Nickelodeon Guts - The Aggro Crag

The Aggro Crag

The fifth and final event, the Aggro Crag (later renamed the MegaCrag, and finally the Super Aggro Crag) ultimately decided the winner. All three contestants raced to climb a fabricated mountain, activating a series of lighted targets commonly referred to as "actuators" (six and later seven in the first season; eight from the second season on) on their way to the peak. If a contestant missed any actuator(s) along the way, a spotter at the top (often referred to on-air as the "crag troll") prevents that player from completing the climb until he or she returned and activated the target they missed. The climb was made more difficult with special effects that simulated lightning storms in the form of strobe lights, rock avalanches, flying "snow" in the form of glitter and confetti, "nuclear flying crystals", and steep walls. Each contestant had a separate but identical side of the mountain to climb, and was not permitted to cross into another's path. The first contestant to successfully activate each target, including the final one at the peak of the mountain, earned first-place worth 725 points. The second- and third-place contestants earned 550 and 375 points, respectively.

A number of violations/errors on the Crag could result in a player automatically receiving third place points. These included:

• Inadvertently crossing into another player's section of the mountain
• Accidentally hitting someone else's actuator (excluding the final actuator)
• Reaching the top of the mountain by grabbing a hand rail, a rule enforced during the MegaCrag
• Making a false start at the beginning of the climb, i.e., beginning before the whistle
• Finishing the climb without lighting all of one's own actuators
• Not stepping on all of the boulders in the Crag's "Boulder Canyon" section at the base of the mountain, a rule introduced in the Guts All-Stars special.

The increased point structure in the event allowed contestants to come from behind to win, despite earlier mistakes. It also nearly ensured that no two contestants could achieve a tie score. The only way two contestants could tie on the Crag was if they both violated the rules as outlined above. Although theoretically possible, a tie in the contestants' total scores never happened, even when two contestants were disqualified on the Aggro Crag.

The Aggro Crag went through several revisions in the show's run, each longer and more difficult than the previous version. In the first two taped seasons (1992 and 1993), the mountain was called the Aggro Crag. For the show's third season in 1994, the mountain was renamed the Mega Crag. For the show's final season, Global Guts (1995), it changed yet again to the Super Aggro Crag. In the third season in 1994, its color was changed to be molten. Sound Design for the action on the Aggro Crag was created by Nickelodeon Senior Sound Designer Mark Schultz, who converted the voltages supplied by the infrared actuator "eyes" to triggers read by a MIDI-based sampler.

The total height of the Aggro Crag is 28 feet. For Global Guts, the Super Aggro Crag was 30 feet tall.