What if Sasuke 22?

[darthvaderlim]

What if Yuuji wasn't in Sasuke 22? What if there was no Final Stage attempt for the fifth tournament in a row?

For this scenario, let's say Yuuji fails to qualify through the Trials given how flawless he was throughout the course, so I can't see him failing the first three stages. Also, without Yuuji, Kanno would have the best result with a DQ on the Spider Flip and the All-Stars all fail Stage One like in real life.

[dakohosu]

Jul 10, 2024 3:04:25 GMT -5 darthvaderlim said:

What if Yuuji wasn't in Sasuke 22? What if there was no Final Stage attempt for the fifth tournament in a row?

For this scenario, let's say Yuuji fails to qualify through the Trials given how flawless he was throughout the course, so I can't see him failing the first three stages. Also, without Yuuji, Kanno would have the best result with a DQ on the Spider Flip and the All-Stars all fail Stage One like in real life.

They'd probably have further nerfed Stage 1, which they did anyway in 23 with the Slider Drop being made easier. Maybe a higher time limit given that without Yuuji's clear the top time would've been what, 4 seconds left, which was similar to Sasuke 19. Stage 2 they'd probably still change for 23 given that we would've had 3/4 clears, all of which would've been with around 20 seconds remaining. 

Needless to say it wouldn't have been a good look, in many ways it would've been almost a repeat of Sasuke 18-20 and implying they didn't learn their lesson (buffed course leading to regressive results, then backtracking to avoid a repeat of those results). It would've also really ousted that they didn't want Nagano to win a second time, which always struck me as the case for Shin-Sasuke, because every time he did well, they'd buff the course (think 18-19, 21-22, and dropping the TL on the fly when he made the Final in 23). Because he was best performer in both 18 and 21, and 19 and 22 saw changes that would take him out and everyone else in the process. 22 wasn't criticized for being unwarranted because Yuuji did make the Final, but without that we would've had an earlier ending than 21 (again similar to 19 vs 18), and hence more backtracking for 23 (again, similar to 20 vs 19). Which would've made their intentions more glaring, and complaints about there being no need to have buffed Stage 1 following a fifth tournament with no Stage 3 clear.

That said, despite all of this, it would've very possibly resulted in Nagano winning in 23, because they would've had no reference point as to the 45 second time limit for the Final, meaning he would've likely run with that time limit and hence won. With a relative unknown (Yuuji) coming as close as he did to winning on his first ever Final attempt, and the first ever attempt on the new version, they obviously got spooked when Nagano made it back assuming he'd just destroy the tower with that time limit (which he would've done as he would've had 4 or so seconds left given his pace in 23). Without Yuuji's attempt, they would've likely assumed 45s was still appropriate. 

[xelA197]

Imagine who watched 22 live and saw Yuuji who come out of nowhere nearly kanzening. Probably the most shocking run of all times along with Shinji in 11 and someone in 41.

[dakohosu]

Jul 10, 2024 15:48:01 GMT -5 xelA197 said:

Imagine who watched 22 live and saw Yuuji who come out of nowhere nearly kanzening. Probably the most shocking run of all times along with Shinji in 11 and someone in 41.

22 in general had some of the most unexpected results. It's the only tournament where no one who made Stage 3 had done so before (barring 20 but that had only one attempt, and obviously Sasuke 1 but I don't count that for obvious reasons lol), and out of the four who made it there, two (Kanno and Yuuji) were complete unknowns.

Yuuji's breakout was probably the most unexpected of all time, mainly because by this point, the STQ-ers were mostly seen as hopefuls who would most likely fail Stage 1, and Yuuji himself was a complete unknown and looks pretty unassuming and generally not what you think of when you think of an athletically capable being, and goes and does what no one managed to do since Sasuke 17 (granted Nagano was robbed in 21 but still). 

I can definitely imagine the hype of watching 22 live, because it was known from the intro that someone makes the Final, you'd assume straight away it'd be Nagano, but then seeing Nagano fail Stage 1, you wonder "who?!". That's also why I love 24, because everyone expected Nagano to win again after 23 but after he fails it's completely up for grabs as to who wins especially with 5 Finalists. It's not like more recent tournaments (especially 38) where it's pretty much a given that if anyone wins or even makes the Final it's going to be Yusuke. 

22 generally wasn't liked a while back but I think that was due to inherent All-Star bias, but I actually don't think All-Stars failing early is really a bad thing because a lot of their fails were quite unexpected/shocking which led to inherently less predictability and hence more excitement. It's getting more love now, because I think people realise it has all the fundamentals of what people want but aren't getting from more recent tournaments: breakout runs from unknowns, shock fails from veterans, harder Stage 1. The editing is frequently criticised but I don't mind the out-of-order digests as it was pretty much all just fails from randos, unlike 26-27 where they messed up the order of clears as well.

In terms of shock, I'd probably add Anastase in 31 and Bunpei in 12 to the mix. Anastase because I full on remember seeing him as a joke competitor given his outfit and starting pose then he goes and gets the fastest time on Stage 1 and makes it to the Cliffhanger; Bunpei because even though he made Stage 2 in 11, he wasn't seen as particularly threatening and like Yuuji looked quite innocent and unassuming, then absolutely destroys Stage 3 like no other and almost Kanzens. 

[xelA197]

Recently, I have re-evaluated 10 and 22, because seeing totally unexpected new faces get very far is a nice breath of fresh air, and even if the All-Stars flopped in both tournaments bar Yamada in 10, this adds the necessary drama, otherwise having 10+ attempts in the Third Stage makes tournaments more anonymous with mass digests or mid cuts on the runs from the least known competitors.

It's a great shame that I watch live tournaments starting from SASUKE 31, if I had watched 24 live I think I would have spent a very electrifying 5.5 hours, although thinking better, after Nagano's fail, Yuuji's victory was quite obvious considering the other competitors (he was the only one who had already attempted the Final Stage in the past)

Small anecdote about SASUKE 31; I wrote down on a piece of paper all those who cleared by and when it was Anastase's turn I called him "The Greek" because of the wreath on his head which made him look like a Greek athlete from the antiquity (and because I didn't know his name on that moment). More than shocked, I almost laughed to see this random guy speeding like Sonic with disarming ease.

Finally, I watched 2-20 in random order on GXT (a sort of Italian version of G4, unfortunately closed in 2015) and therefore I will probably have known the competitors in tournaments in which it was not actually their first appearance. So I probably discovered Bunpei after SASUKE 12 lol.

[dakohosu]

Jul 11, 2024 15:32:46 GMT -5 xelA197 said:

Recently, I have re-evaluated 10 and 22, because seeing totally unexpected new faces get very far is a nice breath of fresh air, and even if the All-Stars flopped in both tournaments bar Yamada in 10, this adds the necessary drama, otherwise having 10+ attempts in the Third Stage makes tournaments more anonymous with mass digests or mid cuts on the runs from the least known competitors.

It's a great shame that I watch live tournaments starting from SASUKE 31, if I had watched 24 live I think I would have spent a very electrifying 5.5 hours, although thinking better, after Nagano's fail, Yuuji's victory was quite obvious considering the other competitors (he was the only one who had already attempted the Final Stage in the past)

Small anecdote about SASUKE 31; I wrote down on a piece of paper all those who cleared by and when it was Anastase's turn I called him "The Greek" because of the wreath on his head which made him look like a Greek athlete from the antiquity (and because I didn't know his name on that moment). More than shocked, I almost laughed to see this random guy speeding like Sonic with disarming ease.

Finally, I watched 2-20 in random order on GXT (a sort of Italian version of G4, unfortunately closed in 2015) and therefore I will probably have known the competitors in tournaments in which it was not actually their first appearance. So I probably discovered Bunpei after SASUKE 12 lol.

10 has always been one of my favorite tournaments, I don't get why it gets so much shade. Brutally hard Stage 1, clears from unexpected competitors and redemption runs, shock fails, Yamada's last stand on Stage 3. Yes, Stage 2 sucked, but most Golden Era Stage 2s did so not really too much of a point against. 

My first live tournament was unfortunately 26 lol. It's a shame because had I got into Sasuke only a year earlier, I would've watched 23-25 live, possibly 3 of the best live watches given the results. But instead I get a tournament where most of the impactful results were already spoiled (G4 showed the American results prior to Sasuke 26's air date).

[subtleagent]

22 is one of those tournaments you don't really appreciate, but like a fine wine it gets better with age. Dislike may be a bit of a misnomer for me as it just more fell under my radar especially with 23 and 24 coming after it, but as I got older I grew to appreciate it more and as mentioned it was a tournament with everything one could want. A difficult Stage 1, a healthy amount of shock value, and loads of breakout runs. Especially with the divided reception of 18 ~ 20 and following a breakthrough from old faces in 21, it was amazing to see so much happen in 22.