team mag-ama is the only team that has never gone down in the rankings. they have either improved or maintained their ranking. for this super leg, they maintained their first place ranking from the start of leg 6 up to the pit stop. what is working for them is that (1) jody drives fast and (2) they are very competitive and has been very lucky.
but both aj and jody needs to improve how they communicate with each other. jody has been shouting to daddy aj and daddy aj has been quite hard headed as well. this might affect their standings in the race, especially if in challenges that needs patience and teamwork.
and the miracle boys did it again! and in this leg, they did not just escaped elimination but they entered the top 3 for the first time, finishing in 2nd place. what is working for this pair (aside from the miracle), is that they have found how to work effectively with each other. after their heated exchange of words in leg 3, they somewhat changed their attitude and have worked harmoniously. they know each other's strength and weaknesses. and they are letting the one who is better in the task to take the lead and has been positively supporting each other. if they continue to race this way, they will definitely be one of the teams to watch for.
team dating couple has been the recipient of the yield or the u-turn for the past 3 legs. this only means that the other teams still thinks that this team is still a big threat in the race. but this might just change after team dating couple finished fourth after this leg (and fifth in leg 5). we can also see that matt and phoebe have started to get into each other's nerves. it can also be seen in the taxi scene in the next leg's preview. they have to be patient with each other to get back in this race.
i also do not want the fact that either the u-turn or the yield is in each of the leg. this is a variation from the US version where the yield or the u-turn on appears once or twice in the race. another variation is that all teams has to vote on who will be awarded the u-turn or the yield. i am okay with the voting but adding it in every leg is quite an overkill.
these 2 teams have ran contrasting races so far. on one side, team magkapatid has been the most consistent team in this race. they have only placed either 2nd or 3rd so far. on the other hand, team chefs has been the most inconsistent team in this race. they have so many ups and downs so far.
but what is common with these teams? both are strong teams but both cannot finish in 1st place. team magkapatid finished in 2nd 3 times and team chefs finished in 2nd twice, but never first. both teams need to step it up and finish strong in the next legs to stay in the race.
team nerds impressed everyone by finishing 1st in leg 1. unfortunately, they are the only team that has constantly gone down the rankings in all pit stops (not including the virtual one). they are already in the brink of elimination and they need to keep their focus and do something drastic to stay in the race. they might need to ask for the miracle from team mr. pogi.
i really agree with what they said in the pit stop that what they lack is endurance. they know that they are in the disadvantage physically as compared to the other teams but i do believe they are strong mentally and strategically and they just have to believe that they can still survive up to the last leg.
6. finally, i saw an airplane!
i was quite disappointed that the teams has not yet gone out of the luzon archipelago after 5 legs. the disappointment disappeared after monday's episode where teams were instructed to catch a flight to cebu.
visayas here we come!
we all know that the in the history of the amazing race, flights has been the great equalizer of the race (aside from hours of operation). what is funny is that in this leg, the 7 teams got into 6 different flight, only team dating couple and team nerds travelled together. looking forward to more flights in the next legs!
borrowing the saying from the amazing race asia season 2 runner ups marc and rovilson, it is a common fact in the race that taxi drivers have a huge impact in the race. in this leg in particular, almost all teams are complaining that the cebu taxi drivers drive too slow as compared to their manila counterparts.
it was team chefs who was really affected since their taxi driver is really slow. chef roch has been very vocal to him and has asked him several times to drive faster but he never obliged. in the end, team chefs finished only in 5th place.
there is no easy task in this leg. from the construction task in cavite, finding the clue in parian monument, the roadblock mountain bike challenge (which i prefer to call the semplang task), the duel in fort san pedro, the detour of martial arts or art of cooking and the sinulog task, everything was hard. considering that this is a super leg, these tasks test all aspects - physical, mental, skills and patience.
what is also very evident is the sponsors in some of the tasks. the construction challenge featured rcd royal homes and the mountain bike task has the logo of rexona everywhere. i think the construction task was the odd challenge since from ilocos, they have to go back to cavite just for this task. there are airports in laoag and clark that offers flights to cebu. laoag flights are connecting in manila and is flying daily and clark flights are direct and is flying 3 times a week. this could have been a good equalizer in the race.
team sexy besties was the last team to check in at the pit stop and was eliminated. we will definitely miss them. despite being in the bottom half in most of the race, this team will be remembered for their care free ways and being very relaxed.
but their elimination was overshadowed with what happened at the pit stop. host derek ramsay called out the pair for giving up and disrespecting the other teams that wants to get in the race. i think yes, at times, the team gave up (ex. wall climbing task in leg 2 and giving way to team nerds in the duel task in leg 6) but this pair gave it all in the race. in the end, they still finished the leg and did not quit during the race. i think what derek did was somewhat uncalled for.
images are from margie natividad's twitter account, chef roch's facebook account and team nerd's facebook account
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