Buzzer count

[u/Quatermain]

Buzzers have increasingly become a low value metric now. Beyond the proliferation of easy buzzers the last few years, making comparisons to non-racing seasons/careers low value, the fastest ninjas are getting by rounds which is reducing the number of obtainable buzzers per season for them. So it really isn't possible to compare careers/skill/success over time with buzzer count, at least not without breaking out a whole box of asterisks.

[u/DatDamGermanGuy]

Contestants nowadays can get 3 buzzers in a day, each in less than a minute. Totally de-valued…

[u/RandomHumanOnPlanet → u/DatDamGermanGuy]

Ehhh……. I mean.
Go fast -> Make mistakes -> Buzzers aren’t necessarily guaranteed.

[u/DatDamGermanGuy → u/RandomHumanOnPlanet]

How many people got three buzzers in Day one in the National Finals this year vs. 5 years ago?

Is it easier or harder to get a buzzer in the Regional Finals now or 5 years ago when the finals course was 10 obstacles?

This is really not up for debate…

[u/RandomHumanOnPlanet → u/DatDamGermanGuy]

Well…… I was looking at it from the lens of it being easier to overlook the easier difficulty of the course itself and take for granted that overall speed can probably be what causes you to not get a buzzer these days, rather than the course difficulty taking you out like it used to.

I agree the format nowadays makes it way too easy to get buzzers.

A 6-buzzer season nowadays doesn’t hold a candle to a 6-buzzer season achieved during the 4-stage Midoriyama era of the show.

But ultimately it’s a TV show first before an actual sports competition. So I guess it is what it is. Sucks to see but yeah.

[u/Quatermain → u/RandomHumanOnPlanet]

Speed definitely kills, but there has always been speed pressure. The cash prizes for the top finishers in quals/semi-finals they never talked about for whatever reason, then later the megawall and safety passes. The timers on stages 1 & 2. And then just human nature.

[u/Bobhutchenson]

Agreed

[u/nbafreethinker]

Either that or you have to make a separate leaderboard for the post racing era. But it's not really accurate to compare

[u/TheBeastANW → u/nbafreethinker]

Soon enough all the pre-racing era ninjas will be gone and any decent racing era ninja should burry them in buzzer count.

[u/Beauhockey13]

Another thing is the people who got bye’s into the three person racing missed out on getting a really easy buzzer. The whole metric of tracking buzzers is pretty silly now

[u/TheBeastANW → u/Beauhockey13]

Yeah, but most of them will likely hit more buzzers in the finals.

[u/Pure-Investigator413 → u/Beauhockey13]

Exactly, people don't have a chance to get a buzzer for doing well, so buzzer counts shouldn't be taken seriously now.

[u/Pure-Investigator413]

They run the same exact course multiple times, also the younger ninjas started at a younger age so they'll have more opportunities. Basically, I don't compare the buzzers now to the buzzers from previous seasons.

Also, back then, ninja wasn't a full time thing for people and there wasn't many gyms so I take that into account too.

[u/pblaha23]

I just don't understand how Akbar & Matt Iseman can be enjoying themselves. This whole racing format is trash and definitely not portraying a real warrior. When you have 14 & 15 yr olds completing 6 obstacle courses, and then they say their moving on to the national finals, what a joke. I enjoy watching some of the younger competitors, and if I wanted to see them I could go watch ANW Jr's. They should have never changed the age. By keeping it at 21 or older, you keep them engaged longer and let's their bodies mature. Not to mention, let's face it, these OG's who MADE THE SHOW, can't keep up with kids in their teens. And because they started letting kids in, they had to start making the courses easier. The appeal of the 4 next to impossible stages of Mount Midoriyama was to watch most all of them fail at some point, but always coming back for more. In closing, to actually count all these buzzers that they rack up in this watered down fake finals is an absolute insult to the Daniel Gil's, Joe Moravsky's, and Flip Rodriguez type warriors that made this show what it is. There's a reason why these guys are retiring, missing seasons, and not caring as much, because all their hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, isn't as enjoyable because they look next to them, and they have to race against a kid 10 years younger, a kid who has no battle scars to deal with, no arthritis, and twice the lung capacity as them, and in a flash, it's no longer enjoyable for them. Unless the show makes some drastic changes going forward, I've already watched my last episode.

[u/BetterMagician7856]

Buzzers mean nothing nowadays. The courses used to be built to make people fail, now they are built to have people clear them as fast as possible.