How do you think modern Shingo would do in 1-18?

[zoran]

Stopping at 18 because 19 was a massive evolution of difficulty. How do you think modern Shingo would do on these older tournaments? He is significantly older but much more skilled and it would be on easier courses. For example 2003 Shingo couldn't even beat the Cliffhanger Kai but modern Shingo has shown on his Instagram that he can beat a crazy cliffhanger transition.

[dakohosu]

It's hard to say, because Shingo now is more skilled as you mentioned, especially upper body wise, having had to adapt to the increasing difficulty of the course at least as far as Stage 3 is concerned, as well as training specifically for Sasuke a lot more often. I'm not sure how valid this latter point is as he trains for the current course not 1-18, though any kind of obstacle training is going to be more transferrable to different obstacles than general fitness training (I mean look at ANW competitors). He's also weirdly reverse aged in terms of his shoulder injury, which hasn't relapsed in years, and that was always something that compromised him during his prime, having taken time out of training to rehabilitate it etc. I would imagine that him being older, wiser, and now a gym owner/trainer would've had something to do with it.

On the other hand, he doesn't have the speed that he used to, and is way more inconsistent and prone to mental mistakes than during his prime, at least compared to 11-17. Golden Era Shingo was absolutely rapid, regularly putting down the faster times on the first two stages, whereas modern Shingo cleared 40's Stage 1, which comparatively is way more time lenient, with the second slowest time. Re consistency, he obviously had a couple of freak accidents back in the day like 4, 6, and 16, as well as a few faux pas on later stages like 9 and 13, but it's definitely no comparison to modern Shingo who could realistically fail anywhere on the course due to any reason.

As a result I'd say he could very possibly go pretty far into the course due to his increased skill, but at the same time with the more adaptive and changing Stage 1s and the more time restrictive Stage 2s, those could cause him issues. I'd say his max from Sasuke 1-5 would be Wall Lift as he just doesn't have the speed to beat those 50-second Stage 2 courses, as well as possibly 14-17. Everything else he could possibly go deep into Stage 3, I'm hesitant to say he'll clear mainly because we haven't seen much of his upper body stamina/ability to persevere when fatigued. This is assuming he doesn't falter on Stage 1 though, which as mentioned due to his recent inconsistency and pattern of mental errors I can 100% see compromising his track record. Especially sudden buffs like we got in 5, 10, and 18, as well as the fact that we had more changes and unique obstacles, many of which could easily catch him out. 

[edaan]

These are all best case scenarios by the way.

I feel like he could beat basically any stage 1, bar maybe 10 and 18 due to the tougher jump hang and time limit in 10 and the more technical obstacles in 18. Stage 2 is safe as well barring maybe 5 or 15-17, due to the tough metal spin and the time limits. Stage 3 is possible in almost all tournaments, bar the Grinding Ring in 18, as well as the pipe slider jumps in 14-17. As for the final, he could clear it in 1-4, and make it about 21 metres up in 5-17.

However, as Shingo knows all too well, best case scenarios often never work out in Sasuke, as proven by a final attempt and a tournament as last man standing being followed up with a balance bridge and then a rolling log fail. Things happen, and with Shingo being as unpredictable as he is over the years, he could easily fail anywhere in most tournaments.