A Ninja warrior All-Star game

In a week’s time, some of the best Ninjas in the nation will be back on NBC. May 17th’s All-Star Special gives Ninjas a chance to show their skills in super-sized obstacles. There’s also typically a team component featuring some of our commentator’s favorite competitors. We asked you earlier this week about what challenges you would like to see in next Thursday’s episode, but today we are taking a look at the team side of things.

In past all-star games for other professional sports leagues like the MLB, NBA and NFL, squads were determined by regional affiliation: American League vs. National League, East vs. West, etc. Well, the Ninja world has its own city structure that could translate well to an all-star competition like these. In 2017, we had six locations host Ninja competitions – Los Angeles, San Antonio, Daytona, Kansas City, Cleveland and Denver. So what if we used these cities to divide up our Ninjas and have an all-star match up? Here’s what they could look like:

West (Los Angeles + Denver)

Fastest City Finals Ninjas: Ian Dory (Denver), Sean Bryan (LA), Meagan Martin (Denver), Rebekah Bonilla (LA)

Fastest City Qualifying Ninjas: Lorin Ball (Denver), Grant McCartney (LA), Zhanique Lovett (LA)

The West has plenty of top talents. Not only do they have a long list of fast finishers, they also have athletes like Flip Rodriguez, Brian Arnold and Kevin Bull who we have seen before in the all-star challenge. California’s City Finals included four finishers (Bryan, Adam Rayl, Josh Levin, and Charlie Andrews) – the most of any city.

David Becker/NBC

South (San Antonio + Daytona)

Fastest City Finals & Qualifying Ninjas: Drew Drechsel (Daytona), Dan Gil (San Antonio), Jessie Graff (Daytona), Barclay Stockett (San Antonio)

The top Ninjas from these regions were incredibly strong as they finished with the fastest times in both the city qualifying finals round. Jessie is one of only two women to have completed Stage One in Vegas and the only one to finish Stage Two. Drew, Daniel and San Antonio’s Josh Salinas combined for the three fastest times on Stage One of Vegas during ANW9. Beyond this fearsome foursome, Ninjas like Nicholas Coolridge, Kacy Catanzaro, Thomas Stillings and JJ Woods are among the top names from these cities.

David Becker/NBC

Mideast(ish) (Kansas City + Cleveland)

Fastest City Finals Ninjas: Joe Moravsky (Cleveland), Mitch DeVepo (Kansas City), Jesse Labreck (Cleveland), Maggi Thorne (Kansas City)

Fastest City Qualifying Ninjas: Anthony DeFranco (Cleveland), Lance Pekus (Kansas City), Sarah Schoback (Kansas City)

Joe Moravsky and Allyssa Beird were the Ninjas that went the furthest during ANW9 and they came from the same city! That already makes for a stacked team. Cleveland also featured Jamie Rahn, one of just 9 Ninjas to finish a City Finals course last season, and Najee Richardson, one of three Stage Three qualifiers in addition to the names noted above. Kansas City may not have had a city finals finisher, but they have crowd favorites like Lance Pekus, Maggi Thorne and Tyler Yamauchi at their disposal.

What do you think of these potential All-Star matchups? Which team do you think would take the victory? Who would you pick to represent each region?

We have lots of questions that need answers! Give us your thoughts in the comment section.