Does the title of this season bother anyone else? I understand that it is supposed to be the plural of "Ride or Die," but it just sounds ... wrong to me. Should just be "Ride or Die." Oh well, at least that's the worst, most game affecting decision the producers of The Challenge have made in a long time.
Premieres October 12, which is two weeks from today, so I guess we'd better get this party started.
Headspace, Xno and Vil are in, but I have not heard anything from Moss. Sent him a couple of e-mails, plus a PM here. Doesn't look like he has been on BG since March, so I think I'm just going to move on, unless he chimes in before we figure out the order.
Here's the Cast List, with women listed first and then their Ride or Die:
Spoiler: show
No CT or Kyle for the first time in a while, but Bananas is back.
Once again, over half the cast is rookies, so I don't know who almost half of them are. This whole season gives me Bloodlines vibes all over again, but at least the teams are all M/F. I'm sure if you look around, you can find some additional information on who all of these people are for drafting purposes.
Also, judging by the trailer, some of these people come in after the start but are still in the official cast list. If they're not in the first episodes, they don't get Episode Participation points until they're potentially eligible for the Elimination in that episode (i.e. if they come in at the end of the episode, they don't get it for that).
Trying to find a randomizer, there's not a lot of great options for sporting events right now, as scores for current sports tend to be pretty low. So let's use MLB attendance tomorrow (9/29) - that'll give Moss one more day just in case he wants to keep playing (and I value tradition more than UCLA and USC do). Picking games that aren't likely to be sold out:
Royals @ Tigers announced attendance
White Sox @ Twins announced attendance
Athletics @ Angels announced attendance
Rockies @ Giants announced attendance
We'll stack the 5 contestants by alphabetical order, figure out the remainder on the attendance numbers, and then establish the draft order based on that. Same basic process I've done in recent years. With 34 contestants, that should leave 2 left over in the free agent pool for if someone leaves (for good reason).
Let me know if you have any questions, otherwise I'll post the Draft Order probably some time Friday morning and we can get started.
EDIT: Moss is in, so we'll have five Team Owners and six players each with four left over.