Analysis and Comparison of Temple Run Contestants

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Kelly from "The Snakeskin Boots of Billy the Kid" tried to pry the door open with her hands at first, but then quickly went for the buttons.

That sounds like the episode I was trying to remember.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

And I think Becca from "Genghis Khan" also tried doing the same thing, but I am not sure of this. But none of them compared to Kim. She wasted a good chunk of her temple run screwing around in the Wall Climb. It was so bad that even the audience was shouting at her to "Press the button!". And if that is bad enough, she got confused in the Heart Room also. And notice how that temple guard in the Heart Room abruptly comes out of the temple guard door, snatches Kim's pendant, and leaves right away. Mercy guard, anyone? 

With Becca, I think she was just trying to shove the door open, since it didn't open up all the way. I believe Mitchell tried to do that very same thing. As for Kim, I always thought it was Billy who was shouting "Hit the button!" It sounded exactly like him. And I definitely agree that the Heart Room temple guard was delayed due to it being a mercy kill.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

And I think Becca from "Genghis Khan" also tried doing the same thing, but I am not sure of this. But none of them compared to Kim. She wasted a good chunk of her temple run screwing around in the Wall Climb. It was so bad that even the audience was shouting at her to "Press the button!". And if that is bad enough, she got confused in the Heart Room also. And notice how that temple guard in the Heart Room abruptly comes out of the temple guard door, snatches Kim's pendant, and leaves right away. Mercy guard, anyone? 

With Becca, I think she was just trying to shove the door open, since it didn't open up all the way. I believe Mitchell tried to do that very same thing. As for Kim, I always thought it was Billy who was shouting "Hit the button!" It sounded exactly like him. And I definitely agree that the Heart Room temple guard was delayed due to it being a mercy kill.

Mitchell hit the actuator, but then had trouble getting the unlocked door to move aside.

I believe both Billy and Kirk were yelling at Kim to hit the button. It was probably a mercy guard.

I feel like the guard coming out to get Kelly from "Snakeskin Boots" in the Laser Light Room was another mercy guard.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Yeah, that's what I meant. They were just trying to move the door aside. As for Kelly's guard, I don't think the Laser Light Room guard was a mercy kill. I think it was just a delayed guard. Not like the third guard in "Kamehameha," but kind of like the guard was about to miss his cue.

[The Red Jaguars]

I definitely don't see how Kelly's guard was a mercy guard. I mean she was slow, but she was no where near Kim's level of suckiness. Just look at how long it takes for the Heart Room guard to come out in Kim's temple run, and look how quick he leaves too. I like how TMH describes the Heart Room temple guard capture as, "Me thinks it was the producers way to end this pathetic attempt". 

One of the most unusual temple run performance on the show was Kristen from "The Priceless Portrait of the Polynesian Girl". I am not sure if one should consider a top contestant or bottom contestant of season two. On one hand, she was slow and hesitated too much. Plus, she was sloppy with the monkey in the Shrine and looked lost in the King's Storeroom. On the other hand though, she blazed on the bottom floor and almost brought the Priceless Portrait out. But her temple performance was exciting, so I can overlook those little slip-ups since she was the first to reach a bottom of the central shaft artifact. Although I wonder why she went back for the half-pendant? If you watch the episode, you can tell it is dubbed over during that point in the run. I am sure Kirk originally told her that she missed the half-pendant.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Well, Season 2 had a lot of voiceovers, so that kind of thing wasn't that uncommon. But yeah, Kirk probably told Kristen originally that she had indeed passed up the half pendant, hence why Kristen backtracked. It's a good thing she went back for it, otherwise we would have had another "Golden Ship" on our hands. As for how Kristen did as a contestant in general, I'd say she's middle of the pack. She wasn't terrible, but she wasn't amazing either.

[The Red Jaguars]

Since both players had similar temple performances, who do you think was the better player - Nate or Jay?

At one time, I use to think that Nate's performance was a little better than Jay. After all, he had a longer path to traverse compared to Jay. But after watching both runs back-to-back, I have to say that I think Jay was slightly better than Nate. I mean both players did a good job picking up their runners slack, but Jay really was on fire after Janeen was taken out. He had only less than 1:30 seconds to himself from when Janeen was taken out in the Shrine, and he picked up her slack a little better better than Nate. Nate seemed to hesitate in a couple of rooms of the temple, plus he had a little bad luck with some rooms like the King's Storeroom and Room of the Ancient Warriors. But Jay had bad luck in the Jester's Court too when the middle painting should've worked the first time. If it did work, no doubt that this would've been a bottom of the central shaft victory.

Both contestants were great, but I think Jay's performance was slightly better. Jay would've had a better chance of winning than Nate IMO, but that wasn't really either player's fault. They were both great at the end of the day.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

Yeah, Jay's performance was better, for all the same reasons you stated. Nate was good too, and he was actually further along in scoring a victory than Jay was. Then again, Nate had more time on the clock than Jay did. But, it wasn't like it was either players fault. It was their partners that slowed the run down.

[The Red Jaguars]

If that error didn't occur in the Jester's Court for Jay, then he should've grabbed the Good-Luck Watch with about 25 seconds and that should've been enough time for an "Emiliano Zapata" or "Lawrence of Arabia's Headdress" type of win. But yeah, it was truly both partner's fault for them losing. Janeen being the most guilty of the two.

[The Silver Monkey]

I wouldn't blame Jay for the issues in the Jesters' Court. Seemed like a production error to me.

[PurpleParrot4Life]

Plenty of contestants had trouble triggering the paintings in the Jesters' Court; he wasn't the only one to try the correct painting and then have to return to it and try it again. I think that either the buttons were temperamental, or it was just difficult to physically press in all three buttons at once (as in, the contestants thought they had hit all of the buttons simultaneously, but actually only applied enough pressure/force on two of the buttons to trigger them at the same time).

[The Red Jaguars]

I wouldn't blame Jay for the issues in the Jesters' Court. Seemed like a production error to me.

Oh, I definitely don't hold that against him. To me, it looked like he aligned his body just fine. I am not sure what happened the first time while he did it. I blame this loss entirely on Janeen.

[The Red Jaguars]

Who do you guys think is better Tiffani or Tarrah?

Both contestants had a lot in common. Both were parts of solo wins, both were slower than usual in the temple, and both had struggles getting their artifacts out of the temple.

To me, it seems like Tiffani is more of a favorite among Legends fans. I like both of them a lot, but I still think Tarrah is the better contestant. Compared to Tiffani, she moved at a slightly faster pace and the only time she had problems was when she was in rooms where her short height gave her problems. Other than that, Tarrah made it to the Observatory with over 30 seconds left. The main reason I am picking her is that she took a nasty fall in the Pit AND still recovered from it and bring it back to the temple gates. Plus, her ending was more of a nail biter than Tiffani's.

Tiffani was solid too though. I mean she made it back to the platform, which rarely happened in season three. But her pace was just so slow and she was lucky to have a no temple guard layout. Especially when she took the most direct path to the artifact. Although I don't mind her slow speed in bringing the Helmet out of the temple. That thing was huge.

And both girls were out of breath at the end of their runs. Tiffani even rips of her helmet (not the Sir Gawain) one when she gets to the temple gates. And Tarrah looks like she wants to fall down when Kirk and Chris are hugging her. I don't blame either one of them too! 

[PurpleParrot4Life]

I think both girls did really well in the temple. Tarrah had to complete seven objectives before reaching the artifact (not including the brief detour in the wrong direction), while Tiffani completed six. I'd say that Tiffani's route was slightly more difficult as far as room objectives go, but I feel that Tarrah's height increased the difficulty of her run. Both girls got through their rooms pretty efficiently (though not necessarily extremely quickly).

I commend Tarrah's ability to brush off her fall in the Pit and keep going. Likewise, I commend Tiffani for lugging the "big ol' Helmet" out of the temple, especially through the Pit of the Pendulum and the Ledges.

I think that the girls were very equally matched in nearly all of the aspects of the temple, so I'd say that they were equal to each other. I wouldn't necessarily say that one of them was better than the other.

[Purple Parrots Fan]

They're both pretty equal, but I sort of like Tarrah better. Tiffani was good though, especially with that huge artifact she had to bring out of the temple.