The Carnival is an obstacle, firstly introduced as the fourth obstacle in the first episode of qualifiers and later appeared during the second episode of qualifiers of American Ninja Warrior 14. The obstacle is named after the amusement park, generally referred to by the same name.
The obstacle consists of two rings resting on a track with stoppers on it and a chute with a ball on top, a hanging ring suspended by a chain, three cradles, and an apparatus with various handholds and stuffed animals. Competitors must first hang on to two rings resting on a track with stoppers on it (similar to Ring Jump), scale the apparatus by moving the rings over the stoppers, and use the rings to tilt the track, guiding a ball into one of three cradles. When the ball lands into one of the cradles, one of four things will happen:
- If the ball lands in the top cradle, which is painted red and labeled Number One, the obstacle will drop an inverted T-shaped bar (similar to a resting bar.) and a stuffed lion.
- If the ball lands in the middle cradle, which is painted blue and labeled Number Two, the obstacle will drop an inverted Y-shaped bar (resembling the handles used on the Spinball Wizard, Boomerang Omega, or V Formation) and a stuffed fish.
- If the ball lands in the bottom cradle, which is painted green and labeled Number Three, the obstacle will drop a hanging nunchuck (resembling those from the Flying Nunchucks and Swinging Spikes) and a stuffed duck.
- If the ball did not land on any cradles, the obstacle will drop a small Cliffhanger ledge supported by a chain and no stuffed animal.
Once the competitors manage to land the ball in any cradle- or drop the ball in the water- they must hold onto a suspended ring attached to the bottom of the cradles, make a lache to the dropped handle, and dismount to the landing platform.
On the first episode of qualifiers, some competitors did roll the ball into the top cradle, but many allowed the ball to roll into the bottom cradle and did not attempt to roll it into a higher one (which would have risked dropping the ball). Most competitors were able to grab the nunchuck and dismount, though a few competitors, such as Lindsay Eskildsen, failed on it. Other competitors who failed included Devin Harrelson, Landon Nagao, and James Bartholomew. In all, it took out eight competitors in the first episode of qualifiers.
On the second episode of qualifiers, it was notable for eliminating Sandy Zimmerman when the ball missed all the cradles, and she failed on the transition to the ledge. In all, it eliminated five competitors, including Paul Fisher, Daniel Novarro, and Robert Moffitt.
Technique[]
Carnival is one of the few obstacles that allows competitors to choose from multiple distinct methods to completing it (others include Ring Chaser, Overpass, and the American Ninja Warrior 8 version of the Swinging Spikes). However, unlike the aforementioned obstacles, which only allow competitors to choose from two paths, Carnival allows competitors to choose from four:
- If competitors chose the top cradle, they would have to carefully tip the track downwards so that the ball would gain momentum. Once it passed the halfway point, they would have to quickly tilt it upwards so that the ball would maintain its momentum and land in the cradle. As such, a good understanding of physics, and the athletic ability to execute it, was crucial. Once the T-bar was released, the lache was very simple, although a longer dismount was needed to clear the obstacle. Still, most competitors should have had no trouble with the long dismount.
- If competitors chose the middle cradle, they would have to tilt the track downwards and upwards, like for the first cradle. However, they didn't have to be as precise, as they didn't have to tilt the track upwards as much. However, most competitors chose not to attempt this chute, as the gap between the chute and the cradle was greater than those for the top and bottom cradles. The lache to the Y-bar required competitors to place their hands at a diagonal angle rather than a total horizontal or vertical angle, but the awkward hand placement proved to be a negligible problem.
- If competitors chose the bottom cradle, the most efficient way to reach the hanging ring was to tilt the chute completely upon reaching the halfway point, then slide down the track with one of the rings. The lache to the nunchuck was quite tricky, as competitors needed a vertical grip (which is in itself difficult), and a tight hold onto the nunchuck so that they wouldn't brush it aside or slide down it.
- If competitors dropped the ball (which was very rare), they would have to make the most difficult transition to the Cliffhanger ledge. Both grip and body control were important. Grip to hang on to the ledge and body control so that the ledge wouldn't spin out of their grip. In addition, competitors would have to twist their bodies 90 degrees counterclockwise to land their hands on the ledge, instead of keeping their orientation perfectly straight.
Other Appearances[]
Ninja Warrior France[]
On Ninja Warrior France 8, Carnival, locally named Le Panier Surprise (literally The Surprise Basket) appeared as the fourth obstacle in Qualification 3, serving Route B in Split Decision along with Butterfly Wall. There were a few modifications made to this obstacle:
- The lengths for the top and middle cradles were swapped, making it harder to reach the top cradle.
- The stuffed animals were removed.
- The nunchuck was replaced with a ring.
Despite the removal of the stuffed animals, the graphics of the shell surrounding the apparatus were kept the same.
Ninja Warrior Germany[]
In Ninja Warrior Germany 8, the Carnival, locally called Jackpot appeared as the third obstacle in the first, second and the third Preliminary Round. There were also a few modifications made to this obstacle:
- The numbering (1, 2, 3) of the cradles has been removed,
- The stuffed animals have been removed. However, the graphics of the shell surrounding the apparatus were also kept the same, similar to the one used in Ninja Warrior France 8,
- Every cradle is the same length,
- If the ball lands in the top cradle, which is painted red, the obstacle will drop an inverted T-shaped bar and a ring instead of just an inverted T-shaped bar,
- If the ball lands in the middle cradle, which is painted blue, the obstacle will drop a ring instead of an inverted Y-shaped bar,
- If the ball lands in the bottom cradle, which is painted green, the obstacle will just drop the ring that would also be dropped if the ball lands in the top cradle instead of a hanging nunchuck,
- And if the ball did not land on any cradles, the obstacle will drop an inverted Y-shaped bar instead of a small Cliffhanger ledge.
Competitors' Success Rate[]
- All results based on the NBC/RTL broadcast and external information found.
American Ninja Warrior[]
ANW | Clears | Attempts | Percentage |
---|---|---|---|
ANW14 (QF EP 1) | 34 | 42 | 80.95% |
ANW14 (QF EP 2) | 31 | 35 | 88.57% |
Total | 65 | 77 | 84.42% |
Ninja Warrior Germany[]
NWG | Stage | Clears | Attempts | Percentage |
---|---|---|---|---|
NWG8 | Preliminary Round 1 | 20 | 24 | 83.33% |
Preliminary Round 2 | 13 | 20 | 65% | |
Preliminary Round 3 | 19 | 25 | 76% | |
NWG9 | Preliminary Round 4 | TBA | TBA | TBA% |
Preliminary Round 5 | TBA | TBA | TBA% | |
Preliminary Round 6 | TBA | TBA | TBA% | |
Total | 52 | 69 | 75.36% |
Trivia[]
- It was revealed on Reddit that at first, ATS team wanted to build a fully automated system for the dropping handles, but due to technological issues, it was manually controlled by two persons (one controlled the T-shaped and inverted-Y bars and the other controlled the nunchuck and ledge).
- The Carnival was originally only supposed to have two handholds and cradles compared to four handholds and three cradles- the binary choice would have allowed competitors to choose only between an easy route and a hard route. However, the addition of the cradles and handholds allowed for a more nuanced, interesting obstacle.
- The Carnival borrows aspects from many, many obstacles that came before it:
- Ring Jump: The first portion of the obstacle (in which competitors must use a pair of rings to climb up several pegs) comes directly from the Ring Jump's first iteration (i.e. the version that appeared on American Ninja Warrior 8's Los Angeles Qualifier/City Finals).
- Tilting Slider: The tilting apparatus also comes from the Tilting Slider. Once competitors pass the middle of the beam, they are able to tip it downwards. Unlike the Tilting Slider, competitors can control the tilt on the Carnival.
- Ring Swing: The ring that competitors must swing on to transfer to one of the four hanging grips is similar to that of the Ring Swing.
- Minefield: The idea of having multiple grips that competitors can hang from is inspired by the Minefield, which featured an array of cannonballs, nunchucks, and cones.
- Jumping Bars: The inverted T-bar is a stable lache bar, similar to the Jumping Bars.
- Boomerang Omega/V Formation: The inverted Y-bar is similar to the V-shaped handles on V Formation. However, the Y-bar can swing 360 degrees, similar to the V-shaped bar used for the Boomerang Omega in Ninja Warrior Israel 2.
- Swinging Spikes: The nunchuck comes from the Swinging Spikes.
- Cliffhanger: The most difficult grip, is, in fact, a small Cliffhanger ledge. Unlike all variations of the Cliffhanger (in which the ledges either do not move or have a preset movement pattern), this particular ledge has the potential to swing in a circle.
- Swing Circle/Jumping Ring: In Ninja Warrior France 8 and Ninja Warrior Germany 8, the idea that competitors must swing the ring on to transfer to another ring was similar to this two obstacles.