The Challenge 29: Invasion (premieres Feb 7th)

[Byrd]

Spoiler: show

Laurel lost. Holy shit, I did not see that coming at all. She kind of quit (not entirely, but enough to let Camila win) there in the elimination, not sure what the heck happened. I think the womens' final is now wide open, any of them could take it. I still think the Darrell/CT winner is the favorite amongst the guys, but who knows, at this point.

Well, well, well, I guess this season's Fantasy title is still up for grabs after all. My prediction that I was about to run away with it was wrong.

Player Total Points Active Players
Byrd 610 2
Moss 560 2
Valisk 460 2
Xno Kappa 340 1
Headspace 285 0

Players:
Cory 220 MOSS YES
Ashley M 215 BYRD YES
Nelson 185 VALISK YES
Camila 165 XNO YES
Nicole 155 MOSS YES
Shane 145 BYRD NO
Amanda 135 XNO NO
Hunter 130 VALISK NO

[Valisk]

Was super surprised to see Camilla lose also. Especially how the elimination started off. Looked like Camilla couldn't even manipulate her rope, let alone tangle it up strategically. Seems like Laurel just got unlucky with a knotted portion of the rope.

I was surprised to see Nelson and Cory get back cool so quickly. Nelson played the shit out of that situation and still kept his "friendship" intact. Surely it would have been a different story had Cory lost.

I am tired of the cliff hangers. They keep dragging the season out. And the final is 3 days long. Sheesh.

[Byrd]

Today is Departure Day, so the likely season 30 cast, as tracked by Vevmo.

Spoiler: show

CT and Darrell both back. Sweet. Jordan's coming back? I thought he retired, but cool. Derrick Kosinski? Nice! Veronica??!?!?!?! Holy fucking shit.

[Xno Kappa]

Bring back Tonya!!! lol

[Valisk]

Yo! The same names/faces caught my attention too. Veronica, Jordan, and DERRICK?!? Couple throwbacks for real.

Wasn't Tonya involved in a lawsuit? Her and Kenny are never coming back. Where the fuck has Paula been? I want Coral more than anybody.

[Byrd]

Wasn't Tonya involved in a lawsuit? Her and Kenny are never coming back.

I think he was kidding. Tonya's never coming back. I think Evan and Kenny are conceivable, but very unlikely.

Where the fuck has Paula been? I want Coral more than anybody.

Paula became a mother, I think. Coral, too, maybe?

[Byrd]

Um ... this is an interesting development.

[Vil]

I'll check it out since it seems like just a 1-off and it's just 6 episodes, but it's nothing I otherwise would have been yearning for. The format seems like a twist on the old Gauntlet format, right?

[Headspace]

Can't be any worse than this season. Jesus Christ it feels like a slog. Format isn't great, lot of the players weren't great, the editing and spacing of things is not great.


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[Byrd]

Can't be any worse than this season. Jesus Christ it feels like a slog. Format isn't great, lot of the players weren't great, the editing and spacing of things is not great.

Really? I have actually enjoyed this season so far, and I doubt the Final is going to change that much. Compared to the last two (particularly Bloodlines), it was a move in the positive direction. Same quality challenges, some "good TV" from the newer people (Amanda, Hunter, Ashley M), and the return of two old favorites (Shane, Darrell) contributing heavily. It had challenges like Darrell vs. Bananas, Darrell vs. Zach, and Darrell vs. CT. The Underdog Bloodbath was also excellent. Laurel finally going down (in more ways than one...ba dum psssh). Is it a classic season? No, as the format was pretty fundamentally flawed (the teams should have interacted more in elimination related competition instead of pre-determined elimination rounds). But is it better than the last couple seasons? Definitely.

[Moss]

I'm with Heady. Not a fan of the format or a lot of the producer decisions (cliffhangers, no-elimination days) but really most of the underdog cast was goddamn annoying

Ashley and even Amanda are OK as tertiary characters, as they were in previous seasons, but I can not handle their bullshit every episode. Loud dumb complainy mean girls.

[Vil]

The biggest problem to me is the flat format for the second half. I liked the way they set it up pre-Oasis though. If the point is that "to be a champion, you have to beat the champions" then how about not giving so much help? They met at the Oasis and were up 12-8, so just make eliminations Champions versus Challengers and tweak the format somewhat. Shane and Darrell's return were two highlights of this season for me.

I generally prefer ending with an elimination or even ending with a club/house scene after the elimination, but they went overboard in the second part of this season with them. They did it with the last 3 male eliminations, plus the non-elimination before the bloodbath all in a row? A final elimination between CT and Darrell, of course they'd hold off on it there, and of course they'll try to get one more Bananas episode. If any, I actually liked the cliffhanger during the Shane/Cory/Nelson stuff more, but the producers aren't going to get Shane on an extra episode over Bananas or CT/Darrell.

As for this episode, I know some people (maybe not here, but I saw comments about it) weren't too fond of that specific challenge for the final elimination, but I like it. It's one of the better challenges in my opinion since it's a more hybrid one, but it does not make for great tv. For a final elimination, I like it better than the prior two Champ ones, even though those make for better tv/spectating.

2 full episodes of the final mission though? Even though it's 3 days long, I was hoping they'd only need like 1 1/3 episodes to do that.

Spoiler: show

I'm not surprised CT won, but that was a freaking blowout. I don't care for the format of the finals but I'm not surprised. I would have preferred a few options:
1. Champions versus Challengers - I thought that the point is they have to beat the champions, though they'd have to balance things out.
2. CT/Camila as a full-time team while say... Ashley would have to do 2 legs of the final mission with Nelson, 2 with Cory, and then you could still have 1st/2nd/3rd on both sides

[Valisk]

Seeing CT beat Darrell was bittersweet. CT is on my fantasy team and a favorite, but Darrell is a favorite returning after a long hiatus. CT did an amazing job intertwining that rope with his final few minutes. Jump through it over and over again was genius. Hopefully Darrell will be back on future Challenges.

Smashley is fucking bipolar. I love how Nelson called her out on her shit and did the thing with the "all cameras on her." Hilarious.

Sucks that Diem's passing anniversary happened during filming. That was sad. Heart was being tugged during that montage.

Stranded with a Milli:

Spoiler: show

That Temptation doe! I'm very surprised that neither one took it. What's the point of both suffering? They should have come up with some kind of plan for someone to take it. It wasn't so bad though since it seemed like it came on day 38. It was more money too. I am surprised that Makody didn't throw the trip and make Alwx and Gina stay another night without water or food. I thought they were going to drop the hammer. Guess they were fed up and ready to go too. Plus Alex and Gina were pretty dug in. Great show. Hope they bring it back. Would love to see Makody on the Challenge. The others... not so much.

[Xno Kappa]

When CT mentioned what a day to do the ceremony, I immediately realized why he didn't want to talk. Those feels were heavy.

SWAMD:

Spoiler: show

Can't stand the fact those two freeloaders made it to 40 days. Gina constantly crying and bitching when she wasn't even carrying shit was rage inducing. Otherwise, great show. Hopefully they continue with it and would definitely love to see Makody on a challenge.

[Moss]

Seeing CT beat Darrell was bittersweet. CT is on my fantasy team and a favorite, but Darrell is a favorite returning after a long hiatus. CT did an amazing job intertwining that rope with his final few minutes. Jump through it over and over again was genius. Hopefully Darrell will be back on future Challenges.

Smashley is fucking bipolar. I love how Nelson called her out on her shit and did the thing with the "all cameras on her." Hilarious.

Sucks that Diem's passing anniversary happened during filming. That was sad. Heart was being tugged during that montage.

Stranded with a Milli:

Spoiler: show

That Temptation doe! I'm very surprised that neither one took it. What's the point of both suffering? They should have come up with some kind of plan for someone to take it. It wasn't so bad though since it seemed like it came on day 38. It was more money too. I am surprised that Makody didn't throw the trip and make Alwx and Gina stay another night without water or food. I thought they were going to drop the hammer. Guess they were fed up and ready to go too. Plus Alex and Gina were pretty dug in. Great show. Hope they bring it back. Would love to see Makody on the Challenge. The others... not so much.

The Nelson thing was hilarious, most I've liked him all season

CT nailed that elimination so hard, was really impressed by that

Thank fuck they made everyone individual for the final, much better that way. 4v4 or 2v2 champs v challengers would've been cool too, though

[Byrd]

I'm surprised how easily Nelson and Nicole finished that rope challenge, whereas CT couldn't finish it, and Cory just gave up. I think any of the three girls could win the challenge at this point, and either Nelson or CT could do it. Cory's "How many triangles are on the instruction sign?" thing cracked me up.

As a side note, I gave Cory and Nicole 20 points for an on-camera producer discussion during the challenge, but took off 10 points for TJ's analysis of their performance in that challenge to partially balance it out because they didn't deserve the full 20 for that.

Down to just one episode left, and the scores are really tight.

Standings:
Byrd 645
Moss 635
Valisk 510
Xno Kappa 375
Headspace 285

Remaining contestants:
Cory 260 MOSS
Ashley M 250 BYRD
Camila 200 XNO
Nelson 195 VALISK
Nicole 190 MOSS
CT 115 VALISK

[Vil]

Math is hard! It's a good thing that they got the smartest and strongest people to the end. I'm hoping they get a solo leg at the end. I know they've been saying it's three legs, but I don't know if that's supposed to mean that's three legs total or while partnered up.

[Byrd]

Math is hard! It's a good thing that they got the smartest and strongest people to the end. I'm hoping they get a solo leg at the end. I know they've been saying it's three legs, but I don't know if that's supposed to mean that's three legs total or while partnered up.

What I would like to see is the three partnered legs, followed by a solo leg. And the start of that last solo leg is staggered by the time differences in the previous leg. I want to see someone cross the finish line in first, and know they've won, not have to wait for TJ to gather everyone together and announce who won. That's boring and anticlimactic. Yes, if you stagger the start, there's a good chance that they'll have such a huge lead it's relatively anticlimactic, but I want to see that race to the end, and know that it actually means something.

[Xno Kappa]

What I would like to see is the three partnered legs, followed by a solo leg. And the start of that last solo leg is staggered by the time differences in the previous leg. I want to see someone cross the finish line in first, and know they've won, not have to wait for TJ to gather everyone together and announce who won. That's boring and anticlimactic. Yes, if you stagger the start, there's a good chance that they'll have such a huge lead it's relatively anticlimactic, but I want to see that race to the end, and know that it actually means something.

Agreed.

Also, I felt terrible for Camila. Solving the puzzle on the wrong pole has to be a huge morale killer.

[Vil]

Agree about the delayed starts for the final leg so much. Unless there is a purpose, like winning a leg gets something, I don't like starting the final leg together. Oh well.

That end of the episode though. When the producers piped up, I thought somehow they may have forgot a piece or something like that. Wrong pole is bad, but we'll probably have 10 minutes of Camila freaking out about that to start the final episode. I guess that's how they'll fill up an hour.