A new long name and the longest course run of his career: This LA competitor achieved a lot in season 11

As you may have noticed, we’ve been in a reflective state of mind at ANW Nation. And with the season we just had, we’d be happy to reflect on all those one-of-a-kind moments forever.

So we thought we’d go through the season, episode by episode, and pick a single run that stuck with us – not necessarily the faster or the strongest or the showiest, just a run that was memorable for us, a run that our mind keeps drifting to. Today, we’ll start with the LA City Qualifiers. Then, each week we’ll reflect on a noteworthy run from the next episode.

The LA competitors…what a crew! The Burkinator, Kevin Bull, Hunter Guerard, David Campbell – just four of the many who are worthy of as much attention and accolades as they can get. But this time, we’re focusing our attention on another competitor.

Who remembers the Ninja with a million words on his shirt? Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but when we’re used to seeing shirts with 2-3 words that usually say “_____ Ninja”, it seemed like a million words on this guy’s shirt!

After being known as the Chess Ninja since season 7, Scott Willson appeared on season 11 with a much more complicated (but very informative) name:

CHESS TEACHING, GYM OWNING, PARKOUR NINJA EDUCATING GUY WHO ALSO JUMPS OUT OF PLANES NOW, AND MIGHT EVENTUALLY TEACH THAT TOO, OR NOT, WHO KNOWS? NINJA

With his new long nickname, he achieved his longest American Ninja Warrior run yet – all the way to the buzzer. It wasn’t just a normal buzzer though. His very first buzzer was the Mega Wall buzzer, which earned him a whopping $10,000 – a feat that not one other Ninja in LA accomplished that night. We’d say that new name is working for you, Scott!

This run was also meaningful to us because even though Scott has been competing on ANW since season 7, we haven’t exactly seen him on our screens a lot. It was nice to get to know him more – putting a name with a face, a personality, and a t-shirt. ;)

We didn’t know it then, but Scott’s Mega Wall buzzer was just the first step in his best season yet. In the City Finals, Scott finished 6^th (he finished 6^th in the Qualifiers too), meaning he qualified for Vegas for the first time ever.

We sure hope to see Scott Willson in season 12, and if we do, we won’t be disappointed if there are even more words on his shirt. Akbar suggested that he add “MEGA WALL CONQUERING NINJA“. We kind of hope he does.

Michael Becker