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This article was published prior to Drew Drechsel’s arrest. NBC and American Ninja Warrior have since cut ties with him.
Season 11’s winning buzzer is a jaw-dropper! We honestly thought this bracket was going to have a clear winner from day one, but you all surprised us.
Brian Kretsch’s Los Angeles City Finals run has chugged along through all the rounds of voting. Then it came time to face the big ones: Drew Drechsel’s final runs in the National Finals that turned him into an American Ninja Warrior Champion. One more time, the OG Ninja’s run stood strong!
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We’re not mad at this twist! Drew’s runs are incredible and deserve every ounce of praise they get. But there’s something pretty cool about the community taking a second to celebrate an accomplishment by a competitor who is just as dedicated to the sport, with less televised fanfare.
Here’s how we previously described Brian’s LA City Finals run:
Brian Kretsch is one of the very few “OG” Ninjas left. That means he’s competed on every season of the show to date. He’s had great seasons, and he’s had low seasons. But this run pulled together his years of work. On the Los Angeles City Finals course, he bested the Leaps of Faith and became one of only two Ninjas to finish the course. That sent him to the Power Tower along with Flip Rodriguez.
This is the last run we needed to put together a championship poll! Soon, you can vote on which buzzer or run is the “greatest” of all time!