<P> The team that earned the most number of pendants by the end of three temple games won the right to enter the temple . In the event that the two teams earned the same number of pendants after the three temple games, the teams played a tiebreaker to determine who advanced to the temple . The teams stood behind a tiebreaker pedestal, and Fogg (since Season 2, Olmec) asks a tiebreaker question to determine the winner . The first team to hit the button on top of their gong was given the chance to answer the question . A correct answer allowed the team to go to the temple . Originally, a team that buzzed in and gave an incorrect answer or ran out of time automatically lost, allowing the other team to advance to the temple by default . However, in Seasons 2 and 3, the other team was required to answer the question correctly to go to the temple . </P> <P> In the final round, the winning team took the Pendants of Life the contestants earned into the temple, and attempted to retrieve the episode's artifact and bring it back out of the temple within a three - minute time limit . The team designated one member to enter the temple first; that team member carried one of the team's full pendants . The other team member held the remaining pendant, half pendant, or no pendant at all and stood by to enter if the first team member was taken out of the temple by a temple guard . Before starting, Olmec would explain the rooms in the temple and the necessary tasks in each room . During season 1, Fogg asked who would go first and explained about the temple guards and, if necessary, the extra half pendant . Beginning in season 2, Olmec himself explained these things . </P> <P> The temple consisted of twelve rooms, each with a specific theme (e.g., the Throne Room, the King's Storeroom, the Observatory, the Shrine of the Silver Monkey, the Heart Room, etc .). The rooms connected to adjacent rooms by doorways, although some doors were locked, blocking a contestant's progress into the adjacent room; the pattern of locked and unlocked doors changed from episode to episode depending both on the temple layout and the artifact's location . The unlocked doors were closed at the start of the round, but they could be opened by completing a specific task or puzzle within each room . One room in the temple contained the themed artifact (as stated by Olmec prior to the Steps of Knowledge round). Three other designated rooms held temple guards (spotters in Lavish Mayan sentinel costumes). If the winning team had exactly ​ 1 ⁄ pendants, the remaining half pendant was also placed in a room for the contestant with the half pendant to collect to make a full pendant . The extra half pendant, if needed, would either be hanging on the wall near a door or placed inside an object in a room (e.g., hidden inside a pot in the King's Storeroom). If the first player dropped their pendant, the second player was allowed to pick it up and either throw it back to their partner or use it if needed . </P> <P> A contestant who encountered a temple guard was forced to give up a full pendant in order to continue . However, if the first contestant was caught without a pendant in his or her possession, he or she was taken out of the temple and the second contestant entered . In either case, the temple guard who captures the contestant was out of play, and did not appear again in that room where the first contestant was captured . When the second contestant entered, any doors that the first contestant opened remained open . If the second contestant was caught without a full pendant, the run ended immediately . It was possible for a player to enter a room with an unencountered temple guard on their way to the artifact and not get caught, usually if the room design makes it so that the guard can only capture the player if within reach (e.g. the Dark Forest where one of the trees "could be inhabited by the spirit of a temple guard" which was signaled if the tree grabbed the player, but the player had to be within reach to trigger the tree). </P>

Why did legends of the hidden temple stop