Ninja Warrior SE: stage two

So, out of the 125 people that attempted stage one, or the qualifying round, 66 made it to stage two, or the semifinals. What exactly are they encountering in this? Well, as we've previously reported, it is quite similar to the first stage, with only three new obstacles once they clear the Warped Wall, but there are some changes to the old obstacles as well.

Here's how it goes:

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The Quintuple Step is basically unchanged, so I'm not even bothering with a new picture here.

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The Hang Glider has changed, and instead of handles to grab onto, now it's just two thick ropes. Slightly harder, but as far as we've seen it hasn't cause anyone much trouble.

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The Cross-Bridge is pretty much the same. People are not having problems with this one either.

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Here we see Sweden's own Legolas attempt the improved Jump Hang. A comparison shot is probably best to show off the difference.

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Maybe it's not obvious, but the net is farther away, and hanging a bit higher than last time. This means reaching it is harder, but once you're there, you're not as likely to touch the water with your t-shirt or hair. This makes this obstacle more Sasuke, because we've seen very few people fail the Jump Hang in Sasuke because their clothes were hanging low.

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The Spider Walk is the same.

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And so is the Warped Wall.

But, once they've finished the Warped Wall, the contestants will NOT find a nice little button to press and a roaring crowd, NOPE. They have to go on to face ...

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The Salmon Ladder! Okay, in Sasuke they've had to turn this into the fucking Swap Salmon Ladder, but if you've never encountered this before, your regular old Salmon Ladder will do. It does, of course, lead directly to the next obstacle, but as long as you can reach that, it doesn't matter how many steps you did on the Salmon Ladder. So if you're really tall and good at jumping, go ahead and skip this one completely, and just grab onto ...

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The Arm Rings! Pretty sure they have killed the most contestants in Stage 2 (what would be known as "the Ninja Killer" in Ninja Warrior), and yeah, they do not look fun. Naturally, it's designed so that one arm will be at the lowest point while you need to get the other up over the highest point, and a lot of good contestants couldn't take it. Once they let go with one arm, you're know they're out.

Source: Kanal5play.se

However, should they survive the arm rings, they can take it easy because the next obstacle, is impossible to fail. The Rope Ladder. I called it the net or something in the two last recaps, because it isn't exactly like the Rope Ladde. As I said, this one is practically impossible to fail. Even if you should fall, you'd just drop down a bit and then you could climb back up again ... unless, maybe you fell badly to the side.

It's isn't a very good obstacle, probably the worst one of the course. Not because I don't enjoy the Rope Ladder in general, but because it's a bit too high, the contestants are tooo tired, and there's nothing motivating them to do it fast. It doesn't make for good television. Add a Tarzan Rope or something before it, and it would be a much stronger finish. As it stands now, once someone drops safely off the Arm Rings, you know they've got a spot in the final/third stage.

Don't know exactly what the final/third stage will bring, but we have definitely seen the Wall Lifting, the Floating Boards, the Unstable Bridge and some more in the previews. We'll make another post when we know more about it.