The only unentered rooms during the Lucky Pig run were the Ledges and the Heart Room. While the bottom of the Ledges are not seen during the prize sequence, we do see them very briefly during the credits. You can see in the image below that there is not a mat on the ground, which was indicative of a guard. Therefore, the final guard was in the Heart Room, as was often the case.




With guards in the Gargoyle Room, Heart Room, and Swamp, it was possibly best to enter the temple via the Ledges and then take the path the Kristen took. As long as the Ledges led to the Pit, this route would have allowed for a potential solo victory.

It was quite unfortunate that Kristen got so stalled in the Pit and Dungeon, seeing as those were two very straightforward rooms. If she had moved at a better pace, she would have left Scott with more time to just sprint through the temple, grab the Lucky Pig, and continue sprinting. In any case, their path was very long for Season 1 standards; the Shrine only opened to the Pirate's Cove, meaning they had to enter at least 9 rooms to reach the artifact.

Name the 22 runs in which the team encountered two temple guards in the central shaft.

8. Snakeskin Boots of Billy the Kid

9. Jean Lafitte

3. William the Conqueror

It's so strange to me that we had wins from the other two central shaft rooms, yet none from this one space. And either way, teams have to traverse a ton of rooms, many with difficult objectives, just in an opposite order.

Let's look at the victorious runs from the central shaft: Star of Sultan Saladin, Belly Button of Buddha, Milk Bucket of Freydis, Very Tall Turban of Ahmed Baba, Lucky Pillow of Annie Taylor, and Mussel Shell Armor of Apanuugpak.

Five of the six were solo wins, which means that the temple guards were more generously laid out. Being solo runs, the teams' time was spent completing objectives and making progress in the temple rather than getting a second runner into the temple. Additionally, none of these runs had the contestant enter two central shaft rooms (which was required in counterclockwise Center of the Rooms runs, and which was the case in Royal Torque of Queen Boadicea). The upper-left corner room was not completed in five of the six runs, and the lower-left corner room was avoided in four of the runs. Meanwhile, counterclockwise runs either required the teams to enter both of the central shaft rooms or to go all the way around the horn.

Is there a particular layout that anyone feels could have lent itself well to a team retrieving an artifact from this space?

My thoughts: enter the Crypt, cross the Pit, top of the shaft, Center room, Treasure room and here is where you make it tricky. Both the Shrine and Swamp doors could open. If the player is smart, they'll enter the Swamp, and finally the bottom of the central shaft.

Temple guard placement could be sort of tricky, but you could have a guard in the Central room, the Swamp, and either the Shrine or the Ledges space.

Does anyone think that layout could have worked? Or is it too simple?

This suggested layout would have only been possible in Seasons 1 or 2, and the passageway between the Treasure Room and Swamp spaces was so infrequently used that it would have been unlikely and too simplistic.

Runs in which the artifact was located in the bottom of the central shaft were difficult because, like counterclockwise Center of the Rooms runs, required teams to enter a lot of rooms and left little room for flexible temple guard encounters. Teams were forced to enter either the Observatory space or Center of the rooms space (or both), reach the Shrine (at least), and then complete the lower-level rooms as well. If only one central shaft room was entered and the team was not forced all the way around the horn, these teams were required to complete a minimum of seven rooms. I repeat, a minimum. And the only way for a team to avoid temple guards with this type of layout was if the guards were placed in the alternate entrance room, the other central shaft room, or the far-left rooms (if they were actually avoidable).

Compare this with some of the actual wins:

• They tended to have shorter paths, with many entering 5-6 rooms. And depending on the layout, the victorious runs sometimes included only "hit the actuator" type rooms, avoiding the Shrine and other more time-consuming rooms. Bottom of the central shaft runs required teams to complete several time-consuming rooms, making it less likely for the team to win within the time limit.
• Several of the runs were solo runs, meaning that less than two guards were encountered. These runs had more "flexible" temple guard placements, meaning that it was less likely for a contestant to take a path that encountered two. As a result, time was not spent getting the second runner from the temple gate to where the frontrunner was removed. Often times, a lot of time was spent in this transition.
• A few of the runs ended in triple capture, which obviously did not happen to the winning runs. If the bottom of the central shaft team had found their half pendant (if applicable) or had a path with a more generous temple guard layout (see above), they would have been more successful.
• Finally, in entering fewer rooms (or at least a series of easier rooms, often), there was less of a chance that the winning teams would be adversely affected if they hesitated or "messed up." Some contestants who won took a while to complete some of their rooms, missed half pendants, got turned around in the temple, had poor exit strategies, or did other things that could have resulted in a less successful outcome. But because of their shorter paths and more generous temple guard layouts, the teams were able to overcome these "obstacles," in part because there was still time on the clock, which was not as available to the bottom of the central shaft teams.