Stage One of the National Finals earns a B+ from the fans

Did the fans enjoy Stage One of American Ninja Warrior season 13? Seems like it!

We’ve been “grading” the courses of the National Finals over the past few weeks using polls. Readers give each obstacle a grade and then we calculate an overall score.

• Stage Two scored a B+.
• Stage Three earned an A-.
• You can vote on Stage Four right now.

We took a step back to make sure Stage One got its own score and we’re ready to break down the results! Before you see the grades, here’s a little more information on how we settled on the final results

“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.”

Here’s an example. The winning grade for Slide Sufer was B with 39% of the votes. 19% of the votes went to A. 43% of the votes were spread among C, D, and F. More people would have given it a lower grade than a higher one. So Slider Surfer gets a B-. You can take a look back at all the results on the polls here.

Here are the final grades!

• Slider Surfer: B - 39% of the votes
  Final grade: B-
• Swinging Blades: B - 34% of the votes
  Final grade: B-
• Double Dipper: A - 76% of the votes
  Final grade: A+
• Jumping Spider: B - 44% of the votes
  Final grade: B+
• Tire Run: B - 34% of the votes
  Final grade: B-
• Warped Wall: A - 46% of the votes
  Final grade: A-
• Dipping Birds: C - 34% of the votes
  Final grade: C-
• The High Road: A - 56% of the votes
  Final grade: A+
• Fly Hooks: A - 40% of the votes
  Final grade: A-
• Time limit: A - 49% of the votes
  Final grade: A-

That gives Stage One a final score of B+.

Our readers did share some thoughts on Stage One that are valuable.

Here’s the TLDR on that comment above:

• Not overly impressed with the first two obstacles.
• The High Road was good but maybe wasn’t as hard as it was made out to be.
• What if Ninjas HAD to go for The High Road if they hit the buzzer?
• Dipping Birds could be improved.
• Tire Run feels old.
• Overall, Stage One is pretty cool!

So far so good for the National Finals courses! No need to hide those report cards. We’ll see how Stage Four ranks in a few more days.