How would Sasuke change if touching water was allowed?

[zoran]

If competitors touch the water at all it is an instant fail with very rare exceptions like Gondou Hiroyuki in Sasuke 28 on the escargot. How would the show change if a fail only came from a competitor properly falling into the water? Skimming the water would be fine like Yamada in 39 and even instances like Kanno who failed at the end of the Dragon Glider with their legs at over knee length in the water could still go through as long as they got up onto the platform.

Some differences I can think off, competitors who skimmed the water on the jump hang bottom route could go through making the route less risky albeit the wall may be harder. Takada would be allowed to continue after the rollign escargot but would probably fail the spin bridge due to wet feet, Yamada would be allowed past the quad steps but would probably fail the rolling hill in 39, the guy who failed on the chain reaction platform in 8 would be allowed but would probably fail the spider walk.

[dakohosu]

Jul 7, 2024 12:49:54 GMT -5 zoran said:

If competitors touch the water at all it is an instant fail with very rare exceptions like Gondou Hiroyuki in Sasuke 28 on the escargot. How would the show change if a fail only came from a competitor properly falling into the water? Skimming the water would be fine like Yamada in 39 and even instances like Kanno who failed at the end of the Dragon Glider with their legs at over knee length in the water could still go through as long as they got up onto the platform.

Some differences I can think off, competitors who skimmed the water on the jump hang bottom route could go through making the route less risky albeit the wall may be harder. Takada would be allowed to continue after the rollign escargot but would probably fail the spin bridge due to wet feet, Yamada would be allowed past the quad steps but would probably fail the rolling hill in 39, the guy who failed on the chain reaction platform in 8 would be allowed but would probably fail the spider walk.

It would probably result in a lot of "did they, didn't they" situations. 

The reason that touching the water is an instant DQ is that it removes any sense of arbitrariness from the situation and hence standardizes the format. Not to mention that a lot of obstacles are centered around this principle. Taking the lower road on the Jump Hang is considered higher risk due to being very close to the water meaning competitors have to bend their knees making it harder, and a load of other obstacles are difficult because of the dismount to the landing platform (e.g. most steps obstacles, Dragon Glider, Escargot, Rolling Hill etc.). It's quite hard to completely fail the Dragon Glider dismount and end up in the water but it's comparatively a lot easier to mistime the dismount and end up with one foot or leg in the water. 

The problem with your suggestion is that compared to saying "touch water = DQ", it's quite difficult to quantify at times whether someone properly fell in or not. Like if someone landed with their body on the platform but their legs are fully in the water, does that count as falling in or can they continue? Or if, say, on the Step Slider, someone botches the transfer and gets a good amount of their body in the water but because they're still holding on to the rope they still make it on to the platform. Ok or not? As mentioned above it also considerably nerfs a lot of the difficulty elements of obstacles structured around the need to avoid touching the water.

It's also a lot more difficult to verify if a certain amount of someone's body was in the water for a fraction of a second, compared to if they just touched the water at all, as well as being quite arbitrary in terms of deciding what is considered ok and what isn't.

The exception you mentioned, as well as Yamada in 5, is based on the idea that you're allowed to get splashed by the water as long as your foot doesn't touch the actual pool itself. Which I think is fair because Yamada was splashed by the impact of the log falling into the water but he completed the transition successfully.