Could any of the 8 winning teams have won in Series 3?

Reply to Could any of the 8 winning teams have won in Series 3? on Thu, 16 Apr 2020 19:13:00 GMT

Morghanna — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 19:13:00 GMT

I think that the winning teams from other years would still have struggled to win in the formidable series 3. They would have had to be exceptional.

The bar was set so high that year that even some very good teams did not succeed:

Ross & Martin both began to look like real contenders, only to fall in level 3.

Leo's team were certainly the best team not to actually win Knightmare and were arguably the most competent team ever to take part on the program. In any other series they would surely have triumphed.

Reply to Could any of the 8 winning teams have won in Series 3? on Sat, 09 Jun 2012 17:58:21 GMT

Pooka — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 17:58:21 GMT

In my opinion, Series 3 is overly reliant upon riddles for completion of the Dungeon - look at Martin, killed by Morghanna for failure to answer ONE riddle to earn Owen's dragon magic earlier in the level. That may well have been a final encounter, as the stained glass room was very often close to the end.

Winning teams who did well on answering questions included Julie's (I think of informing Romahna of her impending capture in level 1), Barry's (confidently guessing the information to give to the Brollachan), and Dunstan's (three riddles correct out of three from Snapper-Jack in level 3). I think any of those may have gotten far enough to make it into level 3 at least.

However, I'm not convinced series 3 was even winnable! It was s great series, sure, but it was tough. Floor puzzles were possibly a bit fairer (although the quicksand in the Vale of Vanburn was really unfair on poor Chris!), but the aforementioned riddles were sometimes incredibly obscure, and even if Treguard did exist to give hints at some points, there really weren't as many given as in some later series, probably because the production team realised a bit more guidance was needed!

So could any of the winning teams have won series 3? We'll never know. I'm pretty certain that some of the failing teams in series 3, like Ross' team, could have won a series like 4 without too many problems, though.

Reply to Could any of the 8 winning teams have won in Series 3? on Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:14:24 GMT

SpectralScorpion — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:14:24 GMT

In short: yes, I think they could have, but only if they played a game with the same difficulty level as Martin's. Where the largest stone ring in England is seems like a cruel question even by the difficulty level of the show, but Martin lost out due to a simple mistake on a question that wasn't exactly challenging. In terms of the game itself Series 3 wasn't all that difficult (apart from the winding path Ross went down none of the rooms had an enhanced difficulty level), it was just a series that wanted teams to make a mistake and did everything to make sure they did, such as Cliff being halfway out the door when McGrew starts pleading and that amulet that turned a dungeoneer into a hard-to-control star.

Who could win it? I think Ben and co. from Series 5. They were slow, I'll admit, but logical, and I think logic would prevail over speed in that Series.

Reply to Could any of the 8 winning teams have won in Series 3? on Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:59:16 GMT

knightmaredave — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:59:16 GMT

I reckin Julies team in series 7 could have won. They were logical, calm in most situations especially throughout level 3 and only got a bit stressed on Play your c's right!!! The thin g was to be calm so yes they could have won series 3

Reply to Could any of the 8 winning teams have won in Series 3? on Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:59:01 GMT

Mystara — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:59:01 GMT

In my opinion, the variance in difficulty between teams decreased as time went on. If I recall correctly, in the later seasons, the difficulty experienced by most teams was fairly equal.

In the early seasons, luck seems to play a bigger part and there seems to be far more variance in how much tolerance was given to each team. Some teams made countless errors and got away with it, while others were killed off for a tiny mistake.

The number of winning teams in each season remains similar. The average winners per season is 1, and the maximum and minimum winners per season are 2 and 0 respectively (from memory). This gives a variance of only 1.

It might be argued, therefore, that while earlier seasons were harder, the teams who won simply had an easier time. In the later seasons, overall the dungeons were easier, but there are fewer teams who had a much harder or easier time than any other.

An interesting comparison would be to examine the winning teams from each season and look at whether any of them had a much harder time than any other.