Will Saikawa Clear Stage Two?

[darthvaderlim]

Honest question, do you think Saikawa will finally clear Stage Two? Unlike Keitaro, Saikawa has been slowly progressing in his last three attempts, so the only way for him to fail would either be time reduction, new obstacle, or simple mistake. But so far, he hasn't shown ant signs of mental block like Keitaro.

[dakohosu]

I'm actually pretty surprised so many people have said yes, as I'd argue Keitaro is easily capable of clearing Stage 2 with a time limit reduction if he doesn't do that dumb waiting around before the Backstream and Reverse Conveyer which (one would hope) is easily avoidable yet most people said 'unsure'.

Saikawa by comparison was clearly hauling a** as much as he could in 39 yet still timed out and probably would've done so in both of the previous two tournaments had he not failed earlier. If there wasn't any speculation of a time limit decrease I'd say 100% he's clearing but any reduction of I'd say 10 seconds or more and I'd start to doubt his chances, as a load of other guys would've timed out with 10 less seconds including Ryo, who is way faster on the Salmon Ladder and Spider Walk.

Hence in the absence of knowledge of any time limit changes I'm still going with unsure.

[subtleagent]

He came pretty close last time and it's not like he doesn't train. He very well could and assuming Stage 2 is the same I'll go with yes.

[cactustiger]

I lean towards yes as he’s been progressing througn the stage and unless the time limits like 38 which it probably won’t be I think he’ll clear

[SasukeBanzukeNo1 (Moon12)]

I would say so. He and Kajihara have been really committed to the show, so they probably train together as much as they can to do better. Kajihara just missed out on making to stage 3 in just his debut in 38, and ended up clearing it easily in 39--with over 20 seconds left. Saikawa had parallel results with Kajihara in 38, as he also timed out just before clearing in 39, so he could more likely make it in 40, as long as nothing goes wrong.

Also, he's been progressing little by little throughout each tournament, with each time going a bit further into stage two than his last (and I personally thought he was sort of robbed in 38, but he probably would've timed out anyways due to both fatigue and dizziness from the Rolling Log). So he's definitely capable of breaking boundaries, but training, speed, skill, and stamina will surely have to be applied.