The Amazing Race > Amazing Race 32 Start to Finish!

TAR 32 ALLIANCE: Brilliant and/or a Bad thing for TAR itself?

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Bookworm:
I'll look at the variance of placements later, after work, but I assume that Mich & Vic had one of the higher variances in placement, compared to the likes of Eswar & Aparna, who are one of the most consistent teams ever. Variance is a close proxy for unpredictability; accordingly, consistent placements lead to the predictability that plagued the latter half of the race. With predictability comes safety, and with safety, the Mine 5 teams can wait for each other and share answers with little risk.

My post was not meant to be overly complimentary of Michelle & Victoria (though I totally am), but to notice a shift in race dynamics starting in Leg 6. Thanks for your kind words!

elthemagnifico:
I always appreciate good gameplay and good strategy, and this alliance is one of the instance that ppl behind it are solid keeping the promises for the goal, and play it strong. It was kinda off putting that the fact the alliance basically consisted of stronger teams on this season but it worked out for them, they went to the F5, and also final leg. Sure the answer exchanging are bit annoying, especially in Berlin and Manila, but then again the alliance made them go so far, and it's not only because the exchange answer only

Now the funny thing is, they (the mine five) didnt actually control the boot order. Most of them eliminated because of their own mistake/factor. Like for instance, M/V lost in Paris for like couple hours. I watched in Justin's recap that L/A was behind for like 3 hours from the other team after the detour. Even without the yield, they would still be out from the race (they managed to cut out the gap to 45 minutes tho).

Now what might be debatable was the blonde bandits, but In Justin's recap and parade exit interview, they were lost in taxi for like hours when they were supposed to go to the place for swiggy detour task. The were arrived at the plaza when Hung and Chee left the task. And to add, they spent two hours to complete the swiggy task detour. Even hadn't they been yielded, let alone twice, they would still be out from the race.

The only thing that alliance could control for the boot order was when the mine five alliance was broken and the three musketeers were born (yes I made the name  :lol: ), starting with E/A (with the u-turn burning) and now the nfl teams.  In short, the mine five didn't actually control the boot order, but the three musketeers did.

Now ppl wondering, why would you ally with the stronger teams when you supposed to get out the stronger teams from the race? It's because they want to get the guarantee into F3. The goal of the three musketeers, and the mine five was to get into F5 and F3. Ally with the stronger teams would give you a bigger chance to get into F3 rather than ally with the weaker team(s), and only F3 or final leg would be matter to get your chance closer to win the race.

Now there is a question, does they ruin their chance to win for the finale leg? Yes, there is no denying of that. But then
, every move or game has it own risk(s), has its own pros and cons, and this is what they understood, and to get you closer to win the money and the race, you gotta have to survive on regular legs, and get your spot into final leg. And in the final leg, anything can happen, and most instances, anything did happen. Their performances before the final leg also show that they aren't inevitable either, so this is anyone games now. Their strategy worked and they are now into F3.

Now the tricky part is the answer exchanging. Sure the answer exchanging is the factor of why the race was less of fun, i think I can understand why most ppl despise it, but while ppl blame the alliance for what they did, i would go point my finger to the producers and the loop holes. The answer exchanging could have been avoided if they prevent the loop holes, like how they manage to make other can't easily vise the answer to other, or they ban the answer exchanging on some tasks (like they did in Genghis' spy detour in Kazakhstan). I believe ppl will do whatever they do to get out and finish the task as soon as possible, as long it isn't against the rules, and it's up to the producers and/or designer thinking about how to not only to polish their leg design, but also to reduce the loop holes small as possible.

Platrium:
Hi, I don't usually post here anymore, but I come back once in a while to peek, and I think this discussion is very interesting.

I'll start by answering the question: The Mine 5 and Secret 3 were BAD for the show itself. For the racers involved, it was good because it got them into the F5 and F3 respectively. I call this good strategy but bad TV.

However, not all alliances are bad TV. The short-term alliance between Leo & Alana and Kaylynn & Haley was great to watch, imho. We see Leo & Alana helping Kaylynn & Haley in Leg 2, then Kaylynn & Haley returned the favor on Leg 3 involving the U-turn. I think that was nice.

Let me detail all alliance impacts per leg:

Leg 2: Short-term alliance by Leo & Alana with Kaylynn & Haley. It wasn't that bad yet. I think Will & James saw this as a turning point when they struggled with the horn in Colombia. It was a reaction for them to solidify an alliance to get help from other top-running teams, and in exchange, they're willing to help other teams as well to make it far into the race.

Leg 3: The Mine 5 is put into action. The teams within the alliance helped each other locate where to buy the items within the market. The purpose of the Mine 5 was to go into the F5, and not sabotage the teams not in it, thus the U-turn by Will & James was part of the reaction in struggling with the horn in Colombia, and Hung & Chee didn't burn the board to not give Leo & Alana a chance. Both sides of the detour didn't need teams to help one another, so I thought the task was designed really well while also including the Amazon lifestyle into it.

Leg 4: The switchbacks were also well-designed in the sense that teams can't help one another. Maybe the strategy with the watermelons is share-able? Nobody did anyway, but there was some subtle helping in the cello roadblock. It was guiding someone else and giving them tips rather than outright answers, so it wasn't that bad yet.

Leg 5: The first roadblock was great in the sense that every racer doing the roadblock can't use the same person from the same artwork. While they can help someone else find another answer for... let's say Aparna, they risk themselves taking more time helping out another team. The second roadblock was very individual. No problem with that either. The pie task only took out the suspense for Will & James and Hung & Chee, and from a production standpoint, it is disappointing, but only 2 teams got away with it for allies helping them. It didn't help either team advance anyway, but it did prevent them more from dropping it and having to do it all over.

Leg 6: Ah, the turning point for production. There's a difference between giving tips or guiding fellow racers with the task, and outright sharing answers. Like a lot of people thought, the task had potential to not be linear, but it was ruined by so much answer-sharing. I read exit interviews of Leo & Alana and listened to Justin's (TAR27) recap also with Leo & Alana as guests, and it's easy to tell that production didn't like the answer-sharing that they had to reprint the clues to prevent teams from sharing answers on the Kazakh detour. This was a NEL, so the answer-sharing only made it bad to watch, but it wouldn't affect who gets eliminated.

Leg 7: As mentioned on the paragraph above, production didn't want teams to share answers for the Kazakh detour. Among the Mine 5, only Hung & Chee picked that side of the detour anyway, so it doesn't really matter, but at least production made the extra measure to stop teams from sharing answers to advance together. They can easily give away answers, and that looks really bad on TV compared to just guiding allies. The alliance made more of an impact with peer pressuring Kaylynn & Haley  to yield Leo & Alana. Without the Mine 5, Kaylynn & Haley wouldn't have yielded Leo & Alana, but it didn't really matter in the end, because Leo & Alana's mistake took themselves out.

Leg 8: After it was mentioned in the previous clue that this is the last leg to use the yields, Will & James and Riley & Maddison took this opportunity to yield the only team not in the Mine 5. Again, it didn't affect Kaylynn & Haley's cause of elimination, but without the Mine 5, there might've been a good opportunity to put someone like Hung & Chee behind, as I heard from Justin's recap for the episode. There was potential for answer-sharing at the number trap detour, but I'm glad nobody did, maybe because it was also stated in the clue that it's not allowed(?) or maybe because it was just too easy with the cheat sheet. The first roadblock prevented teams from sharing answers, but the second roadblock gave teams the opportunity to guide one another. This allowed James to get the roadblock done in his first try, and it also allowed Hung to pass Aparna in finishing the task. It was more of guiding allies rather than outright giving them answers, which isn't possible for the task, so it didn't seem as bad. From a viewer's perspective though, we see the Secret Final 3 alliance forming.

Leg 9: The Mine 5 made it to the F5! The Mine 5 may have swayed the yields to their favor, but none of the eliminations of the non-Mine 5 teams were directly caused by the Mine 5. The Mine 5 didn't really do any harm on the non-Mine 5 teams as their purpose was just to help one another get to the F5. As others have mentioned, (1) Jerry & Frank screwed themselves by leaving their bags behind, (2) Mich & Vic struggled with navigation themselves, (3) Leo & Alana did poorly at the detour, and (4) Kaylynn & Haley's awful cab luck put them behind. Even though Eswar & Aparna benefited the least from the alliance, it protected them from getting yielded in the previous leg. Now that the Mine 5 fulfilled its purpose, it's gone, and Gary & DeAngelo U-turned Eswar & Aparna fair and square. However, it felt so sour to me though that the actual sabotaging begins here, in the form of a defensive play too. I get why Riley & Maddison used it. It was to prevent Will & James or Hung & Chee from getting U-turned by Eswar & Aparna. Riley & Maddison didn't need to burn the board, but because of the Secret 3 alliance, they did and they screwed Eswar & Aparna in the process. I thought Eswar & Aparna were robbed for this reason, as burning the board didn't give them a chance to catch up. There was no answer to share in the tasks this leg, but the defensive U-turn play by Riley & Maddison was a nail to the coffin for Eswar & Aparna.

Leg 10: Teams could've helped each other at the kalesa task, but I'm glad they didn't. The music and memory task was so challenging though. After watching the episode twice, the France and Paraguay musics were so hard to match to their rock versions. On one hand, that made the task really tough to finish. On the other hand, teams didn't really read their clues until they got stuck, so guessing was possible if they at least read their clues. If the producers had been more strict, maybe they would've mentioned in the clue that sharing answers isn't allowed. It's one thing for Hung & Chee and Will & James to tell Riley & Maddison about what's on the clue. It's another thing to be directly given the answers from Riley & Maddison. Obviously, telling another team what's on the clue isn't the smartest move on the penultimate leg, but the teams were able to get past this loophole since it wasn't mentioned on the clue. I guess production just wasn't expecting teams to share answers on the penultimate leg, so they weren't as strict about it. Well, maybe it would've been better for them to just not take chances next time.

Addendum: Forgot to add that this F3 alliance screwed Gary & DeAngelo brutally. While Eswar & Aparna didn't know about the Secret 3 causing them to not be able to use the 2nd U-turn slot last leg, Gary & DeAngelo saw with their own eyes the F3 alliance helping each other on the music memory challenge, icing out Gary & DeAngelo and causing them to be frustrated enough to just take the penalty, even though they were so close to the correct answers twice. They were the first to ask for help, and while I don't think they deserved help because this is the penultimate leg, the other teams didn't deserve it too and yet they got help for being in the F3 alliance, which made them advance themselves to the finale.

Because of the strong alliances this season, I think production will be more strict about answer-sharing in future seasons. If they're even more strict about it, they'll even prevent teams from talking to other teams. That way, they can't even tell another team to read the clue or guide them in tasks. But then, we'd miss the opportunity for good short-term alliances like that of Leo & Alana and Kaylynn & Haley. Perhaps having teams talk to one another should be prevented more towards the end. Answer sharing should be strictly prohibited in the future, although I think production has learned enough from all the answer sharing this season.

This season was themed a bit on back to basics, and I thought this was a missed opportunity for an intersection. I know why it hasn't returned: It's not that good, and in all instances of its appearance since TAR10, all the intersected tasks could've been done by one team. The intersection would've been interesting to see on the mega leg though. That could've screwed Hung & Chee like how the potential lack of an alliance could've screwed them too.

Another twist that could've prevented the alliance from all moving forward together? The infamous head-to-head. Imagine a team not in the alliance fragmenting it for winning the last head-to-head. I know it's generally hated, but I thought that was a good way to mix things up with the alliance.

But really, I think production just wasn't as strict at times when it comes to answer sharing. I guess they didn't expect it when it first happened with the sauerkraut in Berlin, so they adjusted and reprinted future clues, such as the one in Kazakhstan. Although, they should've learned from Berlin not to underestimate the allied teams for the answer sharing on the penultimate leg. I think production will be more careful and strict about this next time. By the way, with the amount of times teams did not read their clues throughout the race, we could've had so much potential for 30-minute penalties, for breaking the rules on the clues if those stated that sharing answers are not allowed.

Throughout the history of the race, there were teams helping one another that were fine to watch, and there were also those that ruined the task, the episode, or the season altogether. As much as I think the alliances were very effective strategic moves this season, they were so hard to watch at times. I just fear that future TAR teams will follow this strategy for its effectiveness, so I hope production won't miss these loopholes next time.

P.S. Did not proofread my thoughts.

RachelLeVega:
Long explanation short:

Alliances are tolerable as long as they are not a) damaging the integrity of a task or b) made to serve an ulterior motive.

Firstly, I have no issue with teams assisting each other between tasks in finding locations and working together to arrive at a location (by far, there are endless examples of this with airport shenanigans and navigation mixups). But when this occurs repeatedly, it turns into handholding, as people have expressed, and downplays the racing aspect. Fine. I'm not going to argue against the teams' choice for this gray area. Viewers may not enjoy it, but it's not affecting the key components and objectives of the Race so there is no real ethical issue to this personal preference.

When teams power through a task requiring them to figure something out, sharing answers and guidance from other racers is where I draw the line because it shows a failure from production - a significant loophole in the rulebook that encourages teams to bypass a signature to that task simply by having Roadblock performers and racers during Detours or ARIs work together. I'd love to see this patched in future seasons, U.S. and international, because future teams are going to see 32 and think this is a productive idea when it's actually counterproductive toward production and viewers' enjoyment. Just like how in the season 30 premiere where Cedric & Shawn were penalized for verbal help toward each other to shake the integrity of the Icelandic alphabet Roadblock, I'd like to see teams of these racers sharing information with each other penalized on the mat because it chips away the integrity to a greater extent.

If you all want to see the progression of this alliance and answer-sharing monster morphed in recent seasons, it's under this tag.
Show content- (1st stage) TAR23 with Amy and Travis & Nicole during the first Indonesia leg at the xylophone Roadblock
- (2nd stage) TARseason-that-shall-never-be-named to rid Brenchel due to Dave & Connor's U-Turn vendetta
- (3rd stage) TAR28 during the UN Roadblock in Geneva to leave Jessica behind as an ulterior motive
- (4th stage) Rules went off the rails during Brooke's infamous strainer Roadblock meltdown in TAR29
- (5th stage) What we've seen throughout this season conspired by the Mine Five Alliance

theschnauzers:
I was asked to copy this post I made from the bitch, squeal, thread to here. I’m going to add a couple of comments afterwards.

--- Quote ---I can’t say how much negativity there has been directed towards any team as I don’t see those unless they are retweeted.  But to have Racers complain about the tone means that tone is excessive. Remember Flo, in her season that she and her teammate won? And to watch that final leg at TARcon and then the teams arrive, and literally almost no one even talked to her? (I did by the way.)
As James and Will have pointed out on social media repeatedly! It’s a game. And I have pointed out all season once the alliance emerged, it’s not against thr rules. What you had was a master stroke of gameplay on TAR like we hadn’t see before, a long term alliance of strong teams that worked and a final three of those five teams that worked. On this leg it does appear the teams tried in good faith to complete the musical memory task on their own, but for all four teams to interpret it that same way, meant that the clue itself was or seemed to be part of the problem. So the decision of the allied final three teams to work together to solve a then seemingly unsolvable task is understandable. It’s also fortunate that two of the teams finally re-read the clue and realized what was wanted. No idea how long teams were there, but their decision is understandable. Gary and D’Angelo could have re-read the clue at any point, but they didn’t.
So I really don’t see anything to bitch about. I really don’t.

--- End quote ---
The formation of the Mine Five alliance was as much the result of happenstance (i.e., blind luck) as anything else. That the five teams were among the stronger teams in this season is likewise, happenstance. The issue of alliance only becomes such an issue because the Mine Five were the first long-term largest alliance ever seen on TAR. (Just to set things straight, the first long-term alliance was actually in season one after that infamous incident at the Tunis airport. The remaining teams targeted Team Guido after than. Then in season three, almost all the other teams on the second leg targeted Derek and Drew in a “twin hunt” And there’s no question there have been long term alliances in past seasons, just not of this size. There was also in an early season a decision of the various teams to arrive at the Pit Stop mat simultaneously in first place. That led to the rules that there couldn’t be ties in arrival at the mat.
No, it doesn’t make for great television but it does make for great gamesmanship. This particular season had something unique a large alliance that started in leg 2 and continued to the last possible moment, that include a three person alliance that made it to the final three. And keep in mind, the viewer only knows what the editing allows, I.e. viewer perception, and the teams in the moment can only act on their perceptions of the moment while the Race is being filmed.
And remember, even the Racers often don’t know during filming, or even until the episode airs, things the viewers know from viewing at the same time.
I don’t know whether alliances like what we saw with this season is a good thing or a bad thing. But it was within the rules, as alliances of all sorts have been within the rules from the beginning. The only change production ever made over the course of the seasons was to limit almost entirely what used to be called, eat-sleep-mingle ESM at the pit stops, and force interactions to occur during legs. That’s it. And alliances thrived in some form or other anyway.

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