Overlooked Good Runs

[darthvaderlim]

Opposite to my previous thread, what are some good runs that you think gets overlooked?

Mine would be Akiyama in 12, Hashimoto in 24, Kongu in 23, and Jun in 32

[dakohosu]

- Iketani in 10: second place finish on a course with a very hard Stage 1, only coming behind Yamada, especially considering he didn't train for Sasuke.

- Koji Yamada in 15-16: he often gets overshadowed by Takeda, or other secondary players like Shinji, but he did the best out of any non-All Star in both 15 and 16, especially the former's course massively toughened by the heat. Cliffhanger clears are usually made a huge deal out of but he did it twice in a row and it rarely gets brought up.

- Okuyama in 20: an incredibly unassuming looking late-30s dad of 2 being only one of three Stage 1 clears and beasting the Salmon Ladder that ended the previous tournament.

- Miyazaki in 21: being the only competitor other than Takeda and Nagano to reach Stage 3 on an incredibly difficult first two stages, again even more so when you consider how Sasuke was merely a side gig for him/he didn't train specifically.

- Kong in 29: fastest time on the most brutal Stage 2 at almost 40 years old, and beasting the Iron Paddler in a matter of seconds.

- Kishimoto in 30: a lot of people forget that he almost reached the Final Stage, because his one good run was overshadowed by two comical first obstacle fails.

- Darvish in 35: someone who everyone initially considered to be a 'joke competitor' coming in sixth place and going farther than a lot of high profile elites.

- Kajihara and Hioki in 39: didn't expect either to come in joint second place, ahead of Yoshiyuki and Ryo. Expected Kajihara to fail early on his Stage 3 debut, and Hioki's performances are usually pretty mid. Especially Hioki on the first half of the course was going absolutely rapidly, let alone for a 40 year old.

[ItalianNinja08]

Hatakeda in 6, Kuboki in 7, Ishikawa in 14, Adachi in 17, Sihm in 32.

[azn]

Bunpei, SK13
Hirata Atsushi and Kawahara Takuya, SK19
Tajima Naoya, SK24
Hashimoto Koji, SK27
Nagasaki Shunsuke & Lee En-Chih, SK30

[wrestlingfan55]

Despite being the best that tournament, I think Nagano's run in 9 gets overlooked, perhaps moreso in hindsight. How he zoomed up the final Rope Climb in Stage 1 (making you realise this was no ordinary competitor), clearing Stage 2 comfortably, and being the first to attempt AND clear the Rumbling Dice, Globe Grasp and Cliffhanger V3.

[dakohosu]

Feb 3, 2024 8:56:33 GMT -5 wrestlingfan55 said:

Despite being the best that tournament, I think Nagano's run in 9 gets overlooked, perhaps moreso in hindsight. How he zoomed up the final Rope Climb in Stage 1 (making you realise this was no ordinary competitor), clearing Stage 2 comfortably, and being the first to attempt AND clear the Rumbling Dice, Globe Grasp and Cliffhanger V3.

I think part of the reason for this was that 9 was a pretty forgettable tournament in general, with Nagano's breakout being perhaps the only memorable moment in the entire tournament. It's also quite hard for any Stage 3 run, even a near clear, not to be overshadowed by his three consecutive Final Stage runs which happened only shortly after, including 11 and 12 which are much more highly regarded, and hence, memorable, tournaments.