SSAS Beastmaster: The Darkside's League

SSAS Beastmaster: The Darkside's League was the second season of SSAS's spin-off series, Beastmaster. The season was premiered on August 9, 2021 and aired weekly for six episodes before ultimately went into hiatus citing lack of taping sessions for the show. The show has resumed filming in late December 2021, and was reported that it will potentially return to broadcast in 2022. On January 2, 2022, it was reported that the show had been shortened, with a slightly changed format compared to the original ones.

Development
Since the beginning of SSAS Trials 3, there have been plans to develop a second season of SSAS Beastmaster. However, the project was halted due to the host's studying purposes. On May 27, 2021, during the time that the whole SSAS series have been resumed, the host have already confirmed that the second season of SSAS Beastmaster will have a "League" concept, a slightly different in terms of show's background compared to the previous season.

Applications have been opened since May 5, 2021 through the Discord server under an unnamed spin-off show, and later expanded the day the title has been revealed. On May 25, 2021, the title was revealed as SSAS Beastmaster: The Darkside's League, and was confirmed to be a direct sequel to the previous season. Similar to recent few regular tournaments, the course guide have already been revealed at the Ninja Database spreadsheet prior to its tapings.

Though the tapings have been started since late-May 2021, the premiere date is still unknown as of now. It was originally slated for premiere in June 2021, before delaying to late-July 2021 due to consecutive scheduling issues to the show's tapings. However, time passed by as no news regarding to when the show actually premiered since then. On July 25, 2021, it was announced that the show have been delayed again to August 2021 due to the ongoing Summer Olympics. In the midnight of the same day, it was teased that C.W.H Entertainment, which distributed SSAS will launch a new show in August 2021, however it was still unknown whether  will be premiered on that month.

Shortly after SSAS 15 announced its air date, 's premiere date was also announced. It was scheduled to premiere on August 9, 2021, a day after SSAS 15. After the show aired for six episodes, it was reported that the show went on a brief hiatus due to the tapings of SSAS 16 as well as its post-tournament competition. On December 23, 2021, it was revealed that the show has resumed filming, and is set to return in 2022.

On January 2, 2022, it was announced that the remaining portions of the show had been cancelled, citing that it was "too long for a full season". As a result, the format of the show has been completely changed, now a drastically "shorter for a full season", although retaining some of the old format which had already been filmed prior. On January 10, 2022, the filming of the show was reportedly interrupted due to the host's health reasons. It was resumed on January 14, 2022 until February 20, 2022, before unexpectedly went on hiatus once again.

Some rumors have reported that the show would be returned to air in April shortly after SSAS 19 announced its official airdate to be on April 14. However, the producer have revealed that they have "unfinished business" for the show, teasing that it would be resumed filming in April and also will return to air the same month. On April 3, 2022, it was announced that the show will return to air on April 14, 2022, with the Group Stage being aired in 6 episodes in 6 consecutive days, while episodes of Dark Light phase would be aired on April 26 and 30.

Auditions
All competing competitors are divided into four heats depending to their background or profile. Competitors must run a 15-obstacle course, combining all 3 qualifying levels from SSAS Beastmaster. If they fail once, they are given an extra life they can use to try again from the latest checkpoint throughout the course, but the time will reset to zero during the extra life and adds up with the first run when the run has ended, while the final result depends on which run is further. Should the competitor choose not to use it, however, the extra life is then forfeited and cannot be used later.

Each heat had varied number of competitors, and only the top 10 competitors each heat will advance to the group stage. These top 10 competitors would later assigned to one same group. Other than the auditions held during this season, there are also external auditions held in regular SSAS tournaments, starting on SSAS 14. In each regular tournament, only the top 10 male and top 2 female competitors would advance to the Group Stage of this season.

Repechage
8 top male and 4 top female competitors who didn't made it to the top 10 male and top 2 female from each auditions heat, regardless of external auditions, which was held during regular tournaments, will face-off in the knockout format. Just like on SSAS Trials 3's semifinals, each competitor will take on 5 obstacles one by one. In each matchup, whoever clears the course faster, or further to faster than the opponent wins the match, and moves on to the next round. Then, the 2 remaining competitors would face-off in the Final Showdown, whoever wins the match would advance to the Group Stage. They will be assigned to the groups that their relevant audition heat associated with.

Group Stage
In each group, all competitors will be competed in 3 levels, like during the previous season. However, in each level, there were 2 rounds, the first round would be competed individually, while the second round would be competed in teams of two, in a relay style.

In the first round, all competitors will run individually, the points are determined by competitors' efficiency as well as time trial. For each obstacle completion, competitors are awarded 5 points. There are also bonus points located at the middle of obstacles two, three and four, each worth 10 points. A mega bonus points also located at the end of the fourth obstacle (third in Level 3), which starts counting down from 60 in Level 1, 70 in Level 2 or 80 in Level 3, by 1 point every second, as long as the competitor started his or her run. A course clear grants 10 points if the finish time is less than 1:30 in Level 1, 20 points if less than 2:00 in Level 2, whereas 30 points if less than 2:30 in Level 3. At the end of the round, in terms of furthest to the fastest, the first place gets 15 points, 2nd place with 12 points, 3rd place with 9 points, 4th place with 6 points, while the 5th place gets 3 points.

During the second round, the team will be assigned according to the rankings in the first round, the competitor who finishes in 1st place would team up with the 16th place competitor, the 2nd place teams up with 15th place, the 3rd place teams up with 14th place, and so on. The first teammate (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) will attempt the first three obstacles, while the second teammate (16th, 15th, 14th, etc.) will attempt the other two obstacles. In case of the first teammate failed on any of the obstacles, the run continues with the second teammate with the time where the first teammate failed would be recorded and will reset as the second teammate began to run. There would be no bonus points or mega bonus points existed during this round, but the ranking points are still applied. In terms of ranking points, the distribution determined by the number of obstacles cleared, whether the buzzer was hit by the second teammate, and faster combined time.

Dark Light
Similar to SSAS Trials format, the stage Dark Light is divided into 2 parts. The first part of the stage was called Revenant, in this part, competitors must attempt a 6-obstacle course. 5 points were awarded when a competitor completes an obstacle portion. After adding the total points that the competitor gained from the round, the bottom 10 combined points would be eliminated from the competition.

The second part of the stage was called Tide. Instead of 6-obstacle course, competitors must now attempt the same course plus 4 obstacles in an extended course, making it a total of 10. However, the points earned are now according to the time that the competitor complete an obstacle. When a competitors clears an obstacle, the time taken would be recorded and subtracts with the required time limit for the obstacle. If the time taken exceeds the required time, the competitor would not receive any points, whereas if the required time exceeds the time taken, the competitor would receive points depending on the remaining time to spare. As a bonus, competitors would also be rewarded with 5 points each time a competitor clears an obstacle. After combining with their total points, the top 26 competitors would receive a bye to the next round, while the others would have to face the next stage.

Dark Destiny
Acted as a second chance for bottom 24 competitors, the stage consists of the Timber Challenge, in which competitors would face against head-to-head. The stage once again split into two parts, the first part was called All or Nothing. Worked in a bracket style, competitors have to compete head-to-head against each other on the Timber Challenge. The first to hit the buzzer wins the matchup and moves on to the next part, while the loser would get eliminated.

The second part was called Road to Glory, the remaining competitors would once again face against each other on the Timber Challenge in a bracket style. This time, the first to hit the buzzer wins the matchup and would join the top 26 competitors from Dark Light, advancing to the next round, while the loser would get eliminated from the competition.

32v18 Tournament
The stage was held on SSAS 19. The remaining 32 competitors would compete against the 18 promising competitors in the regular tournament. The top 16 competitors from that tournament would be imported into the next round.

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The 32 competitors who qualified from Dark Light and Dark Destiny would be split into 3 factions. The first and second faction consist of 26 competitors who qualified from Dark Light, 13 in each faction, while the third faction consist of 6 competitors who qualified from Dark Destiny. However, due to the 32v18 Tournament has conducted before this stage even begin, the competitors that were part of top 16 would automatically received a bye to the next stage.

Repechage
Taping date(s): August 6-9, 2021; August 11-13, 2021 Aired date(s):

Obstacles: ① ^Log Runner ② Double Pendulum ③ Suicidal-Free ④ Stair Hopper ⑤ Warped Wall

Trivia

 * Roy Harper was a competitor who appeared on this season twice. However, since both two are from different reality world, it was considered two separate competitors.

Comments
I want to compete in "SSAS Beastmaster: The Darkside's League" Auditions heat 4. My name is PaprikooLTU.

-- PaprikooLTU (talk) 21:23, 17 August 2021 (+08)