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Thomas Hughes
November 2024
NOTE: TNL (The Ninja League) is a fantasy Ninja Warrior league hosted on the simulator "Ninja Machine", which is made by Alex Cunningham.
For the first time in seven seasons, Kaden Lebsack will have a new home. It was revealed by Houston captain Wesley "cwrpg02" Har that Lebsack would be headed to Pittsburgh along with Iurii Prokudin in exchange for Matthew Hall and Joseph Meissner.
"After consideration, we have officially parted ways with our team captain [Kaden]," Har said. "He'll be starting a new chapter in Pittsburgh. With the moves we've made lately we hope we can get our rhythm moving forward."
With this move, Boston's Tada Tatsuya is the only player to stay with the same team for the entirety of TNL.
Why is this so important?
Why is this so important?
Lebsack, 19, won the Most Valuable Player award in each of the first two seasons of TNL. In addition, he also led his team to the championship in Season One and Season Five, helping Houston become the first and currently only multi-time champion. Thanks to Lebsack, Houston has never missed the playoffs and has made the finals three times, a record. In Season Five, Lebsack helped the team start 14–0, scoring 17 points per game and eventually finishing runner-up in the MVP standings to the DC Defenders' Jay Lewis.
In terms of the value Houston gets back, their two acquisitions both finished in the top 40 last season. Joseph Meissner, in particular, could be the fresh breath of air Houston needs, as they've had a rough 3–3 start to begin the season. Meissner, 23, finished third in MVP voting for Season Five and backed that up with a tenth-place MVP finish in Season Six. Though Meissner is not Lebsack, he is a very skilled player in his own right.
Matthew Hall is no slouch either. Hall finished 39th in the MVP voting — this was even though Hall was primarily used on Stage Two (for reference: 1 point per obstacle is awarded in Stage 1 with 2 points for a stage clear. Stage 2 is 'double points', and Stage 3 is 'triple points'). Hall proved to be an anchor on the Second Stage — in the first 11 weeks of Season Six, he scored full points (clearing all obstacles) in nine of them.
Pittsburgh isn't just getting Lebsack, though. They're also acquiring Russia's best ninja — Iurii Prokudin. Though Prokudin only played in 60% of the games in Season 6, he averaged 8.1 points per game, being a hybrid athlete who could be used on Stage 1, 2, or 3. Prokudin may be the least accomplished athlete out of the four in TNL, but he is no doubt a useful addition to the Iron.
Meissner on ANW 13.
How has each team fared so far to begin Season Seven?
How has each team fared so far to begin Season Seven?
Houston's rough 17–14 Season 6 campaign has carried over to Season Seven. The Ignition currently sit at 3–4 six rounds in, four spots behind Oakland for the final spot in the playoffs/play-ins. Though Lebsack had performed admirably, staying inside the top ten, he was the only Houston player in the top 30. Adolis Garcia — Houston's main Stage Two option — was next in 40th, averaging nine less points per game than Lebsack. Though Meissner has had a rough start of his own to the season — currently sitting 23rd after seven rounds — Houston is banking on his improvement over the remainder of the season.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh's start to the season has been disastrous. If not for the redo system (each team is allocated one redo to start the season and can 'purchase' more redoes depending on activity), Pittsburgh realistically could be 1–6. As it sits, they're 3–4 coming off their first Gauntlet (bonus round awarded to top 4 teams in a given round) victory since Round 18 in Season Six. Hopefully, Lebsack can add that continued momentum that they need to climb out of their early-season slump.
For both of these teams, only time will tell whether this acquisition will pay off.
Hall running the World Ninja League course in 2021.
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