First Stage (SASUKE Vietnam)

In all five seasons of SASUKE Vietnam, the First Stage, locally called Vòng 1 (literally Round 1 in Vietnamese), also referred to as Stage 1 similar to most International SASUKE/Ninja Warrior shows, always serves as the first of four "full" courses in SASUKE Vietnam. As of present, SASUKE Vietnam included five different First Stages, with all of them sharing one singular goal; to press the button at the top of the final obstacle in order to advance to the next stage, the Second Stage.

Unlike many other International SASUKE/Ninja Warrior shows, the First Stage in SASUKE Vietnam is perhaps most noted for having a Split-stage Format, similar to VIKING's Crossroads and the Route A / Route B-Format that got introduced in Ninja Warrior France 4.

Format overview

There were some differents in the format of the First Stage that SASUKE Vietnam had compared to SASUKE and most of the other International SASUKE/Ninja Warrior shows.

Split-stage format

Main article: Split-stage Format

Unlike to most other International SASUKE/Ninja Warrior shows, the First Stage in all five seasons of SASUKE Vietnam was split into two courses labeled Stage 1A (right-handed course) and Stage 1B (left-handed course). Competitors must always face six obstacles, with the first two obstacles being the same, and with the final four obstacles varying from split course to split course, and only the producer would decide which competitors run Stage 1A, and which Stage 1B.

On SASUKE Vietnam 5, the number of obstacles in Stage 1A were reduced to 5, since the Double Warped Wall replaced two final obstacles Circle Slider and Rope Ladder, which appeared as the fifth and sixth obstacle during Stage Two in this season. However, Stage 1B still have six obstacles.

Time Limits

In the first two seasons of SASUKE Vietnam, the First Stage had no time limit. After David Campbell, Nguyễn Phước Huynh and Lê Văn Thực's total victories in SASUKE Vietnam 2, starting from SASUKE Vietnam 3, the First Stage had a time limit. The time limit originally was 100 seconds (1:40), then got increased to 135 seconds (2:15) in SASUKE Vietnam 4, and got later incresed once again to 180 seconds (3:00) in SASUKE Vietnam 5. However, to make the First Stage easier for female competitors, they can face the First Stage course without a time limit since SASUKE Vietnam 4.

Competitor Advancement Rules

In SASUKE Vietnam 1, only the Top 40 (Top 20 on Stage 1A and Top 20 on Stage 1B) who completed the course (or made the furthest) with the fastest time will move on to Stage 2. However, due to the wildcard to the Stage 2 of Nguyễn Đình Mỹ Linh, the first woman ever in SASUKE Vietnam's history to clear Stage One, resulting in the Stage 1B having 21 competitors advancing to Stage 2, the producers gave the one placed 21st in Stage 1A (Nguyễn Năm) a chance to attempt Stage 2 as well, granting the Stage Two 42 attempts instead of 40 as before.

In SASUKE Vietnam 2, during the broadcast of Stage 1A (episode 4), it was briefly revealed that only the Top 100 competitors would advance to Stage 2. It's not sure if this applied to each Stage 1A, Stage 1B or the whole Stage 1, but nevertheless, this system was never used because only 86 competitors cleared.

Since SASUKE Vietnam 3, the limit on the number of competitors who can advance to Stage Two was removed, in a similar fashion to the First Stage in SASUKE and most International Ninja Warrior shows.

Wildcard

Main article: Wildcard

Wildcard is a rule on SASUKE Vietnam that gives a chance for competitors to advance to Stage Two.

Course Layout

SASUKE Vietnam 1 - SASUKE Vietnam 3

In the first three seasons of SASUKE Vietnam, the First Stage featured 6 obstacles in each stage part in total, with the first two obstacles being the same, and with the final four obstacles varying from split course to split course. All obstacles in First Stage used in the first three seasons were in SASUKE, since SASUKE Vietnam was mostly based on SASUKE. This is the course layout of the First Stages:

• The first obstacle was a lower body based obstacle, for example Long Jump, Godantobi and Step Slider.
• The second obstacle was a sliding track obstacle, in this case Log Grip.
• The third obstacle was a balance based obstacle, for example Cross Bridge, Hedgehog and Goren Hammer.
• The fourth obstacle was:
  • Either a combination of a jump-strength obstacle and a Spider Walk-related obstacle (in Stage 1A), in this case Jumping Spider.
  • Or a jump-strength obstacle only (in Stage 1B), in this case Giant Swing.
• The fifth obstacle was:
  • Either a combination of a jump-strength and sliding track obstacle (in Stage 1A on the first and third season, Stage 1B on the second season), in this case Circle Slider.
  • Or a rope swing obstacle (in Stage 1B on the first and third season, Stage 1A on the second season), in this case Tarzan Rope.
• The sixth obstacle was a climbing obstacle, for example the Rope Ladder, or the Lumberjack Climb.

SASUKE Vietnam 4

In SASUKE Vietnam 4, the First Stage still featured 6 obstacles in each stage part in total like the first three SASUKE Vietnam seasons. However, due to this season saw the debut of new era, the First Stage have major changes after three seasons. There were several changes of the First Stage's course layout:

• The second obstacle was the swing-strength obstacle instead of sliding track obstacle, in this case Tick Tock, which was replacing the Log Grip in three previous seasons, and also as the first ever American Ninja Warrior obstacle appeared in SASUKE Vietnam after three previous seasons used most obstacles from SASUKE.
• The old third obstacle in Stage 1A, Goren Hammer was replaced by Spinning Log.
• The old fourth obstacle in Stage 1B, Giant Swing was replaced by Jump Hang Kai.

SASUKE Vietnam 5

On SASUKE Vietnam 5, the First Stage was heavily modified once again. However, most obstacles in First Stage in this season were the Second Stage obstacles in several previous seasons moved to First Stage, just like SASUKE Vietnam 2. There were several changes of the First Stage's course layout:

• The second obstacle, Tick Tock was replaced by Roulette Row.
• The fourth obstacle in Stage 1B was the upper-body strength obstacle instead of jump-strength obstacle, in this case the Jump Hang Kai was replaced by the Rope Jungle.
• The final two obstacles in Stage 1A, Circle Slider and Rope Ladder were replaced by the double variant of the iconic Warped Wall, in this case Double Warped Wall. This resulted the number of obstacles in Stage 1A were reduced to 5.

First Stage obstacles overview

In English

SASUKE Vietnam	Stage part	Obstacles						Time Limit
1	1A	Long Jump	Log Grip	Cross Bridge	Jumping Spider	Circle Slider	Rope Ladder	No time limit
	1B			Hedgehog	Giant Swing	Tarzan Rope	Lumberjack Climb
2	1A	Godantobi	Log Grip	Goren Hammer	Jumping Spider	Tarzan Rope	Lumberjack Climb	No time limit
	1B			Hedgehog	Giant Swing	Circle Slider	Rope Ladder
3	1A	Step Slider	Log Grip	Goren Hammer	Jumping Spider	Circle Slider	Rope Ladder	100.0
	1B			Hedgehog	Giant Swing	Tarzan Rope	Lumberjack Climb
4	1A	Step Slider	Tick Tock	Spinning Log	Jumping Spider	Circle Slider	Rope Ladder	135.0 (Male) No time limit (Female)
	1B			Hedgehog	Jump Hang Kai	Tarzan Rope	Lumberjack Climb
5	1A	Step Slider	Roulette Row	Spinning Log	Jumping Spider	Double Warped Wall		180.0 (Male) No time limit (Female)
	1B			Hedgehog	Rope Jungle	Tarzan Rope	Lumberjack Climb

In Vietnamese

SASUKE Vietnam	Stage part	Obstacles						Time Limit
1	1A	Nhảy Xa	Bám Trụ	Cầu Chữ X	Tường Nhện Nhảy	Trượt Vòng	Thang Lưới	No time limit
	1B			Cầu Nhím	Cú Nhảy Phi Thường	Tarzan Đu Dây	Tiều Phu Về Đích
2	1A	Nhảy Bước 4	Bám Trụ	Tránh Búa Qua Cầu	Tường Nhện Nhảy	Tarzan Đu Dây	Tiều Phu Về Đích	No time limit
	1B			Cầu Nhím	Cú Nhảy Phi Thường	Trượt Vòng	Thang Lưới
3	1A	Nhảy 4 Bước	Ôm Trụ	Tránh Búa Qua Cầu	Tường Nhện	Trượt Vòng	Thang Lưới	100.0
	1B			Cầu Nhím	Cú Nhảy Phi Thường	Tarzan Đu Dây	Tiều Phu Về Đích
4	1A	Nhảy 4 Bước	Ôm Trụ	Cầu Quay	Người Nhện Nhảy	Trượt Vòng	Thang Lưới	135.0 (Male) No time limit (Female)
	1B			Cầu Nhím	Vách Lưới	Tarzan Đu Dây	Tiều Phu Về Đích
5	1A	Nhảy 4 Bước	Chiếc Nón Diệu Kỳ	Cầu Quay	Người Nhện Nhảy	Tường Cong		180.0 (Male) No time limit (Female)
	1B			Cầu Nhím	Hãy Chọn Dây Đúng	Tarzan Đu Dây	Tiều Phu Về Đích

Trivia

• Due to the lack of a time limit and the First Stage course in SASUKE Vietnam during the first two seasons being very easy, along with the number of attempts in First Stage (including both Stage 1A and 1B) exceeding 100, SASUKE Vietnam has two international records for the First Stage:
  • SASUKE Vietnam 1 holds the record for the most competitors to clear the First Stage in any SASUKE Ninja Warrior format, with 99 competitors clearing the First Stage (including both Stage 1A and 1B).
  • SASUKE Vietnam 2 holds the record for the most competitors to advance to Second Stage in any SASUKE Ninja Warrior format, with 86 competitors combined from both Stage 1A and 1B (including celebrity fictional competitor T-Rex, which was Reko Rivera's special costume) advancing to Second Stage.

• According to SASUKE Maniac and comments on Facebook about the Stage 1A in SASUKE Vietnam 3, the producers had forgot to turn on the klaxon sounds for about 20-30 competitors on Stage 1A. Among them, there were three competitors that had timed out on the top of Rope Ladder, but they didn't know and still celebrated after pressing the buzzer until producers said that they had timed out. To prevent conflicts, they were instead "wild-carded" to Second Stage.
• SASUKE Vietnam was the second international SASUKE Ninja Warrior format use the no time limit rule for the Finals' Stage One, after Ninja Warrior Sweden. This rule was used for the first two seasons of SASUKE Vietnam.