Feedback gave Stage Two of the National Finals a B+

The report card is in for Stage Two of American Ninja Warrior’s National Finals!

Last week, we asked the readers to grade each obstacle on season 13’s Stage Two course. The results are intriguing.

The course held up pretty well under scrutiny. Five of the seven obstacles (we’re including the time limit as an obstacle) received an A grade. Both Hammer Drop and the Falling Shelves got A’s with 50% of the votes. The time limit had a nice show of support as well, with 48% of the votes giving those three minutes and 30 seconds an A.

The V Formation endured the harshest reviews. That scored a C grade with 26% of the votes. 23% gave it a B. 21% gave it an A, but a combined 30% gave it either a D or F. Yikes.

After looking at how the votes spread out over the options, we decided to make a little adjustment to how we settled on a final grade. Receiving a grade with 50% of the cast votes would be a solid grade (example: A). Over 50% would be a plus and less than 50% of the votes would be a minus. You’ll see what we mean. Check out the results!

• Striding Steps: B - 41% of the votes
  Final grade: B-
• Double Salmon Ladder: A - 37% of the votes
  Final grade: A-
• V Formation: C - 26% of the votes
  Final grade: C-
• Hammer Drop: A - 50% of the votes
  Final Grade: A
• Epic Air Surfer: A - 43% of the votes
  Final grade: A-
• Falling Shelves: A - 50% of the votes
  Final grade: A
• Time limit: A - 48% of the votes
  Final grade: A-

According to a fun grade calculator tool we found on Google, these grades give the course an overall score of B+. That seems like a pretty reasonable assessment to us.

We also received some great feedback in the comment section about what should be changed on the course. We called out a few of the highlights under each comment.

• V Formation might be better on Stage Three.
• Air Surfer and Falling Shelves are both laché obstacles, back to back. Might be better to put in a different tactic.

• Replace the Striding Steps with a Rolling Log.
• Come up with a Triple Salmon Ladder.
• Change up the directional format.
• Add a Split Decision.
• Bring back the Wall Lift.
• Cut back on the time limit.

Thank you to all who participated! We found this experiment really enlightening. We’ll get your feedback on the other stages of the National Finals in the near future.