Stage Three scored a strong A- from the readers

The grades are in! And Stage Three of the season 13 American Ninja Warrior National Finals faired pretty darn well. It seems like viewers enjoyed it. We asked our readers to vote on each obstacle of Stage Three. We pulled together the scores and calculated a final grade.

Looking at how the votes spread out, we adjusted the grades, and we did it in a slightly different way than when we looked at Stage Two. (Hey, we’re just making this up as we go along!)

If the percentage of votes above the winning grade outweighed the percentage of votes below the winning wage, the grade was adjusted to a plus. If the opposite was true, the grade was be adjusted to a minus.

For example, the winning grade for Grip and Tip was a C. 44% of the votes went to either A or B. 21% of the votes went to D or F. Basically, more people liked the obstacle than didn’t like the obstacle, so Grip and Tip gets a C+.

In the case of the Stalactites, the winning grade was an A with 54% of the vote. That outweighs the 47% of the votes that went to lower grades. So it seems like people really liked the Stalactites! A+ it is!

Get it? Let’s roll!

• Grip and Tip: C - 35% of the votes
  Final grade: C+
• Stalactites: A - 54% of the votes
  Final grade: A+
• Up For Grabs: B - 32% of the votes
  Final grade: B-
• Ultimate Cliffhanger: A - 59% of the votes
  Final grade: A+
• Pipe Dream: C - 32% of the votes
  Final grade: C+
• Eyeglass Alley: A - 63% of the votes
  Final grade: A+
• Flying Bars: A - 53% of the votes
  Final grade: A+

We used that fun grading tool we found on Google once again and Stage Three’s final grade for the semester is A-. Yup, that’s the sense we got from looking at the votes and reading the comments.

Speaking of the comments, we love the well-thought-out input that a few of our readers shared.

Here are the bullet points of the Stage Three suggestions:

• Make Grip and Tip a little longer.
• Make Stalactites a little longer and move it farther down the course.
• Drop Up For Grabs from Stage Three.
• Move Pipe Dream earlier in the course.
• Change the Flying Bar to The Wedge.

Here’s a summary of this reaction to Stage Three:

• Grip and Tip isn’t the best fit as it’s unexciting, but it is easy to make a mistake on it.
• The Ultimate Cliffhanger feels like it’s been downgraded.
• Pipe Dream isn’t as visually appealing as something like the Body Prop.
• Eyeglass Alley was creative. Might put it somewhere else on the course.

You can grade Stage One right now! Don’t worry, we’re going to get your thoughts on Stage Four very soon.