If anyone knows how unforgiving Stage Three is, it’s Joe Moravsky. He’s now faced the course five times, always fighting for the buzzer.

Joe’s season on American Ninja Warrior definitely prompted him to dig deep and stay focused. It was his very first time heading into the National Finals with no buzzers after his runs in Baltimore. This was just fuel for his fire on Stage One, where he got revenge on the Double Dipper that ended his year in season 10. On Stage Two, Joe made short work of the course and returned to Stage Three.

There, all seemed to be going to plan at first. We knew there would be a $1 million winner and Joe was absolutely in the running for that. He passed the first three obstacles pretty easily. The Ultimate Cliffhanger wasn’t too much of a challenge for Joe, it was that something appeared to have happened to his hand while he was on it.

After Joe dismounted from the Cliffhanger, he started looking down at his fingers, revealing a bleeding rip. The rest of the course was nothing but obstacles that would tax his grip, and now Joe had extra pain to deal with. He soldiered on through Pipe Dream. By the time he was on Cane Lane, we were fairly sure the cut wouldn’t be an issue.

Joe moved to make the final transfer and landed it! But a split second later, he was in the water. For a moment, it was hard to tell what happened. Upon a second review, you could see that Joe had hopped the cane to the wrong side of the support bar, meaning he was less than an inch from the edge to begin with, and blocked from moving the bar inward.

That tiny error ended his fifth attempt at Stage Three. His season might be over, but we know Joe won’t be giving up his Ninja Warrior career until he reaches his goals.