Gamer's Judgments:My comments will be quite minimal since there’s no point in beating around the bush - all of you are through the next round because of the DQs/Quits. Instead take this time to see what went wrong and what went right. Great job, and apologies for the delay in posting my comments.
Bookworm [Temuco & Lago Budi, Chile]Show content
Your opening poem task is a nice short brain teaser to kick off the leg. The wooden target Route Info is basic but short, a good way to welcome teams into the village.
Your Detour is cultural and the tasks are good. Physical vs. Slow. My main problem with the Detour is really just that this is one of the very rare cases where I think having the U-Turn before the Detour would work. It’s a matter of personal opinion, but I personally think that the cryptic clue + Route Info earlier would be enough to shuffle placements, and if a team is U-Turned here, they can be more strategic with deciding what to do first. Do they conserve their energy for the physical task by doing the slower one first, or do they go all out and then use the slower Detour as a chance to be more calm under pressure? Just my personal opinion.
Your Roadblock is right after the Double U-Turn, and my main problem with the RB is that I think it has the potential to be linear, which means the U-Turned teams might be screwed from the get-go, it would come down to who finishes their U-Turn first. I think your RB could have benefitted if you made teams drive to a location, but the task itself doesn’t really seem like it has room for a lot of placement shifts. I think this task could have honestly been earlier in the leg, or just replaced.
We then head to your Pit Stop, which looks great.
Bookworm, I liked this leg, but I really just have nitpicks with your U-Turn placement and your Roadblock being linear. I just felt that the start of the leg was nice and calm, and then suddenly the “big major tasks + twist” of the leg are all thrown together in quick succession with not enough room to breathe. I think spacing them out could have done wonders for the leg, but nonetheless, this is a solid leg. Good job.
Lemontail [Copacabana, Bolivia]Show content
I love your Detour! The cars is a basic decorating task that is ALSO a market task, and I can see this being very chaotic. The flutes work by the sights and the memory. I just think your Detour is very bright, very loud, and very high-energy, and the fact that the Double U-Turn is here means that it had the potential to be very messy.
I said potential because in this case, I actually think the Double U-Turn being somewhere accessible by foot after finishing the Detour of your choice would have worked better than driving to another place.
Your Roadblock is interesting, and I like that it’s a navigation task, but I think you made a mistake with the picture you used in your submission. It’s the RB from last leg.
We then work with llamas and then go to the Pit Stop. I really like your llama task! It’s a nice way to end the leg.
Lemontail, as a whole, I actually really liked your leg. I love the idea of almost all tasks having the potential to be overwhelming one way or the other. The Detour is noise pollution. The Roadblock is navigating. And the Llama task is animal handling. It’s just a very challenging leg that I enjoyed reading, and my only real nitpick is the U-Turn placement. Still, great job!
Nuku [Sacred Valley, Peru]Show content
I think your Celebrate Detour is solid, but it seems like something that would fit an Active Route Info or a Roadblock better. Similarly, your other Detour feels the same. I don’t know what it is, but I can find some logistical issues with both tasks. For Celebrate, watching the performances might take forever. I don’t know how long they’re supposed to be, and thus I think watching 5 might take too long. Similarly, for the other Detour, I’m confused with the try again part. The challenge is clearly to memorize a message while looking for 2 items. But does trying again mean having to get the items again? I just don’t see the point of repeating that part, it was already hard enough as is, I think that the Communicate Detour would have been better fit as a penalty task. What do I mean? I mean that you have to memorize the message, get the items, and if you don’t remember it when you deliver, you wait out 10 minutes. I normally don’t like tasks with that element, but I think this could have been a good one for it.
We then eat guinea pig (but its not rly a gross out eating task if we’re going off on other travel shows, good enough eating task regardless), and then have a weaving Roadblock. Like Lemontail’s leg, I will say I like the llama, and I appreciate this task.
We then do a short Survivor-esque puzzle before going to the Pit Stop. I have no qualms with the puzzle, but I just think that considering how full your leg was at this point, this is a task that might just be edited out of the theoretical episode.
Nuku, I’m pretty mixed on your leg, but I do appreciate the culture in it. My main problem is really just that I felt your Detour suffered through logistics and planning issues, thus making the leg start off on the wrong foot so to speak, and then I thought the puzzle near the end was overkill. The rest are fine and even good.
As a whole, good enough effort, but I’d appreciate more details next time especially with tasks where specific times are important into determining how long something could take.
nrh2110 [Puno, Peru]Show content
Your Detour is a mixed bag for me. The first Detour is fine, but I just have some qualms about teams traveling by boat to this Detour and then the first option they see is spending more time in a boat. The other Detour is fishing, which is a personal pet peeve, but I do like the additional twist of the seagull lol. As a whole, your Detour is fine, and its balanced enough for the U-Turn to not be that big of a deal.
The Diabalda Route Info is great. Your Roadblock is an interesting concept because most of the time its just teams MAKING the instruments and not really USING them. I liked it! Like the idea of teams needing to also construct and then ensure that the pitches are right.
We then head to the Pit Stop.
NRH, this is a fine, short leg. I thought the Detour at the start was relatively mediocre, but I appreciate how it being the first thing + the U-Turn makes it more balanced. The rest of the leg is pretty good, and overall, this is a solid effort. Good job.
MikeDodgers [Paramaribo & Onverwacht, Suriname]Show content
Oh you’re doing a premiere leg. Mike, your presentation with the teams. Too much lol. We’re on Round 5. I don’t care about your fictional teams, and I’m sorry if that sounds harsh but that’s really what I feel when I see your opening.
Your SLT is fine, but I’m not a fan of the first-impressions U-Turn vote for obvious reasons. That’s just not a decision that feels fair at the SL.
In Suriname, we have your Roadblock which is a praying ritual. I know you have an article but I’d have preferred a video. It’s fine.
Then we have another Roadblock. This one is not fine. It’s just a simple task that’s not exciting, not challenging, and just plain boring.
We then go to your Detour. Mike, I don’t think colonization is a good idea for an Amazing Race task at all. That second Detour is just very rough and something that personally didn’t do anything for me while also thinking that its a tad problematic. Your first Detour is just a simple target game. Your Detour has problems more than the tasks themselves because they are not balanced. A U-Turn here is killer.
And then right after is a Pit Stop at an old train station. The picture and the location Mike… it’s just not it.
Mike, as a whole, I’d like to congratulate you for making the next round by not giving up, because that’s what I appreciate about you this game. Not giving up.
Unfortunately this leg is not it. I didn’t like any of it, nothing blew my mind, nothing excited me. As a premiere leg, it is not good. As a mid-endgame Design Challenge round leg, it is severely under par.
Best of luck next round, because this really isn’t it Mike. You can do so much better.
betheactress [Santiago, Chile]Show content
Your Detour is fantastic. It’s two local games, but with a twist. I really like how its a spin of a typical slow vs. fast Detour, but both options circumvent this by having TWO slow and fast segments for both options. It’s balanced, it’s unique, and I appreciate that this is at the start of the leg as well.
Your Roadblock is interesting. I do like it, but I have some issues with it, namely that I think there are far too many advantages. I like the idea of a risk element, especially on a leg where teams could even risk being there longer if they know for a fact another team is U-Turned, but I think an Express Pass and U-Turn Immunity is a bit too much especially since this is meant to be Leg 4 where there could be as few as 7 teams left after this leg.
We then have a panorama task. I really love this! It’s both navigation and memorization as well as attention to detail. It’s a very very unique and difficult task.
We then go to the Pit Stop to end a leg.
Another great effort from you, even though I have nitpicks about too many advantages at the Roadblock. Your presentation is top notch, your graphics are great, the tasks are solid, and this is just a fantastic leg.
Excellent job.
