SASUKE 28

Intro
SASUKE 28 (officially, 「SASUKE RISING」) is the first SASUKE tournament in over a year, due to Monster9's bankruptcy in November 2011, and the first since Urushihara Yuuji's second kanzenseiha in SASUKE 27. It was taped in October 2012 and aired on December 27, 2012.

Inui Masato returned as director for his first tournament since SASUKE 14. From Inui's tenure, the black mats from SASUKE 13 to SASUKE 17 were used and many old obstacles (such as the Godantobi) returned. However, many new obstacles also premiered, with the most notable being the Backstream, SASUKE's first swimming obstacle.

Starting in this tournament, every competitor was provided with elbow and knee pads, and he/she must wear them while competing (likely due to Drew Drechsel's severe knee injury at the Half Pipe Attack in the previous tournament).

SASUKE 28 was notable as the final tournament of the SASUKE All-Stars. Five of the six All-Stars (excluding Shiratori Bunpei, who was injured) competed together for the final time, with each of them was reserved with start position #96 to #100 (#96 for Akiyama Kazuhiko, #97 for Takeda Toshihiro, #98 for Yamamoto Shingo, #99 for Yamada Katsumi, and #100 for Nagano Makoto). However, all five failed at the First Stage. After their run, 3 All-Stars (Akiyama Kazuhiko, Yamamoto Shingo, and Yamada Katsumi) announced the retirement from the tournament (however, Yamamoto broke his retirement and competed in SASUKE 29 until now, and Yamada competed in SASUKE 30, SASUKE 33, and SASUKE 38 onwards, although it was just for celebrating SASUKE's anniversary tournaments). In their place, a new group, Shin Sedai, was formed, with Urushihara Yuuji, Matachi Ryo, Kanno Hitoshi, and Asa Kazuma. The four Shin Sedai members were the last four men standing in this tournament.

Auditions were held in Osaka and Tokyo in September for this tournament. The auditions consisted of a 30 seconds presentation and a 100 push-ups contest. While potential competitors were required to attend these auditions, their results were not binding to their invitations, as many veterans of SASUKE returned regardless of their performance.

The First Stage was heavily modified from SASUKE 27 and several classic obstacles were modified, with the number of obstacles was reduced from 9 to 7. The Godantobi returned for its first tournament since SASUKE 11. The Spin Bridge was moved to the third obstacle, and the Jump Hang and Soritatsu Kabe were brought back in modified versions as the Jump Hang Kai and the Ni Ren Soritatsu Kabe, resulting in a much shorter and quicker First Stage. In fact, the First Stage had the shortest time limit since SASUKE 17. Despite with shorter, quicker, and seemingly easier First Stage than the previous tournament (with the removal of the Jumping Spider and Half Pipe Attack), the results were much worse than in SASUKE 27, as only five competitors cleared, with the Rolling Escargot and Spin Bridge doing most of the damage. It took 37 competitors until someone cleared the Spin Bridge, and only one competitor out of the first 50 competitors, Someya Koki, cleared the Jump Hang Kai. Someya went on to clear the First Stage along with the 4 Shin Sedai members listed above. For the third time in SASUKE history, the last ten competitors (#91-100) failed.

The Second Stage was also heavily modified, as every obstacle was either new or in a modified form from the previous tournament. The new Swap Salmon Ladder eliminated Someya Koki, while Matachi Ryo timed out on the new Passing Wall. The Second Stage from this tournament also currently holds the record for the longest time limit of any stage in SASUKE history, as each competitor had 135 seconds to clear the stage. This time limit would thus be drastically reduced to only 90 seconds in the following tournament.

The Third Stage saw a mixture of new and old obstacles return after a long hiatus, with the number of obstacles being reduced from 7 to 6. The Rumbling Dice, Curtain Cling, and Pipe Slider returned, while new obstacles included the Iron Paddler, Vertical Limit, and the new version of the Cliffhanger, the Crazy Cliffhanger. Similar to SASUKE 18, the three competitors who made it to the Third Stage (Asa Kazuma, Kanno Hitoshi, and Urushihara Yuuji), all failed at the Crazy Cliffhanger.

Obstacles
① Godantobi 五段跳び

② Rolling Escargot ローリングエスカルゴ

③ Spin Bridge スピンブリッジ

④ ^Jump Hang Kai ジャンプハング改

⑤ *Ni Ren Soritatsu Kabe 2連そり立つ壁

⑥ Tarzan Rope ターザンロープ

⑦ Rope Ladder ロープラダー

^ Denotes New Obstacle

* Denotes Modified Obstacle

Time Limit: 105 seconds

Obstacles
① ^Cross Slider クロススライダー

② *Swap Salmon Ladder スワップサーモンラダー

③ *Unstable Bridge アンステーブルブリッジ

④ *Spider Walk スパイダーウォーク

⑤ ^Backstream バックストリーム

⑥ ^Passing Wall パッシングウォール

Time Limit: 135 seconds

^ Denotes New Obstacle

* Denotes Modified Obstacle

Obstacles
① Rumbling Dice ランブリングダイス

② ^Iron Paddler アイアンパドラー

③ ^Crazy Cliffhanger クレイジークリフハンガー

④ Curtain Cling カーテンクリング

⑤ ^Vertical Limit バーティカルリミット

⑥ *Pipe Slider パイプスライダー

^ Denotes New Obstacle

* Denotes Modified Obstacle