The Challenge 29: Invasion (premieres Feb 7th)

[Headspace]

Sage CT is best CT


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[Byrd]

Sage CT is best CT

For sure. When CT punched out Adam on Duel II, I never, ever wanted to see him again. He took the better part of two years off, and came back a changed man. I don't know if it was just general maturing, Diem's influence (both before and after her passing), the murder of his brother, becoming a father or perhaps quitting the rage-inducing steroids (pure speculation on my part), but the dude is a much better person now than he used to be. And equally entertaining, just in a very different way - he's hilarious now, and one of my favorite people on the Challenge.

I'll be fine with Darrell beating him in an Elimination for Fantasy reasons, but I'll also be OK if he beats Darrell and ends up in the final, and him winning this season would be a perfectly satisfying conclusion. It might also be time for him to ride off into the sunset at that point.

[Valisk]

Nicole and her love triangle is annoying. She's made aggressive too. If she was a dude, she would have already been removed from the show for harassment. I wonder how her and Laurel's relationship is handling all this footage saying she wants Cara and Laurel is literally Plan B in every sense of the word. She is getting played for a capital FOOL.

Shane's antics are also getting very tiresome.

The challenge looked like so much fun. Dope idea.

Interesting twist with the no elimination this time, bloodbath next time thing.

[Byrd]

Nicole and her love triangle is annoying. She's made aggressive too. If she was a dude, she would have already been removed from the show for harassment. I wonder how her and Laurel's relationship is handling all this footage saying she wants Cara and Laurel is literally Plan B in every sense of the word. She is getting played for a capital FOOL.

She seems genuinely confused that going after two girls (who are good friends) in front of each other came back to haunt her. I'm really confused by her confusion.

Interesting twist with the no elimination this time, bloodbath next time thing.

Next week, based on the preview and the Underdog bloodbath, looks there's a 4 way challenge with the winner advancing to the final, and then a 3 way elimination with only the winner surviving. That three way tug of war looks like a ton of fun.

That makes sense to me, as the following week, they'll have the final Champion Elimination, which gives them Camila vs Laurel and Darrell vs CT to be the final eliminations before the final for maximum drama and TV exposure. Eliminating any remaining politics from the underdogs side is interesting, as Shane and the Mean Girls just lost any advantage they might have had there. I still tend to think Nicole and Jenna will advance for the girls, and Hunter and Shane for the guys, but I wouldn't count out either Cory or Ashley.

Fantasy-wise, my lead got bigger, and I tend to think it is only going to get bigger.

Standings:
Byrd 525 (Laurel, Darrell, Ashley M, Shane)
Moss 450 (Cory, Nicole)
Valisk 390 (CT, Hunter, Nelson)
Xno Kappa 295 (Amanda, Camila)
Headspace 285 (Jenna)

Top Players:
Ashley M 175 BYRD
Cory 160 MOSS
Amanda 130 XNO
Nelson 130 VALISK
Shane 130 BYRD
Camila 125 XNO
Hunter 125 VALISK
Jenna 125 HEAD
Laurel 105 BYRD
Nicole 105 MOSS

[Xno Kappa]

Hunter going on his huge rant about "Nobody can beat me!" in the van and CT in the background was like "I can" had me in tears lmao.

[Byrd]

Hunter going on his huge rant about "Nobody can beat me!" in the van and CT in the background was like "I can" had me in tears lmao.

Yeah, I missed that when I watched it, but MTV tweeted it out. Hunter actually does seem like a pretty physical competitor, though; if he can get over being easily baited by Shane, I think we might seem him stick around for a few seasons.

[Valisk]

Hunter going on his huge rant about "Nobody can beat me!" in the van and CT in the background was like "I can" had me in tears lmao.

Yeah, I missed that when I watched it, but MTV tweeted it out.

Sounds like Commish points are in order if XK was in tears and MTV tweeted it out!

[Moss]

No eliminations challenge was lame lame lame

Really hate a lot of the decisions the producers made this season

[Headspace]

No eliminations challenge was lame lame lame

Really hate a lot of the decisions the producers made this season

Honestly they need to go back to the style of editing, drama, and competition of Fresh Meat 2. I feel like that was peak Challenge.

[Moss]

Honestly they need to go back to the style of editing, drama, and competition of Fresh Meat 2. I feel like that was peak Challenge.

Agreed. It isn't difficult. I want to see some drama, a challenge, and an elimination each episode. No cliffhanger bullshit. Every challenge should have stakes. Last place and winner's choice in elimination is one way to accomplish this but I'm open to others.

"Not an elimination day" doesn't fucking fly. I don't care who wins a negligible amount of money that most of them won't see anyway.

[Xno Kappa]

Marathoned SWAMD with the wifey because of you guys. Fucking love this show. Cody is a dick, but at least he's frugal. The other four were pissing me off with all the petty spending and straight up hijacking the money pool and items for themselves. Told the wifey the second they bought that 2-person tent that it was gonna lead to a lot of hurt feelings.

I think my strategy would be to just straight up live on my own between journeys. The drama of choosing sides seems way to mentally taxing for any benefit.

[Valisk]

I really hope Stranded with a Million Dollars catches on. Would love to see future iterations of that show. The strategy of that can go so many ways. As of now, I'm more interested in the strategy/reaction people will have when the others aren't compromising or straight up shut you out from team resources.

Seems like the best strategy is to not draw hard lines. Especially if your initial alliance isn't mentally capable of sticking it out. Will leave you high and dry during end game.

[Vil]

I finally bothered to go ahead and watched all of SWAMD in part thanks to a few comments in this thread. Great concept, not as great cast. I'd love to see more of it, but I'm worried that either the players or production will adjust too much. The whole strategy side of it could be pretty complex. The one question I have is that I don't know if they've explained the nuances of the rules and all. It felt like watching that show "Hunted" though a few episodes in I decided "f it, just roll with it".

It would be kind of hilarious seeing the crossfit freaks trying to handle this. Having to live in the shelter this season before making it to the Oasis, nah.

[Byrd]

Stranded has proven to be an interesting show - nobody in the show comes across particularly well (although some worse than others, for sure). I suppose that's a side effect or being kept in forced company while hungry, miserable, and uncomfortable for 40 days. Cody and Makani seem like natural fits for the Challenge; Makani's accent is very much like Camila's to the point where it's almost distracting. Alex and Cody would also make for a very interesting team on Rivals IV.

Assuming there is a second season, I will be very curious how the contestants adapt their strategy, since no contestants had any idea what would happen this time, and strategy just evolved naturally. At the least, I would assume people will be much better about rationing food, at least initially, and will buy more rice and peanut butter, and less pizza and sandwiches.

[Valisk]

Ok, I agree with Heady that this season's format has been garbage. The team bank idea was a bit of a flop.

I did like tonight's 4-way, last place goes home challenge and the 3-way elimination. But the season as a whole has been poorly executed. The Champs and the Underdogs weren't infused properly.

Smart of Nelson with the chess move. When both Shane and Cory said they were working with Nelson, I was like yo, he pulled a fast one on them (turns out literally).

Not looking forward to next week's Champ elimination because it looks like it's pairs and not 1v1.

SWAMD:

Spoiler: show

Oh how the tides have turned. Unless it was edited weirdly, I don't think Alex should have threatened to rip up the money so quickly. Cody asked them what they wanted. I'm sure he was just being facetious and playing a mind game with them, but still seems like Alex jumped the gun there.

So there has to be rules about taking things right? Because last week when they were on Makani's temptation, I was wondering why they didn't raid MaKody's stuff. While on Gina's temptation, I wondered why they didn't go into Gina and Alex's tent to get the money. Also, Alex and Gina had ample time to steal the pot either prior to the fruit basket challenge or after. I have a feeling that production had to step in and set some ground runs when things go too messy. There has to be some crew onsight for unexpected incidents or physical violence.

[Byrd]

Not looking forward to next week's Champ elimination because it looks like it's pairs and not 1v1.

It's not pairs for the Champs Elimination next week, I don't think. I took this from my phone, so forgive the quality and huge like xbox size.*

Spoiler: show

You can see Camila and Laurel working on it, with CT and Darrell back behind TJ. You've also got Ashley, Nicole and Nelson in the background, so presumably they CGI'ed out the fourth person, whether that be Shane or Cory. If Shane managed to instigate a fight between those two that gets Cory kicked out of the game right then and there, I'm going to be so damn impressed.

Standings:

Byrd 580 (Shane, Ashley M, Darrell, Laurel)
Moss 500 (Cory, Nicole)
Valisk 425 (Nelson, CT)
Xno Kappa 310 (Camila)
Headspace 285 (n/a)

Uh, yeah, good luck, I may lap the field here. Or at least Headspace.

Top Contestants:
Ashley M 200
Cory 175
Nelson 155
Nicole 140
Shane 140
Amanda 135
Camila 135
Hunter 130
Jenna 125
Laurel 120

Overall, good episode, that was a nice cliffhanger to end it on as opposed to an annoying one. Hunter's elimination surprised me, as did Jenna's, although I should have realized that a puzzle was likely to be their downfall, and they usually have puzzles at the final 4. I did like the Bloodbath - nobody won immunity, and everyone had to show a combination of physical strength, endurance, and mental acuity.

And for someone who is such a Mean Girl, Amanda's got some good motivations. Hunter as well - I felt bad for the dude when he was practically crying because he'd let his family down, and wasn't going to be able to open his gym for physically disabled people. Where were those motivations all season? I would have liked the guy way more.

I'll post more on Stranded later. I'm going to watch that from bed, I don't need to Spreadsheet that one up.

*Is that still a thing? I don't think it's a thing anymore. Fuck, I'm old.

[Vil]

If Shane managed to instigate a fight between those two that gets Cory kicked out of the game right then and there, I'm going to be so damn impressed.

Whether it works or not or it was his plan all along, the cliffhanger works for me in conjunction with that scene earlier where he was with CT/Darrell. Or maybe if he loses it was just to make a point about the time he actually couldn't just outsmart the others. After Shane talked about having a deal with Nelson and Nelson talked about having a deal with Cory, I really was expecting Cory to say he had one with Shane.

Valisk, your WSMAD question:

Spoiler: show

They made a point a few episodes back saying that you can't touch other people's stuff when they're on a temptation, etc. Eating peanut butter while the others are just hanging out at the beach/river is fine. I think there either were more rules prior to the start or on the tablet in recent episodes though. After all, I don't necessarily get why that pertains other than their own personal belongings - i.e. their clothing. Everything else was purchased with group money unless they are able to claim ownership by right of conquest or something.

[Valisk]

Ah ok, my bad about the Champs elimination. I remember that jungle gym, tangle game being 2v2 in the past. Good catch Byrd with your huge XBox sized image*

*nobody says that anymore

Thanks Vil, that makes sense.

Question regarding latest SWAMD:

Spoiler: show

Wasn't one of the rules of the mini-challenge was that the contents of the basket couldn't spill out? Gonna rewatch because I swear that was one of the rules. When it happened to MaKody, I thought they were disqualified. But apparently not.

[Xno Kappa]

Good episode this week. Loved the format for the challenge and elimination. No idea why Cory was so pissed lol. Nelson played them both. And Shane is god damn hilarious for instigating it further afterwards lmao.

SWAMD

Spoiler: show

Alex and Gina are a bunch of little bitches. That whole 4-man alliance they had going were a bunch of little bitches. While MaKody was rationing everything to maintain themselves with logical buys, they were buying pizzas and burgers all the damn time and are now literally burning money. I don't see Cody and Makani as bullies at all at this point. They were outnumbered and outcasted for so long; it's fucking laughable hearing Alex or Gina cry wolf.

[Byrd]

MTV has posted the first 2:20 of the episode online. It doesn't tell us everything, but it answers at least one question.