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TAR30: Joy and Disappointment

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Gra1162:
Joys :jumpy:
1) Amazing race going to Hong Kong again  :cheer: :conf:
2) The Final task
3) Kristi and Jen being in the top 3 for the whole season except Zimbabwe 1
4) Photo finish in Iceland
5) Indy winning 3 legs
6) Visiting the middle east but I wish they went to Israel
Dissapointments  :furious:
1) Jody winning and not Skiers :dick
2) How is April and Sarah competitive I get April went to America's Ningia Warrior but Sarah just does goat yoga
3) Lucas losing his passport
4) Baharin without detours or roadblocks :nono2:
5) Jody's behaviour towards debates
6) Cody saying that henry copied jess's plane but henry was just trying to do it quick so maybe he and evan can win   

elthemagnifico:
Joys:
- a lot of self navigating task, not only for Ri or ARI but also RB.
- closest finish on Iceland
-some of the outstanding tasks like RB in Iceland, Frites race in Belgium, RB in Tangier, concert task in Zimbabwe, Matching x needle in the haystack game in Bahrain, DT and Mini memory challenge in HK, and the final task on SF
-The final 2 leg of this season. A really splendid 2 hours season finale ive ever seen on Tv show history.
- improved leg designs
- H2H twist. I actually kinda like H2H being placed right before pitstop since it gave any team to recover/catch up
- one of the most competitive F4 on TAR history (it could have been F5 had Lucas hadnt lost his Passport)
- underused countries and places have been visited, also Bahrain first time visit.
- EP riddance. It gave us a solely pure competition for racers, without too much BB-esque drama and such
- an impressive competitive season
- the classic TAR vibe, such as music scoring, casts, tasks, and editing


Disappointment:
- Partner swap. It was a good twist, but it could have been better. But first time trial wasnt so bad at all
- H2H could have been more variant, like not only placed on pit stop, but also in the middle leg.
- some poorly editing eps.
-some poor leg designs. 1st Zimbabwe leg came to my mind
- more Airport drama, like we want to see some teams struggling to search earlier or better flight.
- the casts werent as strong as 29, even Kevin and Jen were really a good casts despite being the first team to be eliminated, since this season was promoted as "the most competitive season to date"

Verdict: in the end, this season was really solid season despite some flaws. I still prefer season 29, but this season is tv worthy. Definitely Top 3 seasons in TAR Hd version and top 5 seasons in All TAR US seasons

Grade: A-

Platrium:
I'll list 1 joy and 1 disappointment that I hope will make an impact in future TAR. Hopefully someone from the TAR team reads this.

Joy: Self-driving!

I know, everybody likes self-driving. Personally, I like it because it shuffles the teams' placements so much.

Let's start with Iceland. Kristi & Jen started off somewhere in the middle during this leg (around 5th?), and yet they finished 1st. Meanwhile, Dessie & Kayla were also in the middle (around 6th?), but self-driving put them behind, and they were eventually last. Self-driving makes a big impact in the leg. April & Sarah finished ahead of Shawn & Cedric at the roadblock, yet Shawn & Cedric were supposedly about half an hour ahead of April & Sarah. The list goes on.

Then we have the French legs. All the teams may have gone there on the same flight, but there's a natural divide eventually, with teams getting lost being slightly behind while teams who did well in navigation being ahead. Teams usually have control of their standings when it comes to self-driving, unlike delayed or missed flights as well as bad cabs. We see on the 2nd French leg how Trevor & Chris got lost, and this made an impact on the following leg in Czechia. Meanwhile, even though Alex & Conor didn't leave the roadblock as fast as any other team, self-driving pushed them forward to the middle of the pack. Placement shuffle happens a lot in self-driving legs, which is very fun to watch.

The Bahrain leg may have ended anti-climactically, but placement shuffle still exists. At one point, Cody & Jessica were 1st. On the next, they arrive in a task in last place and got to the pit stop last among 4 teams who were actually racing. Every team got lost at some point in the Bahrain leg, so even though it was purely ARI, the episode was still fun to watch.

I'll use TAR27 to prove this point better. TAR27 wasn't a very memorable season. It's not because Logan & Chris made it to the finale, or Justin & Diana were there. In fact, I can tolerate Justin's annoyance and I wouldn't mind having him back on an all-star season. :funny: :hides What made TAR27 weak was its lack of self-driving. It felt pretty bland at some point. Placements were less likely to shuffle from one task to another, although it still happened from some teams' mistakes or misfortunes. The thing with cabs is that it's usually not in the teams' controls, whereas self-driving is something they'll be responsible for by the end result.

Other times self-driving made a big impact to teams include JV & Jill in TAR11 running in 3rd or 4th but they got to the pit stop last; Kynt & Vyxsin missing the required flight to China in TAR18 which eventually got them a penalty; Jessica & Kristi this season being forced to switch detours in the Imire leg which was part of the reason they finished last that leg; etc.

Biggest disappointment on the next post.

Platrium:
This season was amazing in so many ways. I can bring up the wonderful route involving 10 countries, the memory task which was really difficult, the photo finish on the 1st leg, the amazingly competitive cast, etc. However, the one thing I really dislike about this season is its U-turn in Leg 6. Generally speaking, the U-turns before the detour and not after any task is the worst. I'm okay with the head-to-head, the partner swap, the pure ARI leg, the EP missing this season. However, I'm not okay with the placement of the U-turns in some legs recently.

My target is Leg 6. The leg started with a U-turn, and teams were brought to that destination by cab, not through self-driving. I can go back to the point wherein teams are responsible for their own standings when it comes to self-driving, but since it's not, the race to the U-turn is only dependent on the cabs, and only on the cabs since the U-turn is the very first obstacle they encountered in the leg. With how it was placed and how it was used, just because Trevor & Chris's cab was the last to get to the U-turn, they were eliminated. It wasn't their fault at all, so it's my least favorite elimination this season. Their performance that leg was probably the best as well among the 6 legs they raced, and yet they were eliminated because a U-turn was placed at the start of the leg and their cab got them there last. Part of them being behind was the outcome of their self-driving from last leg, but most of the cause boiled down to U-turn placement and slowest cab.

You know what else is ugly and unfair? The Leg 3 U-turn in TAR29. Again, it was all a cab race, and it was at the start of the leg. Seth & Olive were a strong team and proved to be a threat during Leg 1, but just because their cab wasn't as fast as some others', they got U-turned, which eventually led to their elimination. It's really unfair when the U-turn is placed at the start of the leg and all it boiled down to was a cab race.

Some U-turns before the detour can work though. For this season, the U-turn in Zimbabwe was fine. Teams started the leg at different times, which was dependent on both swapped teams checking in at the end of the previous leg. This was based on the teams' efforts and not purely cab-based. They may have taken cabs going to the U-turn, but there was still a significant time gap when they left for the second half of Zimbabwe at different times, unlike leaving from the airport. I think it was fair that Lucas & Brittany and Alex & Conor got to the U-turn early, because their combined performances from the previous leg made them start the leg earlier than the other teams. Additionally, what I like about this U-turn is that it's a surprise U-turn. Teams don't discuss ahead of time to plot a specific team or 2 out, like how Vanck & Ashton were eliminated, or how Mona & Beth and Joey & Meghan were discriminated by the rest of the teams. I think TAR should bring back the surprise U-turn from time to time.

Another good example of a U-turn before the detour is the U-turn in Greece during TAR29. Yeah, it's at the start of the leg, but what set this apart from a bad U-turn at the start of the leg is the self-driving aspect. Teams have to drive from the airport to that U-turn. Therefore, they are responsible for their own standings upon reaching the U-turn. Becca & Floyd had navigation issues that put them behind, which was why they arrived at the U-turn later than other teams did. Same for Mike & Liz. The U-turn in Greece was fine mainly because there was self-driving before they can get there, not just a random cab race that will determine their U-turn arrival order.

To conclude, U-turns should never be placed before the detour at the start of the leg when teams travel from the airport to the U-turn location by cab. It's the ugliest game design in recent seasons.

I hope that was constructive and reasonable enough to be a disappointment. I also hope TAR improves the U-turn placements for future seasons.

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