky’, given that he would’ve cleared with a bit of time to spare but fell backwards on the rope like Shingo did. I suppose him managing to claw it back just in time is pretty lucky tho.

[sackeshi]

Akiyama Sasuke 4. I know I mentioned this before, but he is so far (i think) the only person to save themselves on the dismount

[zoran]

May 30, 2021 12:58:34 GMT -5 sackeshi said:

Akiyama Sasuke 4. I know I mentioned this before, but he is so far (i think) the only person to save themselves on the dismount

Nagasaki in 17 also had to pull himself up on to the mat.

[sackeshi]

May 30, 2021 13:42:05 GMT -5 zoran said:

May 30, 2021 12:58:34 GMT -5 sackeshi said:

Akiyama Sasuke 4. I know I mentioned this before, but he is so far (i think) the only person to save themselves on the dismount

Nagasaki in 17 also had to pull himself up on to the mat.

That save wasn't really the same, he had one foot on the matt he didn't miss the mat and pull himself up like Akiyama.

[subtleagent]

Weirdly I feel Nagano got lucky in 17 as well. He barely beat both the Circle Slider (almost missing the ring AND barely clearing the dismount) and Pipe Slider jump. I mean both were pretty brutal, but still he came VERY close to failing both of them. He also seemed to barely get clear the Warped Wall (though I might be overthinking that one, he still one-shotted it).