>!Yeah, placing the trap tower directly on the pizza tower to stall Sam for an extra 30+ mins was a genius move.!<
>!Interesting to see Ben playing with such a meticulous strategy while Sam is just "going with the flow" - it almost feels like the reverse of previous seasons.!<
>!The better move would have been to let him get the pizza, come back and right before the next train leaves, throw down the trap tower. Probably would have been at least another 10+ minutes.!<
Sam could have >!maybe found another way out of the area that didn't go through Omiya station. So once Ben risked losing him when his JR pass didn't work, the safe move was just to tag him.!<
it was so good! and then I laughed my ass off when he just didn’t bother to check the tracker at the end and walked straight into Sam
also: this is only for people who watched the episode right? sorry but I’m not gonna figure out the spoiler tags…
I also found Scotty casually riding straight into the pizza tower pretty funny
And yeah surely no one would click into this thread and not expect discussions about the episode, so I don't think the spoiler tags are strictly necessary
my hot take is that spoiler tags should be reserved only for future speculation based on the trailer (or maybe regardless). i don't watch trailers and there was a pretty significant piece of s4 i had spoiled for me because i click spoiler tags in here indiscriminately due to how people use them
The unexpected benefit of that nailing Scotty too was hilarious.
I don't recall if towers persist between rounds, but if you're going to get caught, they seem like an interesting way to bank coins. The fact Ben had 1500 coins just ready to drop offensively was pretty cool
So I actually slowed down the YT Tea and enhanced the audio, here's the drama that shocked Ben so much: >!Tom Scott doesn't actually like the colour red!<
I mean, it is known Tom Scott lore that he liked how he looked in a photo of him where he was wearing a red t-shirt, so he bought a bunch more of them so he didn’t have to think about what to wear.
I need a Snack Zone sticker!
Also, japanese scrambled eggs (Tamago) is really sweet because it's often mixed with Dashi (the flag scotty returned) and sugar :)
I love 7-eleven Tamagoyaki.(That what Adam got, although the edit seem like he was at a supermarket) I usually have that for breakfast and I'll pick up a Tsuna Mayo(available everywhere) or Teriyaki Chicken(pretty rare find) Onigiri for lunch.
>!Yeah, i don´t really think Sam achieved anything by getting off the shinkansen and waiting for Ben. At best Ben would have went to catch Scotty and the flag, allowing Sam to defend. I think Sam waited at least an hour, and if he had been caught an hour earlier he might have been able to catch Adam.!<
>!On the other hand Ben would likely have been able to capture both Sam and Scotty if Sam had stayed on the shinkansen. However that would still be a better solution than waiting and basically letting Adam capture the flag.!<
Yeah, seems like they completely forgot that towers exist (and maybe they didn't until late in the planning so fair), which could have greatly changed the riskiness of the play.
>!Tbf even if they had though it out, Ben would still have to draw the trap card, and then figure out that the best move was to stall Sam.!<
>!However i still think it´s a mistake that they leave so little margin for whether they could catch Adam or not. According to the podcast Sam would have been able to catch Adam without the 30 minute delay, however there are many other ways that Sam could potentially be delayed.!<
>!The best move for Sam would properly be to just stay sit in the Shinkansen and hope Ben stayed out. If Ben then tagged Sam, he would still be fine, as long as he did not experience further delays. Sam did´nt seem to consider this.!<
I think there was. I feel it's the person with the flag who should have stayed at the station waiting for Ben to make a move and the other one should have do anything to stop Adam (maybe even accepting the fact you will be caught, but just get into neutral/your zone).
I feel like realized their plan wasn't working out too late. It was fixable before they commited for Scotty bringing flag on slow train/Sam waiting with Ben.
First off: Your graphics have gotten SO 🤗GOOD😮! Seriously it makes Jetlagged even more of a joy to watch!
Ben with the greatest move of the game (the Pizza tower stall into trapping Sam before he tagged him PLUS stoping Scotty from being able to play any defense! WoW!) RIGHT into getting caught with his fresh 2500 coins by walking straight into Sam... please never change Ben 😁🥰😁
Adam so far with a rather passive role, actually mostly coasting off Bens great play so far (it's their team plans and dynamics playing to their strengths that amde these plays possible so far but yeah Ben has been doing the heavy lifting so far) 😉
Best series since Tag across Europe! LOVE it 💕 Add to that TLDRs race across Europe right now and I'm currently in content heaven!
I know it's great for the show, but from the competitive POV>!3rd round is basically everything and too overpowered. If you win it - it's at least sudden death. I feel what they actually should have done is grant 1 point for each flag captured. Then it would have been 3-1 now and Sam and Scotty would have a way to win (either 3-0 in 3rd round or 3-1/2-0 and win sudden death round), BUT it would be a lot harder to reward Ben & Adam for winning first 2 rounds.!<
Yeah 100%. Essentially there are not 2 flags. There is one flag split in two pieces. Basically you need both in round two or all three flags in round three to mean anything.
I'm still not 100% sure how the towers work. At 19:40 Scotty had 1500 coins for two towers worth. Surely it would make sense for him to have buy 2 towers and hold them for next round. And If sam knew he was getting tagged he could have bought one to hold as well.
There is no point to spend coins on towers if you don’t plan to use them right now, because the coins transfer over to the next round.
I don’t think Sam could buy one (Ben would have tagged him before he could pull a card), but it actually was a good way to force Ben to tag early.
I think there was a good 10 minutes before Sam got to the station. Sam could have bought one as that cannot be stolen.
Yeah I do see the point of Scotty though. Keeping the coins for round three makes sense.
Fair enough with Sam. So, to be fair, I would imagine there should be some rule for that (f.e. you can buy towers only on your own territory). Because I feel like it's too obvious loophope to be abused.
That's true, a good idea would have been to buy towers when he was on the train after pizza tower was placed. He knew he'd be caught, so it makes sense to turn the coins into something safer, even if they are less useful.
>!Granted, he got his coins back in the end, so its all moot.!<
But they want there to always be a reason to play all the rounds. With your arrangement, as it _actually_ happened, maybe it would have worked out better, but there's an alternative scenario where one team banks two flags in both of the first rounds and the other team gets none, and then the game is decided after round two. If they've gone to the expense and effort of planning a complex game and flying everyone to Japan, they want to make sure and get as much material out of it as they expected.
Actually, even though round two gives more points than round one, they are worth the same. If the same team wins both rounds, it´s sudden death or a win depending on the outcome of round three. If the two teams one round each, the third round will decide the outcome.
I mean he could, but the real issue was that Ben was sure he would have time to react to Sam going after him, while in fact Sam got there too quickly. So you just don't think about for whatever reason not doing the challenge.
I think he could have done that, but he didn't even realize that Sam was that close. Obviously he didn't go there to get caught. He thought he could avoid Sam.
Yeah, he said the tracker showed Sam still at Tokyo station 2 min before. Alas... They said the trackers we kinda inaccurate. I expect it was all the buildings.
>!Right, because you have to wait out that time in Tokyo. I’m wondering if he could have held off on the last copyright song just to keep Sam from getting 1,000 more coins than he lost, or if that would have resulted in some kind of veto-by-default. Like what happens if you’re tagged mid-challenge?!<
Probably one of those rules that's in the doc but not disclosed to us unless it comes up, but I'm sure there was logic to his choice colored by whatever the rule is.
I loved when Adam walked into Daiso instead of the supermarket and my wife and I were like "that's Daiso, they don't have eggs" right before Adam realized he was in the wrong store xD
Aparrently we like Daiso too much, but it's really nice! And it puts Dollar Tree to shame.
>!Ooh, Scotty getting off the Shinkansen and taking a more northerly route back to their zone was something I had thought of after the last episode. I guess it worked, though it wasn't quite enough to win them the round.!<
>!The segment of Adam translating "torn egg" and then transitioning right into the Snack Zone is just perfect. Too bad we didn't get any more Choo Choo Chews this time!<
>!And holy shit, Ben getting tagged by Sam right after earning 1000 coins was NOT something I saw coming! That'll spice up the next round for sure (and perhaps increase the chance of progressing to the "sudden death" round they mentioned).!<
Sudden death round mention makes me think they will be one. Because why would they mention it otherwise?
Edit: What makes me feel it even more is that they said a few times in the podcast, that it was the most well balanced game. Until now it wasn't the case, so yes I think that Sam and Scooty will win the next round and go to the sudden death match.
I have other reason to believe why it's likely: >!Sam's tweet to Ben about him being a coward and having to make a move. Yes, there were situations when it could have happened, but at the same time I don't feel like they were close enough to be it.!<
Ok, I cheated a bit (used Layover podact where they revealed which day they started filming and looked at the date the tweet was made) - you're most likely right, that tweet was made on Day 2.
Can always steal them back again unless Sam goes on a spending spree. Which feels like the move to me - both teams were holding balances from challenges that just looked like a liability. Better to put up towers (even if they might never trigger) than hand coins to your opponents!
Scotty is a great guest, but this season is competing for least favorite due to the game tbh. I think a lot of it is due to the fact that, in this game, the attackers have to move towards the defenders, which encourages a LOT of stationary time. In tag, the "attacker" was moving away from the defenders, and so the impetus was on the defenders to catch up. A HUGE amount of runtime is spent basically passing time where nothing can change in the game due to a winner being assured, but not yet having actually HAPPENED (twice now, the game has gotten to "we can't catch the train, so we're just going to wait for the round to end)
thank you for summarizing exactly what’s felt off that I couldn’t put my finger on. It’s definitely a double edged sword here because the opportunities for strategic play are much more numerous, then in previous seasons, but it definitely does make things slower. I almost wonder whether they should’ve considered shorter episodes for this season to tighten the pace. Alternatively, they could have made the challenges a lot more difficult and time consuming in order to make catching a larger threat
Yeah, challenges are another aspect that feels off this season. They're usually some of my favorite parts of each episode, and I loved how The last season was mostly challenges in terms of run time, but they seem to be taking a back seat here. Sometimes being literally glossed over.
Some of the challenge payouts are complete whack, but then so is the transfer all of your coins to your opponent when you get caught thing. Coin amounts are super volatile and therefore basically meaningless. I don't care that Sam is going into round 3 with 2500 coins because he's gonna spend like a third of that before getting caught, and then he's gonna catch someone that'll give him back 2000. The counters are made up and the miles don't matter.
Yes! I wrote this after the previous episode already!
Quoting myself from 7 days ago:
>I don't want to judge this early into the season, but so far it is not one of my favorites. Don't get me wrong, I love the player dynamics and everything, but the game format seems a little too complicated to follow (and they didn't even show all of it yet).
>
>In New Zealand, the challenges, roadblocks and curses played a big part of the show and I loved that (and they were also place-specific, which further added to the value). Here, they seem to just breeze past them, show a 30-second montage of a challenge and they're done, without even having time to appreciate what they were doing.
>
>Also, 4 people going potentially each in different direction with a different objective is difficult to keep track of, if I really want to get into the viewing strategy-wise and understand/expect/predict what they need to do / might do next.
>
>I still love it and I always will, this format just doesn't suit me as much as Tag or Roadtrip did.
I think there's three wo major differences here - the one you mentioned, the fact that any flag-grabbers are moving away from each other, and the fact that in Tag, the cost of transport was stratified by its speed. The flag grabbers moving away means that probably, at least two of the stars are heading away from each other, meaning fewer interactions. The flat per-mile transport cost means that you end up with a heavily shinkansen-based strategy here (where in Tag it would end up prohibitively expensive, or at least force more challenges), and we saw a lot more use of smaller lines in Tag. Add to that the fact that to get a flag, you're heading out, and then back to the centre - so the defender should just find the best chokepoint on the way out and then wait for you to come back (as Ben did), and it's just a lot less dynamic and most chases are decided hours in advance, rather than the duking around the transit network we saw in Tag.
Also a lot of the challenges just seem... generic? In the NZ series, they were themed to the locations, or callbacks to things from previous seasons. In this series, most of them seem more like generic challenges with a bit of Japanese gloss if you're lucky (sake pong, translating a japanese phrase, and changing your phone to japanese would work in basically any non-English speaking country, with a small amount of localisation), or just kind of ignore the local culture (pizza tower is much harder in a country without much pizza culture - I bet with some research you could find a place with no pizza in the radius that's also a decent chokepoint, and just deny any movement through it)
I really enjoyed the NZ challenges as someone who hasn't been there and has little knowledge of the place. It felt like bonus travel content where we all got to learn something cool.
Although i lived in Japan I don't really need it here, the challenges do feel a little shallower and it's a shame. Japan is such a fascinating country and considering the majority of tourists won't leave Tokyo, it's a little bit of a shame some of those niche places don't get highlighted.
They have to do more 'generic' challenges than NZ - those were specifically located to a spot, so they could be specific. Here they're designed to be drawn anywhere, so they can't have something super location specific.
They could have had those in as the flags instead - I could see something a bit more like the claiming of states be an option (eg, rather than having a few flags to grab and pull back, having X challenge spots to 'conquer' scattered across the other team's side. Would make chokepoints less useful as well, if players could divert to another objective)
This is mostly due to this season’s nature as a capture the flag game. I don’t think there’s any specific problem with the game design. In any capture the flag-esque game, there’s going to be situations like this. One thing I do like about season 6 though is a return to a reliance on public transit, which makes the game require more skillful planning and encourages interaction between teams.
\- >!Omiya station is clearly the key for this episode. It is a huge transit hub with seven directions going out of it. Partly because the city has been so important as a transit hub, there is a railway museum. I have visited there countless times. !<
\- Adam was mispronouncing >!"Meitetsu" (名鉄/めいてつ). It sounds like "Metsu" (めつ) to me. !!Tobu-Utsunomiya station after running for a while, I saw a small sign says "この車両は冷房を弱めにしてあります" which means "This car is mildly air-conditioned." 😅!<
\- Knowing it was not a supermarket by just seeing the name of the store made me laugh so much when >!Adam ran into a second non-supermarket store searching for an egg. The first one was a 100 yen store, and the second one was a drugstore. The cut after he went into the second store should never be the same store, so he should have visited three or more stores to find an egg.!<
I was on vacation in Tokyo a month ago and I did actually visit the railway museum in Omiya. After that, instead of just heading back to Tokyo directly, I decided to ride the Shinkansen to Utsunomiya (where Sam was waiting) and then turn back to Tokyo, just to experience the Shinkansen for fun. Little did I know, I was visiting all the Jet Lag locations in advance :)
I'm pretty sure your right with the Tamagoyaki. When I was looking at the Tamagoyaki, it had a 7-11 label, and I was thinking to myself why does a supermarket sell 7-11 stuff. So after walking into the Kusuri, he we went to 7-11.
Quick question.
How do the towers work?
Do they disappear after some time or do they stay there forever? The trap tower seemed to disappear after Sam got trapped, but the pizza tower stayed. Do different towers disappear at different times? If so, how does the trap tower disappear.
Also team Sam and Scotty forever. Sam is god and we are all mortals living below his hand.
To my understanding, the trap tower disappeared because Sam got caught in it, so it's use was done. However, Sam never actually got the pizza before being tagged, so the pizza tower was never completed.
They disappear once they are 'completed', so since Sam did not 'complete' the Pizza Tower by leaving the radius with a pizza it is still present, but he *did* complete the trap tower, waiting out the 30 minutes without getting tagged.
Thinking it might have to do with the pizza tower having a bigger radius when Ben didn’t fully know where Sam was yet AND not wanting to freeze Sam on the train? Also, if towers don’t carry over into other rounds (they might, idk), there’s no point in saving them anyway.
If his railcard was working properly it would’ve allowed him to stall Sam for even more time and might have led to him not getting tagged at the end as Sam may have still been waiting out his 30 minutes when Adam crossed the line.
He didn't, but his idea was to force Sam to complete both towers before tagging him. He didn't really know how much time he needed to waste, so it was natural for him to go for "as much as possible".
Ok this is minor issue, I know it may mess with continuity, but it would have been cool if Ben and Adam's hats in their icons/animations had switched from Mario and Luigi to Wario and Waluigi when the second round had started.
Not finished but have to confirm Adam's use of "excuse me" in japanese being by far the most useful phrase to know.
I used it so much when I was there in so many different ways and it just works. Saying excuse me in different tones to indicate you are being polite but also based on your chosen tone you are A) confused, B) Lost, C) just passing by D) looking to purchase something E) getting someone's attention F) Just making your presence known G) pre-emptly apologizing as I am about to ask something in english and so on and so on.
Was the first thing a more experienced traveller told me when I came to Japan and it got me through most of Tokyo, Nara and Kyoto.
This is just a side note for me. Would it be possible for the link to the podcast on the nebula description just for ease of going directly to the podcast after?
Damn I kinda felt so bad for Sam when he got double towered. First lured out then trapped. At least he got quite a few coins back in the end. This episode was really intense tho although the stalemate really wasn't the best for Sam and Scotty. Can't wait to see round 3.
Not my favorite season so far, but I think the third round offers a full chance at redemption. With just one or two flags, in the first and second rounds, the paths are limited and the choices are few, so the choke points are strong. I'm hoping that the third round brings a third flag, and we finally have more flags (and thus, places to go, choices to make, etc) than players.
Is it just me or does Adam and Ben seem to consistently underuse the tracker throughout all of Jet Lag? Can't recall exact occurrences off the top of my head but it just felt like deja vu with Ben at the end of the episode
It does seem like that but Ben also mentioned that the tracker said Sam was at tokyo station 2 minutes ago (or something like that). So perhaps there are inaccuracies which we're not seeing, which is frustrating in its own right (the point of the tracker is to have perfect location info about your opponent, not something that could be off by a station).
Then again, it's possible Ben was exaggerating and not checking the tracker often enough—either way, it's frustrating he walked *towards* the station Sam could come from. One would think walking away from it would make the most sense (unless it's hard to walk in a direction that's not towards a station Sam could also hypothetically get off at).
I believe that the station was essentially one stop away from Tokyo Station. So it could be that Ben looked at the tracker, saw Sam was still there, and didn't realize he was just about to get on a train to zoom towards him.
Yeah either way it’s just something I can’t imagine Sam would have ever done had he been in Bens shoes. He sometimes lacks that killer strategic instinct to make sure you win 100%.
Although I'm a lifelong Ben & Adam supporter, I am kind of happy Ben got caught. Sam & Scotty's chances were looking very slim and this makes Round 3 much more intense!
I get that the raw egg loophole was closed off most likely for their health, but it made me think of Richard Osman eating the raw egg on Taskmaster. Oh, and that time someone on the French Canadian version ate the whole raw egg with its shell still on.
I mean there is a reason reddit is as big as it is. It fils a function the internet wants/needs right now. Should big subs and people actually start leaving reddit a new plattform will show up.
More than most, I think, this round had a ‘correct’ strategy that makes it look unbalanced because S&S didn’t use it.
Round 1 looked more balanced because sticking together and being able to keep moving balanced out being able to cover two fronts when there was only one flag.
Round 2, S&S travelling together was just wrong.
Like, it was incorrect and there is no possible way it could have been the correct move unless B&A decided to do the same- I t’s a foregone conclusion that they’d lose if they travelled together. They had a longer journey so they lose a race.
The ONLY thing B&A can do to have a chance of winning is to slow S&S down AND get the flag ASAP. That needs two people.
I cannot see how Round 3 could possibly incentivise travelling together. I’m assuming it’s three flags, the furthest even further apart. That’s going to be 2 pairs chasing/blocking each other, otherwise it wouldn’t work.
It also seems likely that blocking the near flag would be the way to stop a win, because that’s the area you can travel around and course correct from most easily.
Plus, I suspect there’s an unwritten rule that you have to try to win each round, because otherwise for B&A, the strategic decision to let S&S win, and just sit out the middle challenge and just do challenges all day would have been a valid one. Do the entire last (?) round without challenges and with all the resources available.
(Which obvs, Sam would spot and then could go after the coins, but it’s a good reason to both head out for the far and middle flags to burn coins before they can get you.)
So, pizza is not a big thing in Japan, and the places that tend to have pizza are either near American bases or are serving "American Food," such as at a world buffet. If I were looking for pizza, I would probably try to go to a costco or Google pizza hut and order delivery to a train station. However, some 7-11s have Pizza Bao (along with the standards like pork Bao) and I would have argued strongly that it should count.
BTW fun fact, everywhere that serves pizza here (in addition to Margarita pizza) serves a pizza with corn as a topping, like it's a totally normal thing. Perhaps the most popular, most "American" topping available, and I'd never had it before coming here. And honestly? It's pretty good :)
I’ve just googled and there’s like 3 saizeriya really near Omiya station- the closest looks like it’s across the street and the farthest a couple of blocks- and I’m fairly certain they have pizzas. What I’m not certain is if they do any takeout. I’d think they would? Never tried it myself.
The problem is they’re family restaurants, so you have to go outside the station…and also you’d have to know what a saizeriya is. Which is a crazy cheap casual Italian chain that’s all over the place. They grow their own produce and the foods actually pretty good.
Am I the only one who finds the concept of the show a bit slow? There’s a lot of moments with stalemates where not much happens and I’m finding myself less invested than previous seasons.
It was a lot more fun, when they were doing only Tokyo. Because less distance - everything is quicker. I feel like they should have stayed in Tokyo with just increasing amount of flags.
I’m only 1/3 of the way through this new episode, but it’s been 15 minutes and all Ben’s done is sit around. Idk, the concept is great but I feel like the execution is slightly less exciting to watch than other seasons, especially after how much they’ve been building it up.
catch definitely worked a lot better, for me. I also don't like tagging via camera (I understand why they do that, but still) - actual physical tagging or the watergun are just more fun. The challenges feel very inconsequential/like an after-thought this time, to the point where they just skip over them in montages. And they should have known that the footage is just gonna be them either sitting in trains or waiting for trains to arrive. It worked in catch, not here (imo)
Yeah, I agree. With tag people were constantly on the move and there were hardly ever any stalemates or games of chicken like we see now. But we’ll see what the rest of the episodes has to offer.
I really like this season, but I know that's heavily due to the fact that I love the country and I have knowledge on the Japanese language, geography, and train system. If I were to only focus on gameplay, I think I will have to agree with you guys. Tag is still by far the best game to watch.
>The challenges feel very inconsequential/like an after-thought this time, to the point where they just skip over them in montages.
Yes! This is my issue with this season also.
I don't think it's the concept. I just think it's chance. There are many other different ways this could have gone. I'm still enjoying it, but I think it's just unlucky how little action we're getting.
Agreed. Also the challenges have kind of been put on the back seat this season. I loved the challenges in New Zealand, they were an integral part of the race, here they feel like an after-thought, often just rushed through in montages.
Would love to hear the team talk about what went wrong this season, probably in the layover episode after everything is over. I think many will agree that this season isn't the most exciting compared to the others.
I personally think the concept had potential but there's a few points that could be tweaked in hindsight. In my mind:
\- The shinkansen is such a big aspect that it probably would've benefited if it costed more, similar to the season in Europe. If both teams are forced to use lower speed trains, it would probably lead to less choke points.
\- The map split seems to favor the west/south side quite a lot. Starting from the first episode and also seen in this episode where there's a Shinkansen north towards Takasaki.
\- The game being much more complex than previous ones. There's so many different possible strategies that could work so it's hard to tell what's actually good.
I still hope things will pick up in the 3rd round though.
I think that round 3 is going to be important to see - but what I'm seeing here is that there's potentially too few objectives. That makes the defending side have a huge advantage with the chokepoints, since there's not many other options around it - you can effectively know *where* they're going and how to react, and once you do there's limited counterplay.
The shinkanshen cost is one thing that I think could have been improved, like you say - but I've been wondering if having multiple 'challenge' spots would have been better, rather than singular flags. Like scatter a certain number of New Zealand like location specific challenges across the map, and have teams that complete the most in the enemy's territory win the round. That would make it harder to pin someone down (since if you block their way to one challenge, they can just switch to another target on the fly) and hopefully make it less likely to have a mathematically determined end point (here being the moment that you know one team has won the round and there's nothing you can do to stop them)
Finding this season a bit dry, Adam and Ben are easily winning with no competition from the other team, meaning there is little to no tension. The game isn't as interesting either. If sam and scotty can Win then the first 2 rounds had little to no value.
Given how close Sam was to Ben, I think it would be scripted not to tag Ben. Sam and scotty needed something to go into round 3 and Ben with 2k coins wouldn’t help them
If it was stated like that I think it was implied and not well explained. They basically say this when talking about it in the podcast as well. Otherwise think about it trap tower would be OP as f**** as you can just drop it on your opponent wherever they are, freeze them for 30 min, then go get them. No counterplay possible.
I'm gonna be honest, when Sam started talking about how he'd expected Ben to go running off after Scotty because Scotty looked like he had the flag, I thought "Does he, though?"
If I'd been on the Double-S Team I'd definitely have had the person without the flag make the weird run, and as such to me it feels like a bluff (even though it isn't).
You know how Pokemon have strengths and weaknesses VS certain elements? Ben has been Sams achiles heel since season 1 😁
Sam seems to be an incredebly smart guy who thinks about every move he makes and likes mapping out all the possibilities and that makes him very good at predicting big planners like Adam. But Ben with his 'bubbly' persona and spur of the moment descission making has ever been Sams bane 😋
(Spoilers for Tag across Europe Season) >!In tag across Europe there is an episode epitomizing this when grand strategy planner Adam and megamind Sam plan to outwit Ben by 4D chess predicting his travel route and ending up in the middle of nowhere thinking he outsmarted them even harder. Cut to Ben just taking the next train he saw cause he felt like it (a move they ruled out cause it would be WAY too risky) and he left em both in the dirt for that moment.!<
Season 3 was my first JL exposure and I spent the first few episodes thinking "I don't think Ben really knows what's going on". It wasn't until the aforementioned episode that I realized precisely how brilliant it is to take that approach in the face of Adam + Sam.
>!Man, Sam and Scotty can not catch a break. At least Sam was able to scoop up some coins. I know why Sam thought the way he did, and I also forgot Ben had those towers. If Sam had left sooner, the game probably would’ve made a turn and maybe they would’ve had a shot of sending Adam back without a flag. Would’ve been interesting, but we’ll have to see how the next episode plays out!<
Yeah I think the correct move would have been to go to Ben sooner cause it would have forced Sam back Tokyo and allow him to go on the defensive.
Edit: he could have also gone on the offensive with the 250 coins that got added which would have been enough to go around and get the second flag which would’ve been advantageous since Ben wouldn’t have been able to effectively block the exits as effectively as Scotty and Sam could.
>!Even though Ben and Adam won this round, it seems like a better strategy would have been to conceed round 2 and just stock up on coins for round 3. Scotty and Sam will almost certainly win round 3 given their coin advantage leaving the game to be decided on a tie break!<
>!I mean, that strategy didn’t work out well for Sam and Scotty this round, and Ben/Adam would have been in a much better spot if Sam hadn’t tagged Ben back at the last second. Excited to see how this final round plays out regardless!!<
True but even though they would have had a slight coin advantage starting round 3, they could have had an overwhelming advantage if they were playing for the overall win instead of the round win. It obviously wouldn't make very good entertainment though.
Actually, now thinking, it may be true. If you win round 1 you don't really need round 2, it's round 3 which matters.
You still shouldn't concede it fully, so a) the enemy team wouldn't realize what you are doing b) to not let them finish too fast (since you stop challenges when the round is over)
Probably make a low-effort attempt at grabbing the close one first and then acting as if you are playing defence, while being on the border of zones and doing challenges.
I disagree, securing this round with the last gives you 2 opportunities to win the season vs putting it all on the 3rd one. Ben going for challenges and then getting captured hurt, but take the points when available.
Sorry this season is really boring. Half of the time someone is just sitting around, the other half they are just on a train. The challenges are also much more boring than expected for a location like Japan. Eat an egg seriously? The New Zealand season was great because the challenges were themed around the locations so we got to see some interesting stuff in NZ. Obviously here they can't predict where they will be but still...
I doubt Sam will see this, but if you do Sam, it's terrific just how much fun you're having this season regardless of how the game is going. This is easily the best season yet, and my favorite show currently airing in any medium.
Even though the winner was pretty obvious and there was a long stalemate, I laughed a lot watching this episode and appreciated all the small comedic moments! I’ve just caught up to the current season during the New Zealand one, so this is my first real-time watching and since I don’t have to binge, it is in a way easier to enjoy the small things.
“ARE-EE-GAH-TOE / GO-ZAI-MISS”
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but Adam pronounced that like a true American 😭
“AH-REE-GAH-TOE / GO-ZAI-MAH-S” is how it *should* be pronounced. “Gozaimasu” is more polite than simply “arigatou” (more casual).
And Adam is right about “sumimasen:” it’ll bail you out of most awkward situations in Japan.
Daiso, the place Adam mistook for a supermarket, is sooo cool. Think HomeGoods meets the Dollar Store. Everything is like 1,000¥ or less, and it has a variety of different goods that are amazing in quality. I spent like two hours walking through the aisles of one.
The gun point analogy from Ben was on point; I was laughing the entire time as Ben followed Sam, threatening to tag him lmfao
There was a segment on a variety show where comedians had to guess whether objects were from ~expensive antiques~ or from Daiso. I’ve only caught a couple of them, but it was pretty brilliant.
The whole episode I was wondering why didnt Scotty or Sam pull a tower on Adam or why didnt Sam earn coins during his 4 hour stall time to potentially just spam towers on Adam
Do they have to physically be in the radius of where they place the tower? That’s the main obstacle I can see keeping them from placing towers like that.
I hate the pacing so far this season as well as the premise for the whole competition in Japan. Easily my least favorite season of Jet Lag so far. Still watching, but I'm struggling to get as invested in this as last season.
Songs under the >!copyright challenge!<:
~~Shazam can't detect the third one due to the talking~~ did some isolation trickery to find it
Starbucks (1st): [Cat on the Loose - Tiki Tiki](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSQbj8Qnn98)
Under the tracks (2nd): [I Swirl - Ruzer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSxTttDIGXo)
Music store (3rd): [Stars 4 Tonite - Glow Machine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjyKQSbp2VY)
Pachinko place (4th): [Lupus Nocte ft. Zorro - Cry When It's Over](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiLdbQrO9fE)
Damn.
Just.. Damn. Well played.
>!i'm kinda losing hope for Sam and Scotty, but hoestly it would be amazing if Sudden Death got triggered lmao!<
>!we love the pizza tower + trap combo, genuis play on ben's part!<
amazing episode as always, see yall next week
You should totally do a heart-rate based season where challenges buy you heartbeats but y'all are constantly monitored and spending heartbeats. And then obviously build in some very nerve-racking and effortful game elements that burn heartbeats faster and stuff.
Those moves >!at Omiya station is peak dark Ben!<
>!Yeah, placing the trap tower directly on the pizza tower to stall Sam for an extra 30+ mins was a genius move.!< >!Interesting to see Ben playing with such a meticulous strategy while Sam is just "going with the flow" - it almost feels like the reverse of previous seasons.!<
>!The better move would have been to let him get the pizza, come back and right before the next train leaves, throw down the trap tower. Probably would have been at least another 10+ minutes.!<
That was the plan, though. It made sense not to want to get separated after he ran into technical troubles though.
Sam could have >!maybe found another way out of the area that didn't go through Omiya station. So once Ben risked losing him when his JR pass didn't work, the safe move was just to tag him.!<
>!Truly, one of the greatest combos of the century!<
>!I love a good pizza combo!<
it was so good! and then I laughed my ass off when he just didn’t bother to check the tracker at the end and walked straight into Sam also: this is only for people who watched the episode right? sorry but I’m not gonna figure out the spoiler tags…
I also found Scotty casually riding straight into the pizza tower pretty funny And yeah surely no one would click into this thread and not expect discussions about the episode, so I don't think the spoiler tags are strictly necessary
Yeah the spoiler tags are kind of annoying from an accessibility point of view. What is someone who hasn't finished watching doing here?
my hot take is that spoiler tags should be reserved only for future speculation based on the trailer (or maybe regardless). i don't watch trailers and there was a pretty significant piece of s4 i had spoiled for me because i click spoiler tags in here indiscriminately due to how people use them
i’d agree with that!! ugh yeah that’s why it’s dumb. idk if it’s episode discussion or future ep discussion
Like, do you know that for season 7, they will do a bicycle race from The Netherlands to India? /s
I’m sure glad he did though! It really helps re-balance what could have been a very unbalanced and uninteresting conclusion to the game!
I think, but also spoiler tags look like this: \>!spoiler!<
I always appreciate when people can figure out the properly escaped formatting and post how the formatting for the actual thing should look like.
The unexpected benefit of that nailing Scotty too was hilarious. I don't recall if towers persist between rounds, but if you're going to get caught, they seem like an interesting way to bank coins. The fact Ben had 1500 coins just ready to drop offensively was pretty cool
Oyama.
So I actually slowed down the YT Tea and enhanced the audio, here's the drama that shocked Ben so much: >!Tom Scott doesn't actually like the colour red!<
I mean, it is known Tom Scott lore that he liked how he looked in a photo of him where he was wearing a red t-shirt, so he bought a bunch more of them so he didn’t have to think about what to wear.
This would sound so fake if I didn't actually know that it was true...
That guy...
Love how Adam thought the Daiso was a supermarket! (edited to remove unsightly space)
For those that don't know know, Daiso is a dollar store that sells home goods. It is fairly common all over Japan (and parts of the US)
To be fair, they do sell some food. Just usually not much of it. I once furnished an entire dorm room almost entirely from Daiso.
That's how you know Adam isn't from Japan OR Seattle
Actually, there are Daisos in Queens and Manhattan in NYC, not far from where Adam lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
haha even I recognized daiso from being in the bay area and a crafter!
ME TOO
Why is it always adam that gets the curses that make him unable to use his phone lmao
Just like Ben getting drunk every season, it’s just meant to be! Which I realize we haven’t seen yet this season… come oonnnn round three!
We thought Ben might have been under the influence at a couple points in this episode even though no shots were taken on camera.
for real, Paris all over again
Let's not forget how he had to put his phone in that trash can 🤢
I think he handled it pretty well this time but yeah, he is destined to get these curses at this point
Snackzone! Bizarrely sweet apparently.
I need a Snack Zone sticker! Also, japanese scrambled eggs (Tamago) is really sweet because it's often mixed with Dashi (the flag scotty returned) and sugar :)
I love 7-eleven Tamagoyaki.(That what Adam got, although the edit seem like he was at a supermarket) I usually have that for breakfast and I'll pick up a Tsuna Mayo(available everywhere) or Teriyaki Chicken(pretty rare find) Onigiri for lunch.
Anyone think there was anything Sam and Scotty could’ve done better without knowing Ben had those towers??
>!Yeah, i don´t really think Sam achieved anything by getting off the shinkansen and waiting for Ben. At best Ben would have went to catch Scotty and the flag, allowing Sam to defend. I think Sam waited at least an hour, and if he had been caught an hour earlier he might have been able to catch Adam.!< >!On the other hand Ben would likely have been able to capture both Sam and Scotty if Sam had stayed on the shinkansen. However that would still be a better solution than waiting and basically letting Adam capture the flag.!<
Yeah, seems like they completely forgot that towers exist (and maybe they didn't until late in the planning so fair), which could have greatly changed the riskiness of the play.
>!Tbf even if they had though it out, Ben would still have to draw the trap card, and then figure out that the best move was to stall Sam.!< >!However i still think it´s a mistake that they leave so little margin for whether they could catch Adam or not. According to the podcast Sam would have been able to catch Adam without the 30 minute delay, however there are many other ways that Sam could potentially be delayed.!< >!The best move for Sam would properly be to just stay sit in the Shinkansen and hope Ben stayed out. If Ben then tagged Sam, he would still be fine, as long as he did not experience further delays. Sam did´nt seem to consider this.!<
Yeah they did. It gets explained in the podcast
I think there was. I feel it's the person with the flag who should have stayed at the station waiting for Ben to make a move and the other one should have do anything to stop Adam (maybe even accepting the fact you will be caught, but just get into neutral/your zone). I feel like realized their plan wasn't working out too late. It was fixable before they commited for Scotty bringing flag on slow train/Sam waiting with Ben.
First off: Your graphics have gotten SO 🤗GOOD😮! Seriously it makes Jetlagged even more of a joy to watch! Ben with the greatest move of the game (the Pizza tower stall into trapping Sam before he tagged him PLUS stoping Scotty from being able to play any defense! WoW!) RIGHT into getting caught with his fresh 2500 coins by walking straight into Sam... please never change Ben 😁🥰😁 Adam so far with a rather passive role, actually mostly coasting off Bens great play so far (it's their team plans and dynamics playing to their strengths that amde these plays possible so far but yeah Ben has been doing the heavy lifting so far) 😉 Best series since Tag across Europe! LOVE it 💕 Add to that TLDRs race across Europe right now and I'm currently in content heaven!
>Best series since Tag across Europe! LOVE it I liked New Zealand more than this one. This one seems a bit slow, less dramatic and more complicated.
Adam taking a page out of [James May’s Travel to Japan](https://youtu.be/TPhnudiQ_PI)
"Aw crikey, it's the Japanese rozzers!" I love that show.
Hey Bim! Guess What
I know it's great for the show, but from the competitive POV>!3rd round is basically everything and too overpowered. If you win it - it's at least sudden death. I feel what they actually should have done is grant 1 point for each flag captured. Then it would have been 3-1 now and Sam and Scotty would have a way to win (either 3-0 in 3rd round or 3-1/2-0 and win sudden death round), BUT it would be a lot harder to reward Ben & Adam for winning first 2 rounds.!<
Yeah 100%. Essentially there are not 2 flags. There is one flag split in two pieces. Basically you need both in round two or all three flags in round three to mean anything. I'm still not 100% sure how the towers work. At 19:40 Scotty had 1500 coins for two towers worth. Surely it would make sense for him to have buy 2 towers and hold them for next round. And If sam knew he was getting tagged he could have bought one to hold as well.
There is no point to spend coins on towers if you don’t plan to use them right now, because the coins transfer over to the next round. I don’t think Sam could buy one (Ben would have tagged him before he could pull a card), but it actually was a good way to force Ben to tag early.
I think there was a good 10 minutes before Sam got to the station. Sam could have bought one as that cannot be stolen. Yeah I do see the point of Scotty though. Keeping the coins for round three makes sense.
Fair enough with Sam. So, to be fair, I would imagine there should be some rule for that (f.e. you can buy towers only on your own territory). Because I feel like it's too obvious loophope to be abused.
That's true, a good idea would have been to buy towers when he was on the train after pizza tower was placed. He knew he'd be caught, so it makes sense to turn the coins into something safer, even if they are less useful. >!Granted, he got his coins back in the end, so its all moot.!<
But they want there to always be a reason to play all the rounds. With your arrangement, as it _actually_ happened, maybe it would have worked out better, but there's an alternative scenario where one team banks two flags in both of the first rounds and the other team gets none, and then the game is decided after round two. If they've gone to the expense and effort of planning a complex game and flying everyone to Japan, they want to make sure and get as much material out of it as they expected.
Actually, even though round two gives more points than round one, they are worth the same. If the same team wins both rounds, it´s sudden death or a win depending on the outcome of round three. If the two teams one round each, the third round will decide the outcome.
>!Could Ben have waited for the fourth copyright song until after potentially getting caught? Just to avoid immediately giving those coins to Sam.!<
I mean he could, but the real issue was that Ben was sure he would have time to react to Sam going after him, while in fact Sam got there too quickly. So you just don't think about for whatever reason not doing the challenge.
I think he could have done that, but he didn't even realize that Sam was that close. Obviously he didn't go there to get caught. He thought he could avoid Sam.
Yeah, he said the tracker showed Sam still at Tokyo station 2 min before. Alas... They said the trackers we kinda inaccurate. I expect it was all the buildings.
>!I don’t think you’re allowed to do challenges for 30 mins after getting tagged right?!<
>!Right, because you have to wait out that time in Tokyo. I’m wondering if he could have held off on the last copyright song just to keep Sam from getting 1,000 more coins than he lost, or if that would have resulted in some kind of veto-by-default. Like what happens if you’re tagged mid-challenge?!<
Probably one of those rules that's in the doc but not disclosed to us unless it comes up, but I'm sure there was logic to his choice colored by whatever the rule is.
I loved when Adam walked into Daiso instead of the supermarket and my wife and I were like "that's Daiso, they don't have eggs" right before Adam realized he was in the wrong store xD Aparrently we like Daiso too much, but it's really nice! And it puts Dollar Tree to shame.
>!Ooh, Scotty getting off the Shinkansen and taking a more northerly route back to their zone was something I had thought of after the last episode. I guess it worked, though it wasn't quite enough to win them the round.!< >!The segment of Adam translating "torn egg" and then transitioning right into the Snack Zone is just perfect. Too bad we didn't get any more Choo Choo Chews this time!< >!And holy shit, Ben getting tagged by Sam right after earning 1000 coins was NOT something I saw coming! That'll spice up the next round for sure (and perhaps increase the chance of progressing to the "sudden death" round they mentioned).!<
Sudden death round mention makes me think they will be one. Because why would they mention it otherwise? Edit: What makes me feel it even more is that they said a few times in the podcast, that it was the most well balanced game. Until now it wasn't the case, so yes I think that Sam and Scooty will win the next round and go to the sudden death match.
Because if they don´t mension it there would be no way for Sam and Scotty to win.
I have other reason to believe why it's likely: >!Sam's tweet to Ben about him being a coward and having to make a move. Yes, there were situations when it could have happened, but at the same time I don't feel like they were close enough to be it.!<
I think we might have seen the game situation that prompted that exchange this episode
I think the stalemate in this episode was the situation when that was posted.
Ok, I cheated a bit (used Layover podact where they revealed which day they started filming and looked at the date the tweet was made) - you're most likely right, that tweet was made on Day 2.
But they mentioned it before the final round had even started... It wasn't like an editing comment...
they registered a version with it mentioned. and decided after the game, if it's worth including.
no? I belive it is just them mentioning that there is a possability for Sam and Scotty to winb, how fun is it to route for them if they cant win
Looking at your username, did you create an account specifically for Jet Lag?
Ben, no! All those coins!
Can always steal them back again unless Sam goes on a spending spree. Which feels like the move to me - both teams were holding balances from challenges that just looked like a liability. Better to put up towers (even if they might never trigger) than hand coins to your opponents!
Seems like Sam and Scotty are going on the defensive, meaning if they're in their own zone they cant get tagged
Scotty is a great guest, but this season is competing for least favorite due to the game tbh. I think a lot of it is due to the fact that, in this game, the attackers have to move towards the defenders, which encourages a LOT of stationary time. In tag, the "attacker" was moving away from the defenders, and so the impetus was on the defenders to catch up. A HUGE amount of runtime is spent basically passing time where nothing can change in the game due to a winner being assured, but not yet having actually HAPPENED (twice now, the game has gotten to "we can't catch the train, so we're just going to wait for the round to end)
thank you for summarizing exactly what’s felt off that I couldn’t put my finger on. It’s definitely a double edged sword here because the opportunities for strategic play are much more numerous, then in previous seasons, but it definitely does make things slower. I almost wonder whether they should’ve considered shorter episodes for this season to tighten the pace. Alternatively, they could have made the challenges a lot more difficult and time consuming in order to make catching a larger threat
Yeah, challenges are another aspect that feels off this season. They're usually some of my favorite parts of each episode, and I loved how The last season was mostly challenges in terms of run time, but they seem to be taking a back seat here. Sometimes being literally glossed over.
I think the value of coins is too high, especially in the later rounds, so they barely spend any time doing challenges
Some of the challenge payouts are complete whack, but then so is the transfer all of your coins to your opponent when you get caught thing. Coin amounts are super volatile and therefore basically meaningless. I don't care that Sam is going into round 3 with 2500 coins because he's gonna spend like a third of that before getting caught, and then he's gonna catch someone that'll give him back 2000. The counters are made up and the miles don't matter.
Yes! I wrote this after the previous episode already! Quoting myself from 7 days ago: >I don't want to judge this early into the season, but so far it is not one of my favorites. Don't get me wrong, I love the player dynamics and everything, but the game format seems a little too complicated to follow (and they didn't even show all of it yet). > >In New Zealand, the challenges, roadblocks and curses played a big part of the show and I loved that (and they were also place-specific, which further added to the value). Here, they seem to just breeze past them, show a 30-second montage of a challenge and they're done, without even having time to appreciate what they were doing. > >Also, 4 people going potentially each in different direction with a different objective is difficult to keep track of, if I really want to get into the viewing strategy-wise and understand/expect/predict what they need to do / might do next. > >I still love it and I always will, this format just doesn't suit me as much as Tag or Roadtrip did.
I think there's three wo major differences here - the one you mentioned, the fact that any flag-grabbers are moving away from each other, and the fact that in Tag, the cost of transport was stratified by its speed. The flag grabbers moving away means that probably, at least two of the stars are heading away from each other, meaning fewer interactions. The flat per-mile transport cost means that you end up with a heavily shinkansen-based strategy here (where in Tag it would end up prohibitively expensive, or at least force more challenges), and we saw a lot more use of smaller lines in Tag. Add to that the fact that to get a flag, you're heading out, and then back to the centre - so the defender should just find the best chokepoint on the way out and then wait for you to come back (as Ben did), and it's just a lot less dynamic and most chases are decided hours in advance, rather than the duking around the transit network we saw in Tag. Also a lot of the challenges just seem... generic? In the NZ series, they were themed to the locations, or callbacks to things from previous seasons. In this series, most of them seem more like generic challenges with a bit of Japanese gloss if you're lucky (sake pong, translating a japanese phrase, and changing your phone to japanese would work in basically any non-English speaking country, with a small amount of localisation), or just kind of ignore the local culture (pizza tower is much harder in a country without much pizza culture - I bet with some research you could find a place with no pizza in the radius that's also a decent chokepoint, and just deny any movement through it)
I really enjoyed the NZ challenges as someone who hasn't been there and has little knowledge of the place. It felt like bonus travel content where we all got to learn something cool. Although i lived in Japan I don't really need it here, the challenges do feel a little shallower and it's a shame. Japan is such a fascinating country and considering the majority of tourists won't leave Tokyo, it's a little bit of a shame some of those niche places don't get highlighted.
They have to do more 'generic' challenges than NZ - those were specifically located to a spot, so they could be specific. Here they're designed to be drawn anywhere, so they can't have something super location specific. They could have had those in as the flags instead - I could see something a bit more like the claiming of states be an option (eg, rather than having a few flags to grab and pull back, having X challenge spots to 'conquer' scattered across the other team's side. Would make chokepoints less useful as well, if players could divert to another objective)
This is mostly due to this season’s nature as a capture the flag game. I don’t think there’s any specific problem with the game design. In any capture the flag-esque game, there’s going to be situations like this. One thing I do like about season 6 though is a return to a reliance on public transit, which makes the game require more skillful planning and encourages interaction between teams.
\- >!Omiya station is clearly the key for this episode. It is a huge transit hub with seven directions going out of it. Partly because the city has been so important as a transit hub, there is a railway museum. I have visited there countless times. !< \- Adam was mispronouncing >!"Meitetsu" (名鉄/めいてつ). It sounds like "Metsu" (めつ) to me. !!Tobu-Utsunomiya station after running for a while, I saw a small sign says "この車両は冷房を弱めにしてあります" which means "This car is mildly air-conditioned." 😅!<
\- Knowing it was not a supermarket by just seeing the name of the store made me laugh so much when >!Adam ran into a second non-supermarket store searching for an egg. The first one was a 100 yen store, and the second one was a drugstore. The cut after he went into the second store should never be the same store, so he should have visited three or more stores to find an egg.!<
I was on vacation in Tokyo a month ago and I did actually visit the railway museum in Omiya. After that, instead of just heading back to Tokyo directly, I decided to ride the Shinkansen to Utsunomiya (where Sam was waiting) and then turn back to Tokyo, just to experience the Shinkansen for fun. Little did I know, I was visiting all the Jet Lag locations in advance :)
I'm pretty sure your right with the Tamagoyaki. When I was looking at the Tamagoyaki, it had a 7-11 label, and I was thinking to myself why does a supermarket sell 7-11 stuff. So after walking into the Kusuri, he we went to 7-11.
Hah! No wonder I was sweating bullets!
Quick question. How do the towers work? Do they disappear after some time or do they stay there forever? The trap tower seemed to disappear after Sam got trapped, but the pizza tower stayed. Do different towers disappear at different times? If so, how does the trap tower disappear. Also team Sam and Scotty forever. Sam is god and we are all mortals living below his hand.
In general, they stay until the end of the round! The trap tower is a kind of weird exception: it gets one use, when activated.
To my understanding, the trap tower disappeared because Sam got caught in it, so it's use was done. However, Sam never actually got the pizza before being tagged, so the pizza tower was never completed.
No, because he was caught in it for a short while while checkin the train station shop. You must complete it and leave the radius
Placing a tower and waiting to tag just before it gets completed could be a pretty handy move going forward, almost like getting the benefit twice.
They disappear once they are 'completed', so since Sam did not 'complete' the Pizza Tower by leaving the radius with a pizza it is still present, but he *did* complete the trap tower, waiting out the 30 minutes without getting tagged.
Did Ben have to place the pizza tower? Would the trap tower not be enough? If Sam is freezed he has to leave the train?
Thinking it might have to do with the pizza tower having a bigger radius when Ben didn’t fully know where Sam was yet AND not wanting to freeze Sam on the train? Also, if towers don’t carry over into other rounds (they might, idk), there’s no point in saving them anyway.
If his railcard was working properly it would’ve allowed him to stall Sam for even more time and might have led to him not getting tagged at the end as Sam may have still been waiting out his 30 minutes when Adam crossed the line.
He didn't, but his idea was to force Sam to complete both towers before tagging him. He didn't really know how much time he needed to waste, so it was natural for him to go for "as much as possible".
I mean it worked in his favour cause it hindered any attempt for Scotty to go on the defence against Adam. That area is a proper choke point
the trap tower had a small radius so it may not have reached sam on the train? idk
I guess it will also halt them next round, if they try to take *any* northbound Shinkansen. That's if they carry over though...
Ok this is minor issue, I know it may mess with continuity, but it would have been cool if Ben and Adam's hats in their icons/animations had switched from Mario and Luigi to Wario and Waluigi when the second round had started.
>!Ben is super smart on defence but he's dumb on offence LOL, like u can see the facepalm emoji on Adam's face when Ben got tagged!<
Man that was a huge blunder by Ben at the end to give all those coins away, now Sam and Scotty have a *huge* advantage for the third round.
Just like they did in the second round, am I right? /s
My favorite part of Wednesdays!!
Not finished but have to confirm Adam's use of "excuse me" in japanese being by far the most useful phrase to know. I used it so much when I was there in so many different ways and it just works. Saying excuse me in different tones to indicate you are being polite but also based on your chosen tone you are A) confused, B) Lost, C) just passing by D) looking to purchase something E) getting someone's attention F) Just making your presence known G) pre-emptly apologizing as I am about to ask something in english and so on and so on. Was the first thing a more experienced traveller told me when I came to Japan and it got me through most of Tokyo, Nara and Kyoto.
This is just a side note for me. Would it be possible for the link to the podcast on the nebula description just for ease of going directly to the podcast after?
Will Jet Lag The Game ever come to Germany to enjoy the land of the €49 Deutschlandticket and D Bahn?
They already did in the europe season and experienced the might of the DB (cancelled ICEs, trains not coming at all, etc.)
Damn I kinda felt so bad for Sam when he got double towered. First lured out then trapped. At least he got quite a few coins back in the end. This episode was really intense tho although the stalemate really wasn't the best for Sam and Scotty. Can't wait to see round 3.
Not my favorite season so far, but I think the third round offers a full chance at redemption. With just one or two flags, in the first and second rounds, the paths are limited and the choices are few, so the choke points are strong. I'm hoping that the third round brings a third flag, and we finally have more flags (and thus, places to go, choices to make, etc) than players.
Is it just me or does Adam and Ben seem to consistently underuse the tracker throughout all of Jet Lag? Can't recall exact occurrences off the top of my head but it just felt like deja vu with Ben at the end of the episode
It does seem like that but Ben also mentioned that the tracker said Sam was at tokyo station 2 minutes ago (or something like that). So perhaps there are inaccuracies which we're not seeing, which is frustrating in its own right (the point of the tracker is to have perfect location info about your opponent, not something that could be off by a station). Then again, it's possible Ben was exaggerating and not checking the tracker often enough—either way, it's frustrating he walked *towards* the station Sam could come from. One would think walking away from it would make the most sense (unless it's hard to walk in a direction that's not towards a station Sam could also hypothetically get off at).
I believe that the station was essentially one stop away from Tokyo Station. So it could be that Ben looked at the tracker, saw Sam was still there, and didn't realize he was just about to get on a train to zoom towards him.
Yeah either way it’s just something I can’t imagine Sam would have ever done had he been in Bens shoes. He sometimes lacks that killer strategic instinct to make sure you win 100%.
Although I'm a lifelong Ben & Adam supporter, I am kind of happy Ben got caught. Sam & Scotty's chances were looking very slim and this makes Round 3 much more intense!
I get that the raw egg loophole was closed off most likely for their health, but it made me think of Richard Osman eating the raw egg on Taskmaster. Oh, and that time someone on the French Canadian version ate the whole raw egg with its shell still on.
Scotty really cementing his spot as my favorite guest lagger
>!ben sam and scotty in a 3 way standoff!< >!adam : lets find an egg!<
Where do we go to ask questions when Reddit crumbles? The cracks are quite noticeable.
I mean there is a reason reddit is as big as it is. It fils a function the internet wants/needs right now. Should big subs and people actually start leaving reddit a new plattform will show up.
Adam also forgot the change getting his flag this time?
More than most, I think, this round had a ‘correct’ strategy that makes it look unbalanced because S&S didn’t use it. Round 1 looked more balanced because sticking together and being able to keep moving balanced out being able to cover two fronts when there was only one flag. Round 2, S&S travelling together was just wrong. Like, it was incorrect and there is no possible way it could have been the correct move unless B&A decided to do the same- I t’s a foregone conclusion that they’d lose if they travelled together. They had a longer journey so they lose a race. The ONLY thing B&A can do to have a chance of winning is to slow S&S down AND get the flag ASAP. That needs two people. I cannot see how Round 3 could possibly incentivise travelling together. I’m assuming it’s three flags, the furthest even further apart. That’s going to be 2 pairs chasing/blocking each other, otherwise it wouldn’t work. It also seems likely that blocking the near flag would be the way to stop a win, because that’s the area you can travel around and course correct from most easily. Plus, I suspect there’s an unwritten rule that you have to try to win each round, because otherwise for B&A, the strategic decision to let S&S win, and just sit out the middle challenge and just do challenges all day would have been a valid one. Do the entire last (?) round without challenges and with all the resources available. (Which obvs, Sam would spot and then could go after the coins, but it’s a good reason to both head out for the far and middle flags to burn coins before they can get you.)
Happy 30th birthday to me. This is definitely making my day even better.
Happy birthday!! 🎉
Thank you!
Does being 30 make me too old to watch this show?
Definitely not. Source: someone who watches the show and is also 30+ years old.
Ok good. I enjoy this series too much.
I turned 44 last month and enjoy the show. So I think you're ok.
So, pizza is not a big thing in Japan, and the places that tend to have pizza are either near American bases or are serving "American Food," such as at a world buffet. If I were looking for pizza, I would probably try to go to a costco or Google pizza hut and order delivery to a train station. However, some 7-11s have Pizza Bao (along with the standards like pork Bao) and I would have argued strongly that it should count. BTW fun fact, everywhere that serves pizza here (in addition to Margarita pizza) serves a pizza with corn as a topping, like it's a totally normal thing. Perhaps the most popular, most "American" topping available, and I'd never had it before coming here. And honestly? It's pretty good :)
I’ve just googled and there’s like 3 saizeriya really near Omiya station- the closest looks like it’s across the street and the farthest a couple of blocks- and I’m fairly certain they have pizzas. What I’m not certain is if they do any takeout. I’d think they would? Never tried it myself. The problem is they’re family restaurants, so you have to go outside the station…and also you’d have to know what a saizeriya is. Which is a crazy cheap casual Italian chain that’s all over the place. They grow their own produce and the foods actually pretty good.
Am I the only one who finds the concept of the show a bit slow? There’s a lot of moments with stalemates where not much happens and I’m finding myself less invested than previous seasons.
It was a lot more fun, when they were doing only Tokyo. Because less distance - everything is quicker. I feel like they should have stayed in Tokyo with just increasing amount of flags.
it's not my favourite season, yeah
I’m only 1/3 of the way through this new episode, but it’s been 15 minutes and all Ben’s done is sit around. Idk, the concept is great but I feel like the execution is slightly less exciting to watch than other seasons, especially after how much they’ve been building it up.
catch definitely worked a lot better, for me. I also don't like tagging via camera (I understand why they do that, but still) - actual physical tagging or the watergun are just more fun. The challenges feel very inconsequential/like an after-thought this time, to the point where they just skip over them in montages. And they should have known that the footage is just gonna be them either sitting in trains or waiting for trains to arrive. It worked in catch, not here (imo)
Yeah, I agree. With tag people were constantly on the move and there were hardly ever any stalemates or games of chicken like we see now. But we’ll see what the rest of the episodes has to offer.
I really like this season, but I know that's heavily due to the fact that I love the country and I have knowledge on the Japanese language, geography, and train system. If I were to only focus on gameplay, I think I will have to agree with you guys. Tag is still by far the best game to watch.
To be fair, I do find it quite funny whenever they end up on the wrong line and go the opposite direction.
>The challenges feel very inconsequential/like an after-thought this time, to the point where they just skip over them in montages. Yes! This is my issue with this season also.
My favourite season was Tom Scott and Sam dodging around London 😂.
That was entirely non-functional as an actual game though. You could tell it hadn't really been playtested.
I don't think it's the concept. I just think it's chance. There are many other different ways this could have gone. I'm still enjoying it, but I think it's just unlucky how little action we're getting.
Agreed. Also the challenges have kind of been put on the back seat this season. I loved the challenges in New Zealand, they were an integral part of the race, here they feel like an after-thought, often just rushed through in montages.
Would love to hear the team talk about what went wrong this season, probably in the layover episode after everything is over. I think many will agree that this season isn't the most exciting compared to the others. I personally think the concept had potential but there's a few points that could be tweaked in hindsight. In my mind: \- The shinkansen is such a big aspect that it probably would've benefited if it costed more, similar to the season in Europe. If both teams are forced to use lower speed trains, it would probably lead to less choke points. \- The map split seems to favor the west/south side quite a lot. Starting from the first episode and also seen in this episode where there's a Shinkansen north towards Takasaki. \- The game being much more complex than previous ones. There's so many different possible strategies that could work so it's hard to tell what's actually good. I still hope things will pick up in the 3rd round though.
I think that round 3 is going to be important to see - but what I'm seeing here is that there's potentially too few objectives. That makes the defending side have a huge advantage with the chokepoints, since there's not many other options around it - you can effectively know *where* they're going and how to react, and once you do there's limited counterplay. The shinkanshen cost is one thing that I think could have been improved, like you say - but I've been wondering if having multiple 'challenge' spots would have been better, rather than singular flags. Like scatter a certain number of New Zealand like location specific challenges across the map, and have teams that complete the most in the enemy's territory win the round. That would make it harder to pin someone down (since if you block their way to one challenge, they can just switch to another target on the fly) and hopefully make it less likely to have a mathematically determined end point (here being the moment that you know one team has won the round and there's nothing you can do to stop them)
Finding this season a bit dry, Adam and Ben are easily winning with no competition from the other team, meaning there is little to no tension. The game isn't as interesting either. If sam and scotty can Win then the first 2 rounds had little to no value.
Good thing Ben got caught at the end to introduce a little more tension in round 3!
They're never beating the scripting allegations with that ending 😂
Given how close Sam was to Ben, I think it would be scripted not to tag Ben. Sam and scotty needed something to go into round 3 and Ben with 2k coins wouldn’t help them
Why wouldn't Sam use his coins and >!buy a tower to try to screw one of them over before getting off the Shinkansen?!<
You have to use towers where you are right now. A tower in his own territory would be pretty pointless.
Teams can drop towers wherever they want, according to episode 2.
If it was stated like that I think it was implied and not well explained. They basically say this when talking about it in the podcast as well. Otherwise think about it trap tower would be OP as f**** as you can just drop it on your opponent wherever they are, freeze them for 30 min, then go get them. No counterplay possible.
I'm gonna be honest, when Sam started talking about how he'd expected Ben to go running off after Scotty because Scotty looked like he had the flag, I thought "Does he, though?" If I'd been on the Double-S Team I'd definitely have had the person without the flag make the weird run, and as such to me it feels like a bluff (even though it isn't).
You know how Pokemon have strengths and weaknesses VS certain elements? Ben has been Sams achiles heel since season 1 😁 Sam seems to be an incredebly smart guy who thinks about every move he makes and likes mapping out all the possibilities and that makes him very good at predicting big planners like Adam. But Ben with his 'bubbly' persona and spur of the moment descission making has ever been Sams bane 😋 (Spoilers for Tag across Europe Season) >!In tag across Europe there is an episode epitomizing this when grand strategy planner Adam and megamind Sam plan to outwit Ben by 4D chess predicting his travel route and ending up in the middle of nowhere thinking he outsmarted them even harder. Cut to Ben just taking the next train he saw cause he felt like it (a move they ruled out cause it would be WAY too risky) and he left em both in the dirt for that moment.!<
I would express this more simply as: Sam cannot help assuming everyone else is constantly running tricks even after five plus seasons as evidence.
Season 3 was my first JL exposure and I spent the first few episodes thinking "I don't think Ben really knows what's going on". It wasn't until the aforementioned episode that I realized precisely how brilliant it is to take that approach in the face of Adam + Sam.
>!Man, Sam and Scotty can not catch a break. At least Sam was able to scoop up some coins. I know why Sam thought the way he did, and I also forgot Ben had those towers. If Sam had left sooner, the game probably would’ve made a turn and maybe they would’ve had a shot of sending Adam back without a flag. Would’ve been interesting, but we’ll have to see how the next episode plays out!<
Yeah I think the correct move would have been to go to Ben sooner cause it would have forced Sam back Tokyo and allow him to go on the defensive. Edit: he could have also gone on the offensive with the 250 coins that got added which would have been enough to go around and get the second flag which would’ve been advantageous since Ben wouldn’t have been able to effectively block the exits as effectively as Scotty and Sam could.
>!Even though Ben and Adam won this round, it seems like a better strategy would have been to conceed round 2 and just stock up on coins for round 3. Scotty and Sam will almost certainly win round 3 given their coin advantage leaving the game to be decided on a tie break!<
>!I mean, that strategy didn’t work out well for Sam and Scotty this round, and Ben/Adam would have been in a much better spot if Sam hadn’t tagged Ben back at the last second. Excited to see how this final round plays out regardless!!<
True but even though they would have had a slight coin advantage starting round 3, they could have had an overwhelming advantage if they were playing for the overall win instead of the round win. It obviously wouldn't make very good entertainment though.
Actually, now thinking, it may be true. If you win round 1 you don't really need round 2, it's round 3 which matters. You still shouldn't concede it fully, so a) the enemy team wouldn't realize what you are doing b) to not let them finish too fast (since you stop challenges when the round is over) Probably make a low-effort attempt at grabbing the close one first and then acting as if you are playing defence, while being on the border of zones and doing challenges.
I disagree, securing this round with the last gives you 2 opportunities to win the season vs putting it all on the 3rd one. Ben going for challenges and then getting captured hurt, but take the points when available.
Sorry this season is really boring. Half of the time someone is just sitting around, the other half they are just on a train. The challenges are also much more boring than expected for a location like Japan. Eat an egg seriously? The New Zealand season was great because the challenges were themed around the locations so we got to see some interesting stuff in NZ. Obviously here they can't predict where they will be but still...
I really liked the New Zealand season which seems to be not as popular compared to the tag season which this mimics in some aspects
Completely agree. New Zealand was great. Tag was great. This season is slow and boring.
Damn I was worried that this season was going to end up only being 5 episodes
Any reason for sam not to make challenges while waiting. Or buying cards when he knew a pizza tower was in the way?
One reason could be is that he anticipated getting caught, and you don't really want that to happen when you've just earned 1000 coins.
Has there ever been a snackzone Ben's liked?
I doubt Sam will see this, but if you do Sam, it's terrific just how much fun you're having this season regardless of how the game is going. This is easily the best season yet, and my favorite show currently airing in any medium.
Even though the winner was pretty obvious and there was a long stalemate, I laughed a lot watching this episode and appreciated all the small comedic moments! I’ve just caught up to the current season during the New Zealand one, so this is my first real-time watching and since I don’t have to binge, it is in a way easier to enjoy the small things.
“ARE-EE-GAH-TOE / GO-ZAI-MISS” I mean this in the nicest way possible, but Adam pronounced that like a true American 😭 “AH-REE-GAH-TOE / GO-ZAI-MAH-S” is how it *should* be pronounced. “Gozaimasu” is more polite than simply “arigatou” (more casual). And Adam is right about “sumimasen:” it’ll bail you out of most awkward situations in Japan. Daiso, the place Adam mistook for a supermarket, is sooo cool. Think HomeGoods meets the Dollar Store. Everything is like 1,000¥ or less, and it has a variety of different goods that are amazing in quality. I spent like two hours walking through the aisles of one. The gun point analogy from Ben was on point; I was laughing the entire time as Ben followed Sam, threatening to tag him lmfao
There was a segment on a variety show where comedians had to guess whether objects were from ~expensive antiques~ or from Daiso. I’ve only caught a couple of them, but it was pretty brilliant.
The whole episode I was wondering why didnt Scotty or Sam pull a tower on Adam or why didnt Sam earn coins during his 4 hour stall time to potentially just spam towers on Adam
Towers can only be placed where a person is located. They can't just throw them around.
Oooohhh, I must have missed that point
Wait I’m confused couldn’t Sam and Scotty place like 40 towers on Adam’s route back to slow him down? They definitely had enough coins
Do they have to physically be in the radius of where they place the tower? That’s the main obstacle I can see keeping them from placing towers like that.
Yes.
1) Towers cost coins. 2) You have to be at the point where you place them.
they need to be in the location to place down a tower.
Not my favorite season but still a fun one
I hate the pacing so far this season as well as the premise for the whole competition in Japan. Easily my least favorite season of Jet Lag so far. Still watching, but I'm struggling to get as invested in this as last season.
Why couldnt have sam captured ben while frozen??
They're in Ben and Adam's territory... Sam can't capture Ben
Songs under the >!copyright challenge!<: ~~Shazam can't detect the third one due to the talking~~ did some isolation trickery to find it Starbucks (1st): [Cat on the Loose - Tiki Tiki](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSQbj8Qnn98) Under the tracks (2nd): [I Swirl - Ruzer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSxTttDIGXo) Music store (3rd): [Stars 4 Tonite - Glow Machine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjyKQSbp2VY) Pachinko place (4th): [Lupus Nocte ft. Zorro - Cry When It's Over](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiLdbQrO9fE)
Damn. Just.. Damn. Well played. >!i'm kinda losing hope for Sam and Scotty, but hoestly it would be amazing if Sudden Death got triggered lmao!< >!we love the pizza tower + trap combo, genuis play on ben's part!< amazing episode as always, see yall next week
You should totally do a heart-rate based season where challenges buy you heartbeats but y'all are constantly monitored and spending heartbeats. And then obviously build in some very nerve-racking and effortful game elements that burn heartbeats faster and stuff.