Season 8 Obstacles

List of nightmares: The American Ninja Warrior Los Angeles obstacles

Jessie Graff made her season debut, and only Josh Levin completed the City Finals.

By Nikki Lee@anwnation Sep 22, 2016, 10:57am PDT

As we look back on American Ninja Warrior Season Eight, a debate rages. Were the courses made too difficult for any human to complete, or was this just a season that the course won against the Ninjas?

It’s a tough call. On one hand, last year we did have two competitors finish the course. Perhaps NBC and A. Smith & Co. Productions cranked up the heat a little too high on this year’s obstacles.

On the other hand, out of eight seasons in the US, only once ever has a Ninja “won” the competition. This happened in Season Seven, and was accomplished by Isaac Caldiero. We should know better than to expect Ninjas to reach Stage Four every single time.

All in all, we saw 50 obstacles across the City Qualifying and Finals rounds. In the National Finals, 21 more obstacles awaited the Ninjas.

In this series, we’ll take a look at every obstacle the Ninjas faced over the season. We’ve also included links to the “Ninja Killer” discussion for each episode by Travis McClure of ANWFantasy.com.

On the NBC digital series, “Crashing the Course,” you get a behind the scenes look at how those diabolical traps get created. Weigh in on which obstacles you think were too difficult, or let us know if the course was just right!

Los Angeles:

There were only two course completions during the LA City Finals. We saw Jessie Graff’s first epic run of the season. Rookie Josh Levin announced himself by becoming the only Ninja to complete the Finals course.