The Challenge 28: Rivals III

[Byrd]

Another god damn cliffhanger episode. Sigh.

Spreadsheets are sent out. Close race for third.

Standings:

Xno Kappa 405
Moss 325
Tyven 275
Byrd 275
Headspace 270
Valisk 230

Highest Scoring Players:
Ashley 120
Camila 120
Tony 115
Johnny Bananas 110
Cory 105
Devin 105
Sarah 105
Nany 100

[Xno Kappa]

Dario is a fucking god damn idiot.

[Byrd]

Dario is a fucking god damn idiot.

I tend to think so as well, but someone on Reddit pointed out something that makes sense. Whoever loses that draw is going up against Nate and Christina and going to, in all likelihood, beat them. So by throwing in Bananas and Vince, he makes an enemy of two teams that are probably going to come back, and are amongst the favorites to win challenges in the future, so this makes those two teams less likely to throw in Dario and Nicole. Of course, with only 6 teams left after this elimination, there's only so many options to throw in when you do win the challenge. That kind of thinking makes more sense at the beginning of the game, when there's still 11 or so teams out there.

That logic certainly wasn't explained by Dario on the show, but if that was part of his thought process, that makes at least some sense.

Dario's also an idiot for using "I" and "me" over and over when announcing his decision. Even if it was 100% him, it's still going to make drive him and Nicole further apart.

[Moss]

Dario is a fucking god damn idiot.

I tend to think so as well, but someone on Reddit pointed out something that makes sense. Whoever loses that draw is going up against Nate and Christina and going to, in all likelihood, beat them. So by throwing in Bananas and Vince, he makes an enemy of two teams that are probably going to come back, and are amongst the favorites to win challenges in the future, so this makes those two teams less likely to throw in Dario and Nicole. Of course, with only 6 teams left after this elimination, there's only so many options to throw in when you do win the challenge. That kind of thinking makes more sense at the beginning of the game, when there's still 11 or so teams out there.

That logic certainly wasn't explained by Dario on the show, but if that was part of his thought process, that makes at least some sense.

Dario's also an idiot for using "I" and "me" over and over when announcing his decision. Even if it was 100% him, it's still going to make drive him and Nicole further apart.

His mistake was explaining everything out loud, lol

also is it really that fucking hard to show a challenge and the following elimination in each episode?

[Xno Kappa]

Yeah the editing this season has been atrocious. I'm assuming it had to be done this way due to the unusual amount of team losses outside of competition.

[Valisk]

I loved how "revealing" the challenge was on 2 levels. 1, it shows how well you know your partner, the strategy, and how in sync you are. 2, it puts your cards on the table for others to see. If teams were paying attention, the can see who has an alliance or perceived alliance. Who a person would most likely want to get rid of and who they would most likely save/not nominate.

The only gripe I have is about the digging. Everyone dug up their partner in the order/heat they answered the final question correctly. I would have liked to see them finish the question portion first and depending on how long it took you to answer after the first wave reached the finish line, that would be your time penalty. So Dario and Bananas would get to start digging as soon as the 2nd round starts. Then if a person finished a question behind them, they had to wait 10 seconds. 2 questions behind them, 20 sec. So on and so forth.

And cliffhangers blow balls. They had to draw out the season because of all the people leaving the game early on from injury, family emergencies, quitting, and domestic violence. Crazy.

P.S. - My team blows balls and this is some bullshit.

[Moss]

I loved how "revealing" the challenge was on 2 levels. 1, it shows how well you know your partner, the strategy, and how in sync you are. 2, it puts your cards on the table for others to see. If teams were paying attention, the can see who has an alliance or perceived alliance. Who a person would most likely want to get rid of and who they would most likely save/not nominate.

The only gripe I have is about the digging. Everyone dug up their partner in the order/heat they answered the final question correctly. I would have liked to see them finish the question portion first and depending on how long it took you to answer after the first wave reached the finish line, that would be your time penalty. So Dario and Bananas would get to start digging as soon as the 2nd round starts. Then if a person finished a question behind them, they had to wait 10 seconds. 2 questions behind them, 20 sec. So on and so forth.

And cliffhangers blow balls. They had to draw out the season because of all the people leaving the game early on from injury, family emergencies, quitting, and domestic violence. Crazy.

P.S. - My team blows balls and this is some bullshit.

it was definitely a smart wrinkle to force teams to talk shit about each other

as for the most recent episode, seeing Nate's team beat Cory's team in a physical challenge was amazing. the fact that Devin's team has been eliminated once already and now continuously lucks out of the eliminations is infuriating. I hope they go head to head against team Vinny for maximum trash talk

[Byrd]

FYI, I've been moving this week. While Comcast is hooked back up as of yesterday, I probably won't be doing the spreadsheet until after this coming Wednesday's episode, and I will just score them back to back and send out one checklist for both.

Sorry for the delay.

[Byrd]

After episodes 11 & 12, the standings are:

Xno Kappa 440
Moss 370
Byrd 360
Tyven 305
Headspace 285
Valisk 285

Top Contestants:
Johnny Bananas 140
Sarah 135
Nany 130
Ashley 125
Camila 120
Devin 120

Moving sucks, sorry for the delay. Should be back on schedule from here on out.

[Byrd]

Spreadsheet sent out. Only one episode left this season, barring a STSHS show. Noticed one mistake from last week, which is fixed.

Let me know if you see any others.

Week 13 Standings:
Xno Kappa 475
Moss 390
Byrd 370
Valisk 330
Tyven 300
Headspace 285

Top Contestants:
Johnny Bananas 160
Sarah 160
Devin 150
Nany 130
Ashley 125
Camila 120
Tony 115

[Headspace]

Some bullshit fam


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Byrd]

For what it's worth, for scoring next week, winning/second/third place teams will still get even points for the final, regardless of how the money is split.

I will give a 15 pt commissioner's award for anyone who keeps both shares of the money.

And while this is an interesting experiment to do once, I hope they never do this again. I don't think it's a good idea to establish that you can win the final and still not get any money; quality contestants will probably be less willing to come back.

[Vil]

I doubt it will be used, but I agree that it shouldn't be re-used. At least not for a while.

It's crazy to think this is the same series that had Battle of the Seasons 14 years ago. People agreeing to vote based on the point system? People agreeing the share a portion of the prize money with the losers? When TJ announced this, I immediately thought of Coral laughing her ass off at the end of that season because Holly refused to make a deal with her.

[Xno Kappa]

Just wrap it up son. I got this on lock!

[Moss]

One of the most disappointing episodes in challenge history.

1) No competition to see who has to compete for the 3rd spot? More random fucking skull pulling bullshit? Because watching people pull skulls out of a hat is such riveting television. If they're worried that things will be too obvious with the strong teams like Bananas/Sarah steamrolling to the final, DONT MAKE SUCH A STRONG TEAM.

2) Devin & Cheyenne being in a final is such a terrible, boring result. Cheyenne is an absolute zero for personality and challenge skill. She might have the least athletic (not including morbidly obese) physique I have ever seen. I'm all for the Devins of the world screaming back at the Challenge vets, but they haven't done shit to back it up. He's a dirt poor man's version of Wes, who would actually win the damn eliminations when the haters sent him in. Anyway, here we are. Get eliminated first (so you can come back first because MTV is out of people on standby), make sure not to finish in dead last in any challenge, and finally win 5 coin flips so you never have to compete again. I'm sure they will mount a serious challenge to win the final.

3) The "screw over your partner" wrinkle is a desperate attempt by MTV to have some drama in what should be an easy Bananas/Sarah final win. It's also dumb to have it in a rivals season because really, why the fuck would you split the money given the choice? Sure it's cool Bananas and Sarah have mended their relationship during the season but is it worth $175k? Fuck no. No month-long friendship is worth that to these people.

I've enjoyed the season overall but MTV screwed themselves by creating 2 strong teams with an obvious alliance. Now we get to watch them waltz through a final over possibly the worst team the entire season. Fuck.

[Byrd]

Cheyenne is an absolute zero for personality.

Really? I find her pretty hilarious in some of her confessionals in a more subdued way, and she seems like a relatively well balanced individual. She's just not an over-the-top personality like most of the rest of the contestants. She's far and away my favorite new contestant this season; I would love to see her come back again.

I'm sure they will mount a serious challenge to win the final.

Isn't it true pretty much every season that there's a goat, though? Last season, it was Jenna and Brianna; the season before that, Jenna and Jay. The season before that, Devyn somehow stuck around until the final. This year, it's Devin and Cheyenne. I do agree that luck was the primary reason they made it to the end, though, as opposed to politics or winning challenges. There's zero chance they finish first this time, but I think there's at least a slim chance they could pass Vince and Jenna for second. I think there's also a good chance that they're the only team that actually splits the money. I could totally see Bananas and Vince winning first and second, and leaving Sarah and Jenna penniless while Team BananaPig rides off into the sunset, rewarded for their jackholery.

How I would have fixed this season: Losers go straight into the jungle. Winners nominate two teams *or* winner nominates one team, and the rest of the cast votes on the third team. Regardless of how they are selected, all three teams compete in the Elimination. Whoever finishes last is out, and whoever finishes first gets immunity from elimination the next episode (although they can still lose their way in).

I really wanted to see Bananas vs. Vince in that last elimination; that would have actually made it interesting, although probably made the final even more of a foregone conclusion than it already was. The season was almost a foregone conclusion with the way they set up the teams from Day One.

I posted this yesterday on Reddit:
I wouldn't mind a season where they ranked the guys and girls from top to bottom through some method (all-time winnings, average place finish, challenge wins, etc), and the top guy was matched up with the bottom girl and vice versa. Matching Bananas up with Casey or Simone or someone like that would be far more interesting than matching him up with the best female partner and his cousin with the second best female partner. And if he still won that season, I couldn't help but tip my cap to him.

[Moss]

Really? I find her pretty hilarious in some of her confessionals in a more subdued way, and she seems like a relatively well balanced individual. She's just not an over-the-top personality like most of the rest of the contestants. She's far and away my favorite new contestant this season; I would love to see her come back again.

She has had her moments in the confessionals, like when she saw through Corey's advances (although 2 episodes later they were banging anyway). Really I'm fine with some subdued personalities to contrast with the crazies, but the person has to be able to compete. Ev seemed pretty normal from what I remember, as an example.

Isn't it true pretty much every season that there's a goat, though? Last season, it was Jenna and Brianna; the season before that, Jenna and Jay. The season before that, Devyn somehow stuck around until the final. This year, it's Devin and Cheyenne. I do agree that luck was the primary reason they made it to the end, though, as opposed to politics or winning challenges. There's zero chance they finish first this time, but I think there's at least a slim chance they could pass Vince and Jenna for second. I think there's also a good chance that they're the only team that actually splits the money. I could totally see Bananas and Vince winning first and second, and leaving Sarah and Jenna penniless while Team BananaPig rides off into the sunset, rewarded for their jackholery.

Bolded is the crux of my issue. I don't feel like they did a single thing to earn their spot. Literally their only accomplishment is "never finish dead last."

Why do you think they would split it? It's possible of course but either of them would be stupid to do that. Also, maybe I misunderstood the rules, but I thought it was only the first place team that gets the no-split option?

How I would have fixed this season: Losers go straight into the jungle. Winners nominate two teams *or* winner nominates one team, and the rest of the cast votes on the third team. Regardless of how they are selected, all three teams compete in the Elimination. Whoever finishes last is out, and whoever finishes first gets immunity from elimination the next episode (although they can still lose their way in).

I like the idea but I think in practice you lose a lot of drama if only one of 3 competing teams is eliminated. Also, as far as randomness in eliminations, I did like that previous system where everyone except for the winner had to flip the wooden things and risk going in. Then Jordan pulled the ultimate power move but lost because one hand.

I really wanted to see Bananas vs. Vince in that last elimination; that would have actually made it interesting, although probably made the final even more of a foregone conclusion than it already was. The season was almost a foregone conclusion with the way they set up the teams from Day One.

I posted this yesterday on Reddit:
I wouldn't mind a season where they ranked the guys and girls from top to bottom through some method (all-time winnings, average place finish, challenge wins, etc), and the top guy was matched up with the bottom girl and vice versa. Matching Bananas up with Casey or Simone or someone like that would be far more interesting than matching him up with the best female partner and his cousin with the second best female partner. And if he still won that season, I couldn't help but tip my cap to him.

I like that idea. Also the first season of fresh meat (I think?) when they had the fresh meat all do the combine and then they got drafted by the vets. That was fucking awesome.

[Quicklet]

1) No competition to see who has to compete for the 3rd spot? More random fucking skull pulling bullshit? Because watching people pull skulls out of a hat is such riveting television. If they're worried that things will be too obvious with the strong teams like Bananas/Sarah steamrolling to the final, DONT MAKE SUCH A STRONG TEAM.

Also, as far as randomness in eliminations, I did like that previous system where everyone except for the winner had to flip the wooden things and risk going in. Then Jordan pulled the ultimate power move but lost because one hand.

They pulled this same shit in Free Agents where CT and Theresa got sent home right before the final because they got matched up against Bananas and Laurel in the forced elimination round, while Zach and Devyn got free passes to the finals and sucked.

[Moss]

They pulled this same shit in Free Agents where CT and Theresa got sent home right before the final because they got matched up against Bananas and Laurel in the forced elimination round, while Zach and Devyn got free passes to the finals and sucked.

ugh yeah I kinda remember that. I mainly remember Zach and Laurel being paired up for part of the final and Zach gassing out, with Laurel berating him for it the entire time. Some of the best cosmic justice ever served

[Valisk]

The series needs more CT. It baffles me that Bananas can consistently make it to the finals every year giving how he has played the game. The contestants aren't smart enough to get him up out of there early. With the Bananas + Vince alliance, the series needs a strong competitor that isn't easily manipulated and roped into temporary alliances that put Bananas in a position of power. Wes is kind of that, but I feel he has lost a step. Zach could also be that.

Bonehead move of this season is definitely Dario nominating Cory/Ashley instead of Bananas/Sarah. Guess who ended up sending him and Nicole home? On one hand, I see why he did it. He would have a target on his back by the 2 strongest teams if (and in all likely when) Bananas and Sarah returned. But you can't give these guys easy roads to the finals year in and year out.

The choosing to keep all the money for yourself as opposed to splitting it with your partner has the potential to create some delicious drama for seasons to come. They would be the most hated/more hated person in Challenge history. Maybe this is just what we need for people to start gunning for Bananas early and stop rolling out the red carpet for him.

In closing, this series needs more CT.