Dust off the cobwebs and unlock the safety, Top Shot is back. The All Star season kicked off last night to what I would call mixed results, but I'll get to that in my analysis post tomorrow.
The episode wasted no time getting to the shooting, bringing all the contestants onto the range where Colby laid down the new ground rules. No teams. No nomination range. Obstacles and weapons from past seasons will be combined into an unholy mismatch of new challenges. And there's a boat!
The first challenge found contestants crawling upside down along a length of rope while explosions were going off, and firing the SVT-40 at a target 125 yards down range. Then they moved on to climbing up a log and firing the LaRue Tactical Optimized Battle Rifle. This was followed by climbing under barbed wire with more explosions and shooting the FN FAL rifle from an unstable platform.
The eight fastest finishers would be safe. The bottom eight would face off to determine the bottom two up for elimination. Colby and some of the other competitors seemed to be really hammering home the idea that there would be less drama and more skill based competition this year. Tomorrow I'm going to delve into whether or not that's going to be a good thing.
Gary Quesenberry, my man, went first. It's never easy to be the person who has to set the pace in these kind of challenges. There's no benchmark, and there's no advantage of seeing where other people stumbled. Gary had a rough time and ended up with the slowest time. I'm not going to go through all sixteen contestants, but Kelly Bachand smoked the course with a time of one minute 26 seconds and won himself a pretty pair of binoculars.
The players safe were: Kelly, Alex Charvat, Blake Miguez, Chris Cerino, Jamie Franks, Joe Serafini, Peter Palma and Phil Morden.
The players facing elimination were: Gary, Greg Littlejohn, Gabby Franco, Chee Kwan, Kyle Sumpter, William Bethards, Brian Zins and Adam Benson. (Note all five Season 4 competitors ended up on the chopping block.)
There was a quick stop at what is apparently a new house on the same ranch (although I couldn't tell the difference) that was decked out with photos and weapons from previous seasons. It was perhaps the least amount of time the show has ever spent in the house.
The action then moved to the much hyped "Proving Ground" which was ultimately a little boring. The eight contestants in jeopardy have one shot with a Colt Peacemaker Revolver. The two furthest from the center of the bulls eye face each other in elimination.
If I was depressed after Gary went through his initial run, I was devastated to see he was going to the elimination challenge in the first episode. He was going up against Littlejohn and it was only as the show started to play clips from the last season that I remembered that Littlejohn was the runner up in Season 4 and had very nearly been the winner.
The weapon of choice for the season's first elimination challenge? The Milkor grenade launcher, a weapon that cost Littlejohn the title in Season 4, but one the Gary had never even laid hands on before. The Sawman made a triumphant return to get the guys in shape with the launcher and then it was off to one of the best elimination challenges ever.
Are the grenade launchers a little cheap in that it's kind of pandering to the audience? Sure. Do I mind? Not in the least. The great thing about the grenade launchers is everything about them makes it such a rich viewing experience. From the "thonk" sound it makes when fired, to the graceful trajectory of the projectile as it makes its way to the mark, to the massive explosion when it finds the target. Every time I expect to be hit by the blast sitting in my living room.
The twist this time is that the competitors had four targets to hit instead of the normal three. Gary started off strong but slowed down when the smoke obscured his field of vision allowing Littlejohn to catch up. But Gary kept his cool and was able to pull out the win when Littlejohn lost time for a reload.
The first two challenges may have been a bit of a drag in terms of pacing, but I have to say this elimination challenge had me on my feet shouting at the TV. I can't think of a better way to start the season than with grenade launchers and saying bye bye to Littlejohn.
There was a lot going on in this episode, so come back tomorrow when I break it all down and discuss what the kind of effect the new rules will have on the overall quality of the show.
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets.
Showing posts with label Recap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recap. Show all posts
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Top Shot Recap: S4 E11 "Have Machine Gun Will Travel"
Sorry if it seems like I'm slacking on my posting schedule here, but school keeps getting in the way.
Let's skip the pleasantries and dive right in.
On the practice range (nothing interesting happened in the opening two minutes, so I'm skipping straight to the shooting) Colby stood in front of the contestants with a big grin and big tarp. Under the tarp was a M1919 Browning machine gun, a classic weapon of WWII. It was a weapon that none of the contestants had shot before, though Greg Littlejohn had the advantage of previous experience with belt fed machine guns due to his time in the military. With the help and welcome return of Craig "The Sawman" Sawyer, the rest of the group worked on trying to figure out the gun and playing with the trigger without spending too much ammo.
At the challenge the contestants were faced with...nothing, just the bench, which meant they were in for a surprise. That was when an M2A1 Halftrack came barreling down the road with the Browning strapped to its back. Contestants would jump on the Halftrack and have the opportunity to shoot at 15 different targets as they went down the road. The catch, they only had 100 bullets. The top two shooters were safe while the bottom three were up for elimination.
Gary Shank was up first (and isn't he always?) and quickly found out how little time it takes to go through 100 bullets, hitting only four targets. Littlejohn was up next and his experience shined through, hitting eight out of the 15 and ending up with the best score of the night. He was followed by Kyle Sumpter who struggled, but did better than Shank, hitting five targets. Chris Cheng continued to show he had the ability to master anything Colby puts in his hands, hitting six targets, for the second best score of the night (spoiler alert if you can do the math and didn't watch last night). Augie Malekovich was last to go, and after a strong start lost his rhythm, tying Sumpter with five targets.
I'm not really sure why, but the contestants keep having team meeting despite not being a team. There has been more team meeting footage this season than any other I would hazard to guess. It sounded like it was going to be Malekovich and Shank duking it out, but once again, things didn't go according to plan on the range.
Littlejohn hit Shank's target and all three remaining red team members hit Malekovich's. Then it was Malekovich's turn, and it turns out ole Augie had a little bone to pick with the red team. He decided he was going to hit Kyle's target because if he was going to go to elimination, he was going to throw a little chaos at the red team. So with a tie for the second contestant to go to elimination, Shank and Sumpter had to go to a shoot-off. Shank went first, hitting just below the bullseye to the left. Sumpter got up to shoot and clipped Shank's mark, but was just outside.
Sumpter and Malekovich would face off using the FN PS90 carbine. In perhaps the oddest twist of the season, this challenge was not so much focused on shooting as it was on memory....and rope climbing. Apparently this was a recreation of some kind of Marine exercise, but it was still a little odd (more on this tomorrow). Each contestant would have a box filled with ten items. They needed to open the box look at the items, close the box, climb across 20 feet of rope, then pick up the PS90 and shoot the 10 targets in their box without hitting the other twenty they were set amongst (I'll admit, that was pretty poorly worded). They had to to all of that in 75 seconds. They could go back as often as they wanted to look at the box, but with only 75 seconds, they would need to budget their time. This was a hard challenge to follow as it required the viewer to also memorize the items in the box to figure out who was winning. As it always is in Top Shot, points were awarded for proper hits, and points were deducted for decoy hits.
When the contest was over, Sumpter had clearly hit more objects than Malekovich but it all came down to the final count. Malekovich had hit five targets from his box, while Kyle had hit three. Malekovich hit only one decoy bringing his count down to four but securing the win. (Sumpter hit four decoys bringing his score down to negative one)
So one part of my prayers have been answered as Sumpter is sent packing and I can look forward to one Sumpter free episode this episode.
What did you think of last night's challenges? Are you glad that Papa Bear was sent back to his cave, or did you think he still had some fight left in him? Hit the comments and let me know.
Come back tomorrow for my analysis of tonight's episode.
Follow @cswiets
Let's skip the pleasantries and dive right in.
On the practice range (nothing interesting happened in the opening two minutes, so I'm skipping straight to the shooting) Colby stood in front of the contestants with a big grin and big tarp. Under the tarp was a M1919 Browning machine gun, a classic weapon of WWII. It was a weapon that none of the contestants had shot before, though Greg Littlejohn had the advantage of previous experience with belt fed machine guns due to his time in the military. With the help and welcome return of Craig "The Sawman" Sawyer, the rest of the group worked on trying to figure out the gun and playing with the trigger without spending too much ammo.
At the challenge the contestants were faced with...nothing, just the bench, which meant they were in for a surprise. That was when an M2A1 Halftrack came barreling down the road with the Browning strapped to its back. Contestants would jump on the Halftrack and have the opportunity to shoot at 15 different targets as they went down the road. The catch, they only had 100 bullets. The top two shooters were safe while the bottom three were up for elimination.
Gary Shank was up first (and isn't he always?) and quickly found out how little time it takes to go through 100 bullets, hitting only four targets. Littlejohn was up next and his experience shined through, hitting eight out of the 15 and ending up with the best score of the night. He was followed by Kyle Sumpter who struggled, but did better than Shank, hitting five targets. Chris Cheng continued to show he had the ability to master anything Colby puts in his hands, hitting six targets, for the second best score of the night (spoiler alert if you can do the math and didn't watch last night). Augie Malekovich was last to go, and after a strong start lost his rhythm, tying Sumpter with five targets.
I'm not really sure why, but the contestants keep having team meeting despite not being a team. There has been more team meeting footage this season than any other I would hazard to guess. It sounded like it was going to be Malekovich and Shank duking it out, but once again, things didn't go according to plan on the range.
Littlejohn hit Shank's target and all three remaining red team members hit Malekovich's. Then it was Malekovich's turn, and it turns out ole Augie had a little bone to pick with the red team. He decided he was going to hit Kyle's target because if he was going to go to elimination, he was going to throw a little chaos at the red team. So with a tie for the second contestant to go to elimination, Shank and Sumpter had to go to a shoot-off. Shank went first, hitting just below the bullseye to the left. Sumpter got up to shoot and clipped Shank's mark, but was just outside.
Sumpter and Malekovich would face off using the FN PS90 carbine. In perhaps the oddest twist of the season, this challenge was not so much focused on shooting as it was on memory....and rope climbing. Apparently this was a recreation of some kind of Marine exercise, but it was still a little odd (more on this tomorrow). Each contestant would have a box filled with ten items. They needed to open the box look at the items, close the box, climb across 20 feet of rope, then pick up the PS90 and shoot the 10 targets in their box without hitting the other twenty they were set amongst (I'll admit, that was pretty poorly worded). They had to to all of that in 75 seconds. They could go back as often as they wanted to look at the box, but with only 75 seconds, they would need to budget their time. This was a hard challenge to follow as it required the viewer to also memorize the items in the box to figure out who was winning. As it always is in Top Shot, points were awarded for proper hits, and points were deducted for decoy hits.
When the contest was over, Sumpter had clearly hit more objects than Malekovich but it all came down to the final count. Malekovich had hit five targets from his box, while Kyle had hit three. Malekovich hit only one decoy bringing his count down to four but securing the win. (Sumpter hit four decoys bringing his score down to negative one)
So one part of my prayers have been answered as Sumpter is sent packing and I can look forward to one Sumpter free episode this episode.
What did you think of last night's challenges? Are you glad that Papa Bear was sent back to his cave, or did you think he still had some fight left in him? Hit the comments and let me know.
Come back tomorrow for my analysis of tonight's episode.
Follow @cswiets
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Top Shot Recap: S4 E10 "SWAT Throwdown"
Ok a few things before diving in here.
1. I am incredibly distracted at the moment, papers, tests, girlfriend, job hunting, and graduation are all culminating in a perfect storm, so I apologize in advance for being late and missing a few details (also I don't mean to make my problems your problems, so double apology there).
2. No Top Tweets again, but this time an explanation. Colby gave one tweet on Tuesday, informing his followers (the one problem with Twitter is how cult-y I have to sound when I refer to it) that he was not allowed to participate because of comments he made the previous week. I'm not precisely sure what could have gotten him into trouble, most of his tweets were simply about trying to help save the show and were in no way critical of History as far as I could tell.
3. I was very disappointed I was unable to do a Top Tweets because I had a very good title (Top Tweets Vol. 9: Last time I did this, it was 1995).
Anyway...
Chris Cheng nails up William Bethards target (did anyone else notice how they finally made the targets green for the contestants who make it to individual stage of the competition? Also, did I talk about this already?) and Greg Littlejohn talks about how he was surprised Cheng was able to take him down.
This week's theme was Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and the individual challenge would feature the FN Five-seven pistol, which holds a twenty round clip. This would be the first challenge this season where contestants would have to holster the pistol. Much of the practice was spent working on drawing the pistol out of the holster smoothy and working on firing quickly without forsaking accuracy.
The challenge was the biggest this season in terms of staging (I am convinced they had their budget significantly reduced for this season just by looking at some rather simplistic challenges). Contestants would climb to the top of a faux three-story building and rappel down one level at a time. At each level there were two windows. Contestants would take the pistol out of the holster and fire at three jars down range. Once hitting all three they would re-holster the pistol, move to the next window, unholster and fire at another three targets. Once hitting all six targets on the level, the could proceed to the next one. The top three shooters who completed the challenge in the fastest time were safe, while the bottom three were up for nomination.
This week, as a special treat, I actually have the correct order and times for each contestant. Littlejohn went first, shooting his targets in 1 minute 32 seconds. He was followed by Chee Kwan (sans hat), who had a brief panic attack and tried to recover, shooting in 1 minute 42 seconds. Kyle Sumpter proved himself to be a skilled lawman, taking out his targets in 1 minute 21 seconds. Gary Shank was up next, falling between Kwan and Littlejohn at 1 minute 36 seconds. Cheng, who said in practice he had never used this weapon before, smoked the course in an astounding 1 minute 17 seconds (Bias much? Yes, yes I am). Augie Malekovich was the last to go, hitting his marks in a respectable 1 minute 23 seconds, and keeping him out of elimination.
A brief pow-wow at the house revealed that performance based Sumpter might be having a change of heart, telling Augie he would have a hard time shooting either of his fellow red team members. Kwan made it known that he was still looking for another opportunity to prove himself after having the worst time on the course.
At the nomination range Chee and Shank split the votes as Sumpter decided that, after talking with Chee, he would shoot his target.
The elimination challenge would carry on with the SWAT theme, and also be the second challenge this season to feature two different weapons in the same challenge: the Mossberg 500 "Chainsaw" Shotgun and the FN FS2000 rifle. At the practice range contestants also were made aware that for this challenge they would be outfitted with protective tactical gear.
The elimination challenge was a three stage course. Contestants would begin by using the Mossberg to breach a door, then take the FS2000 and shoot three targets. There were three doors to breach and three groups of targets to shoot at progressively farther distances. Shank took the charge and blasted through the course in an amazing 56 seconds. Kwan followed but did not have an aggressive start, and his failure to breach the final door on his first attempt left him the dust, completing the course in 1 minute 13 seconds.
Shank proves he is just as lethal with old guns as he is with modern ones, while Kwan goes off to the other side of the hill to (hopefully) find Gabby Franco...
What did you think of this week's episode? How much trouble do you think Colby is really in? And who do think will win now that we are down to the final five?
Fingers crossed that the analysis will be up Thursday afternoon, if not Friday for sure.
Follow @cswiets
1. I am incredibly distracted at the moment, papers, tests, girlfriend, job hunting, and graduation are all culminating in a perfect storm, so I apologize in advance for being late and missing a few details (also I don't mean to make my problems your problems, so double apology there).
2. No Top Tweets again, but this time an explanation. Colby gave one tweet on Tuesday, informing his followers (the one problem with Twitter is how cult-y I have to sound when I refer to it) that he was not allowed to participate because of comments he made the previous week. I'm not precisely sure what could have gotten him into trouble, most of his tweets were simply about trying to help save the show and were in no way critical of History as far as I could tell.
3. I was very disappointed I was unable to do a Top Tweets because I had a very good title (Top Tweets Vol. 9: Last time I did this, it was 1995).
Anyway...
Chris Cheng nails up William Bethards target (did anyone else notice how they finally made the targets green for the contestants who make it to individual stage of the competition? Also, did I talk about this already?) and Greg Littlejohn talks about how he was surprised Cheng was able to take him down.
This week's theme was Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and the individual challenge would feature the FN Five-seven pistol, which holds a twenty round clip. This would be the first challenge this season where contestants would have to holster the pistol. Much of the practice was spent working on drawing the pistol out of the holster smoothy and working on firing quickly without forsaking accuracy.
The challenge was the biggest this season in terms of staging (I am convinced they had their budget significantly reduced for this season just by looking at some rather simplistic challenges). Contestants would climb to the top of a faux three-story building and rappel down one level at a time. At each level there were two windows. Contestants would take the pistol out of the holster and fire at three jars down range. Once hitting all three they would re-holster the pistol, move to the next window, unholster and fire at another three targets. Once hitting all six targets on the level, the could proceed to the next one. The top three shooters who completed the challenge in the fastest time were safe, while the bottom three were up for nomination.
This week, as a special treat, I actually have the correct order and times for each contestant. Littlejohn went first, shooting his targets in 1 minute 32 seconds. He was followed by Chee Kwan (sans hat), who had a brief panic attack and tried to recover, shooting in 1 minute 42 seconds. Kyle Sumpter proved himself to be a skilled lawman, taking out his targets in 1 minute 21 seconds. Gary Shank was up next, falling between Kwan and Littlejohn at 1 minute 36 seconds. Cheng, who said in practice he had never used this weapon before, smoked the course in an astounding 1 minute 17 seconds (Bias much? Yes, yes I am). Augie Malekovich was the last to go, hitting his marks in a respectable 1 minute 23 seconds, and keeping him out of elimination.
A brief pow-wow at the house revealed that performance based Sumpter might be having a change of heart, telling Augie he would have a hard time shooting either of his fellow red team members. Kwan made it known that he was still looking for another opportunity to prove himself after having the worst time on the course.
At the nomination range Chee and Shank split the votes as Sumpter decided that, after talking with Chee, he would shoot his target.
The elimination challenge would carry on with the SWAT theme, and also be the second challenge this season to feature two different weapons in the same challenge: the Mossberg 500 "Chainsaw" Shotgun and the FN FS2000 rifle. At the practice range contestants also were made aware that for this challenge they would be outfitted with protective tactical gear.
The elimination challenge was a three stage course. Contestants would begin by using the Mossberg to breach a door, then take the FS2000 and shoot three targets. There were three doors to breach and three groups of targets to shoot at progressively farther distances. Shank took the charge and blasted through the course in an amazing 56 seconds. Kwan followed but did not have an aggressive start, and his failure to breach the final door on his first attempt left him the dust, completing the course in 1 minute 13 seconds.
Shank proves he is just as lethal with old guns as he is with modern ones, while Kwan goes off to the other side of the hill to (hopefully) find Gabby Franco...
What did you think of this week's episode? How much trouble do you think Colby is really in? And who do think will win now that we are down to the final five?
Fingers crossed that the analysis will be up Thursday afternoon, if not Friday for sure.
Follow @cswiets
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Top Shot Recap: S4 E8 "The Mad Minute"
Speed.
It can make or break a Top Shot competition, and it's the subject of tonight's Word.
No, wait, that's the wrong show. Sorry, I'm still reeling from the outcome of last night's episode.
The show opened with William Bethards reentering the house and red team expressing their confusion over why blue decided to send him in the first place. They felt that despite Bethards performance in the trick shooting challenge, he was still one of the best shooters on blue team.
On the range Colby introduced the shooters to the Webley Mark VI revolver, and also introduced them to the day's expert, Season 1 winner Iain Harrison. It was difficult to gauge how each team was doing coming out of practice. Chris Cheng discussed practicing loading the revolver because it's mechanics were not the same as most revolvers. While many revolvers have the chamber pop out the side to enable a reload, the Webly has to be cracked open. The editing for this part of the episode was a little shaky because there weren't many close ups of the targets to show how close the shooters were to the mark.
The team challenge was a straight shoot-off, not much unlike this season's first team challenge. There were five rows of six jars. The first team to hit all thirty of their targets would win. While the challenge looked like a fairly simple stationary target, Colby and the Top Shot team threw the contestants a curve ball by putting the structures holding the targets on a track that moved at a good pace from right to left.
Chee Kwan finally got a chance to shoot when blue team decided to change up it's strategy and sit Gabby (a move to be discussed in the analysis). This marked the first time in four seasons that a female contestant has been benched. Kwan was anxious to get back to shooting going first for the red team against Terry Vaughan. While Vaughan was faster on the trigger, Kwan's slow and steady pace resulted in more targets hit. According to Kyle Sumpter, this was red team's strategy for the challenge, and it was one that paid off in the end. Mark this one down as another blowout by the red team who hit all 30 targets to blue team's 18.
The graphic that popped up on screen after the commercial break, broke down how each blue team shot during the challenge.Vaughan was the only blue team member to make it to the the third round of shooting going 6 for 18 on his run. Greg Littlejohn went 5 for 12, Bethards 4 for 12 and Augie Malekovich brought up the rear with 3 for 12.
The blue team meeting was mess with Vaughan being the only one owning up to their mistake, which some might argue wasn't the biggest mistake of the challenge. He rationalized that by not having a strong start he set the pace for the rest of the match. Littlejohn proved he wasn't paying that close attention to the match by claiming Malekovich had had the best day and Bethards had had the worst, when in reality Malekovich had had the worst and Littlejohn had the best. Malekovich took issue with how long it took Bethards to take his shots, especially since this challenge was supposed to focus on speed. (There are a disgusting amount of "had" 's in that paragraph, I apologize)
The episode then took a short detour to focus on the red team gloating over the win and how good they were as the team. Sumpter was doing most of the talking, taking pride in the fact that his team was not picking apart each others performances in the challenge, as he assumed blue team was. It was an odd route for the show to take, since they usually leave out what happens with the winning team while the losing team has their meeting.
At the elimination range it was Vaughan and Littlejohn once again heading to elimination with two votes each.
The practice session brought back Harrison, this time to instruct the competitors on another British weapon, the Lee-Enfield Mark III rifle. Littlejohn went first and Harrison showed of some truly amazing skills with his manipulation of the rifle.(Seriously, how good is that guy?) He showed Littlejohn and Vaughan the three different ways in which the could hold the rifle and work the bolt. The practice session looked pretty even, but Littlejohn seemed more comfortable coming out of it than Vaughan.
The challenge featured a special military twist. The competitors would have only one minute to take as many shots as possible at a target 200 yards down range, a challenge the British military reffer to as "the mad minute" (don't you love it when they say the title of the episode is in the episode?). Littlejohn went first, and, while inconsistent throughout his time with the weapon, managed to get six hits on the target. Vaughan was up next, and while he was able to get on target more quickly than Littlejohn, he struggled to get back on target after his first reload. That combined with a small struggle manipulating the bolt, kept Vaughan's score at six as well. This being Top Shot, the tie went to the man who had fired less shots, and once again, that man was Littlejohn.
There might be something ironic about the Brit getting beat by his own weapons, but I'm too upset to see it.
What did you think of last night's episode? Did the right man go home, or are you as upset as I am that Vaughan was sent packing? Or, third option, are you also like me, upset that Littlejohn keeps barely winning these elimination challenges?
Hit the comments and let me know. By the way, I changed the settings on commenting, so now pretty much anyone should be able to do comment without having to put in as much information as before.
Analysis is in progress, and believe me, there is a lot to analyze. Look for it tomorrow.
One more thing, Colby was not live tweeting last nights episode, so that is why there were no Top Tweets.
Follow @cswiets
It can make or break a Top Shot competition, and it's the subject of tonight's Word.
No, wait, that's the wrong show. Sorry, I'm still reeling from the outcome of last night's episode.
The show opened with William Bethards reentering the house and red team expressing their confusion over why blue decided to send him in the first place. They felt that despite Bethards performance in the trick shooting challenge, he was still one of the best shooters on blue team.
On the range Colby introduced the shooters to the Webley Mark VI revolver, and also introduced them to the day's expert, Season 1 winner Iain Harrison. It was difficult to gauge how each team was doing coming out of practice. Chris Cheng discussed practicing loading the revolver because it's mechanics were not the same as most revolvers. While many revolvers have the chamber pop out the side to enable a reload, the Webly has to be cracked open. The editing for this part of the episode was a little shaky because there weren't many close ups of the targets to show how close the shooters were to the mark.
The team challenge was a straight shoot-off, not much unlike this season's first team challenge. There were five rows of six jars. The first team to hit all thirty of their targets would win. While the challenge looked like a fairly simple stationary target, Colby and the Top Shot team threw the contestants a curve ball by putting the structures holding the targets on a track that moved at a good pace from right to left.
Chee Kwan finally got a chance to shoot when blue team decided to change up it's strategy and sit Gabby (a move to be discussed in the analysis). This marked the first time in four seasons that a female contestant has been benched. Kwan was anxious to get back to shooting going first for the red team against Terry Vaughan. While Vaughan was faster on the trigger, Kwan's slow and steady pace resulted in more targets hit. According to Kyle Sumpter, this was red team's strategy for the challenge, and it was one that paid off in the end. Mark this one down as another blowout by the red team who hit all 30 targets to blue team's 18.
The graphic that popped up on screen after the commercial break, broke down how each blue team shot during the challenge.Vaughan was the only blue team member to make it to the the third round of shooting going 6 for 18 on his run. Greg Littlejohn went 5 for 12, Bethards 4 for 12 and Augie Malekovich brought up the rear with 3 for 12.
The blue team meeting was mess with Vaughan being the only one owning up to their mistake, which some might argue wasn't the biggest mistake of the challenge. He rationalized that by not having a strong start he set the pace for the rest of the match. Littlejohn proved he wasn't paying that close attention to the match by claiming Malekovich had had the best day and Bethards had had the worst, when in reality Malekovich had had the worst and Littlejohn had the best. Malekovich took issue with how long it took Bethards to take his shots, especially since this challenge was supposed to focus on speed. (There are a disgusting amount of "had" 's in that paragraph, I apologize)
The episode then took a short detour to focus on the red team gloating over the win and how good they were as the team. Sumpter was doing most of the talking, taking pride in the fact that his team was not picking apart each others performances in the challenge, as he assumed blue team was. It was an odd route for the show to take, since they usually leave out what happens with the winning team while the losing team has their meeting.
At the elimination range it was Vaughan and Littlejohn once again heading to elimination with two votes each.
The practice session brought back Harrison, this time to instruct the competitors on another British weapon, the Lee-Enfield Mark III rifle. Littlejohn went first and Harrison showed of some truly amazing skills with his manipulation of the rifle.(Seriously, how good is that guy?) He showed Littlejohn and Vaughan the three different ways in which the could hold the rifle and work the bolt. The practice session looked pretty even, but Littlejohn seemed more comfortable coming out of it than Vaughan.
The challenge featured a special military twist. The competitors would have only one minute to take as many shots as possible at a target 200 yards down range, a challenge the British military reffer to as "the mad minute" (don't you love it when they say the title of the episode is in the episode?). Littlejohn went first, and, while inconsistent throughout his time with the weapon, managed to get six hits on the target. Vaughan was up next, and while he was able to get on target more quickly than Littlejohn, he struggled to get back on target after his first reload. That combined with a small struggle manipulating the bolt, kept Vaughan's score at six as well. This being Top Shot, the tie went to the man who had fired less shots, and once again, that man was Littlejohn.
There might be something ironic about the Brit getting beat by his own weapons, but I'm too upset to see it.
What did you think of last night's episode? Did the right man go home, or are you as upset as I am that Vaughan was sent packing? Or, third option, are you also like me, upset that Littlejohn keeps barely winning these elimination challenges?
Hit the comments and let me know. By the way, I changed the settings on commenting, so now pretty much anyone should be able to do comment without having to put in as much information as before.
Analysis is in progress, and believe me, there is a lot to analyze. Look for it tomorrow.
One more thing, Colby was not live tweeting last nights episode, so that is why there were no Top Tweets.
Follow @cswiets
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Top Shot Recap: S4 E7 "Trick Shot Shoot Off"
Trick shooting makes its triumphant return to Top Shot, but as the contestants continue to dwindle, the tensions in the house continue to rise.
This week kicked off with blue team surprised that Chris Cheng had outed Tim Trefren in the elimination challenge, before everyone headed off to practice.
The Remington M1911 pistol and the Volquartsen Rutger 10/22 rifle were this week's featured weapons, but the real treat was Colby revealing that this would be the trick shot challenge.
Red team got to practice first and seemed pretty confident coming out that they would have a good chance at winning this challenge. Then in comes the blue team, who were starting to tire of William Bethards constant boasting of his skills. Despite coming off of two wins, blue team was a mess during their practice session. Their pistol shooting was fine, but Bethards insisted that he would be shooting pistols in the challenge, and it was therefore pointless to practice with the rifle. This rubbed his teammates the wrong way, especially when they all struggled to get a handle on the rifle. Bethards finally relented and showed he had the skills to back up his talk by nailing the targets with the rifle.
However, when blue team went back to the house to strategize for the challenge, Bethards boasting in practice became a point of contention for the rest of his teammates. Terry Vaughan called him out for not being a team player, while Bethards argued back that the rest of his teammates had backed down from the rifle because they couldn't handle it.
With five shooters, the challenge featured five different stations. At the first station, contestants would have three chances with the Remington to shoot a bowling pin straight back between two pins on either side of it. Each clean hit was worth a point. Chris Cheng continued his strong run this season, going three for three on his run. Augie Malekovich hit two for three on his turn, putting blue behind from the get-go.
The second station featured a similar set up, except this time the contestant had to hit the lead pin and knock it back into one, or both of the pins on either side of it. Each knock down was worth a point. Kyle Sumpter went two for three for red, while Greg Littlejohn only managed to hit on one of his attempts.
The third station featured three soda bottles with openers rigged to their caps. Using the Volquartsen rifle, contestants had three chances to open the bottle; each clean hit was worth a point. Terry Vaughan went first for blue, missing on his first shot, nailing the second, and demolishing the bottle in spectacular fashion on his third. Gabby Franco shot for red, and after missing her first two shots, nailed the third.
The fourth station brought back the Remington pistol. Down range there were two buckets placed ontop of each other. The contestant would have to shoot the bottom bucket first, which would then launch the second bucket in the air. Contestants would only score a point if they hit the bucket in midair; again three chances worth one point apiece. Gary Shank made it look easy, going three-for-three on his run. Dylan Fletcher showed how truly difficult this challenge was though, bringing up a goose egg on his turn.
The final station featured four gumballs placed atop golf tees, sitting 75 feet downrange. Contestants would use the Volquartsen rifle to hit the targets, but each gumball was worth three points. Bethards took up the rifle at the request of his teammates, but only managed to hit one target. With red team still in the lead at that point, there was no point in Chee Kwan shooting.
Blue team went back to the house, and Fletcher nominated himself before the team even got started talking. However, he also pulled a Tim Trefren by calling out who he wanted to shoot against, which was Bethards. The rest of the team seemed ok with this, and that's how it went down on the range, but not without incident.
While most contestants pick up the gun and focus on hitting their target (because no one wants to be the contestant who misses on the nomination range), Bethards took the shot one handed, and drilled the center of Fletcher's target, a stunt that didn't help his standing among the rest of his teammates.
At the elimination practice they found out they would be shooting two more kinds of pistols: the SIG Sauer P229 and the Browning Buck Mark. From the practice, it was pretty clear that Bethards was going in with the advantage, but Fletcher's practice wasn't bad, and it's always hard to say what will happen in a elimination challenge.
What happened was more bowling pins, this time ten of them, set up like at a bowling alley but on four descending tiers. The contestants wouldn't simply be shooting the pins though. Each pin had had the top sawed off, and placed back on top. Using the Browning, contestants would first shoot the tops off of all of their pins. Once they did that they would switch to the SIG and hit the bottoms. Each hit was worth a point, but no points would be awarded if they hit the bottoms first. They had two minutes to complete the challenge.
The challenge started off fairly tight, with Fletcher keeping pace with Bethards up to five hits, and both contestants losing a pin to an errant shot. However, Bethards pulled away and finished the rest of his run clean with a total of 18 points. Since contestants had two minutes to complete the challenge and time had not run out on the clock, Fletcher still had a chance to come back and tie, but another errant shot hit the bottom of a pin, and sent him packing.
Hey diddle diddle is still in the building, but have his showboating ways painted a target on his back? What do you think of Bethards newest portrayal as the cockiest guy in the room? Hit the comments and let me know.
I'll be breaking down all the good stuff tomorrow in my analysis of this episode.
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets
This week kicked off with blue team surprised that Chris Cheng had outed Tim Trefren in the elimination challenge, before everyone headed off to practice.
The Remington M1911 pistol and the Volquartsen Rutger 10/22 rifle were this week's featured weapons, but the real treat was Colby revealing that this would be the trick shot challenge.
Red team got to practice first and seemed pretty confident coming out that they would have a good chance at winning this challenge. Then in comes the blue team, who were starting to tire of William Bethards constant boasting of his skills. Despite coming off of two wins, blue team was a mess during their practice session. Their pistol shooting was fine, but Bethards insisted that he would be shooting pistols in the challenge, and it was therefore pointless to practice with the rifle. This rubbed his teammates the wrong way, especially when they all struggled to get a handle on the rifle. Bethards finally relented and showed he had the skills to back up his talk by nailing the targets with the rifle.
However, when blue team went back to the house to strategize for the challenge, Bethards boasting in practice became a point of contention for the rest of his teammates. Terry Vaughan called him out for not being a team player, while Bethards argued back that the rest of his teammates had backed down from the rifle because they couldn't handle it.
With five shooters, the challenge featured five different stations. At the first station, contestants would have three chances with the Remington to shoot a bowling pin straight back between two pins on either side of it. Each clean hit was worth a point. Chris Cheng continued his strong run this season, going three for three on his run. Augie Malekovich hit two for three on his turn, putting blue behind from the get-go.
The second station featured a similar set up, except this time the contestant had to hit the lead pin and knock it back into one, or both of the pins on either side of it. Each knock down was worth a point. Kyle Sumpter went two for three for red, while Greg Littlejohn only managed to hit on one of his attempts.
The third station featured three soda bottles with openers rigged to their caps. Using the Volquartsen rifle, contestants had three chances to open the bottle; each clean hit was worth a point. Terry Vaughan went first for blue, missing on his first shot, nailing the second, and demolishing the bottle in spectacular fashion on his third. Gabby Franco shot for red, and after missing her first two shots, nailed the third.
The fourth station brought back the Remington pistol. Down range there were two buckets placed ontop of each other. The contestant would have to shoot the bottom bucket first, which would then launch the second bucket in the air. Contestants would only score a point if they hit the bucket in midair; again three chances worth one point apiece. Gary Shank made it look easy, going three-for-three on his run. Dylan Fletcher showed how truly difficult this challenge was though, bringing up a goose egg on his turn.
The final station featured four gumballs placed atop golf tees, sitting 75 feet downrange. Contestants would use the Volquartsen rifle to hit the targets, but each gumball was worth three points. Bethards took up the rifle at the request of his teammates, but only managed to hit one target. With red team still in the lead at that point, there was no point in Chee Kwan shooting.
Blue team went back to the house, and Fletcher nominated himself before the team even got started talking. However, he also pulled a Tim Trefren by calling out who he wanted to shoot against, which was Bethards. The rest of the team seemed ok with this, and that's how it went down on the range, but not without incident.
While most contestants pick up the gun and focus on hitting their target (because no one wants to be the contestant who misses on the nomination range), Bethards took the shot one handed, and drilled the center of Fletcher's target, a stunt that didn't help his standing among the rest of his teammates.
At the elimination practice they found out they would be shooting two more kinds of pistols: the SIG Sauer P229 and the Browning Buck Mark. From the practice, it was pretty clear that Bethards was going in with the advantage, but Fletcher's practice wasn't bad, and it's always hard to say what will happen in a elimination challenge.
What happened was more bowling pins, this time ten of them, set up like at a bowling alley but on four descending tiers. The contestants wouldn't simply be shooting the pins though. Each pin had had the top sawed off, and placed back on top. Using the Browning, contestants would first shoot the tops off of all of their pins. Once they did that they would switch to the SIG and hit the bottoms. Each hit was worth a point, but no points would be awarded if they hit the bottoms first. They had two minutes to complete the challenge.
The challenge started off fairly tight, with Fletcher keeping pace with Bethards up to five hits, and both contestants losing a pin to an errant shot. However, Bethards pulled away and finished the rest of his run clean with a total of 18 points. Since contestants had two minutes to complete the challenge and time had not run out on the clock, Fletcher still had a chance to come back and tie, but another errant shot hit the bottom of a pin, and sent him packing.
Hey diddle diddle is still in the building, but have his showboating ways painted a target on his back? What do you think of Bethards newest portrayal as the cockiest guy in the room? Hit the comments and let me know.
I'll be breaking down all the good stuff tomorrow in my analysis of this episode.
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Top Shot Recap: S4 E6 "Blast from the Past"
Last night's episode was one for the books, big guns and big twists combined for a hell of a treat.
The time back at the house was limited as Tim Trefren nailed up Iggy Keyes' target without too much of a speech, because, well, he isn't a member of the blue team (or Kyle Sumpter). Then it was off to the range, where the team's found out they would be shooting the behemoth 3.2'' Bag Gun, a cannon used in in the Spanish-American war.
Blue team practiced first and walked through the steps involved in loading the weapon, which are complicated, to say the least. While blue team walked through the prep, the red team walked through the firing, which included a 4.3 lb. aluminum shell. If I thought it was hard in past week's to see which team had an advantage after the practice, this week was practically impossible.
This week's challenge was a straight-forward closest to the bullseye shoot-off. Team's would trade off shots, each team member would have a chance to aim the cannon with the help of their teammates and fire a shot, everyone of course, but Chee Kwan. For reason's unexplained, blue decided to sit Kwan for the challenge, and unlike week's past where red team members have coached their teammates from the sidelines, there wasn't much for Kwan to help with since each team member had a specific responsibility.
The shots started out wide, with both teams hitting the target board, but none of the rings on their first fires. But then they started to dial it in, inching closer to the center mark. In the end, it was one of the closest finishes of the season with red team hitting 7.65 inches outside the center, and blue team winning the challenge with a hit at 7.5 inches outside the center.
This led to a very tense meeting among the red team. Nobody completely botched their shot. The early shooters may have been off the mark, but the later shooters had the advantage of dialing in their shot based on their other teammates' shots. It was decided they would have to decide based on past performance, which is always dicey on Top Shot. Chris Cheng took it upon himself to refresh people's memories as to their successes and failures in the past challenges, but as he talked, the camera focused in on the twitching leg of Tim Trefren.
When Cheng finished his run through, Trefren called him out for criticizing everyone but himself, and, despite having just been sent to elimination after the last challenge, Trefren said he wanted to go toe-to-toe with Cheng to settle their dispute. Chee Kwan chimed in that he was frustrated after sitting out two challenges, and wanted to prove his worth to his teammates by going to elimination with Cheng. This was met by general consensus by the rest of the team, except Trefren, but he was going to vote for Cheng regardless, so it didn't really matter.
But then they went to the range, and my confidence in the red team's resolution to vote for Cheng and Kwan was so strong that I half expected them to simply tell Colby who they were nominating and not even bother with the shooting. However, this is Top Shot, and on Top Shot, there's shooting. The first two votes went to Cheng and Kwan, but then it was Sumpter's, ole Papa Bear himself, turn to shoot.
And he voted for Tim Trefren.
Sumpter is all about keeping red team together despite their losses. He viewed the riff between Cheng and Trefren as a threat to the red team's ability to perform effectively. The rest of red team seemed to agree as it was Cheng and Trefen who ultimately ended up in elimination.
At the practice they discovered they would be shooting the atlatl, a primitive spear-chucking weapon that has been around for over 3,000 years. It was a weapon Trefren had some experience with with his hunting background, but one Cheng had never even seen before. Both struggled in practice with Trefren overpowering his shots and Cheng grounding them into the dust.
The elimination challenge featured three targets at progressively further distances and increasing point values. The challenge started out tight but after Cheng opened up his lead to 20 points, Trefren realized that even with his two remaining darts he wouldn't be able to catchup, and the challenge was over.
Trefren goes home and the team's even out for the first time since week three.
There are only two more episodes before we get to the green jerseys, and next week it's my favorite time of the year as trick shooting returns.
Check back tomorrow for my full analysis this episode where I really dig into the Trefren and Cheng debacle.
Stay up to date with my latest posts by following me on Twitter: @cswiets
The time back at the house was limited as Tim Trefren nailed up Iggy Keyes' target without too much of a speech, because, well, he isn't a member of the blue team (or Kyle Sumpter). Then it was off to the range, where the team's found out they would be shooting the behemoth 3.2'' Bag Gun, a cannon used in in the Spanish-American war.
Blue team practiced first and walked through the steps involved in loading the weapon, which are complicated, to say the least. While blue team walked through the prep, the red team walked through the firing, which included a 4.3 lb. aluminum shell. If I thought it was hard in past week's to see which team had an advantage after the practice, this week was practically impossible.
This week's challenge was a straight-forward closest to the bullseye shoot-off. Team's would trade off shots, each team member would have a chance to aim the cannon with the help of their teammates and fire a shot, everyone of course, but Chee Kwan. For reason's unexplained, blue decided to sit Kwan for the challenge, and unlike week's past where red team members have coached their teammates from the sidelines, there wasn't much for Kwan to help with since each team member had a specific responsibility.
The shots started out wide, with both teams hitting the target board, but none of the rings on their first fires. But then they started to dial it in, inching closer to the center mark. In the end, it was one of the closest finishes of the season with red team hitting 7.65 inches outside the center, and blue team winning the challenge with a hit at 7.5 inches outside the center.
This led to a very tense meeting among the red team. Nobody completely botched their shot. The early shooters may have been off the mark, but the later shooters had the advantage of dialing in their shot based on their other teammates' shots. It was decided they would have to decide based on past performance, which is always dicey on Top Shot. Chris Cheng took it upon himself to refresh people's memories as to their successes and failures in the past challenges, but as he talked, the camera focused in on the twitching leg of Tim Trefren.
When Cheng finished his run through, Trefren called him out for criticizing everyone but himself, and, despite having just been sent to elimination after the last challenge, Trefren said he wanted to go toe-to-toe with Cheng to settle their dispute. Chee Kwan chimed in that he was frustrated after sitting out two challenges, and wanted to prove his worth to his teammates by going to elimination with Cheng. This was met by general consensus by the rest of the team, except Trefren, but he was going to vote for Cheng regardless, so it didn't really matter.
But then they went to the range, and my confidence in the red team's resolution to vote for Cheng and Kwan was so strong that I half expected them to simply tell Colby who they were nominating and not even bother with the shooting. However, this is Top Shot, and on Top Shot, there's shooting. The first two votes went to Cheng and Kwan, but then it was Sumpter's, ole Papa Bear himself, turn to shoot.
And he voted for Tim Trefren.
Sumpter is all about keeping red team together despite their losses. He viewed the riff between Cheng and Trefren as a threat to the red team's ability to perform effectively. The rest of red team seemed to agree as it was Cheng and Trefen who ultimately ended up in elimination.
At the practice they discovered they would be shooting the atlatl, a primitive spear-chucking weapon that has been around for over 3,000 years. It was a weapon Trefren had some experience with with his hunting background, but one Cheng had never even seen before. Both struggled in practice with Trefren overpowering his shots and Cheng grounding them into the dust.
The elimination challenge featured three targets at progressively further distances and increasing point values. The challenge started out tight but after Cheng opened up his lead to 20 points, Trefren realized that even with his two remaining darts he wouldn't be able to catchup, and the challenge was over.
Trefren goes home and the team's even out for the first time since week three.
There are only two more episodes before we get to the green jerseys, and next week it's my favorite time of the year as trick shooting returns.
Check back tomorrow for my full analysis this episode where I really dig into the Trefren and Cheng debacle.
Stay up to date with my latest posts by following me on Twitter: @cswiets
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Top Shot Recap: S4 E5 "Swing Into Action"
This week's episode toned down the drama (a bit) but kept the stakes high in the competition.
Not much to talk about at the house before the episode really kicked off this time around, except that the contestant seem to be adding their own personal touch to nailing the targets to the wall this season. Each target has an accompanying memento. After assuring everyone that Colin Gallagher left with "his head held high" Gregory Littlejohn placed a shell from the Smith & Wesson M&P 40 on the target.
On the practice range, Colby informed the contestants they would be getting a blast from the past in the form of the Kentucky flintlock pistol, a weapon used throughout the Revolutionary War. Red team got to practice first and had the advantage of Gary Shank, who had previous experience with black powder weapons. Tim Trefren, whose main experience is with rifles, had a little trouble getting a handle on the flintlock.
Blue team also had a few troubles when they came up to give it a try. Littlejohn had trouble figuring out the trigger, which both teams commented on being incredibly stiff. William Bethards also had difficulty aiming the flintlock, and had his ball fall out on one occasion.
The contestants were thrown for a loop in the team challenge, as Colby left out one important detail when explaining the background of the the Kentucky flintlock, namely it's use by pirates.
The teams were set up on two platforms. One at a time each team member would swing across a gap on a rope to another platform. They would then have to load the flintlock and fire it at a jug filled with sand. If a contestant failed to reach the other platform, they would have to drop down, climb back up the platform and try again until they were able to reach the other side. First team to hit all five targets would win.
Blue team decided to take out the leadership on red by sitting Kyle Sumpter and Shank, but much like last week when they sat Trefren, Shank was still able to be a strong supporting player by coaching his teammates through the challenge. However red team got to a rough start when Chee Kwan failed to make it onto the platform and had to start over.
Meanwhile, blue team got off to solid start nailing their first three targets. Then they stumbled when Littlejohn stepped up to the stage. Littlejohn froze up, with a look of anguish not only on his face, but on those of his teammates. Red team looked to take advantage of the hold up they had been anticipating, but Iggy Keyes missed his target, as did Tim Trefren, and Keyes also missed on his second time around. Littlejohn, finally got his shot off and hit his target. Blue team finished up and took advantage of the lost time red team just couldn't make up, going five for five to win the challenge.
Back at the house red team members Keyes, Kwan, and Trefren all offered themselves up for elimination. Keyes and Trefren for being the only members to miss their shot, and Kwan for setting the setting the tone for what turned out to be a jumbled performance by the red team. At the elimination range though, red team seemed to settle on voting for poor shooting performance, rather than someone's ability to swing on a rope, nominating Trefren and Keyes to duke it out.
At the practice they found they would be shooting a much more modern pistol, the Heckler & Koch USP Tactical. Trefren was visibly concerned at having to shoot another pistol, but Keyes seemed more than happy to take up the challenge. However during the practice, which featured them shooting through a small circular window, there didn't seem to be a great advantage to either contestant.
The challenge featured the contestants shooting through a moving window. However, in a Top Shot twist, the contestants would not be on a moving platform, they would have to move along with the window as it went down the course.
In a rare moment on Top Shot, both contestants went through the course and hit the same amount of targets using the same amount of rounds (more on this aspect in the analysis). Trefren and Keyes both hit only eight out of twenty targets. However on the second go around, Trefren smoked the course, hitting eighteen out of twenty targets, while Keyes once again only managed to hit eight.
Iggy shuffled his way out of the competition, and the teams now stand at 6-5.
What did you think of last night's episode? Hit the comments and let me know.
Stay tuned for my analysis as there is a lot I want to discuss about this episode.
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets
Not much to talk about at the house before the episode really kicked off this time around, except that the contestant seem to be adding their own personal touch to nailing the targets to the wall this season. Each target has an accompanying memento. After assuring everyone that Colin Gallagher left with "his head held high" Gregory Littlejohn placed a shell from the Smith & Wesson M&P 40 on the target.
On the practice range, Colby informed the contestants they would be getting a blast from the past in the form of the Kentucky flintlock pistol, a weapon used throughout the Revolutionary War. Red team got to practice first and had the advantage of Gary Shank, who had previous experience with black powder weapons. Tim Trefren, whose main experience is with rifles, had a little trouble getting a handle on the flintlock.
Blue team also had a few troubles when they came up to give it a try. Littlejohn had trouble figuring out the trigger, which both teams commented on being incredibly stiff. William Bethards also had difficulty aiming the flintlock, and had his ball fall out on one occasion.
The contestants were thrown for a loop in the team challenge, as Colby left out one important detail when explaining the background of the the Kentucky flintlock, namely it's use by pirates.
The teams were set up on two platforms. One at a time each team member would swing across a gap on a rope to another platform. They would then have to load the flintlock and fire it at a jug filled with sand. If a contestant failed to reach the other platform, they would have to drop down, climb back up the platform and try again until they were able to reach the other side. First team to hit all five targets would win.
Blue team decided to take out the leadership on red by sitting Kyle Sumpter and Shank, but much like last week when they sat Trefren, Shank was still able to be a strong supporting player by coaching his teammates through the challenge. However red team got to a rough start when Chee Kwan failed to make it onto the platform and had to start over.
Meanwhile, blue team got off to solid start nailing their first three targets. Then they stumbled when Littlejohn stepped up to the stage. Littlejohn froze up, with a look of anguish not only on his face, but on those of his teammates. Red team looked to take advantage of the hold up they had been anticipating, but Iggy Keyes missed his target, as did Tim Trefren, and Keyes also missed on his second time around. Littlejohn, finally got his shot off and hit his target. Blue team finished up and took advantage of the lost time red team just couldn't make up, going five for five to win the challenge.
Back at the house red team members Keyes, Kwan, and Trefren all offered themselves up for elimination. Keyes and Trefren for being the only members to miss their shot, and Kwan for setting the setting the tone for what turned out to be a jumbled performance by the red team. At the elimination range though, red team seemed to settle on voting for poor shooting performance, rather than someone's ability to swing on a rope, nominating Trefren and Keyes to duke it out.
At the practice they found they would be shooting a much more modern pistol, the Heckler & Koch USP Tactical. Trefren was visibly concerned at having to shoot another pistol, but Keyes seemed more than happy to take up the challenge. However during the practice, which featured them shooting through a small circular window, there didn't seem to be a great advantage to either contestant.
The challenge featured the contestants shooting through a moving window. However, in a Top Shot twist, the contestants would not be on a moving platform, they would have to move along with the window as it went down the course.
In a rare moment on Top Shot, both contestants went through the course and hit the same amount of targets using the same amount of rounds (more on this aspect in the analysis). Trefren and Keyes both hit only eight out of twenty targets. However on the second go around, Trefren smoked the course, hitting eighteen out of twenty targets, while Keyes once again only managed to hit eight.
Iggy shuffled his way out of the competition, and the teams now stand at 6-5.
What did you think of last night's episode? Hit the comments and let me know.
Stay tuned for my analysis as there is a lot I want to discuss about this episode.
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Top Shot Recap: S4 E4 "Crossbow Crossfire"
Where to being on this one? This season of Top Shot continues to get progressively better as the contestants get progressively stranger. It is episodes like this that make me wish I didn't separate my recaps from my analysis, but that serves a purpose, namely keeping my thoughts straight. So unfortunately, I won't be commenting (too much) on a lot of drama in this episode until tomorrow. For now, let's take a look at what went down in "Crossbow Crossfire"
The episode started with Terry Vaughan nailing Michelle Viscusi's target to the wall and Gregory Littlejohn wrapping it in one of his friendship bandanas. This was quickly followed by, what my mother likes to call, a Come-to-Jesus led by Vaughan. The fracture in the blue team runs a lot deeper than what the cameras have been showing, and despite Vaughan's encouraging and level-headed words of wisdom that his teammates needed to pull themselves together, it seemed that blue team was destined to once again struggle through the team challenge.
On the range the contestants found they would be shooting a modern version of an ancient weapon, the BowTech StrykeZone 350 crossbow. (A weapon that proved as difficult to say as it was to shoot for the blue team*) The key to StrykeZone was the reload, something expert Chris Brackett took extra care instructing the contestants on. There was no clear advantage during the practice, but there was a slight edge for the red team since Tim Trefren's experience as a big game guide made him familiar with the weapon.
However, Trefren quickly learned the danger of touting one's experience on Top Shot, as he found himself benched by the blue team for the team challenge. The challenge featured contestants going head to head shooting at a rotating target. The number of targets would increase in each round. The first contestants would have one target each, the second, two and so forth through six contestants. Each target was worth a point, but when a contestant hit all of their targets the round was over, and their opponent would have to cease shooting.
The red team found themselves in quick hole after the first two rounds, down three to nothing. However, slowly but surely, they crawled back and made this challenge into a real contest. Blue began to make some critical errors with Vaughan hitting the same target twice and Littlejohn freezing up knocking his first arrow. While Trefren could not participate in the challenge, he was quite a vocal presence, coaching his teammates through the challenge. That coaching, combined with the smooth shooting of Chee Kwan and Chris Cheng, led red team to their second consecutive win and sent blue team back to the nomination range.
At the house, it was Colin Gallagher who fell on the sword this week, calling himself out for his poor performance. Littlejohn reluctantly offered himself up as well, but commented that he felt Vaughan should have spoken up more about his performance. On the range Gun Fauxeri made a bit of a fool of himself by hitting the outside ring of Gallagher's target. In the end it was Colin and Littlejohn who were headed to elimination.
They discovered they would be shooting the Smith & Wesson M&P40, a favorite among law enforcement. Top Shot featured its first ever female expert, Julie Golob, to help Littlejohn and Gallagher. Again, during practice, neither contestant seemed to hold an advantage over the other, both struggling to hit a moving target from a stationary position.
The elimination challenge marked this season's first appearance by balloon targets. Each contestant was faced with a large wall that had a triangle cut out of the center of it. Going head to head the contestants had to shoot a small target on the left or right of the triangle, releasing a pendulum with ten balloon targets (big targets on the bottom, small ones on top). Each time the pendulum swung it would get stuck on the opposite side and the contestant would have to hit the small target on the corresponding side to release it again. The objective was simple, first contestant to shoot all their balloon targets would win.
After an even start Littlejohn began to pull away with it, the score at one point being 9-4 in favor of Littlejohn. However, nerves (and shadows, more on that tomorrow) once again proved to be Littlejohn's weakness, and Gallagher managed to catch up and make it an even match at 9-9. This didn't last long though, as Littlejohn managed to hit his final target and pull out a win.
Gallagher was sent packing, but not without a parting friendship bandanna from Littlejohn, who seemed to like Gallagher a whole lot more once he knew he wasn't going to be around him anymore.
Phew! Writing that was kind of like holding your breath for a very long time. Those are facts, come back tomorrow for the opinions, because we're going to have some fun.
Next week: Pirates!
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets
*A cheap shot, but I couldn't resist.
The episode started with Terry Vaughan nailing Michelle Viscusi's target to the wall and Gregory Littlejohn wrapping it in one of his friendship bandanas. This was quickly followed by, what my mother likes to call, a Come-to-Jesus led by Vaughan. The fracture in the blue team runs a lot deeper than what the cameras have been showing, and despite Vaughan's encouraging and level-headed words of wisdom that his teammates needed to pull themselves together, it seemed that blue team was destined to once again struggle through the team challenge.
On the range the contestants found they would be shooting a modern version of an ancient weapon, the BowTech StrykeZone 350 crossbow. (A weapon that proved as difficult to say as it was to shoot for the blue team*) The key to StrykeZone was the reload, something expert Chris Brackett took extra care instructing the contestants on. There was no clear advantage during the practice, but there was a slight edge for the red team since Tim Trefren's experience as a big game guide made him familiar with the weapon.
However, Trefren quickly learned the danger of touting one's experience on Top Shot, as he found himself benched by the blue team for the team challenge. The challenge featured contestants going head to head shooting at a rotating target. The number of targets would increase in each round. The first contestants would have one target each, the second, two and so forth through six contestants. Each target was worth a point, but when a contestant hit all of their targets the round was over, and their opponent would have to cease shooting.
The red team found themselves in quick hole after the first two rounds, down three to nothing. However, slowly but surely, they crawled back and made this challenge into a real contest. Blue began to make some critical errors with Vaughan hitting the same target twice and Littlejohn freezing up knocking his first arrow. While Trefren could not participate in the challenge, he was quite a vocal presence, coaching his teammates through the challenge. That coaching, combined with the smooth shooting of Chee Kwan and Chris Cheng, led red team to their second consecutive win and sent blue team back to the nomination range.
At the house, it was Colin Gallagher who fell on the sword this week, calling himself out for his poor performance. Littlejohn reluctantly offered himself up as well, but commented that he felt Vaughan should have spoken up more about his performance. On the range Gun Fauxeri made a bit of a fool of himself by hitting the outside ring of Gallagher's target. In the end it was Colin and Littlejohn who were headed to elimination.
They discovered they would be shooting the Smith & Wesson M&P40, a favorite among law enforcement. Top Shot featured its first ever female expert, Julie Golob, to help Littlejohn and Gallagher. Again, during practice, neither contestant seemed to hold an advantage over the other, both struggling to hit a moving target from a stationary position.
The elimination challenge marked this season's first appearance by balloon targets. Each contestant was faced with a large wall that had a triangle cut out of the center of it. Going head to head the contestants had to shoot a small target on the left or right of the triangle, releasing a pendulum with ten balloon targets (big targets on the bottom, small ones on top). Each time the pendulum swung it would get stuck on the opposite side and the contestant would have to hit the small target on the corresponding side to release it again. The objective was simple, first contestant to shoot all their balloon targets would win.
After an even start Littlejohn began to pull away with it, the score at one point being 9-4 in favor of Littlejohn. However, nerves (and shadows, more on that tomorrow) once again proved to be Littlejohn's weakness, and Gallagher managed to catch up and make it an even match at 9-9. This didn't last long though, as Littlejohn managed to hit his final target and pull out a win.
Gallagher was sent packing, but not without a parting friendship bandanna from Littlejohn, who seemed to like Gallagher a whole lot more once he knew he wasn't going to be around him anymore.
Phew! Writing that was kind of like holding your breath for a very long time. Those are facts, come back tomorrow for the opinions, because we're going to have some fun.
Next week: Pirates!
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets
*A cheap shot, but I couldn't resist.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Top Shot Recap: S4 E3 "Shotgun Showdown"
Everybody loves the shotgun. It's a big powerful weapon that says I'm here to kick ass and take names. It also seems to be one that can be tricky as hell to shoot precisely.
Last night's episode started with a short soliloquy to fallen red team member Keith Gibson, but the action quickly shifted to the practice range, where the contestants found out thy would be shooting two kinds of shotguns. First, they would be shooting slugs with the Benelli M4, a badass looking gun, that's all business. Then they would practice with the Benelli Vinci, shooting shot.
The real treat came when Colby announced the expert for this challenge would be season two winner, Chris Reed. Reed looked happy to be back and had a good time joking around with Colby. Red team seeemed to get a handle on the Benellis pretty quick, and while blue seemed to struggle. There was no expert pick in this episode but Reed gave the edge to red team for the team challenge.
Kyle Sumpter was quick to point out that what the red team had that blue lacked was cohesion, something I was ready to scoff at, until the screen cut to blue team member William Bethards backing up Sumpter's presumtion.
The team challenge was straighforward. Contestants would go up two at a time, one to shoot the M4 loaded with slugs, the other would shoot the Vinci loaded with shot. The shooter with the M4 had to shoot a moving target which would trigger the launch of two clay pigeons that the other shooter would have to shoot. The contestants would then go to the back of line of the gun they had not shot. This would continue for four minutes. The twist was that the team would only get points for the clay targets that were hit.
Red team was first, and it was pretty obvious they had a good handle on these weapons. They shouted encouragment and reminders about safetys without becoming obnxious. They were amped up, and focused on the challenge. Their shooting process was smooth and methodical, and helped them take down 17 targets.
For blue team, it was a whole other story. They took thirty seconds just to get through their first round of shooting. There was miscommunication, little hustle, and a fairly sour disposition on everyone's face. Their poor attitudes affected their shooting, only managing to hit nine targets, meaning they were headed back to elimination.
At the house the discussion on who to nominate took an odd turn. The episode started with Gregory Littlejohn, like a kid at camp, expressing what good friends he had made so far in the competition among the blue team. However this initial profession of love set up the theme for blue teamin this episode, a team that was sorely fractured. Littlejohn flat out said he wouldn't nominate one of his friends, regardless of how they performed. This set up some bad feelings among the rest of his teammates who thought that this wasn't the best way to go about nomination.
Terry Vaughan fell on the sword, saying flat out he had not performed (indeed, Vaughan failed to hit any of his clay targets), which seemed to satisfy most of the group, but left the second nominee questionable.
At the range Vaughan knew he was going to the range within the first four shooters. Littlejohn made his decision look like it was life or death, shooting Vaughan's target even though he was already locked into elimination. In the end it was Michelle Viscusi, nominated with two votes, who ended up with Vaughan in the elimination challenge.
At the elimination practice, both contestants were less than thrilled to learn they would be shooting another Benelli, this time, the Nova. Michelle revealed that the last two days of shooting had taken a toll on her shoulder, and she was in danger of becoming fatigued in the challenge, despite performing well in practice. Vaughan was simply inexperienced with using shotguns, and took a little longer getting a handle on the weapon than Viscusi.
The elimination challenge had a nice carnival feel to it. Viscusi and Vaughan would shoot side by side at a wheel on a track. The wheel had three targets that, when hit, would propel the wheel down the track. They would start with shot, but once they got past a certain point they could switch to slugs, the idea being a slug woud pack more of a punch, but make it harder to be shoot precisely. The practice session emphasized timing their hits, and it was critical in this challenge. If the wheel was hit while rocking forward, a direct hit would stop it dead in its track.
It was this aspect that Viscusi had trouble with. She just couldn't seem to get it down. Vaighan on the other hand was rocking it. He got his wheel past the marker and made the decision to switch to slugs, propelling his wheel off the track just as Viscusi seemed to find her rhythm.
So we say goodbye to Ms. Vuscusi and Top Shot's first real piece of eye candy.
Blue team has some serious work to do if they want to pull themselves back into the competition, but I'll discuss more of that tomorrow in my analysis.
What did you think of episode three? Hit the comments and let me know.
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets
Last night's episode started with a short soliloquy to fallen red team member Keith Gibson, but the action quickly shifted to the practice range, where the contestants found out thy would be shooting two kinds of shotguns. First, they would be shooting slugs with the Benelli M4, a badass looking gun, that's all business. Then they would practice with the Benelli Vinci, shooting shot.
The real treat came when Colby announced the expert for this challenge would be season two winner, Chris Reed. Reed looked happy to be back and had a good time joking around with Colby. Red team seeemed to get a handle on the Benellis pretty quick, and while blue seemed to struggle. There was no expert pick in this episode but Reed gave the edge to red team for the team challenge.
Kyle Sumpter was quick to point out that what the red team had that blue lacked was cohesion, something I was ready to scoff at, until the screen cut to blue team member William Bethards backing up Sumpter's presumtion.
The team challenge was straighforward. Contestants would go up two at a time, one to shoot the M4 loaded with slugs, the other would shoot the Vinci loaded with shot. The shooter with the M4 had to shoot a moving target which would trigger the launch of two clay pigeons that the other shooter would have to shoot. The contestants would then go to the back of line of the gun they had not shot. This would continue for four minutes. The twist was that the team would only get points for the clay targets that were hit.
Red team was first, and it was pretty obvious they had a good handle on these weapons. They shouted encouragment and reminders about safetys without becoming obnxious. They were amped up, and focused on the challenge. Their shooting process was smooth and methodical, and helped them take down 17 targets.
For blue team, it was a whole other story. They took thirty seconds just to get through their first round of shooting. There was miscommunication, little hustle, and a fairly sour disposition on everyone's face. Their poor attitudes affected their shooting, only managing to hit nine targets, meaning they were headed back to elimination.
At the house the discussion on who to nominate took an odd turn. The episode started with Gregory Littlejohn, like a kid at camp, expressing what good friends he had made so far in the competition among the blue team. However this initial profession of love set up the theme for blue teamin this episode, a team that was sorely fractured. Littlejohn flat out said he wouldn't nominate one of his friends, regardless of how they performed. This set up some bad feelings among the rest of his teammates who thought that this wasn't the best way to go about nomination.
Terry Vaughan fell on the sword, saying flat out he had not performed (indeed, Vaughan failed to hit any of his clay targets), which seemed to satisfy most of the group, but left the second nominee questionable.
At the range Vaughan knew he was going to the range within the first four shooters. Littlejohn made his decision look like it was life or death, shooting Vaughan's target even though he was already locked into elimination. In the end it was Michelle Viscusi, nominated with two votes, who ended up with Vaughan in the elimination challenge.
At the elimination practice, both contestants were less than thrilled to learn they would be shooting another Benelli, this time, the Nova. Michelle revealed that the last two days of shooting had taken a toll on her shoulder, and she was in danger of becoming fatigued in the challenge, despite performing well in practice. Vaughan was simply inexperienced with using shotguns, and took a little longer getting a handle on the weapon than Viscusi.
The elimination challenge had a nice carnival feel to it. Viscusi and Vaughan would shoot side by side at a wheel on a track. The wheel had three targets that, when hit, would propel the wheel down the track. They would start with shot, but once they got past a certain point they could switch to slugs, the idea being a slug woud pack more of a punch, but make it harder to be shoot precisely. The practice session emphasized timing their hits, and it was critical in this challenge. If the wheel was hit while rocking forward, a direct hit would stop it dead in its track.
It was this aspect that Viscusi had trouble with. She just couldn't seem to get it down. Vaighan on the other hand was rocking it. He got his wheel past the marker and made the decision to switch to slugs, propelling his wheel off the track just as Viscusi seemed to find her rhythm.
So we say goodbye to Ms. Vuscusi and Top Shot's first real piece of eye candy.
Blue team has some serious work to do if they want to pull themselves back into the competition, but I'll discuss more of that tomorrow in my analysis.
What did you think of episode three? Hit the comments and let me know.
Follow me on Twitter @cswiets
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Top Shot Recap S4 E2 "Into the Trenches"
On Top Shot, bigger is almost always better, and idea proven once again by last night’s explosive episode.
Blue team came back from elimination and Littlejohn had the honor of nailing the first bull’s-eye to the wall, and continued to reveal himself as this season’s cocky s.o.b.
The first time out on the practice range, the contestants learned they would be shooting a weapon that changed the course of WWI, the Browning Automatic Rifle (B.A.R.).
This season continued to utilize the somewhat pointless expert pick, with Bethards getting the honors for blue team, and Cheng, who claimed he had never shot an automatic weapon before, for red.
The team challenge threw in this season’s first physical component. Each contestant would have to crawl under twenty yards of barbed wire, while explosions went off around them (of course) and dive into a trench where a loaded B.A.R. was waiting for them. There were seven targets each at a progressively farther distance that had to be shot in order. When the first person made their shot, the next teammate ran through the course, and so on to completition.
Blue team was down one member so they decided to sit Chee Kwan, which I will discuss more in my analysis of this episode. After getting out to an early lead, red team quickly fell behind. Terry Vaughan, despite having the pressure of having to contend with the competing advice of each of his teammates, locked up a win for the blue team.
At the house the red team’s pity party was fairly cut and dry, Keith and Kyle nominated themselves, and that how it went down on the range.
However, Keith and Kyle were treated to perhaps one of the best surprises Colby could possibly give them. Last week, the contestants faced a rotation of rifles and pistols, a not uncommon pattern on Top Shot. However another pattern that pops up on Top Shot is shooting an older weapon and throwing the contestants off-balance by forcing them to shoot an incredibly modern one. Enter the Milkor M32A1 grenade launcher.
Keith and Kyle shot what looked to be either paint or powder capsules, not actual exploding grenades. There was no clear advantage in the practice session, but both seemed to have a good handle on the weapon, especially after expert Craig Sawyer (who by now is a familiar face to the Top Shot scene) told them they should think of it like a revolver.
A brief trip back to the house clued the other contestants into what they would be missing out on, and the reactions were priceless.
The elimination challenge consisted of four targets, with each again placed at a progressively further distance. Kyle and Keith were forced to load the grenade launcher and then begin shooting. Again they were not shooting live rounds, something I was relieved by when I saw Keith aiming his weapon at his feet, but rather they were shooting at targets that would explode in a way that mimicked the grenade when hit. After an even start, it all came down to who had a better reload. Keith made a critical error, allowing Kyle to finish him off.
Old Papa Bear is proving that he can keep up with the young guns, but we’ll have to see what happens next week when the contest welcomes back our old friends the Benelli shotgun and Season 2 winner, Chris Reed.
Follow me on Twitter: @ cswiets
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