Totumo - Cape Cod, MassachusettsShow content
• This leg kicks off with teams flying to Massachusetts, which hasn’t been visited since TAR 17. I would recommend adding a Pit Start to your design, as it helps make it more complete. Not the end of the world if you don’t, but doing so nets you a few more points.
• Teams then drive to the Canal Bridge in Bourne and are faced with a Roadblock. This task seems like it has a fairly high degree of difficulty, but I’m more concerned about the setup of the task. There’s definitely only one bridge, so only one team can do the task at a time; being the first task of the leg, it rewards teams who get out of the airport first. Moreover, you didn’t specify what procedure is used when a racer doesn’t get it right- do they have to go to the back of the line, or do they keep trying until they succeed and then vacate the control room for the next team? I’d prefer the former to be true. The idea of the task isn’t bad, but the placement of the task is flawed.
• Teams get a quick cryptic clue before moving from the Kennedy Complex to the Truro Vineyards. This cranberry-picking task is appropriate for the area you chose, because Massachusetts is one of the top states in cranberry production. Reminds me of the Ocean Spray commercial I saw while watching Tough as Nails
This task forces teams to get down and dirty, while still thinking straight. Good task!
• The next location is a bar, where teams have to turn around and make cocktails with their cranberries. This is a local cocktail being made at a unique Cape landmark, so this task scores highly in cultural relevance. To help clarify the task better, I would have liked either a procedure for making the cocktails or an estimate for how long it would take teams to make the drinks. I like how going back for more cranberries only takes 24 minutes, but not if making the cocktails at the bar takes only 5 minutes.
• Teams spot Race Point Beach from Pilgrim Beach, giving us the Final Memory Roadblock. Racers doing this task have to have a decent memory and lots of geographical awareness. How many wrong pieces of driftwood are there in comparison to right ones? Do the wrong ones have different cities, or incorrect distances? Do all teams search the entire beach, or is it divided into three sections? This task seems appropriate for a final challenge, but make sure to include some more details.
• Flights, maps, and leg money are present in the design, which is good!
There were a lot of positives about your debut leg, including your choice of location and interesting tasks. There are a few things that detract from this design, including some missing details regarding the tasks, no estimates for how long you think the tasks will take, and the fact that the leg could be determined by the first team to get out of the airport. I can tell you have a lot of enthusiasm for Design Challenge, so keep it up & I hope to see you do even better next round!
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• Your final leg starts in the Netherlands, where teams rip the clue telling them to fly to western South Dakota. This is a beautiful region with plenty to do and a decent-sized airport, so I think it’s a dark-horse contender to actually host a leg on TAR (still a longshot, I know).
• The first location is a gold mine-turned-laboratory, where teams get the first Roadblock. Assembling a hoist model is something that will force the racer to slow down and use their brain, so I like it as an opening task for a final leg. Is there a video of one of these models being assembled, or a list of materials and steps? Without those, it’s hard to gauge the difficulty of this task. Your notes say that students create these on trips, so I’m assuming it’s not too hard, but I can’t quite guess how long this task would take the average racer without more info.
• Heading off to Custer SP, teams find the second of two Roadblocks. Climbing and rappelling will provide the adventurous task for the leg, and helps to showcase the natural beauty of the Black Hills. From the way you described the task, I can’t tell whether multiple teams can do the task at the same time. If there’s only one path, that would result in downtime for racers waiting to go.
• The final task of the race, on the doorstep of the Finish Line, requires teams to assemble a tipi. While this was also a task done by WRP last time they visited this region (“Native Tradition” detour on TAR 8 Leg 10B), I do like how you notated this task specifically to the Oglala Lakota. Assembly/attention to detail tasks right before the finale work well when they’re sufficiently difficult and all teams are there fighting to be the first one to finish (see TAR 31 and the drums). I think this task is challenging enough to make for a dramatic final task, with that exciting moment where one team finally gets all the details right and receives their last clue. Planting the Oglala Lakota flag from the last task is also a nice touch. I like how this task is a two-person task instead of being a Roadblock.
• Maps, flights, leg money? Check, check, and check.
• The leg has 3 tasks and no memory task, but it’s not bad when there’s about 4 hours of self-driving, which should be formidable enough. Navigating through the Black Hills would be a source of drama to help make the leg more well-rounded.
Your choice of South Dakota was perfect for this rural round, and your leg finely presented this region from multiple angles. I’m completely fine with your choice to skip Rushmore and Crazy Horse in favor of the other locations. The tasks are solid, but perhaps a bigger takeaway is that this leg represents the culture of American Indians in a positive light. That’s something I would absolutely love to see on a TAR finale leg. Your presentation was good; just a few more details would’ve vaulted this into the topmost tier of designs. Nonetheless, great job on this leg and I am eager to see what is in store for the future!
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• The final three start in our neighbor to the south and must fly to Charlotte, North Carolina. I’m excited to see a TAR design in North Carolina, which is the second most populous American state to have never been visited by the show.
• Try using a flight search engine to find a real-world flight (can be on any date) from Guadalajara to Charlotte. Adding a flight helps make your design more realistic and gives us an idea of what time of day teams are supposed to arrive. I’m also OK with using a charter to get teams to the Outer Banks, but please specify details such as how long you estimate the flight to take.
• Teams must self-drive to the Sea Turtle Rehab Center and monitor some sea turtles. I would enjoy seeing the interactions between the racers and the cute newborn sea turtles. What type of information do teams have to collect on their sheet? Knowing that would help me determine whether this task is breezy or difficult.
• Jockey’s Ridge SP is the venue for the first Roadblock, a hang-gliding task. It’s an “extreme”-type task to keep the viewers engaged, but it’s made better by teams having to put together the puzzle at the end. Going from adrenaline rush to analytical thinking is a sharp transition. How many pieces is the puzzle? What type of puzzle is it (jigsaw, slide, etc.)? Try to add in these types of details in the future.
• Teams are then instructed to head off to a fishing center, where they must receive a clue from a crab fisherman. Sorry to nitpick, but I think it’s unnecessary to include a location where teams just get a clue and then head off when there’s already a lot of other places visited this leg. If this was a task on an actual final leg in a 60-minute TAR episode, this would probably go unaired.
• The second Roadblock requires one team member to search fifty clueboxes for past clues via jet ski. I kinda like “search a field of clueboxes” tasks, but differentiating between which clues have been seen in the last three weeks vs. clues from entirely different seasons of the race doesn’t seem overly difficult. So while it’s the main memory task of the leg, it might come down to jet ski operation skills more than Race acumen. Not a bad task, but I just wish the memory aspect was a bit tougher. Requiring the clues to be of certain types does add an interesting layer, though.
• The shipwreck locating task will test teams’ map and compass knowledge, so I like its inclusion here.
• On the National Seashore, teams drive dune buggies to the last task of the leg. Teams have to put medallions, representing previous tasks, in order for each leg. Seems a tad redundant after the last memory task. Anyway, after that it becomes a footrace to the Finish Line.
• I recommend adding screenshots from Google Maps or similar to help us visualize the locations of and distances between the places you chose to visit. Also, without knowing for sure how long these tasks would take the racers, I have no idea how long this leg would take racers to complete.
• Leg money is also missing from the design.
• I encourage you to experiment with Bulletin Board Code so that you can use it for at least part of your design. With Docs screenshots, we can’t click on your pictures to expand them or copy and paste text you wrote into Google. Working with the Fantasy Game style could boost your score, so don’t be afraid to try it out more.
Overall, this leg introduces us to the Outer Banks, a rural area in the American South. Your locations were solid and would be apropos for TV. This leg was filled with suitable tasks, but stepping up the amount of details here is key. Try to think of any questions that might arise when someone else looks at your design, then answer them somewhere in your presentation. Keep looking through past designs to get an idea of how to pull off a great presentation. I hope to see you improve every round!
Nrh2110 - Northern New JerseyShow content
• Teams embark on the final leg, flying from Spain to New Jersey. I'm pretty surprised to see New Jersey used when the theme of the round is rural, considering NJ is the most densely populated state in the union. However, it's not nicknamed the Garden State for nothing, so I know it's got some smaller towns and natural areas to tap into. It's also basically unvisited by TAR, with only half a task back in TAR 8.
• Teams are given a $10 bill, leading to the Dueling Grounds. Not quite sure a $10 bill is enough info for teams to be able to know for sure where they're going, as there are lots of places in NJ connected to Alexander Hamilton. I like the homage to the duel, but I think more information would be needed to "pin" the clue down to the Weehawken Dueling Grounds, unless this task was intentionally meant to be difficult and semi-random.
• Next up is a deli, giving a culinary task for the leg. Making bagels isn't too tough, but does require some perfectionism. Do teams have to start from scratch, or are things pre-made? Do they have to follow a recipe or a demonstration, or are they on their own? I hope the manager is strict, forcing teams to make near-perfect bagels so the task isn't linear.
• Thomas Edison NHP is the location of the next cluebox. Electrics and circuitry is something that hasn't been explored much on TAR, so nice addition here. Any racer doing this Roadblock will have to keep cool and not get frustrated in this task, which I like for a final leg task.
• The leg's next task is at a classic New Jersey boardwalk; teams have to pop balloons with darts. With $1,000,000 on the line, I know my hand would be shaking, so I hope there's safety protocols on this task
This task should be child's play if teams have unlimited darts, but you never know, carnival games are infamous for being rigged to be difficult.
• The final memory Roadblock requires teams to scour a beach for umbrellas with previous Detour names. I like how teams have to think about the Detour choice they didn't opt for, as some teams pick one detour and forget all about the other one. Do the umbrellas have to be in any order as long as it's the right leg, or do they have to be in the exact order of their appearance on the clues? That detail would affect how long this task would take.
• Flight info and leg money are marked in the design, which is good! I would have liked seeing a map to understand all the locations. Giving an estimate of time for the tasks or when you expect teams to cross the Finish Line would help with the design, too.
To recap things: I don't doubt that your tasks are culturally relevant to New Jersey (bagels, boardwalks, beaches, and bulbs- the four B's?
). My only worry is that this leg didn't exactly feel it hit the round's theme squarely. All of your towns fall under 50,000, but they seem to be in populated areas. Weehawken is a bridge away from Manhattan, New York City; West Orange is in Essex County, which has 800,000 people in 130 sq mi (336 sq km)- doesn't exactly scream rural to me. All of that aside, would be a pretty good final leg to see on TV; the tasks and self-navigating combined are ripe for plenty of drama. Anyone who survives New Jersey drivers and performs all of these tasks probably deserves $1,000,000, anyway. I eagerly await seeing what you'll bring for the rest of DC8!
