Many of the vets also were not from LA, so why were they there, instead of competing in their own cities? I think it's because NBC wants to shuffle them around so they can get plenty of vets in each qualifier. I noticed in addition that they were there just hanging around as spectators, not even competing, but still being given camera time.
The show only goes to a few cities. Last year it was 6, and the cities are different every year, so there is no such thing as competing in your own city, all the vets have to travel. I have no doubt that NBC divides them as they see fit. I'm sure they don't 1 stacked city, which a bunch of vets being eliminated in the qualifiers, while another city has a bunch of new runners. Personally though I'll take it a step further and say it's probably a closed set and everyone, including the audience is there by invitation, and only after they sign some sort of confidentiality agreement. There is no way anyone just showed up to cheer people on, because someone would leak the results.
Then you had the commenters saying things like, "We changed up the course and made it harder" implying that they needed to for the people who were used to it, but what about the people who have never been on the show before? I guess no one cares about them.
They always change up the course to make it harder, this goes on every single year. They don't want people finishing it. They want it to be a the most extreme challenge on earth, and last year it there was too much success. 38/100 finished stage 1, even though they gave 10 spots to women who had no chance of finishing. And of course 2 people finished 4. The course always needs to evolve, the top competitors build obstacles and practice in their back yards, if they know what to expect it's going to be easy.
One last gripe. It also seems like they are dead set on making this a "serious sport" and entirely eliminated the costumes and the fun spirit the show originally was.
I don't agree, it seems like both are required. You can be a character, but you have to have legit skills too. They aren't going to throw the octopus bar owner out there every year that can't get by the first obstacle like they do in Japan. Unless you are a woman.
However it's not a serious sport either because just being good at it isn't enough. If they aren't interesting, or have a sob story, they get edited out of the show. Like Paul Kasmire. There was another guy, that I can't remember, that qualified the previous year, and didn't even get invited back, he had to wait in the walk on line. Maybe Dustin McKinney?
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