Fwiw last year - unless I am completely misremembering this - they did NOT invite back top names who were actually people with good chances of winning. They only invited people who were notable because of entertainment value or their stories or whatnot.

For example, I think they didn't grant a wildcard to Brent Steffensen or Flip Rodriguez. (Again, I might be misremembering this, but I was thinking the same thing as you last year and I feel like it didn't happen).

Edit: Just googled to confirm and yeah, last year they only gave wildcards to a handful of women and then Rob Moravsky and Evan Dollard (prolly picked because of his connection to the show).

Producers are in a tight spot. If they give a wild card to Casey, some will say it was because she is a woman. If they don't give Casey a wild card, some will say it was because she was a woman.

I have read about 120 people run the course at qualifying. If it was that way in Houston, almost half the field didn't make it past that one obstacle.

wild card thing is so LOL. either you compete and earn your way their or you dont IMO. i root for flip because it looks like this is a really big thing for him in his life, yet he proceeds to try and blaze through it like there is a pitbull chasing him. when in reality if he just slowed it down just a little bit he would do just fine. i cant help but facepalm at some of these veterans when they try to have the fastest time, then they proceed to fail at some silly obstacle that they should easily complete.

i'd absolutely GOBSMACKED if kacy wasn't given a wildcard spot

Only way it doesn't happen is if she refuses, but I see no way that happens (as this is basically her and Brent's job now). She is the only person that brings in viewers by by herself.

Pretty sure Steffenson got a wildcard in 2013.

Orlando was last night.

They had the spinning log as the first obstacle and one guy dove over the log from the starting point to the stopping point.

Another city and more proof that the Kansas City course was too easy.

San Pedro aka the Military episode was last night and only ten people completed the entire course.

TEN!

Yeah, that course was BIG TIME!

I think they had too many upper body strength obstacles and that explains the low number of finishers.

Venice finals had one, yes ONE, person who finished the course.

Only a few people even reached it, but I like the new end climb thingie, looks tough since their upper bodies are destroyed at that point. The spider climb was basically a gimmee, I only remember a couple people ever failing it.

Jessie Graff is a beast. Legit shot to finish stage 2

yea that chick came on and just beasted those bars they had to roll 30lbs/50lbs...i quicked loled to myself thinking how bruised those guys egos were that got that far, but couldnt move them and then little jessie graff comes and steamrolls right through them....every year im convinced that the rock climbing crew caldiero and his 3 friends will finally defeat the MT and every year im let down....anyone else think this is going to be the year someone defeats it?

one of the qualifers of even building the finals should be the designer has to be able to complete the ****in course.

its stupid as **** how no one has beat it yet, and i bet the producers and the channel make ****ing boatloads of money, the contestants who get deep get virtually nothing in terms of $.

i do really enjoy this show but its annoying how greedy these ****s are, make this year even remotely beatable please?

the individual components have all been beaten. no one has strung it all together in one run.

i think it would be pretty achievable for someone like sean mccoll to run the course > 50% of the time with a minimal amount of training.

the $ discussion last season was complete aids so i'm hoping not to revisit that!

Just caught up on the last 2 episodes (military & Venice finals)

I didn't think the military course was all that hard. Yes there were only a few finishers, but they were all of the guys who have experience. It was really a good course for military because they spend a lot of time on peg boards etc. But the stamina it takes to do all of them at once is something you really need to train for, and most just didn't have it. So many of those active guys probably looked at that course and said, "This is easy I do this everyday."

Venice was a strange course. The stupid gimmick with the tramp and having to touch the obstacle was kind of dumb. But last year the city finals in Venice had that cannonball alley that only three guys got by. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the invisible ladder yet, but it's an interesting change from the spider climb.

It will be interesting next week because so many of the top guys are running that KC course. If there ends up being some sort of a gimmick obstacle to slow those guys down or if they just let them keep running roughshot over the course.

They should of muscled up and done it with their triceps instead. Would of taken more pumps though.

I was there for the KC filming but I don't remember what the additional final course obstacles were because it was the qualfying round and so I didn't pay attention to the obstacles not in use.

That Venice course looked pretty rough. I think they mentioned the obstacle with the trampoline was only completed about 20% of the time? Seems as if you need to hit it very specifically to get the almost exact height and distance to grab onto the next part.

I think its kind of cool that a course if so hard that even out of 100 people specifically training for it, only one guy finishes it.

To much focus on upper body strength. I'd like to see more obstacles that make you use agility/balance or your legs in some fashion, instead of all this repeated climbing/hanging on stuff.

Olympic gymnast Jonathan Horton ran the course, which is pretty cool. I'm sure some dbs/wrs from the NFL would like to get out there. Such a great show!!

Jordan Babineaux ran a few times. There were a few other DBs who ran the course a few years ago as well. They did not do as well as you would think.

That Houston finals course was pretty fair. Some of those KC guys that slipped in the rain would have crushed that course.

haven't watched since Ep 2

Will come back for vegas and YouTube that chick's run mentioned above.

Is kacy out or is there still time for her return?

not sure about kacy, but if all else fails id imagine the wild card selections include her..how many more city finals are there before they start the vegas shows?