American Ninja Warrior

 *All right, I'm super late on this post. I thought about just combining last week and next week, but hey, why not just write a super late one? I'll make it short Formula Okay, so I'm cracking down on the "airing formula." I am really glad we saw Thomas Stillings because I know he wasn't invited back last year, so it's nice to see him run the course again. His story was also pretty  serious. There have been similar stories to his, Lance Pekus and Michael Stanger (I don't remember what his name is). He ran around the 30 minute mark. Typically, I've noticed is that the first finisher is going to be placed around the 30-45 minute mark. It seems like the 40 minute mark is the more common time, but after 30 minutes, you can pretty much expect the first finisher. And, that is what happened. It is pretty rare that there is a finisher earlier than that. I do believe that they've had a finisher placed at the 20 minute mark, but it's unusual. Anyway,...

 Intro Okay, so I'm going to make this post quick because I'm 3 days late, but I still wanted to post something. Overall, the most I have to say about that night is not about individuals, just the overall course and running. So, let's get down to business.  Power Tower So, at first, I was quite taken aback because they didn't have the Power Tower last week. Clearly, there were different sections of people to run the course because the course was altered for this batch of people. I don't know when all the filming happened (over four days, two days one long day?), but the first week episode's people didn't have their Power Tower shown. I highly doubt that they just didn't have a Power Tower competition for them, because that would clearly be super unfair, but it's also obvious that the week 1 people were separate from the week 2. This is also proven because Grant McCartney was on the "camera" sideline, when we know he did compete. So, clearly...

 The Kickoff Well, it turns out the "teams" thing doesn't really seem to matter. I read that the groups were formed to exemplify the concept of the ninja community and to make sure that everyone got real support on the sidelines. I think this is very thoughtful, but at the same time, "teams" or "groups" still feels a little pointless. I thought the teams were going to hurt the season, but it seems fairly normal. It feels pretty weird because there are no fans, and no family members on the sidelines, just "teammates." Everything feels so spread out and empty. It must have been even more hectic back stage. I wonder how many people were actually in the building at once. However, they still skip over people, and they still devote time to the sob stories. Honestly, when you think about how many people are shown in full (meaning not skipped over at the commercial break), there really isn't that many. Commercials take up a lot of the 2-hour time...

 Welcome Back Wow, it feels good to be back. I've missed American Ninja Warrior, and it should be very, very interesting this year. I will be tuning in for every episode of Season 12, and believe me, I will have plenty to say. My prediction is that this "season" won't be as good as normal seasons because of the new format. I don't really have any information, but I saw on a comment from an IG post that they weren't doing Vegas. Now, of course, they weren't in Vegas, they were all in St. Louis, but I think this means there are no Stages this year. I also saw something about the top 8 fastest going head-to-head on the Power Tower, but I really hope nobody is crowned the champion from this year, considering Mt. Midoriyama might not be in play. This should really be like season 11.5, but at least they have something. I'm sure it will be very odd, but we'll just have to wait and see. It'll also be interesting considering all the drama with Drew Drec...