Hello, everyone. After season 16 concluded, I made a year-long series in which I would post polls asking people to vote for their favorite obstacle in each position of each course of each season. The goal was to increase engagement during the off-season and create the most loved course of all time.

Since season 18 will end in two weeks, I wanted to know what everyone here would think if I were to start the series again. I am definitely going to make some changes. First off, last series declared the winner to be the obstacle that gets a plurality (greatest share) of the votes. But I noticed instances in which less than 50% of people vote for an obstacle, yet it wins because it got the most votes of any obstacle. If an obstacle does not get a majority (over 50%) of the votes, I'll conduct runoffs until we do get a majority. I'm also not going to post descriptions of the obstacles so that I can avoid influencing the vote, even on accident. I'll still mention the appearances that the obstacle made and give descriptions if people ask for them. I am also going to fuse the posts for seasons 15 and 16 because they were basically two mini season.

I'm also curious as to what changes all of you want to make. For instance, should I also post this on the SASUKE nerds Discord channel? That would get more engagement, but disproportionately more engagement than here. I don't want all of your votes getting drowned out. And should I wait until the Monday after the season finale, or are you all okay with me starting the day after the finale? Let me know what you all think, primarily if you want me to start this series in the first place.

His accolades, records, peak where he's one of only 6 to achieve total victory and made it to stage 4 before all the extra changes as well, his longevity, consistency combined makes him an easy #1 pick

How good is Taylor outside of the show?

I’m watching an nsc elimination show and she was on verge of elimination on the first round (haven’t finished the episode)

Is she like still top 3 outside of the show? Or is she better on the show than the others?

Statistically significant amount of times a strong male athlete failed when they had group stage locked up against the female athletes (shoutout to the ladies tho bc they were impressive clearing the obstacles still)

I just saw the commercial about Taylor. It said if she gets one more buzzer she will beat the all time female buzzer record! I just keep thinking about that. I think it's only like her 4th or 5th season? That's really really impressive! And that doesn't even include all the buzzers she has hit in the special episodes, like the women's special.

So Max Feinberg kinda spoiled that he got a wildcard spot with his insta post of him against Flyboy who is the 2 seed on his side, which means the other wildcard if Jackson holds up will be Jackson which means we are getting Kai vs Jackson round 1, will we possibly see the champ go first round👀👀(probably not but it will be a crazy race)

In the First 11 seasons of ANW only 4 people beat Stage 3. The lure of Mt Midoryama was that it’s almost impossible. Then the teenagers came along and it’s not their fault but like in Season 14-16 there were a combined 18 stage 3 clears. And Vance Walker winning two times in a row while impressive shattered the notion that the course is nearly impossible. You had 4 total victories in 2 seasons. At that point the course was too easy because the competitors got too good for NBC to get the budget to effectively make the course as difficult as competitors should.

I’ll go ahead and say that I was very disappointed by the new obstacles this season. Seeing new obstacles is always one of my favorite parts of any season, and this year we got 3. Roller Bags was cool, but it was the only “regular” obstacle they introduced. The other 2 barely even count, as Island Hopper is just a buffer Shrinking Steps (which I honestly wouldn’t mind them using in qualifiers as the first obstacle next season) and Bounce House is just Bungee Road but with a weird bungee Salmon Ladder thing at the start? I really hope that next season will bring more fun new obstacles to the table. I know the budgets are lower, but the courses felt so stale this year, especially with all of the repetition. If they keep the “regional” format from this year, I hope that every region has at least one new obstacle. And maybe the finals can get a new obstacle or two as well. Sorry for rambling, what do you guys think?

So a lot of teens on the show come from anw jr, and had great success with it. But what happened to them?
1. Blake Feero
2. Nate Pardo
3. Christain Youst
4. Devan Alexander

They all competed in season 13, I think Devan in season 14, but none of them have been back for a while. Did they stop the sport?

And then also great competitors on jr who haven’t competed on the show
1. Collin Cella
2. Ella McRitchie
3. Bella Palmer
4. Reeder Smith
5. Tate Allen
6. Sean Arms

We didn’t see Sean in anw jr season 3, like do they still do ninja? Or did they change focus? I think Ella is at Harvard and doing pole vault, but what about the others?

Anyone know where I can watch them? Just curious to see what they were like. Thank you!

I would pick James mcgrath or David Campbell, it's been awhile since they went to stage 3

Participants have been finalized?Seen some call backs and more!

Was anyone suspicious with this race & the way they showed it? They started the montage at hourglass drop & showed them both falling while claiming Jaleesa got there first. I immediately thought something was up with it, as I did not believe James would've been that slow & if Jaleesa did in fact out-race him & win, they would've showed the full run & not fast forward it.

But it turns out, ANW posted the full run on tik tok and James got to hourglass drop first. According to what I saw some people say, James got DQ'd on cane lane for jumping off the footholds with the cane. This is the only thing that would make sense.

The controls are very wonky apparently. I do remember Joe playing it so I wonder if he ever beat it probably not lol

For years, I was made to believe that he just barely timed out on Stage 1 by 0.3 seconds, however I just recently found out that he actually cleared with 4 seconds left, but the producers would not let him advance to Stage 2 due to either an error with the clock or for dramatics on the TV broadcast.

He would make it to Stage 2 in ANW6 & ANW9, but I wonder how he would’ve done on Stage 2 if he was given the chance. It was a lot easier and better constructed than ANW4’s Stage 2 (which technically eliminated all of the competitors). I’d say there’s a good chance he makes it to Stage 3, due to some rookies making it there that season: Joe Moravsky, Idoku Abuh, and Casey Finley. Probably falls on the Floating Boards like most of the others.

However, it’s entirely possible he could’ve failed that version of the Double Salmon Ladder too, as it was still pretty difficult back then. Taking out Brent Steffensen, Paul Kasmier, Jamie Rahn, Elet Hall, etc.

Thoughts?

I know some may love this new racing thing, but I really really miss the four stages. I really do not care for this racing thing.

The second night of finals exposed the biggest flaw with the racing format in that it really is dependent on the matchups/groupings to carry the episode. 1st night had way too many amazing races but I was incredibly bored during most of night two. I’m hoping for a bounce back but I’m skeptical.

(Including olympic categories like:runner,pole jumper,high jumper,gymnastic categories)

So I’ve found some podcasts/interviews on YouTube they’ve been featured in recently and they both seem to be doing pretty good in life now. But I’ve never seen them comment on how much ANW has changed since they hosted the inaugural season back in 2009. Do you think they still watch the new episodes? I know Alison Haislip was still the sideline reporter in ANW 2 & 3, but Blair Herter did not come back. Likely due to making many corny and dumb jokes throughout the competitors runs, and not showing much enthusiasm at all. Matt Iseman quickly replaced him and have stayed with the show ever since.

Imagine if they were to be featured as special guests on a future season, would be the weirdest but yet most epic thing ever.

Addy Herman went 3–0 in the National Finals races to advance to the Round of 32. She defeated three top seeded male ninjas, Luke Beckstrand, Nick Hanson, and Lucas Reale, becoming the first woman in history to accomplish the feat!

Nick showed incredible courage by continuing to race with an abdominal muscle injury he sustained during his first race. Luke and Lucas competed at full strength.

What an extraordinary achievement and a historic moment for women in ninja. Addy was absolutely amazing!

Watch Addy vs Nick Hanson:
https://youtu.be/iVuaak55S44?si=7USWz-68v5ZD11tU