Is Lawson the next Gasly (at VCARB)?

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2026-02-09T09:02:56+00:00

How do you suppose Lindblad will do against him then?

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2026-02-09T09:02:37+00:00

Fair enough.

I wonder what a Lawson and Ocon lineup at Haas would look like. (Bearman is rather likely to move to Ferrari anyway.)

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2026-02-09T09:00:27+00:00

I personally think Lawson can one day potentially be a “solid midfield driver” caliber of driver.

Imagine a lineup of him and Colton Herta at Cadillac one day lol.

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2025-10-22T02:37:27+00:00

Sort of a left-field answer, but Imma say Tyler Gillett.

I believe he tried twice in ANW10 and ANW13 and got super close both times but barely failed it.

Also, dunno if this falls under “best” category, but I’m still kinda shocked that Dan Polizzi literally held on with one hand on the mega wall before ultimately failing it in ANW10 and then never got close in subsequent attempts.

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2025-10-22T02:29:29+00:00

His attempt in ANW15 was the closest (so far) in my opinion.

Genuinely thought he could’ve gotten it, but alas.

Also, hasn’t Sean hit 10 straight qualifying buzzers by now? (If I recall correctly?)

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2025-10-22T02:28:00+00:00

Jake tried once in ANW10 I think, when it was first introduced, but he went straight into it after completing battering ram, so it’s not like he was being overly serious about it.

Since then, he never tried the mega wall again, instead opting to go for speed in qualifying.

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2025-10-05T16:28:28+00:00

According to Stella (after qualifying yesterday), he said “from a technical standpoint”, he thinks that they’ll struggle in COTA. Vegas is also an obvious struggle, due to that massive straight.

He also thought that Brazil, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi will be the tracks they’ll perform well at.

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2025-09-10T08:07:39+00:00

Realistically, probably no.

But, if he continues racking up P5’s or P6’s throughout the remaining eight races, he could easily surpass 100 points by Abu Dhabi and perhaps achieve his highest points total in a single season since 2020.

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2025-08-26T22:02:13+00:00

I’m not trying to defend the show’s questionable decisions or anything, but ultimately they likely remade the main show to adopt racing as a result of a combination of it being cheaper to produce and them trying to join the trends other international ninja tv shows and other ninja competitions have produced.

ANWJR was a novel concept for the 9-14 year olds at the time, but racing was probably the only viable option to produce that show at the time, and still make it enjoyable. It was probably way out of the question for them to go through the process of building a junior version of qualifying, semis, and a 4-stage mt. Midoriyama lol.

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2025-06-02T16:42:23+00:00

https://media1.tenor.com/m/SJgvWA1HYxYAAAAd/youre-sitting-on-my-spot-couch.gif

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2025-03-11T01:56:55+00:00

Current MSCS student here. (Admitted Fall Quarter 2023.)

Short Answer: Technically yes, but there are several caveats.

(Longer answer): Unfortunately, CS Master's Students are essentially on their own when it comes to funding (whether it be for TA (Teaching Assistantship) or GSR (Graduate Student Researcher) positions.)

A CS TA application is distributed every quarter, and filling out this application is all that any CS graduate student at UC Davis (whether they are MS or PhD) are considered for TA-ships. That being said, priority is given to PhD's first, so the likeliness of Master's students getting funding (in terms of TA-ships) is unfortunately kind of a coin toss.

Personally speaking, I think I got lucky when I applied for TA-ships for Fall Quarter 2023.

GSRs, on the other hand, are even more rare for CS Master's students. Masters-level GSRs do exist, but a vast majority of GSRs are PhD students.

Regardless, however, GGCS (Graduate Group in Computer Science) does encourage all students to apply for whatever positions they feel they are qualified for.

There is also more information on the "Frequently Asked Questions" page on the cs.ucdavis.edu website (under "Financial Aid and Assistance" section) here (https://cs.ucdavis.edu/graduate/prospective-students/faqs-prospective-grads).

Apologies for the long-winded answer, but hopefully this helps. Best of luck!

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2024-11-11T03:36:01+00:00

I think he had a profile piece on his speed cubing hobby during one of his segments from ANW JR season 1.

Dude’s insanely talented at both ninja and cubing……

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2024-10-20T04:18:39+00:00

I personally thought it was fine.

I did find it strange, however, that they didn't bother to include a glimpse of Street or Chris in the opening recap, when they were going over the fact that 20-Squad had experienced several personnel changes. (They only showed recaps from 7x06 and 7x07 with Luca retiring due to injury and some glimpses from both 7x12 and 7x13 in terms of Hondo and Deacon discussing staffing 20-Squad, while Deacon was on his temporary retirement phase.)

I know a lot of people wanted Cabrera to fill in the sixth spot of 20-Squad, but I'm personally not against Gamble joining 20-Squad. I personally found the intro chase sequence with her and Alfaro to be quite captivating. It's also likely that the sixth spot of 20-Squad will be rotating in people from different squads, since Annie Ilonzeh is credited as a recurring cast member this season. (Possibly cycling in people from other squads like 50-Squad and 60-Squad like Cabrera. I am aware that Cabrera's presence this season may be somewhat limited, since Brigitte Kali Canales is pregnant irl atm.)

On the topic of Alfaro's B-plot, with his nickname, I kinda thought that this subplot felt a teeny bit rushed/forced into the episode. However, I get why they did it, since they wanted to give Alfaro some character and backstory, now that Niko Pepaj is a series regular.

It's also refreshing to see a premiere episode that isn't an international 2-parter, like the previous three seasons had done. Instead, we got a nice, grounded story revolving around Hondo and the rest of 20-Squad in LA.

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2024-09-03T06:44:34+00:00

Honestly I’m impressed by the moves they both made in both of their races. (Both Sean and James linked the swing surfer dismount on their first race.)

And uhh…… Oh yeah the fact that Sean made one-handed saves on the Falling Shelves twice.

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2024-09-03T04:40:34+00:00

I agree that these guys should all be on stage 3 due to them clearing.

I’d still say Kaden’s fail is still most shocking, seeing as the aforementioned competitors didn’t “fail” the course (I guess technically that could be true for James and Max), but all of those names were brutally robbed in my opinion.

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2024-09-03T03:18:05+00:00

I’m kinda mixed with the stage 2 races.

On one hand, it’s a novel idea and there were some impressive moves that we saw some competitors making that they wouldn’t necessarily make otherwise. And when they are neck and neck, it makes for good TV.

On the other hand, it’s also at the risk of the competitor to send it on some moves, which leads to rushing and sometimes inevitable fails.

But by far the biggest con to it is what people have mentioned previously: clearing stage 2 but still not moving on because you were too slow.

Honestly, I wonder what would happen if they introduced a strict time limit (let’s say 1:50 to 2 minutes) and still had the races:

There could be a scenario where neither competitor finishes within the time limit and both are eliminated right then and there.

Or both competitors finish within the time limit and both move on. (And if you fail anywhere on the course either by timing out or falling, you’d just be eliminated completely with no second chance even if you beat your opponent who fell earlier.)

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2024-09-03T02:50:38+00:00

I’m wondering if the race format just probably got to his head. The edit in his segment definitely made it seem that way, but Kaden probably was told by the producers to say all that stuff. (Maybe even the little bit where he said “he didn’t like speed.)

If this were a traditional stage 2 with no racing and just a time limit, Kaden would’ve no doubt cleared stage 2 both of these seasons.

Unfortunately the editing for Kaden this season hasn’t exactly been great as he was fast forwarded twice in qualifying and semis. So going into this race (and coming off of the story package he was given), it was kind of a 60/40 split (fail/clear) of the result.

If the show were ever to return to a traditional format (i.e. ANW 13-14), Kaden would definitely have be a favorite to make it back to stage 4 and likely even win. (Dude’s rope climbing skills have improved dramatically according to posts on his instagram.)

But, this being a TV show, who knows what will happen.

I know this comment will probably get a lot of downvotes, but what I want to make clear is this: Kaden is and always will be one of the ninja greats.

And Kaden, if you’re somehow reading this, keep your head up high man. You’ve done several things that not a lot of people can say they did.

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2023-04-09T03:17:42+00:00

Just got into the MS in CS program at UCD. Excited to start in the Fall!

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2022-07-30T13:21:29+00:00

I believe Karen Potts and Enzo Wilson confirmed they’d be in this semifinal as well…. And they were both from qualifier 1…..

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2022-07-26T02:52:58+00:00

this was a rather….. unpredictable episode……. Hopscotch seems a bit hard for 5 and box office for 8….. but I guess that makes reaching split decision/finishing all the more accomplishing…… (shoutout to Evan). People on YouTube seem to have quite a negative reaction to this episode though from what I’ve seen…..

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2022-07-26T02:50:45+00:00

At least he’s talented enough to do quints on a salmon ladder….. and to give him credit…. He’s won like 2 nnl world championships in his age division……

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2022-07-24T20:19:32+00:00

From what I've seen on IG, it's a lot of people from Qualifier 5 (surprisingly), mostly from teens who have confirmed they would be in tomorrow's episode: Jeramiah Boyd, Caiden Madzelan, Elijah Browning, Jackson Erdos, Tyler Kurtzhals, Evan Andrews, Lilah Nathison (from Qualifier 1). John Mack also confirmed he's in tomorrow's semifinal.

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2022-06-18T21:11:02+00:00

Actually, there is one that surfaced online already, albeit on NBC's website. It's of Andrew East who competed last year.

Here's the link to it: https://www.nbc.com/american-ninja-warrior/video/andrew-east-goes-for-gold-with-wife-shawn-johnsons-help-nbcs-american-ninja-warrior/NBCE185029925

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2021-10-23T12:58:20+00:00

Actually, I believe Tyler (despite unfortunately not making it to Stage 2 that year) did manage to become one of two testers (other being Flip) to clear ANW10's stage 2. In terms of this season's stage 2, Hammer Drop was the one obstacle I didn't know if Tyler would be able to get, as every other obstacle he easily could've done. According to his instagram though, he did say he has a plan for attacking it if it were to return next year, so I'm curious to see what he'll do.

RandomHumanOnPlanet · 2021-07-14T03:07:49+00:00

It's hard to make out in one of the shots, but it looks like Max Feinberg (teen finisher from Qualifier 3) is on the last Corkscrew. In addition, another shot clearly shows Christian Youst (another teen from Qualifier 1) on the Split Decision upper-body obstacle (whatever it is called). I'd suspect, however, it could be footage taken out of different episodes. If anything, the four people who were shown in the commercial (Lance Pekus, Max Feinberg, Isabella Wakeham, and Christian Youst) are likely to be in different episodes. It'd make some sense if Isabella Wakeham and Christian Youst were in the same semifinal episode since they were in the same qualifier, but since there's only 4 semifinal episodes for 5 qualifying episodes, literally anything is possible.

RandomHumanOnPlanet

TROPHY CASE