Releasing my first batch of comments. 
Betheactess - AmsterdamShow content
• This leg launches in Andorra, where teams have to make a decision of whether they want to fly from Toulouse or Barcelona. I like how the teams will have to conduct their own transportation research and have varied arrival times in Amsterdam.
• The first task in Amsterdam is a bicycle excavation Roadblock, and it looks to be challenging, entertaining, and nonlinear! There’s a small bit of chance involved, yet performance still highly depends on navigation skills, patience, and smarts. I could see this task having a logistical issue if each team has their own claw boat/barge; the canals can be narrow sometimes and it could get crowded quickly. And as always, there’s a safety issue with operating heavy machinery. Overall, I like the task and it’s interesting how you showed a different angle of Dutch bike culture. Not to mention, it’s perfect for the theme of the round.
• The Bridge of 15 Bridges is the Detour Decision Point for Zoom In/Zoom Out. Zoom In requires teams to use their resources around the museum to name the bacteria they’re given. While the scientific jargon and processes will likely be hard to follow along with for the majority of viewers, this will be a formidable attention-to-detail task for the racers.
• Zoom Out is an art task with a twist. I like how teams can either go through the museum quickly in hopes of getting more attempts in or go more slowly and methodically. There’s a good chance teams will need multiple attempts, unless they have really sharp memories or get semi-lucky. I like how the task is tough at first, but gets easier each repetition.
• I like how, even though there is a luck factor in each task (the correct answers could be guessed), the tasks have an element built in to create time between guesses (new bacteria to analyze, a new trip around the museum). I definitely believe that Zoom Out is the stronger task in this Detour, but it is a balanced Detour overall.
• The Bloemenmarkt is the site of a quality ARI, where teams have to accumulate flowers to exchange for a larger flower, the clue to the Pit Stop. Teams running around this floating market, interacting with vendors, making the transactions building up to the final trade… this is a sharply frantic task placed right before the Pit Stop, and I’m all for it. I wonder if team members will stick together, or split up? As long as teams don’t follow one another around, every team will probably have a different path of getting to the Semper augustus, which is interesting. Good task!
• Props for relating almost all of the liveable city criteria to your tasks, even though you were only required to utilize one.
• Teams then finish out at a waterfront Pit Stop to end the leg.
While the leg was in an oft-visited locale (Amsterdam) and featured some similar motifs to past legs here and there (bicycles, Van Gogh art, tulips), the leg felt like a breath of fresh air compared to past legs in North Holland and the Netherlands in general. Transportation choices, from the Pit Start all the way to the mat, were diversified nicely. Tasks had potential for drama and featured key parts of Dutch culture and history. This was one of your strongest legs yet! Good luck for the rest of the way as we turn into the home stretch.
Bookworm - BarcelonaShow content
• We’ll start in Basque Country where teams are instructed to travel by shuttle, bus, then train to Barcelona, which surprisingly hasn’t hosted any tasks since TAR 10. Nice to see it resurface.
• Reading the next clue while sliding down the slide is unique. That clue leads them to another creature sculpture, which gives the Detour. Performing Sagrada would feel like juggling three things at once: pushing the animal, navigating, and distributing the sparklers, all while doing the task in a time limit. Pushing animal statues through city streets is fun- Gretchen and the elephant says hello- and the procession will be flashy. I do like how teams can select how they want to make the task easier for the next go-round. I think it makes the task more fair when teams are able to give themselves a leg up for the next turn when it’s a physical task like this one. I would have liked to see the 20-minute penalty be applied at the arrival site; it’s a bit awkward to have teams stop running in the middle of the route. There are a lot of rules and specifications to understand for this task, but at its core it is highly cultural.
• Sangria is a drinking task involving a Spanish mixed beverage. I personally think the non-alcoholic drink choice is a good inclusion. While teams will be able to intuitively detect the amounts of some of the ingredients, it feels like the task might come down to guessing more than taste buds. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as it’s okay for the task to necessitate some element of luck and multiple guesses, but it could easily be frustrating for teams to be off by one berry. However, that’s the risk teams take if they opt for this task!
• Parc de la Ciutadella is the Roadblock site. I didn’t know about the genre of weapons dances and definitely didn’t know they were from Catalonia, so that was a nice detail to learn. I’m somewhat surprised you said the task would take 30 to 70 minutes in your notes- this dance routine in particular seems fast-paced and complex, and they have an extended performance. (Not doubting your estimation, but just noting my take.) Like you said, this task may be extra difficult for racers from teams who did the Sagrada detour. That task was physically intensive and outdoors, while the other Detour was not strenuous and indoors. In any case, this task should be good for drama and will reward racers who exhibit focus and tenacity.
• Teams then depart for the Pit Stop, an ornate former hospital.
I support the ways in which the leg featured the Catalan culture in the Barcelona urban environment. The locations were stunning and representative of the striking architecture found in the city. The tasks were creative and nonlinear, although a tad skewed toward physical. Overall, I think it’s a strong design that is likely to catapult you into the next round!
Lemontail - LyonShow content
• Four teams fly from Cyprus to Lyon, France. It’s one of the cities on the list not visited yet by any TAR franchise, so I’m excited to see the design here.
• The jars task at Interpol HQ is rather creepy. The whole concept of the jars containing replicas of body parts of past deaths/injuries in Lyon’s history is super macabre yet oddly fascinating. All I want to say about this task is, remember that TAR is a family show.
• After that, teams go to a monument where they find a Detour envelope. I really like Prove- it’s hands-on experience with an older type of technology, as well as a mini memory task. How many slides do they have to look through? I think I would prefer for the correct pictures from Leg 2 to be spaced throughout the slides of photos, instead of all in a series. After that, I like how teams have to correctly make the slideshow to receive their next clue. Good task!
• Move is more of a puzzle task, and the communication from the balcony to the floor is an interesting dynamic. I enjoy the fact that teams have to dress up in period clothing. This should make for a fun task, and getting the next clue from the chest is a cute detail. Overall, both sides of the Detour are strong.
• On to the Hotel-Dieu de Lyon for the Roadblock, a gastronomy task where olfactory senses are more important than mere memorization. If teams can use their sense of smell during the second part, then the task should go by much quicker. While I do think it is an easier task than either of the Detours, it should still take teams several tries. I assume racers aren’t told what is wrong. I like how each racer has a separate area in which to perform the second phase of the Roadblock.
• I’m a fan of how teams will have to go on foot to the Pit Stop- it’s a little bit of navigation to end the leg and it means that Roadblock finishing order might not equate to check-in order. The Pit Stop is a photogenic location.
After an enticing but grotesque Active Route Info to start out, the leg’s tasks and locations took a step up. This was one of my favorite Detours of the round, with both sides containing a historical device used in a modern-day task. The Roadblock was also appropriate with Lyon being well known for its food and the challenge being a different take on French cuisine than ideas we’ve seen in the past. Overall, a good introduction to Lyon and another solid stepping stone in your DC journey so far.
MikeDodgers - TorontoShow content
• This leg kicks off vis-a-vis the Sydney Opera House, where teams are informed they are going to Canada. Teams have to fly practically a full day and over 10,000 miles to get to T-Dot aka The Big Smoke aka The 416 aka Toronto.
• The first task at the prominent CN Tower is the Edgewalk. This type of “scary” task is a good way to start off the leg with a bang. However, I’m so-so on the 10 minute limit part. It has its positives (forces teams to move along) and its negatives (it’s a bit overcomplicating).
• Moving on to Rogers Centre, teams have to take a photo of a moose statue. After, they learn they must find two more statues. I would have liked to have teams be told to find the 3 statues directly from the Edgewalk clue, because that would give teams the opportunities to find all 3 statues independently and in a different order. In the way you did it, there’s an extra clue in there and teams can only find the other 2 statues in one of 2 ways. What instrument are the teams given to take the photos? Cellphone, camera, otherwise? Anyhow, I like how this task will get teams moving all across Toronto to find the correct locations.
• Teams visit the Hockey HoF, the second sports-related location, and encounter the Detour. Teams will have to either beat the goaltender, or be on the opposite side and try to save the shots. Do teams have to go to the back of the line after a certain amount of tries, or do they get their turn on the machine until they succeed/switch/quit? Hockey and Canada go hand-in-hand, but the Detour tasks were really similar to each other. I would just really need to see these interactive game thingies in action to fully judge this task.
• The Roadblock is okay. Not too impressive, but not a total bore either. I’m not sure how racers would be able to discern cards in the style of Roberts versus those in a different style- more explanation on that would be convenient. Also, are teams given a list of names? Running through the crowds should be hectic.
• The fusion cuisine task isn’t bad, it’s a memory task moreso than a tasting task though. With only a finite amount of previously visited countries, teams can probably make educated guesses quickly. Nonetheless, it’s a fine transition from the RB to the Pit Stop, and it does give a nod to Toronto’s multicultural diversity.
• Casa Loma serving as the Pit Stop is good. I liked your nighttime-themed pictures for most of the locations of this leg.
• No maps in the design is a disadvantage. At least I know roughly that all the places are in downtown Toronto, but seeing their estimated driving times and distances would give you a step up in your presentation.
• Which liveable city criteria did you choose for one of your tasks? I see some tasks that could adhere to the requirements, but (as far as I can see) you didn’t specify which criteria were applied to which task as mentioned in the round rules.
Do you want the good news or the bad news? I’ll give you the good news first. You keep improving every round in a lot of ways. This design’s tasks were relevant to Toronto and provided ample opportunities for placement changing. Your presentation was also more crisp than it has been in the past. Unfortunately, now I have to give you the bad news. I probably sound like a broken record here, but more task details and maps would do wonders for your scores from me. Look at other designers’ notes sections if you need to. Be meticulous. You’ve made so much progress this DC, and I don’t want these issues to hold you back from maximizing your full potential. I believe in you!
Nuku - PragueShow content
• The leg gets underway in the shadow of the Alps in Turin. There, teams fly via Paris to Prague. With only a couple of visits so far, Prague surely has some unexplored territory to offer.
• Finding Fred and Ginger is a respectable cryptic clue. It won’t be obvious from the getgo what the names refer to, so teams will probably be thrown off before they realize what they’re actually looking for.
• The Old Town Square ARI has a good possibility of shaking up placements. I think this task will actually be a fairly time-consuming task: they have to figure out where the buildings are, run between them (at least a 2.6 km route), and figure out their architectural styles. There are 256 different ways to guess the 4 different architecture styles for the 4 buildings, and still 24 unique ways even if they know the styles don’t repeat. So, teams will probably have to ask around. Will teams be able to find a local who knows what style of architecture a building belongs to
and is able to communicate that in English? If the task takes multiple tries, then it could end up taking almost 2 hours, which is pretty long for an ARI. I think there needs to be a change to either the way teams can detect the correct style or different buildings so that there’s a shorter distance. Running back and forth between the buildings in this configuration could get exhausting quick. Maybe bicycles would be more fair? Lots of potential for team drama in this task but it could definitely be cleaner.
• Detour time: Burn the Witch or Make Some Magic. The former requires teams to first make two figures based on a given model. This kinda reminds me of the Light My Fire detour from TAR 25 Scotland, where teams have to make something correctly and then transport it to then light it on fire. Carrying these 80-pound creatures a mile uphill is strenuous, making this a primarily physical task. The festival and the fires should be lively and fitting for TV!
• On the other side of the coin, Make Some Magic takes place in a castle and incorporates an ancient style of science. I don’t think we’ve seen too much alchemy or chemistry on TAR before, so credit for that. It’s a bit tough to figure out precisely what teams are doing without an exact example. However, I am able to generally follow along with what the objective of the task is, and I like the scientific aspect of the Detour. It is a good contrast to the other Detour option.
• The Roadblock is a performance task that should be fun to watch! It requires a lot of coordination- you could even think of it as dancing with your hands. I only wish there was a video to see this marionetting being performed. It’s appropriate for a Roadblock and it is a good contrast to some of the other dance/performance tasks we’ve seen appear on TAR.
• The Pit Stop is a pretty location to put the finishing touches on the leg.
• A couple presentation notes: The graphics were hard to read sometimes, so increasing the size of the text or making the photos enlargeable could be helpful. Also, the design had a discernible amount of spelling and capitalization items that could be cleared up to make the presentation smoother. You’ve been submitting with plenty of time left before the deadline each round, so don’t be afraid to wait and proofread your design before you finally send it off.
In summary, this leg had a diverse selection of tasks, spanning from science to theater to art to architecture. I think the leg did cast Prague as a liveable city. All of the task concepts were structurally sound, but a few had some minor detail or logistics problems to them. Still, the leg would be fun to watch on TV. You mentioned that you’ve already exceeded your expectations, so I want to see you leap forward and continue making a deep run in this game!
