Spent 45 minutes fighting a tent pole at Lake Tahoe, it was upside down

Last weekend at Lake Tahoe I set up my new 3-person tent and the main pole kept bowing in weird. I wrestled it for a full 45 minutes, checking the diagram like 6 times, before realizing the shock cord was supposed to connect to the smaller grommet first. Has anyone else had a pole design where the order of insertion actually matters that much, or am I just dense?

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anderson.spencer1d ago

Did you try flipping the whole tent over once you got the pole in? A buddy of mine did the same thing at Yosemite, spent a solid hour cussing at his tent, then realized the red sleeve was on the bottom and the pole curve was meant to face down, not up. He only figured it out when a kid walked by and said "your tent looks like a sad turtle." Once he flipped the poles, the whole thing snapped together in like two minutes, and he felt real dumb but at least the kid got a laugh.