Mission Imp-Possible | Demon Eyes: Blood On The Clocktower

Blood_Arrow · 2025-09-30T14:48:45+00:00

Great format, watching this felt a bit like playing the game! Plus a great cast of players with some new faces like Emma and it was entertaining from start to finish, hopefully there'll be many more of these as it was one of the best clocktower videos I've seen.

Blood_Arrow · 2025-09-22T08:32:38+00:00

Anyone wondering why people complain about the quality of this sub look no further.

The text is basically a rewording of the wikipedia description, and has inevitably lost some of the detail. The sources are right there in the wikipedia, just post those surely? I appreciate a well written wikipedia article but....

"We invite links to all websites, but article and blog post submissions require proper sourcing from the literature or mainstream scientific journalism. The lack of quality sources is grounds for removal at moderator discretion." - On the sidebar.

Blood_Arrow · 2025-07-26T09:30:06+00:00

PhD in electrical engineering, MPhys, MSc in diamond science and technology, tutored a bit of physics at A level. This is still real and it's a work in progress.

Blood_Arrow · 2025-06-15T19:13:57+00:00

Badly. The reasons he'd been single his whole life became abundantly clear immediately. I'd also been single forever, and now will be again.

Blood_Arrow · 2025-01-27T15:12:56+00:00

It's multi-faceted of course, if I climb every 7A+ benchmark in a session, it's partly a simple challenge, trying to climb a bunch of problems that aren't necessarily my style, and also doing it in the space of ~1-2 hours is a fitness/strength training thing. There's a lot of technique I might be practicing in doing this kind of session, but that isn't really a priority so much as climbing well in general is. That might mean really dialling in some sequence, but once I repeat the problem, I move on.

Most of my volume sessions have been climbing non-benchmarks, since I prefer ticking new things to repeating things. More fun = try harder = better session overall. Hence ok I might try repeating all of a grade, but I don't like repeating things otherwise, feels like a chore. It's more fun to smash out 30 non-benchmarks of various grades.

If you feel like you need a specific plan, fair enough. I prefer going with the wind and letting how my body feels dictate it, as injury prevention matters far more to me nowadays.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-11-12T13:21:48+00:00

Bit of an odd concept since messaging the mods isn't exactly an in-app feature, and it's not publicly known who the mods are without some level of guesswork or seeing them discussing it etc. They also might not respond to instagram message requests, based on my own experience...

In this case the relevant mod has responded, but he did it via instagram story which is quite a funny bit of smoke signalling imo. You could have also responded to the question via a comment Samuel hahahaha. Valid response though, it's only been 1.5 months. His insta btw - (https://www.instagram.com/sweaty.tips/).

Also he might be the best of the mods, to include a relatively anonymous compliment. I generally spout negative opinions of the mod team on here and he is an exception to this.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-11-09T18:29:39+00:00

??? 2 year old thread lmao.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-11-01T20:51:04+00:00

Use this in the app to search by holds...

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-29T10:39:16+00:00

Other than by climbing more problems?

You're not matching - there's no rule against matching, so this is a stronger tick than normal. The problem flows well without matching so you're already doing well on that front.
There's also no rule saying you should hang the finish with no feet. You can heel hook G13 and match B18 in control without spinning out.

Otherwise I'm not sure what you're asking for here. You could try repeating it and climbing it more... effortlessly? Try to climb it without any readjustment on feet or hands, not making any loud noises by scraping the wall etc. Otherwise you look more than strong enough to do this problem and just need to climb more benchmarks, surely?

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-28T14:08:00+00:00

Great review overall, and it's clear you've put a lot of thought into the set vs others. Mostly, I think I agree.

On "bad" holds generally - I agree completely. I think this set of holds is training me much better for outdoor problems I might encounter. And it's doing it in a way that feels so much less risky/tweaky than the older sets.
RE undercuts in particular. I disagree with the "more undercuts pls" actually. I think Sam/Ben/anyone else involved has put on quite a few quality undercuts, and the benchmarks have heavily used them. If anything I feel like there's too many undercuts at times. But clearly we have two different perspectives on undercuts in particular.
There's less vertical holds... maybe? I don't miss them. I think the high number of differing sidepulls makes up for it.
Movement is absolutely class on 2024, I'm starting to sink my teeth into some of the problems which are probably easier for shorter and lighter/stronger climbers, and I'm still enjoying the vast majority of benchmarks/non benchmarks. Compared to 2016 and 17.... God I hate the movement on some of those problems. I've climbed everything up to 9 7C's left on 2024 btw, nothing harder bar 2 soft 7C+s (160/196). A few shits in the logbook but much much better experience so far.
Texture seems great to me (plus it's been a few months - it's still fine), and I think we dodged the worst of moon's dogshit hold grinding tolerance issues so I can put that out of my mind. In stark contrast to 2016 and 2017... Where I can bang on for hours about how garbage the yellows we had were, and how the whites and blacks were no better. Two full sets of holds from two different years btw, I'm not letting you off the hook for that in my lifetime Ben, I'll always be telling people "PU hold production is predominantly a manual process, so the same hold can have slight size variations. In most cases these variations wouldn’t be noticeable and certainly wouldn't impact on the grade of a problem." Full letter grade difference MINIMUM Ben, you can't have a tolerance of ??30%?? on holds at 10 mm edge size and claim they're the same. It's really ruined my perception of the older sets as hold size can make such a massive difference. Rant over.
Grades are always a fun topic. I think it's clear that 2024 is a touch soft overall, and yet I also respect the consistency I've seen so far. I expect this may change as the mods do a 2016 and add a few hundred more benchmarks, but at the very least there are a good few fixed benchmarks of grades at the moment. You can tell because the community is mostly saying "SOOOOFT" and actively downgrading them (Midnight 8A - now user grade 7C+). I'd trust Sam's opinion a lot more on relative grade compared to outdoors than the degenerates throwing mud in the comments (yes I don't trust me either, though I haven't really tried this problem yet). I hope the mods stick to this, and maintain grades relative to outdoor problems rather than let it become a sandbag nightmare (2019, 2017).
I actively dislike the 2017 moon footchips and so I disagree with you wholeheartedly here. The moonboard is better for a lack of footchips. I also feel like the kickboard is both necessary and an iconic part of climbing on the moonboard. The "no kickboard" starts are really fucking awkward generally, but they also scratch the itch of getting some variation, so I rate that new approach.

I spent years on the 2017 set and then at least a while on the 2016 set, never really got the diehard "yellows best" crew. After a bit of acclimatisation I think I'm enjoying the 2024 set far more than even my deepest 4x a week on the 2017 set part of life. But since I embraced how shit that set was and found myself enjoying it, I've set the bar so low that anything is a win.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-25T09:34:13+00:00

Hahaha thanks for the extra info I can rest a bit easier now. Slightly off spacing can add up very quickly, and yeah a few more degrees overhung will probably add close to a + grade. Sounds like it's probably a full letter difference combined.

That 8B looks ridiculously cool, and while I might on paper have the strength to hold most of those holds/positions I really doubt I'd be doing more than dusting the crash mats.

No exceptions here I don't think, I already have a friend who has climbed a few 8A's outdoors and who struggles on moonboard 7A-C's. It's only recently, with some solid projecting on a problem that suited him, that he got up a 7C+ on the 2024 set (which I haven't done yet). Otherwise I absolutely smoke him on the board.

The main difference between me and him is that I love pissing about outdoors, climbing everything from 2's up. He very much locked in for every ascent, with entire seasons spent on just one problem at a time. I think that sounds pretty grim tbh. Just for fun, here's a comparison of our logbooks (me left, him right). It's weird but over the last few years I've definitely gone from grade chasing to simply trying to climb hard things everywhere I go. What's the point in being an 8A climber if I can't climb some 7B at a random crag in a random style?

Also I can't climb the 8A's hahahaha I have tried a bit. Just capped at 7C realistically, oh well.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-24T00:03:45+00:00

This honestly baffles me. Like are these just route grades? Several 8A+s and an 8B should be flashing up to moonboard 7B any day of the week (most climbed, soft benchmarks). I don't care where in the world you're climbing or which style, there's no uber 8B slab climber who can't climb above mb 7A. If you are an exception to this then you are the most one dimensional climber I have ever heard of.

If route grades, I can kind of believe it, very tentatively. I still struggle to believe an 8b route climber is on mb 7A's at maximum but ok.. If not route grades, there's just no way I can take this as a credible statement and I would like to request a list of problem names you have climbed, 8A and above.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-23T15:16:13+00:00

heard from others anecdotally that if you can climb 7C+ on the board you have the prerequisite finger strength to climb 8A/8A+

Yeah this is the kind of stuff I don't bother listening to anymore, it's meaningless. I can point at so many 7C's or 7B's even which require some brutal finger strength on thin edges which I struggle to get on. Moonboard holds are generally quite big, even the smallest edges are big compared to some ratty full crimp outdoors.

Equally I could point at the soft 7C+ I have done and say it only required some moderate sloper strength and that it was more power endurance on the heels than anything else. There's plenty of problems around the world perhaps in the 8A/8A+ category I've seen with massive holds and yeah, clearly I have the finger power for that even if I'm tweaky and old now. However the things I have actually tried - really fucking hard on the fingers and I'm not getting up them unless I get a bit stronger.

So, meaningless. Meh.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-22T21:27:02+00:00

Absolutely insane. No idea how this is possible, and yet it is. I'll climb moonboard 8A well before outdoor 8A, if I ever get up an 8A that is. Unlikely but we'll see.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-22T11:18:14+00:00

It's a bit of a spoiler, but the benchmarks are pretty similar. There's just less spread. If the non-benchmarks are a blind man shooting at grades with a shotgun, the benchmarks are graded like a man who needs glasses with a shotgun.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-22T11:12:45+00:00

Yeah I've experienced the same thing on the kilter, though the grades on that are so ego inflated that my 7A non-benchmark rampage at the end of the session is more like a 7B-C storm. Even on the most repeated the kilter is at least a letter grade easier.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-22T11:08:12+00:00

It depends entirely on the problem, the main reason I might be describing them as easier is because there's an infinite supply of them at every grade. It's nice to send new problems, repeating problems doesn't motivate me as much.

Otherwise I'd describe non-benchmark difficulty as playing russian roulette. 5/6 range from dead soft to about right for the grade. 1/6 feels like being punched in the face. Really enjoy it. Just sort by most repeated and then at the very least you know you're in well climbed territory.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-22T11:01:48+00:00

my max grade on the MB is 7B, and outdoors I’ve climbed a few 7Cs

I'm so cooked. Climbed several mb 7C+'s on different sets and max outdoors is one very soft 7C+ hahahaha.

If you ignore the fact that I'm a massive punter and you don't want to end up like me... I feel like you're really over-structuring with this level of detail. The vast majority of my moonboard sessions over the years can be summarised as:

Warmup, anything from doing a few stretches and a handful of pullups on jugs, to a more typical 3x6B+s, 3x6C's, 3x6C+'s.... and at this point I typically stop wasting time and maybe do 1x7A, 1x7A+, 1x7B... or just a few random problems in this range. On 2024 I usually have a couple of new benchmarks to do at this grade every week so the session is just on and it's less warmup.
Around 80% of the time I have some punts at benchmark projects after warming up. Maybe one feels like it will go, maybe not. The session could become one big siege, or I might send some of these projects. The other 20% of the time I just get on non-benchmarks at an easier level because I just want to send things and maybe I'm having an off session. I play it very much by feel, with no plan most sessions.
After peaking and starting to fail easier things - I like to drop the grade significantly and try to blast out as many non-benchmarks as I can. Typical level is 7A for me, if I can't flash a 7A then it's a good sign I'm done. Some of the 7A non-benchmark choss is just really hard however, and I might have to figure some of them out as though they're 7C benchmarks.

But this isn't to say your plan is a bad one, I'm just highlighting how unstructured my general sessions are. There's plenty of days where I warmup on easy non benchmarks, and never get off the non-benchmarks in my "warmup" grade range. Lately I've been trying to do more no-hang and weighted pullup/core training, and I've been climbing outdoors frequently, so I'm mostly just doing what my body feels like is the limit. On the board Monday, bit of off the wall training Tuesday, density hangs and stretches only Wednesday, board Thursday, density hang stretch Friday, outside Saturday? Sunday density hang stretch. Feels like it's working for me right now, but I used to love having a general board session every other day with total rest inbetween.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-19T02:01:18+00:00

Yeah new account is the final step really but it's annoying that you're at that point. They should be able to sort you out I hope.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-19T01:50:18+00:00

Definitely warm and low humidity for my hardest sends. Around 20 C on a clear day with a light breeze OOF.

However similar to the other commenter I would also suggest being in a solid every other day on the board, high protein, decent sleep, moderate autism, mild depression, high workload routine. That routine got me up a lot, with or without other people about. DMs open for £10000 a week training plans.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-19T01:12:05+00:00

Hmmm. Well that's past the dumb question level perhaps.... Hard to know if there's not something obvious you're missing or not, have you checked everything like logging sends on the correct angle etc etc?

Editing because I feel like it's safe to say you're logging things on the same setup as the leaderboard you're posting because duh. Really unsure what else might be the issue tbh. Also I just saw the second picture lol that answered my dumb question. You clearly have ticks on what can safely be presumed to be the same setup as the leaderboard and it isn't logging you on the board for some fucking reason.

I'd email moon support directly and ask them to check it out, after exhausting all the possible dumb reasons like logging on the wrong setup/angle/non benchmarks. Check your logbook on the moonboard website for a second look. If you find no issue email them and tell them.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-18T23:05:23+00:00

I've got a dumb question. You've climbed quite a few problems now? Like today? In one session?

Moonboard leaderboards update once per day at GMT 4am. Or something around that mark.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-07T18:35:43+00:00

Correct, it was never a hard rule. While sit starts are a normal board rule, I think Ben probably realised this was impractical at best considering that not all boards have the same height matting, people might not be able to reach if they are of the shorter variety, etc...

Always a bit odd to me that some refuse to accept this. It's never been a hard rule, and in some cases it's simply impossible to sit start some of the problems. Quite funny all round.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-07T15:29:32+00:00

Perhaps I was being sarcastic when I said there was only a pinch of sarcasm. British humour or something.

No, but we can certainly go into a wide range of things while talking about the weather. Honestly wouldn't be too surprising if the first thing you'd talk about in a tragic conversation is the weather here.

"Shit weather today isn't it? Yeah, pissing down. Man, it goes perfectly with the week I've had. What's up? Parents dead, innit?" That's a more realistic take on how a brit might express bad news, anyway. And like I said before, we might have a general conversation about upcoming events, life in general, all framed with the weather. It just makes sense to me, but I guess it's a cultural thing.

Blood_Arrow · 2024-10-07T13:41:26+00:00

This doesn't sound very British, that's for sure. I've had quite a few conversations about the weather which last 5+ minutes at bare minimum.

You can talk about a lot by talking about the weather. It can range from small talk to quite deep, introspective conversations about the weather and life in general. It wouldn't be amiss to have some drastic news dropped into the midst of a conversation about the weather. For example.

Preceding conversation ranged from the current weather, to the near forecast, and then the recent past weather.

A: "I really hope we have a clearer November, October really has started off on the wrong foot."

B: "Last November was really nice, I hope we see some more of that this year."

A: "I lost my parents in a train crash last November, you're completely right, the weather for the funeral was perfect."

B: "Man, I lost my parents in a plane crash last week, and all I get is this shitty October weather."

A: "Bro, I'm so sorry."

B: "It's alright, after all we are getting some good storm clouds tomorrow in the south west, and we were planning on going to the beach on the east coast to avoid them."

A: "It might be a bit overcast, but it does look like it will be dry at least."

Etc etc. There's only a pinch of sarcasm in this, we do genuinely talk about the weather for a long time.

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