The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30 (and Champs vs. Pros Discussion Thread)

[Vil]

I meant to post the other day when I saw the cast announcement, but there's a follow-up to Champs vs. Pros coming next month. A few changes:

Miz is hosting

Champs are no longer necessarily Challenge champions. Pros are now "Stars" and looks more like generic casting that you could find on some other "celebrity" reality show.

It's not like they have tons of Champs to choose from. Especially with the women, most winners were either on Invasion and/or CvP, or else seem to have moved on.

I know some people last time around were all like "Lolo for a normal season of the Challenge, please!" but with this more flexible casting for that side of it, I am wondering if they're going to just grab random "stars" and possibly hope to turn them into challenge people with this series kind of testing the waters to see how they perform/interact.

[Xno Kappa]

Fuck yeah CT! Kailah, needs to do work next week and get her ass in the final too.

[Vil]

I really don't care about the guys side of it at all. If you include all the Redemption dudes, Bananas and Hunter (because of the hand) were the only people I didn't want to see in the final. Yes, I would have kind of loved seeing Dario in the final because it would be hilarious having partners screaming at him and him clearly not caring. Derrick would maybe be my sentimental favorite, but I also kind of want to see Tony just for the pure "what the fuck happened?" aspect of it. Any of the other guys, fine! I've never really cared for Jordan, but him hating on Cara Maria is earning him permanent points in my book.

The girls? Oh hell no. I want Tori or Jenna to win. I've never loved or hated Jenna, but she kind of defaults into a spot where I'm sort of rooting for her here, also just to see something different. I guess Kailah would satisfy that too, but I just haven't been a fan. She's towards the top athletically, but seems to be pretty bad at the rest of the game and doesn't even seem to realize it. Who does she think she is, Camila? Then there are the other two, and I'll just say I don't want Cara Maria to win. I don't want either of them to win, but I am so sick of Cara Maria. At least the production staff has no difficulty making a joke of Camila/making her look terrible. These past couple episodes are about as bad as they'll probably ever depict Cara, and I can't stand her.

[Byrd]

After this week:

Standings:
Vil 690 2
Valisk 660 1
Byrd 500 2
Headspace 475 2
Moss 420 1
Xno Kappa 360 2

Contestant Standings to Date:
Nelson 245 VALISK HOME
Camila 215 VIL GAME
Veronica 180 VIL HOME
Hunter 175 VALISK GAME
Tony 160 HEAD GAME
Tori 160 VIL GAME
Shane 150 VALISK HOME
Simone 150 MOSS HOME

Contestant Standings This Week:
Cara Maria 30
CT 30
Jordan 20
Tori 15
Camila 5
Hunter 5
Tony 5
Kailah 5
Derrick K 5
Jenna 5

[Valisk]

Weekly Post: I HATE SMASHLEY!!!

[Byrd]

Standings with just the final to go:
Vil 735 2
Valisk 660 0
Byrd 535 1
Headspace 485 1
Moss 430 1
Xno Kappa 365 1

Point Total for Remaining Contestants:
Camila 250 VIL GAME
Tori 170 VIL GAME
Derrick K 160 BYRD GAME
Cara Maria 155 HEAD GAME
CT 140 XNO GAME
Jordan 140 MOSS GAME

Note: Shane and Simone still have more points than CT and Jordan.

Point Totals This Week:
Camila 35
Derrick K 35
Cara Maria 10
Jordan 10
Tori 10
CT 5

Scoring Notes:
Derrick K wins elimination (15)
Camila won elimination (15)
Derrick and Camila made the final without seeing Redemption House (15)
Tori crying while talking to sister on phone (5)
Cara Maria crying for fear of skydiving (5)
Jordan got in an ambulance, but not extracted. Partial points (5)

[Vil]

This is a really strong finalist group. Then again, the only thing stopping this on the girls side would have been Jenna and Kailah and when you send Veronica straight to Redemption instead of Camila, you end up looking stupid as hell chilling awkwardly on your rope swing after getting smoked in the final elimination. Let's be serious. Veronica would have probably figured that out and done fine as well, and those two would still be chilling back towards the start.

The editors thank Jordan for that gold mine of material, acting up before the skydiving. What an unnecessary thing. If it were something like "your time starts once you touch down", then it'd be another story, but instead it was pointless other than doing some cool thing before starting the final.

Rooting for Tori and Derrick here, but I don't really care that much on the guys' side.

[Valisk]

Vil is uncatchable. Is it possible to win 1st place in the final AND get kicked off the show? Lol. Otherwise you guys with people remaining are toast.

I liked the season overall. The Redemption House could have been handled a little better. They also could have made it dirtier by switching up the double cross nominations and making them pick opposite sex people to throw in every now and then.

Last, and certainly not least, FUCK ASHLEY SMASHLEY M!!!!!

[Xno Kappa]

Note: Shane and Simone still have more points than CT and Jordan.

Getting kicked off the show is way too broken lol. This shouldn’t be a thing when two are in the finals and the other two didn’t even make it halfway through the season.

Having said that, I feel like the season didn’t hit its potential. The purges were bullshit and the way the redemption house was handled was constantly changed on a whim with no rhyme or reason.

Rooting for my boy CT and rookie of the year Tori.

[Vil]

This season had it's positives and negatives, but compared to most of the recent seasons, it was wonderful.

A bunch of good/bad/observations:

Bananas probably still had a lot of confessionals and all, but it never felt like a lot because I can't even think of a single thing the guy was involved in during the entire fucking season. He was one of the winners in the first heat of the first Purge, won the 2nd challenge when he was literally sitting on his ass.

This season was entirely way too long. Too much Redemption (1 was fine, 2 was ok, 3 no thanks). Too many two-parters, etc. The whole pacing was an issue. It feels like you could have had a full season after Cory was gone and may as well have, since before he was sent to Redemption, everything was revolving around him in some way. Related to that, the final few rounds was like a fast-forward through it, right when things were finally going to get interesting. I suppose that if they didn't have those "straight to Redemption" things, then Tony & Hunter being some bizarre underdog power couple in big rounds wouldn't have made as much a difference.

I liked the first Purge in general. Second one, not so much. If they were going to do any pairs portion, I think they should have had only one guy and one girl win, or one pair win together. Then do a round two for two more qualifiers, then a third round for the 3 of each remaining.

Can this season be changed to Challenge XXX: Entitled 30? At least some of these people keep themselves in check to some degree. Britni, Kailah, Cara, Camila, Leroy... The list goes on. At least in Britni's case, I assume she's just trying to get as many options for when they do another Rivals season, since she managed to be one of the final 6 or so in spite of nobody knowing her name. She should have hooked up with a few people too to have options for Exes. Did she hook up with people on her AYTO season?

Unless Tori wins, one of the gruesome twosome will be at least top 3 all time $. Cara Maria would be barely below Bananas (CT would be barely ahead of Bananas), while Camila would be 3rd no matter what. Where would you rank them on a list that has them plus Evelyn, Sarah, Paula, Emily, and Laurel? (I'm ignoring people who were largely pre-Fresh Meat)

This season could have used Shanley (AYTO1) because I just have a feeling she would have wanted to rip Cara/Camila's heads off.

[Byrd]

Vil is uncatchable.

Yeah, he pretty much clinched the title the second Camila won the girls' elimination.

Getting kicked off the show is way too broken lol. This shouldn’t be a thing when two are in the finals and the other two didn’t even make it halfway through the season.

Halfway through the season? Shane and Simone didn't make it to the third episode, I don't think, and never got participation points. We do need to revise this. Since points are awarded for physical fighting and producer intervention, which you will almost assuredly get if you're kicked out, stacking 100 points on top of that seems broken. I think we should drop it to 50 next season.

Having said that, I feel like the season didn’t hit its potential. The purges were bullshit and the way the redemption house was handled was constantly changed on a whim with no rhyme or reason.

This season wasn't perfect, but it was a lot better than Rivals 3 or Bloodlines, and a little better than Invasion. It's the best season in a while, so I'll take it.

Rooting for my boy CT and rookie of the year Tori.

I mostly don't want to see Camila win, and would prefer Tori over Cara, so I guess I'm rooting for Tori as well. I would prefer Derrick or CT to win, but wouldn't be terribly upset if Jordan won.

[Valisk]

I had 2 players kicked off for physical fighting and I’m not sniffing 1st place. Heady touched on it earlier this year, but getting kicked off is rare. Those points are high for rewarding the rarity of the occurrence should be factored in. And the drama that trickles down to other cast members as a result. I like it at 100, but 50 is too low.

Rooting for CT then Derrick and Tori. Hope the rest don’t finish.

And what was up with those crash landings after skydiving? That could have gone bad. Real bad.





FUCK ASHLEY M!

[Moss]

I will be SO happy if Tori wins, Cara and Camila are fucking unbearable, Cara especially

Kailah is my girl but she dumb as hell. Physical challenges with a strategic aspect are always the best ones. Strength and stamina help but you have to be adaptable and figure out the most efficient strategy. Jenna and Kailah deserved to go home

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

[Vil]

I've never been totally on board with the multi-leg final thing, but I like the idea of making each leg matter, rather than "oh well, I lost 2 seconds to this person"

Random dogs climbing mountains and running with CT.

"It's pulling me down!"

"Good job." "You too. I mean, overall." Sorry, that was hilarious. I would have expected her to say "I know", but this was so much better.

I don't know about you guys, but that sled thing looks fun as hell. Oh wait, this is just a repeat of Invasion's thing basically, where they do the montages while finishing the run. Oh well.

Holy shit, they showed the whole final in an episode and a half?

I never needed the increasingly ridiculous final challenges, but I think this was relatively tame for the DIRTIEST season of all time. I definitely liked the "first place picks their partners" rather than forced rotation. This wasn't some insane final, but I definitely liked the changes they made to this over some of the recent ones. Besides, toned down finals mean it wouldn't necessarily cater to people whose job is The Challenge.

[Byrd]

Standings post-episode 17:

This week's comments might be a little weird due to a deliberate combination of pain pills and a couple of beers just to see what it was like.

Gave everyone five episode survival points, and Camila got an extra 5 for a good old fashioned crying binge. That was the only scoring this week.

Standings before next week's results announcement, which won't matter for first and second, but could potentially do some stuff fof 3rd through 6th:

Vil 750 2
Valisk 660 0
Byrd 540 1
Headspace 490 1
Moss 435 1
Xno Kappa 370 1

The only points I will be scoring next week is for the final results. Any yelling, name-calling, fighting, or new shenanigans revealed will not count.

[Valisk]

I don’t know Byrd. If there is any coitus ON STAGE, I’m lobbying for 250 commissioner points, each.

Final was meh. I’m pleasantly surprised that they didn’t stretch it another episode, sans the results.

I don’t recall the last “good” or “entertaining” final I’ve seen. Perhaps Rivals (3)? where your tandem competed internally and externally. When Bananas snatch the cash from Sarah.

Where is Standed With a Million Dollars season 2?!?

Certainly last and least, Ashley M. FUCK HER!!!

[Xno Kappa]

Surprised they haven’t churned out another season of SWAMD myself. Show was super interesting.

[Byrd]

I don’t know Byrd. If there is any coitus ON STAGE, I’m lobbying for 250 commissioner points, each.

All right, that's fair. Double if it's same-sex. So all I need to win this season is have Derrick win the race, and Jenna and Aneesa (or Derrick and Bananas) getting it on on stage.

Where is Standed With a Million Dollars season 2?!?

I'm not sure that's happening. You would think we would have heard about it by now. I think they might be focusing on the Champs vs. Pros/Stars these days. Which I am not a huge fan of, although I'm sure I will watch this season to see the Camila breakdown.

I would be curious to see how contestant behaviors change after they watched season one.

Certainly last and least, Ashley M. FUCK HER!!!

If you insist.

[Moss]

Damnit Byrd where do you find all your risque challenge people pics?

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[Byrd]

Damnit Byrd where do you find all your risque challenge people pics?

Most of them come from r/mtvchallenge or r/challengepics. However, a surprising number of them come from googling things like "Veronica Portillo hot" or "Eric Banks nude."