Ninja v. Ninja Preview: Episode 1

Beasts from the East

James McGrath, Erica Cook, Dave Cavanagh

After teaming (quite successfully) with Drew Dreschel each of the past two seasons, James McGrath and Erica Cook will look to continue the legacy from the Real Life Beasts as part of the Beasts from the East. The pressure will be on McGrath as he likely moves to the “anchor” role on this team previously handled by Drew. To date, James has been a … well … beast on the course and has rolled through 6 career matches with 6 career wins. However, the competition he faces should turn up a notch this season. Will he rise to challenge? Meanwhile, Erica Cook looks to bounce back after ending last year’s competition on a devastating injury. She’s a seasoned competitor with 7 matches in two seasons, including a clutch tie breaker victory in Season 1.

The newcomer to the team is Dave Cavanagh. He has yet to compete on a team ninja competition, but there is reason to be optimistic about the newcomer’s potential. Dave qualified for the Vegas Finals on ANW Season 9 out of Kansas City. By time, he finished in the top 10 during both the finals and qualifying round, indicating he has good speed on the course. Plus, he cleared Stage 1 in the 7^th fastest time (right between all-stars Joe Moravsky and Nicholas Coolridge) and added his name to a short list of Stage 2 finalists.

Hashtag Ninjas

Nicholas Coolridge, Larissa Cottle, Jesse LaFlair

Much like Beasts from the East, Hashtag Ninjas will be missing their fearless leader this season. With Jessie Graff not participating in the competition this year, Nicholas Coolridge and Jesse LaFlair will be missing arguably their best ninja teammate on the course. But there is reason to think this team can stay afloat without Graff. Coolridge has made Stage 2 on ANW each of the past two seasons. He’s an agile, acrobatic ninja who should be able to translate those skills to the team ninja course when things click. La Flair made his team ninja debut last year and impressed by winning 2 of his 3 matches. His only loss came at the hands of ninja star Jamie Rahn in a tie-breaker match (Rahn was undefeated in tiebreaker matches last season).

Larissa Cottle will be tasked with filling the large shoes of wonder woman Jessie Graff. In her first major ninja appearance, Cottle made it to the city finals in Denver as one of the top women. She made it to the difficult Rail Runner in her best run, just one obstacle short of the warped wall.

Team Ronin

Flip Rodriguez, JJ Woods, Meagan Martin

Team Ronin was already a perennial power in the Team Ninja world the past two seasons. They were my personal pick to win the Season 2 edition and they’ve made the Ninjas finals each year. This season team captain Flip Rodriguez added another former captain in the form of the undefeated Meagan Martin. Meagan has won 6 of 6 matches on Team Ninja and is statistically one of the top female ninjas on ANW and Team Ninja. It’s unclear just how much of an advantage that will be relative to year’s past (Tiana Webberley won 7 of 8 matches while a part of Team Ronin), but there’s no question Martin is a huge talent to place alongside two of the quickest ninjas in the game.

Flip and JJ are quite the one two punch. There are only three ninjas that have even had the opportunity to race double digit matches on Team Ninja over the course of two seasons-Joe Moravsky, JJ Woods and Flip Rodriguez. That speaks to how consistently competitive this squad is as they go for the title. However, it’s still managed to slip through their fingertips in tight matches. Last year, Flip struggled a bit with the ring of fire and won just 1 out of 4 matches he contested (he won 4 of 6 the previous year). This year he should have vengeance on his mind. Woods is good enough that he could be a team captain on his own. He’s feasted on non-captain competition, but he’s also won 3 anchor match ups (worth 2 points under the prior format). His 11 points scored for Team Ronin puts him tied for 5^th among all ninjas in this stat.

West Coast Warriors

Alan Connealy, Lindsay Eskildsen, JB Douglas

After a strong first season as a part of the ExpendaBulls, Alan Connealy captained his own team in Season 2. Although that squad (Flowmingo) didn’t make it to the finals, they put up a tough fight against eventual team champions Storm Team in the first round. It took a heroic double victory from Joe Moravsky to defeat Flowmingo. In the same episode, they were also toppled by Karsten William’s Fast Kats. Karsten has been the #1 statistical ninja according to my PER stat. So overall, Connealy and teammate JB Douglas have faced some brutal competition (and with Team Ronin on the horizon, I suppose things aren’t getting much easier).

Lindsay Eskildsen will be the new edition to this squad in place of the departing Luci Romberg. Eskildsen impressed last year on ANW, making it to the Vegas Finals out of the Daytona Qualifier. She was hung up on the very difficult Rolling Thunder obstacle which only Jessie Graff was able to surpass on the female side of competition.