• Teams begin in Winnipeg before flying down to Minnesota. (Side note: are professional sports teams really what the city of Winnipeg is known for?
) The final three go down to Minnesota, which hasn’t been visited previously on TAR.
• What airport do teams land at in the National Forest? You can’t just say teams fly to a place, then not specify where they land. How long is this charter flight? Knowing that, in terms of either miles or minutes, would be helpful. Can’t say I’m a fan of flights that depart right as the teams get there. That leaves results in the final leg more dependent on results on the previous leg. Finales usually bunch teams for a reason. I would suggest having the flights spaced 5 or 10 minutes apart if you wanted to give a small advantage.
• The first ARI comes to us after teams drive to Birch Lake Campground. Setting up a campsite is something we’ve seen before, but it least involves some attention to detail. I think there is a typo in your description with a sentence trailing off. I would have liked some sort of twist to make this unique from all the other campsite tasks we’ve seen before (at least twice in TARCAN and at least three times in TARUS.)
• Teams then navigate to Crescent Lake (do they follow red and yellow flags all the way there??). Finding a marked race boat is okay. The first Roadblock is to waterski, which is physical and adventurous. Why was the four-hour safety penalty included?? WRP always has stringent safety protocols in place for the racers, and these types of penalties haven’t been built into any other types of potentially dangerous tasks, including the last time they water skied. One (or two) teams getting the penalty would result in a huge buzzkill at the Finish Line. It’s supposed to be the emotional climax of the episode, so watching a team run to the mat knowing they’d have a long penalty to serve would make for an underwhelming and anticlimactic moment. Penalties on final legs are rare, but always could happen; I’d just prefer for the leg to be designed in a different way so it doesn’t have a conspicuous chance of a 4-hour penalty for one task.
• The next location is a mountain, where teams have to find photos of previous Pit Stops. Are these pictures somewhere by Race flags/markers, or are they totally hidden? Teams would figure out right away that the pictures are of Pit Stops, and I’m sure most would have the pictures in order by the time they reached the Roadblock. At the very least, they would be discussing which Pit Stop was during which leg during the hike up. Therefore, this Roadblock would be extremely easy and short. No fake pictures hurts the chances of this task changing placements at all. Arranging 11 Pit Stop pictures is hardly a challenging or memorable memory task, or final task.
• Teams then go down the mountain and drive to the Finish Line, which seems to be a fitting location.
• Details-wise, you need to step it up next round. The lack of maps doesn’t allow us to conceptualize where your destinations are in relation to each other, or how far they are apart. Thanks for including leg money and some information on flights, though.
• “don't be afaird to PM me if you have any questions about the leg!” - Include details in your design instead of expecting us to ask you questions.
This was your first-ever Design Challenge leg, and it was wishy-washy. The locations were appropriate, but the tasks as a whole weren’t really enlivening. There was only one “mental” task in this final leg, and it could be completed in a snap. A lot more details are going to be needed for your tasks, as well as including maps and distances (this is important!) Keep in mind not only what you want to put in the leg, but how your episode would come across to a TV audience. You’ve got a good foothold on the concept of Design Challenge, but you need to make strides next round.
• The final Pit Start is in London, where teams figure out they’re flying to Beantown. Massachusetts would be great for a final leg and is easy enough to get to, so I’m excited to see this Cape Cod leg.
• Teams then self-drive to an oceanographic museum, the venue for RB #1. Listening to a lecture isn’t the most exciting thing for a finale, but it does test teams’ mental strength. I would like to see a list of these ten creatures that are native to Massachusetts and their Latin names included somewhere in your presentation.
• The next Route Info is a mild cryptic clue leading to the Kennedy House, where teams then learn they must drive to the Clam Shack. Lobster rolls are ubiquitous to coastal New England, so it makes sense to have this task here in Hyannis. I like how the task has a memory element to it. Does each team member have a unique set of 12 people wearing T-shirts, or does each person wearing a T-shirt accept a lobster roll and hand out a letter? I’m a bit concerned that racers could follow another around on the harbor, but it shouldn’t play too much of a factor.
• After a helicopter trip north, teams have to go to a taffy factory. Hand-stretching taffy isn’t seen too much anymore with machines overtaking this job, so this is a nice throwback sure to get teams sticky and gooey. Is there a video of this process being done? It’s hard to know how much stretching is considered good enough for teams to receive their next clue.
• The final task of the race, at Race Point Lighthouse, requires teams to decipher Morse code. This task requires sufficient brainpower and memory, so I like it as a final task. Considering the task has the second element of raising the flags, I don’t mind that it’s a two-person task and not a Roadblock. As for the Morse code, racers could shortcut the task by figuring out the first two or so letters of a country, but they would be taking a risk. The flags require teams to really be careful, as one error would require them to take all the flags down and start over. What type of decoy flags are present, if any? I hope the task doesn’t go by quickly, because we need shots of two teams side-by-side, neck-and-neck in this task. Teams then have a final sprint to the Finish Line on Race Point Beach (appropriately).
• Flights, maps, and leg money were included
The only place where I would have liked to see more description was the tasks.
As your first design, this finale leg was up to scratch. The tasks are balanced between different skill sets, and the leg would provide a nice exhibit of the beautiful Cape Cod area of Massachusetts. A few different modes of transportation were utilized, and the leg gave ample chances for placement shifts. Your presentation was mostly clean, but a few more details are always appreciated. Can’t wait to see what you bring to Round 2!
• Teams start in Japan before setting off for New Mexico. The Land of Enchantment is unvisited and has a great mix of cultures, so it’s a place I’d really like to see on TAR. The desert Southwest hasn’t been visited enough, so this is promising!
• The Elvis-related cryptic clue is an intriguing way to connect two places on opposite sides of the world: Kobe, Japan and southern New Mexico. Teams get the clue at the Pit Start, but are all on the same flight anyway. 575 being the area code is a nice easter egg, but I don’t think any of the teams will really use that figure out they’re going to Roswell.
• Teams then drive to the UFO museum, where they encounter a ~spooky~ Roadblock. The Spacewalk is certainly eerie and focuses on Roswell’s claim to fame. I doubt teams will have to take multiple trips, since after watching the videos I only saw one candidate for the next possible location, the Trinity Site. Still, this task would be nice for TV.
• Teams then self-drive to the monument to pick up the next clue; it’s one of the most famous locales in all of Southern New Mexico. Teams are going really far out of their way to get here (at 2.5 hours away and 1.5 hours from the next task location). I know, it’s rural NM, so I can’t expect everything to be close together.
• I like the dancing ARI! American Indian culture would be nice to see on a final leg, and your explanation for why this specific dance is important to Apache lore helps to make this task feel more relevant than the various other dance tasks seen on TAR.
• The second Roadblock incorporates both food and memory, which I love! Hispanic culture in America hasn’t really been touched upon by TAR, so the sopapillas are a nice way to feature that. I like how racers have to remake the sopapilla if it’s either incorrectly stuffed or made. I’m getting hungry just reading this task.
• The next locality is the Balloon Park, which gives us the final memory task. Not only do they have to remember and search for the flags, they must sew them on to a balloon. Does each team have their own set of 100 flags, or is it a communal pile? Sewing requires intricacy, but I wonder what the process is for teams that sew incorrectly. Are they given tools such as a seam ripper to undo any incorrect sewing? After getting approval, teams fly to the Finish Line. I like how teams actually have to look for the mat and then slide there, so a team doesn’t automatically win by being the first to finish the balloon task.
• White Sands is a great inclusion as a Finish Line; it was just upgraded to National Park status last year.
• Flights, maps, and leg money were present! I like how you included videos to help us see the tasks in action. If more details were included, it should be an estimate for how long teams would take to do each task.
I liked the decision to go to a brand-new state and highlight a few underappreciated cultures in this final leg. The beginning of the leg was a bit slow- the driving length to task difficulty ratio might have been a bit imbalanced- but the two strong memory challenges at the end of the leg make for a climactic ending. This was a great start to your Design Challenge! Good luck the rest of the way!