The Challenge Theory VIII: Top 10 WORST Competitors

About a month ago, I made a list of my top 10 male and female challenge competitors. However, I have now decided to make a list of the absolute WORST competitors in challenge history. Now the order isn't exactly dictated by how many eliminations lost or how many missions lost, but merely has to do with how pathetic these players have been in challenge history. Okay, let us get to the order:

#10 - Casey Cooper

While Casey might be known for being the most pathetic competitor in challenge history there is a reason why she is so low on this list. Casey originally came onto the show during "Fresh Meat" (2006) when she was paired up with Wes. Because she was apart of the dreaded "Austin" alliance, her and her allies were targeted early and often. During the first four exiles, Wes and Casey went up against Danny and Evelyn, Melinda and Ryan, Johanna and Jesse, and finally Tonya and Johnnie. By the end of the challenge, Wes and Casey had amassed five total elimination victories and a trip to the final mission where they ended up getting third place. Now the main problem with Casey was the fact that she was a giant wuss. During the "Jump Down Under" mission, Casey refused to even participate in the mission because of her extreme fear of heights and it started the reputation that Casey was a giant pussy. Casey would participate in three more challenges and the final one made her reputation much worse. In "The Ruins" (2009), Casey was apart of the Challengers Team where it appeared she did everything that she could to not win missions. The Challengers had a chance to get rid of her early in the game, but because Breanna wanted to go into an elimination against Susie, that chance was dashed. And because the Champions refused to get rid of her because she was winning money for them, she slipped all the way down to the final elimination. Casey was so pathetic during this challenge that in the mission "Rotary Club", Casey failed so much to roll down the hill that she was seen pissing off her team leader, Brad. Casey would eventually be eliminated by Susie to the chagrin of Johnny "Bananas" because she threatened to throw the final mission if she wasn't allowed to go up against Casey.

#9 - Tyrie Ballard 

Tyrie in my eyes could have been a good player because he is big, but unfortunately he either didn't have a good partner or he didn't have a lot of luck. He started his challenge career on the "Inferno III" (2007) where he played for the Bad A**es and wasn't originally voted into his first elimination. However, since Abram won a life shield, he decided to put his rookie teammate into an inferno with Alton. Even though Tyrie lost, he did make a large speech at the end saying he will be extremely upset if either Alton makes it to the end or if the Good Guys win the final mission. Tyrie would then leave early during his second challenge because of health concerns with his girlfriend and would get booted out of his fourth challenge after losing "Blast Off" with his partner Davis against Wes and Kenny. The sad part about this was the fact that Tyrie used to play for the Nebraska Cornhuskers in college. One could point out that the reason why they lost was because of Davis, but a lot of it should have rested on Ty as well. At the end of the day, Tyrie finished his challenge career on "Battle of the Exes" (2012) after being partnered with Jasmine and losing to Rachel and Aneesa in an elimination. Tyrie looked like he could have been a strong player, but failed to pan out because he couldn't win a single elimination.

#8 - Laterrian Wallace "LT"

Unlike the great Lawrence Taylor and the great LaDainian Tomlinson, Laterrian never earned his nickname in the challenges. He original season was "Road Rules: Maximum Velocity Tour" where there were great challenge competitors like Theo, James, and Holly, but "LT" never lived up to anywhere close that those three did. He did compete in one final mission on "Extreme Challenge"(2001) , but that is only because there were no eliminations on that show. He then started a challenge skid starting with "Battle of the Sexes" (2003) where he competed in two missions, "Sergeant Says" and "Dead Man's Drop" where he finished in last place both times. He wasn't eliminated on the first episode because former "Mr. Big", David Edwards quit the show. In his next season he lamented all of his "bravado", but the rise in maturity did not help Laterrian go to the end as he was eliminated by Alton in "Pole Dancing". The Road Rules Team flirted with getting rid of him early, but after apologizing to Sarah for knocking her into the pool in "Rolling on a River" made the team gun for Sarah just as much as they usually do. I just think that it was crazy that Laterrian was so physically strong, but he was just really bad at missions and his head was rarely in the game.

#7 - Katelynn Cusanelli 

Katelynn is known for being the first transgender person to ever be on "Real World" and the first to ever star on "The Challenge". She originally starred on "Fresh Meat 2" (2010) where she drafted Brandon. She came in with a lot of bravado of claiming that she did martial arts and she was going to take down Kenny. Lets just say that she didn't end up doing anything and really embarrassed herself on "King of the Wall" where she slipped on the climbing wall and ended up doing some major damage to her legs. Because of this, her and Brandon were unable to compete in the exile. However, neither were their fellow competitors Sydney and CJ because Brandon drank two beers before the exile so the team was disqualified. Regardless, Katelynn had another chance to show her stuff on "Rivals" (2011) where she was partnered up with Sarah. However, they lost in "Unburied" they went against Jonna and Jasmine and they lost and it wasn't because of Sarah. Katelynn falls into the case of "I can't believe that she performed so poorly", but a las, she did and she was terrible.

#6 - Danny Jamieson

You might think "isn't Danny a little too low on this list?" Maybe he shouldn't have been on this list at all. However, after being in six different challenges, he has not won a single one and he has NEVER won in an elimination. After gaining the first pick in the draft in "Fresh Meat" (2006), he decided to go with Evelyn and because they were apart of the "Austin" alliance, they earned a first way ticked straight to the exile where they pathetically lost to Wes and Casey. On his second challenge, "Inferno III" (2007), Danny went up against Davis in "Watch Your Back" and lost. Then went up against Adam King in "Ball Brawl", but was embarrassed by a much smaller competitor. Then went up against Darrell on "The Ruins" (2009) in "Oh Ring", which was one where he didn't have a chance in. Finally, Danny went up against Eric and Camila on "Battle of the Seasons" (2012) in "Balls Out" with his ex wife, Melinda. Again, Danny had a lot of huge competitive edge, but was never able to compose himself and was never able to come back to a role in a high alliance.

#5 - Melinda Stolp

Unlike her ex-husband, Danny, there is absolutely no question that Melinda deserves the 5th spot on this list. Not just because she is a horrible player that has been to five different challenges and not been to a single final mission, but also because she has never won an elimination challenge. I do remember when she was on "The Gauntlet III" (2008) and she boasted to being on of the best players on the rookie team, but she absolutely, positively was not even close to being the best player on the team. She was clearly below Johanna, below Rachel, way below Jillian and Tori. I would say that she was probably the worst female competitor on the whole challenge. You see, Melinda's M.O. was to ally herself with strong competitors, but due to the fact that she was always a weak player, she never was able to get past a single elimination.

#4 - Jisela Delgado

From the beginning of Jisela's time on MTV, which was on "Road Rules: The Quest" (2001), where she was the one and only cast member that was eliminated and replaced by Katie Doyle, she has never been seen as being a good player. In her three total challenges, Jisela has never won an individual mission and after "Battle of the Sexes" (2003), she also never won an elimination. One of the biggest things that I feel like puts her at the number four spot is the fact that in her final challenge "The Gauntlet II" (2005), Jisela went against Ruthie and "Reverse Tug of War" and appeared to have quit the elimination. Now it would have been better for the veterans team if she had lost, but she quit none the less as she looked like she gave up. That happened to be the last of Jisela's challenges, which was probably a good thing because she would continue to compete poorly and she would also have been eliminated early.

#3 - Brooke LaBarbera

I will say right now that Brooke should have never been on "The Challenge" in the first place. She is a good person that ends up becoming dramatic at times, but she was absolutely terrible when it came to missions and eliminations as she would always complain about being a former bailarina. She just doesn't seem to have very much fight in her and wasn't often trusted by her teammates. At one point in "The Gauntlet III" (2008) she argued with Johanna to get a better job in one of the missions, but she was denied that. She did get close to Evelyn and then Davis and Ryan in a gay orgy, but otherwise she didn't do very much to improve her competitive edge. I guess the one thing that puts her apart from the two below her is the fact that she never quit during an elimination.

#2 - Shauvon Torres

If this was a list of the players with the biggest breasts, Shauvon would be at the top of this list. However, in the missions and in the eliminations, she is by far the worst. She has appeared in three challenges and in those challenges she has never won an elimination, she has never done well in any mission, she has quit during a mission and she has quit an elimination. So while she "tried hard" against Aneesa in "The Duel II" (2009) to try to win, but she failed. She is also really good at getting the rest of the house to dislike her because she truly is an annoying drunk and she acts like she is better than she actually is, but she is not.

#1 - Alex Smith

Now Alex was only in one challenge, but the outcome of that challenge shows that he is the worst competitor in the history of "The Challenge". Not only because he appeared to quit in his one and only mission, which was "Pinata Pit", but also because he quit against Nehemiah in "Force Field". In Alex's defense, him and Nehemiah were at the elimination for a good thirty to forty-five minutes, but he also had completely given up. At the end of the day, it would have been good to see what else Alex could have done, but he will always be known for being on that one challenge and competing like utter crap and quitting.

The Challenge Theory VII: Did Susie and Cara Try to Sabotage the Rookie Team?

In late 2005, Murray/Bunim Productions aired "The Gauntlet 2" on MTV, which pitted the rookies against the veterans. A veteran was a challenge alumni who had previously participated in two or more "Real World Road Rules Challenges" and a rookie was a person who had either been to one or had never participated in a challenge. Probably the biggest controversy that occurred on the show was whether or not rookie girls Susie and Cara tried to sabotage the rookie team. Now I have never seen the reunion special for the show so I don't know exactly what was said on there that could have pertained to this theory, but I am going to try to tell it to the best of my ability.

Now, during the challenge, there were two male and female captains for both teams. If your team won then you and your team captain was safe, but if your team lost, then your team captain or your team would have to vote or pick a player from your team that matched their gender to compete in an elimination challenge. In theory, you could make a deal with members of the opposite gender on the other team in order to throw the missions on days where the opposite gender would compete in gauntlet eliminations. This came into play midway through the challenge when rookie captain, Kina was approached by Jillian with information that two of their teammates were going to throw missions.

According to Jillian, rookie girls Susie and Cara were approached by veteran guys, Timmy, Brad and David with a secret plan. If Jillian, Susie and Cara promised to throw men's gauntlet missions, then Timmy, Brad and David would throw female gauntlet missions. This would save all six members of this alliance and take them to the final mission on their respective teams. Now, this is merely what Jillian said to Kina, but was she being honest? Was she telling the truth? Your skepticism can come into play when after the mission "Team Races" where both teams had to push a manual transmission truck with bricks on it, and afterwards the rookie team held a meeting. Both Susie and Cara thought that the meeting was over why they were not allowed to participate in the mission as much as they wanted to and then it came out that the team thought they were trying to sabotage the game.

Immediately, Susie started crying and Cara started defending both of them, claiming they would never do something like that. Kina then told them that Jillian approached her about it and that was how the episode ended with the next episode beginning with Jillian admitting that Kina and Susie never agreed to a deal but merely just discussed it. Now why would Cara and Susie having an alliance be beneficial to them? On the rookie team, there were numerous members of "Road Rules: X-Treme" that included Kina, Jillian, Ibis, and Jodi with Cara and Susie being the odd players out that were not part of that specific season. This would cause Kina to throw either of the two of them in whenever she wanted to if the rookie team lost on a female gauntlet day.

Now Kina did eventually nominate Cara to go into a gauntlet elimination against her and Cara did lose, but do I think that Susie and Cara actually had an alliance with the veteran team? I personally don't think so. I think they were propositioned by Timmy, David and Brad, but I don't think anything concrete came of it. So the real question is what was the motivation by Jillian to lie about what actually happened? I mean, it is completely possible that because Jillian and Kina weren't on "Road Rules: X-Treme" at the same time as Jillian was actually a replacement for Ibis, who appeared two episodes after Kina was eliminated so maybe she wanted to gain an extra leg on Ibis and Jodi by telling her this information. However, I don't understand how Jillian could have been so idiotic to tell Kina a half-lie and not have the information get back to her team as her merely lying. Now it is possible that Jillian thought that Cara and Susie were in an alliance, but that they never agreed with the alliance in the first place. Either way, it lead to Cara getting eliminated and it really didn't save Jillian anyways because she was also eliminated by Kina in the final girl's gauntlet.

Susie and Cara 

The Challenge Theory VI: Top 10 Male and Female Competitors

So far there have been 28 total seasons of "The Challenge" that has spanned over 16 total years. In this post of my theories, I am going to break down the top 10 male competitors and the top 10 female competitors in the history of the show. Now my qualifications for this are not necessarily who has won the most, but the players in order that I feel are the greatest in the shows history. If these 10 were to go up against each other in a battle of wits, then the number 1 competitor would be the last one standing when all is said and done. Now I know that we can not always treat every season of the show equally, but I will be basing it off of challenges won, missions won, eliminations won, and overall politics. Here we go, I am going to first start with the women:

(Note: There might be more than one player at any one position because both are at the same position)

#10 - Aneesa Ferreira

Aneesa really didn't become a hardcore challenger until her third season on the "Gauntlet II" (2005) where she was on the Veteran team. Beforehand, she didn't really make much noise outside of making it into the inner circle after "Sergeant Says" in "Battle of the Sexes" (2003). With that said, Aneesa went on to compete in eight more challenges and at one point owning the all time record for the most elimination wins amongst all female challengers at eight total. While Aneesa is tough and grimy, she doesn't really perform as well in the individual missions, but she is known for making it at least close to the end and at one point had a bit of a rivalry with Paula "Walnuts". At the end of the day, Aneesa has "zero" challenge victories, but has made it to two total final missions with the Veterans and then in 2009 on the "Duel 2" where she took third place along with Mark Long. While I do not see Aneesa winning any challenges in the future, she is still a competitor and a tough cookie.

#9 - Jenn Grijalva and Diem Brown

Jenn is a lot like Aneesa, but the one difference is that she is more political and did better in the missions. While Jenn never won a final, she was able to win three total eliminations and was a runner up in a "face-off". Her most successful challenge was probably "Cutthroat" (2010)  where she never had to enter an elimination and costed to the end with Blue teammate Emily where they got 3rd place in the final and got $20,000 dollars total. She was also known a lot for hooking up with different guys and girls on the challenge. This started on her season of the "Real World: Denver" where she hooked up with Alex, then it was rumored that she hooked up with Derrick in the "Inferno 3", then she hooked up with Rachel Robinson on both "The Island" and "The Duel", then on "Fresh Meat" she was with Pete, and finally on "Rivals" she was hooking up with Adam King, so one can say she has always gotten around. Jenn also isn't a push over as she has never been afraid to get in anyone's face and fight them. Jenn is one mean chick that you should never mess with.

I would be remised if I didn't place Diem Brown on this list as a strong person with a golden heart. When she entered "The Challenge" on "Fresh Meat" (2006), she came in with a lot of physical strength and a heavy secret. Her secret was that she had ovarian cancer, but she didn't let it get the best of her. After Coral and Evan left the show, her and Derrick won back to back to back missions to go on to be fourth place on the show. And while Diem only won one elimination challenge, she participated in two final missions and fought cancer THREE times before her career and her life ended in the summer of 2014. Probably the most beautiful moment occurred in "The Duel" (2006) in "Ring Toss" after Diem took off her wig to reveal her shaved head and won the entire mission. Such a beautiful moment for such a well deserved person. Diem lived life to the fullest and is well deserving for her place in challenge history.

#8 - KellyAnne Judd

KellyAnne originally bursted onto the scene on "The Island" (2008) where she individually teamed up with former "Real World: Sydney" boyfriend Cohutta and new friend Evelyn against Johnny "Bananas" and Kenny. And while she did not win the challenge or stop either of them from winning, she still pulled off a big upset against former challenge alums Rachel Robinson and Robin Hibbard on the mission called "The Rack". KellyAnne would end up appearing on three more challenges including once where she made it with Sarah to the end on "The Ruins" (2009) by winning eliminations against Evelyn and Veronica. Since being called the bionic woman six or seven years ago, she still participates in challenges, but is nowhere near her previous success or going off on her previously bad temperament. I think that KellyAnne always had a chance to win a challenge in her lifetime if she had done some of them between 2010 and 2015, but as of now, I think that ship has sailed.

#7 - Rachel Robinson

I know that Rachel might be a little low on this list, but that is only because there have been a lot of other female competitors that have impressed me more than she has. While she has won two final missions and has been to three, she is very lacking in the mission performance area. Regardless of how you might feel about her alpha female personality, she is someone who will get the job done and is a team player. One could say that she has been voted off early in non elimination shows like "Battle of the Sexes" (2003) and "Battle of the Sexes 2" (2004), but I don't think that these vote offs have really effected her value on a team. The only area in which Rachel lacks a lot more than both the players below and above her is that of elimination victories. She only has one and that took place when Aneesa was her teammate on "Battle of the Exes" (2012) where they both defeated Tyrie and Jasmine. Rachel is a very great athlete, but her mouth often gets her into trouble.

#6 - Jodi Weatherton 

I would be remised if I didn't mention Jodi from "Road Rules: X-Treme" (2004) where Jodi was one out of three of her starting teammates to win the "Handsome Reward" in the end. Jodi went on to participate in three challenges, "Inferno 2" (2005), "Gauntlet II" (2005) and "The Duel" (2006). At the end of the day, Jodi finishes with two final mission wins and a lot of athletic talent. She showed this off in "The Duel" when she won two prizes and five exemptions. Again, the only thing that goes against Jodi in her time on the show was the fact that she was winless in eliminations after losing to Veronica in "Thats a Wrap". Her emotions also would get the best of her after she got accused of cheating by the Bad A** team and then when she got upset that Mark Long ignored her on the "Gauntlet II".

#5 - Veronica Portillo 

Despite the winning of three challenges in her time on the show, Veronica is the one female competitor who is known for knowing how to play the game and finding loop holes to win it. At first Veronica would play the game fairly and it would cause her to leave before the final mission on "Battle of the Sexes" (2003) and after the first mission in "Battle of the Seasons" (2002). Later she started getting really friendly with male teammates like in the "Gauntlet" (2003), getting her teammates to throw missions for her in the "Inferno" (2004) and by helping to turn her teammates against Tonya in "Inferno 2". While she had a lot of success winning missions, exemptions, and life shields in the middle of her time on "The Challenge", she made a return in her early 30's in "The Ruins" (2009) in Phuket, Thailand and she didn't have much success and it was pretty embarrassing. She got slapped by Tonya and she never came back. Veronica was better at politics than the actual physical game despite being a very good player anyways.

#4 - Sarah Rice and Cara Maria Sorbello

Sarah is a challenger that has been on the show for a long time. After her season of "Real World: Brooklyn" (2009), Sarah went on to star in "The Ruins" (2009) where she not only beat challenge veterans like Johanna and Katie, but was also one of two girls standing along with Kelly Anne for the Challengers team. Since then, Sarah has been on almost every season, going to final missions and coming out short. Before winning with partner Jordan on "Battle of the Exes 2" (2015) her career was marred with horrible partners who were either too overrated or forced her to leave the show early. Examples of this include Vinny on "Battle of the Exes" (2012) where he tried to take Mandi's dress off at a Dominican Republic club and in "Rivals 2" (2013) after her partner Trishelle decided to leave after an altercation with Aneesa. Either way, Sarah has proven herself to be a strong and smart player in the game because of her ability to solve puzzles. The only problem with Sarah is the fact that she very easily gets flustered and very easily cries when people yell at her.

Unlike Sarah, Cara Maria entered her career on the challenge expected to do great things from the onset. She was previously the first overall pick in the draft by Darrell based off of her physical abilities and was then immediately eliminated in an exile by Jillian and Pete. After losing that challenge she went on to appear in seven of the next eight challenges and appearing in four final missions before eventually winning "The Battle of the Bloodlines" with her cousin Jamie Banks. She spent most of her challenge history with one time boyfriend Abram Boise which while a good relationship became hostile at times. The lowest point occurred at the end when Cara was caught doing dirty things with Thomas from "Real World Explosion" (2014) on a bus in Phuket, Thailand. With that said, Cara is a strong and emotional player with big biceps, but does get caught crying after players pick on her. For a long time she had a rivalry with Paula and Johnny "Bananas" based on her unfortunate immaturity and maybe the fact that she looks like Captain Jack Sparrow.

#3 - Coral Smith and Susie Meister 

Coral is marred as being the first real "bad girl" in Challenge history. At the beginning she went from b*tching out Mike "The Miz" on "Real World: Back to New York" (2001), to putting "Slapping" Steven in his place on "Battle of the Seasons" (2002), to killing Matt, Trishelle, Julie, and Kenny with words to round out her tenure on the show. Coral was straight out mean to people and while she wasn't much of a physical challenger, she knew when to buckle down and complete challenges. Throughout her time, she participated in six total challenges and was NEVER eliminated once. Once she was forced to leave the show because of a dislocated knee-cap and once she quit the show because of the fact that the Veterans were conspiring against her. At the end of the day, Coral was perfect in elimination challenges after beating Tina in "Dead Man's Drop" and was able to take home an Aztec Life Shield after winning "Window Washing". Don't cross Coral or you will get a mouthful of pain from the woman whose bark is far worth than her bite.

On the other side of the equation we have Susie, who was sweet and soft spoken. She also had NEVER been eliminated in the history of the show. She participated in five challenges along with a spring break challenge where she appeared in five total final missions and was able to win two of them. One on the side of the Rookies on the "Gauntlet II" (2005) and one on the side of the Champions on "The Ruins" (2009). And while she was often known to cry in most of her challenges at one point or another, she was able to compete in two elimination against Jenn and Casey and win three life shields. While Susie was a nice girl, lets not forget the rivalries she had with the Rookie team, Johnny "Bananas" and Tonya. At the end of the day, she can look on her trophy case and see that she was the wealthiest player to come out of "The Ruins" despite Johnny Banana's often incoherent squabbling.

#2 - Evelyn Smith and Paula Meronek 

After being the first overall draft pick on "Fresh Meat" (2006) and then starting the tradition of being eliminated first, Evelyn actually made quite the name of herself. After being on seven total challenges and accumulating three final mission victories, she has been deserving of her spot at being tied for number two. While Evelyn was always a tough competitor, she has rarely had the liberty of being apart of a strong alliance and has never been afraid to go to an elimination. Heck, throughout her time on "The Challenge", she was only eliminated in two exiles and one ruin where she basically gave up to her bet friend Kelly Anne. At the end of the day, Evelyn will always be known as being that tough chick with the visor and the penchant for not taking anything from anybody. Challenge fans always know her best for that one time on "The Island" (2008) where she was stuck with a lackluster alliance and forcing Johnny "Bananas" to swallow his pride to work with him to win a challenge to the chagrin of the person she is tied with.

And that would be Paula. The reason is because on said island, Paula was allied with Johnny until him and Kenny had a huge decision to make. And that was either give Evelyn what she wanted, which was Dunbar's key and a spot on their boat, or she would take Johnny's key. Johnny and Kenny chose the latter and stuck a giant knife in Paula's back that would not be fully removed for five long years. While Paula is a good competitor, who is the recipient of two challenge victories with very good partners (Evelyn and Emily), she is a solid player who is known for a few drunken tirades, which often end in her crying because she is a very guarded and emotional person. At the end of the day, she is a very hypocritical person, especially after giving a high five to Wes after he poured cola on Cara Maria because they both thought that Cara was immature at the time. While Wes eventually became Cara's ally, Paula never got over Cara's immaturity, which caused the great and powerful Laurel to verbally destroy Paula. Paula also had a short kind of relationship with Dunbar, but because he is an unstable guy, he ended up betraying her too. The problem with Paula is not that she isn't a good player, it is that she makes company with people who eventually screw her over in the end.

#1 - Laurel Stucky 

There isn't much to say, Laurel is a beast. And while EVERYONE but one person on this list has been eliminated or kicked off or has quit a challenge before, Laurel has never once. Every challenge beginning with "Fresh Meat 2" (2010) when Kenny picked her to be his teammate has ended with her either going to the final mission and losing or her winning. Not only is Laurel not afraid to be mean to anyone she doesn't care who she puts down. Laurel has also been to seven eliminations and has won ALL seven giving her the best elimination winning percentage out of any player in challenge history. Not to mention winning five mission in "Fresh Meat 2", one mission in "Rivals" (2011), and four missions in "Free Agents" (2014). She is a strong, physical competitor that her competition will try to take out by any means, but always fails to do so because she is so damn powerful. This girl has taken out Sarah, Camila (twice), Theresa (twice), Aneesa, Cara Maria, and Jasmine on her way to win "Free Agents".

And here is the list of players from the men:

#10 - Brad Fiorenza 

Despite the fact that Brad did very well during his time of the challenge, his lack of challenge wins and his lack of overall dominance and elimination victories puts him at the very bottom of this list. Don't get me wrong, Brad did very well during "Battle of the Sexes 2" (2004) and he should have gotten to the end based on one mission loss, but he failed to get to the end in "Inferno 2" (2005), "Gauntlet 2" (2005), and "The Ruins" (2009) from either an elimination loss or a disqualification. When Brad finally won his first final mission as apart of the red team in "Cutthroat" (2010) he actually didn't have the greatest overall challenge. He definitely wasn't the best male on his team, but because he had a majority alliance on his team because he had support for most of the challenge by his wife Tori, Paula, Dunbar, and Tyler. Because of this, the red team forced Brandon and Tyler into elimination challenges for the most part. The only elimination victory that Brad has was an impressive win against Landon on "The Duel II" (2009). With that said, Brad is still a good player that has been to final missions four times and has been victorious once.

#9 - Timmy Beggy

Even though Timmy has only been eliminated once and has been to three final challenges with one final challenge wins, I have a hard time thinking that he would be successful if he was still participating today at his prime. You see, back in the day, Timmy was always high on the totem pole when it came to alliances and many kept him around because he was smart, funny and well liked. Not to mention, he has only participated in two elimination, winning against Derrick and losing against Abram. He definitely shows a lot of good team leadership and would always make a great captain, I just think that due to his lack of time on the challenge, there are others above him with more experience and more challenge wins. The challenge that he did win, "Inferno" (2004) was one in which his whole team dominated the Real World team and despite having more players in the final mission, Road Rules was still able to pull it out.

#8 - Dan Setzler and Jamie Murray

If we are going to talk about two guys who have not only played the game well at the birth of "The Real World Road Rules Challenge" look no further than Dan and Jamie. Usually I would talk about these guys separately, but both of these guys participated in three different challenges, never competing at the same time and both were NEVER eliminated. As a matter of fact neither were even close to being eliminated. They are low on the list because I don't know how they would have competed in the elimination competition era of the show, but both guys always stayed at the top of the list in point based challenges and were always able to stay away from getting eliminated. They were both even able to win challenges with no eliminations "Challenge 2000" (2000) and "The Extreme Challenge" (2001). No matter what, they were both extremely physically active as well as being really smart.

#7 - Evan Starkman 

Don't get me wrong, I think that Evan is a very good player. He was originally drafted by Coral in "Fresh Meat" (2006) and they went on to win every mission but two until they were both sidelined with injuries, Evan's being a sports hernia and Coral's being a dislocated kneecap. Evan eventually went on to participate in five more challenges until being forced to retire because of sexual assault allegations. Evan was a funny guy who was a born leader. However, the only thing that really keeps him from being of the elite on the list is the fact that he lacks experience in elimination challenge as lacks experience against players who are actually good. I mean come on, he defeated Davis in an elimination, Davis! Well, he also beat his arch rival Nehemiah, but he is probably the best player he has defeated outside of Johnny "Bananas", but that was just a game of sliders. Believe me, Evan would be a good player to have on your team at the end, but he is just so annoying!

#6 - Theo von Kurnatowski

When everything is said and done, I will always remember Theo for his humor. From quotes like "Lenet and I are like two rabbits in Mr. McGreggor's garden" or "Tonya and I are like two kids at summer camp doing crazy things with each other's bodies!" However, he was a truly strong player in the earlier seasons of "Than Challenge". In his first three seasons, Theo never made it out of the Road Rules inner circle in "Battle of the Seasons" (2002), he won an exemption and a final mission in the "Gauntlet" (2003) and finally, he only had one loss in "Battle of the Sexes 2" (2004) along with a final mission win in that challenge. It wasn't until "Fresh Meat" (2006) where him and his partner Chanda went to Theo's first elimination and they lost to Tina and Kenny. When it is all said and done, Theo probably would have done a better in physical one-on-one eliminations against not so good competition, but him winning two final missions do make him a truly impressive players.

#5 - Mark Long and Mike "The Miz" Mizanin 

Mark is considered to be the grandfather of Real World and even of "The Challenge". Mark is probably the longest standing MTV cast member, being on the first season of the show and then being on "Battle of the Exes" (2012). Mark is a really good player, especially with being on six total challenges and only being eliminated twice, once on purpose. While Mark has won challenges and been in inner circles and has been given exemptions, the one thing he hasn't been good at is eliminations. Mark has only been to one elimination and in that elimination, him and Robin lost to Johnny "Bananas" and Camila. The reason why I put him this high is because despite being the oldest player in the history of the show, he still either goes to final missions or he gets eliminated right before the final mission. This might be because nobody wanted him to go in or they thought that having him in the end would be either positive or negative for their team to win the grand prize in the end.

Mike was also a really good player at the beginning of "The Challenge". He began his time on "Battle of the Seasons" (2002) and him and Coral were able to help the Real World team defeat a superior Road Rules team. Over his next four seasons on the show, Mike either went to the final mission, was eliminated or he won that season of the challenge. Mike did a good job winning eliminations against Abram in the "Gauntlet" (2003) and then beating Jeremy in "The Inferno" (2004). He also won multiple Aztec Life-Shields in "The Inferno 2" (2005) which was his last challenge. Mike was also known for hooking up with different ladies on the challenge. These ladies included Tara, Trishelle, Kendall, and Jodi. However, the only season where Mike didn't hook up with anyone was the one challenge that he was voted off "Battle of the Sexes 2". Mike was always known for his relationship with former partner Coral. They had many ups and downs because of Mike's relationship with Trishelle because Coral hated Trishelle. However, when all was said and done, both ended up being good friends despite the drama and the possible snake bites.

#4 - Wes Bergmann and Chris "CT" Tamburello

Wes stands completely by himself here because of how he competes on these shows. Wes is a truly good player, however, his reputation often gets him into huge trouble. Wes always plays the game politically and always plays the game against Kenny and Johnny "Bananas". He started his challenge history on "Fresh Meat" (2006) where he picked Casey and the two went to five exiles where they eliminated Danny and Evelyn, Melinda and Ryan, Johanna and Jesse, Tonya and Johnnie, and finally, Shane and Lanet. Since then, Wes has won two challenges, once by himself and the other with CT and he not only has been to the most eliminations, but has also won the most eliminations. Wes usually relies on teaming himself up with rookie teams and players because he figures that they usually have the voting numbers, but he usually fails at being successful because those teams are the least experienced and lose a lot easier. Wes continues to be a good, experienced player regardless.

CT probably has the most records in challenge history. He probably has the record for the most Aztec Life Shields and has the record for the most times being kicked off of challenges due to physical violence. CT is a very strong and wild player. At the beginning of his career he struggled to win challenges, going to final missions and losing because his team did not work well as a team. Out of all of the players in the game, CT is the best, but he isn't very smart and he isn't very disciplined. In "The Duel" CT was going against Brad in "Push Me" and all he had to do was unclip the flag, but instead he grabbed the flag and ripped it off. These are the things that had haunted CT his whole career. This was until CT teamed up with former rival Wes in "Rivals II" (2013) and won his first final mission. CT did date the late Diem Brown and was able to be her teamed twice in both "Battle of the Exes" challenges.

#3 - Derrick Kosinski and Abram Boise 

Derrick originally started out on "The Challenge" on "Battle of the Sexes 2" (2004) as a huge underdog. Not only was he smaller than everyone else, but he was also brash and extremely immature. However, after amazing his male teammates in "Dangle Drop", he went on to win four straight eliminations in "Gauntlet 2" (2005) before being eliminated by Timmy. With that said, Derrick struggled to win final missions after being apart of five total challenges. However, after CT was ejected for punching Davis in the face in "Inferno III" (2007), Derrick became an alternate and helped the Bad A**es win the final mission. Since then, he was on three more challenges and won two more final missions and was always a player that loved competition. Derrick loves to be in wrestling eliminations because it allows him to get low and use the larger player's leverage against them.

Abram showed up on the scene of the "Gauntlet" (2003) as a huge power player, but he never was able to have that great of an attitude. While he helped the Road Rules team win the "Inferno" (2004) he greatly tormented Katie and actively wanted to remove her from the game. With that said, Abram has never strayed away from good competition. He has won two challenges, but he was so competition hungry that he went into consecutive "face-offs" on "The Island" (2008) because he wanted to compete. He is also known for his incoherent ramblings and him dating Cara Maria. When it started out, it looked like a wild man dating Captain Jack Sparrow. Abram is a very tough player that has won a lot of challenges and eliminations, but the only problem is that there are far too many instances where he has exited the show way too early to be considered any higher.

#2 - Kenny Stantucci and Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio 

I am going to be honest, when Kenny entered his first challenge, "Fresh Meat" (2006) I didn't think he was going to be anything special. Yeah, I know, he won two eliminations with his partner Tina, but I just thought he was a dumb guy with seemingly good looks. However, the guy has been to countless final missions and has won a total of three challenges. He was known for being a huge leader in his own alliance, which always pitted him against Wes. Most times, Kenny got the best of Wes, until they were partners in "Rivals" (2011) where their rivalry was grouped together. Not even being partnered on the show made them see eye to eye. While Kenny did win a lot of challenges and go to a lot of final missions, one of the things he struggled with were eliminations. After his first challenge, I didn't even think he would be on another challenge, but he was, I am just still kind of baffled by the whole thing. Kenny and Evan are both not allowed to be on any more challenges after Tonya alleged that both costars penetrated her with a toothbrush.

If we were counting total final mission wins, then Johnny would be number one on this list and while he is a very good player, he isn't the best. Johnny "Bananas" started off his career in the "Duel" (2006) and was eliminated after the first episode, but he really learned from his mistakes by being a more selfish player. When he played as a nice guy he would lose and then on "The Island" (2008) he teamed up with bad guy Kenny and he won. Johnny has excelled in final missions and eliminations at the end of his career. He also did very well winning missions and gaining exemptions so that there was no way that he could be placed in eliminations. The other thing that has helped Johnny is the fact that he was never given a bad partner in partner challenges. He had Tyler, Camila, Frank, Nany, Vinny, and Sarah as partners and these are all players that have won challenges or have been runners up. You cannot say that for all of the other players that have participated in partner challenges. Johnny also is someone who profits off of having a strong alliance so that he doesn't get voted into eliminations.

#1 - Landon Lueck and Darrell Taylor

The reason that I have these two guys as the number one male player(s) in the history of "The Challenge" is the fact that they have won a high percentage of the challenge that I have been to. Landon started in 2005 and Darrell started in 2003. Landon has been to four challenges and has won three, while Darrell has been to six challenges and won four. Darrell could have been the first player to five challenge wins if he hadn't punched Brad in the face in "The Ruins" (2009). Not only are these players very good in eliminations and challenge wins, but they have both won many exemptions whether they are Aztec Life Shields or just plain old mission wins. They both have only been eliminated once, Landon against Brad in the "Duel 2" (2009) and Darrell with his partner Cara Maria in the next year on "Fresh Meat 2" by Jillian and Pete. I think these two could compete today if they went against a player like Johnny "Bananas".

The Challenge Theory V: Was Evelyn Smith Born A Man Or Woman?

So this is one of the more bizarre theories from the series "The Challenge" that I have ever heard of. In 2006, Bunim/Murray Productions unveiled the 12th season of the "Real Word Road Rules Challenge: Fresh Meat". This season brought 12 alumni from "Real World" and "Road Rules" to Australia to be paired up with a brand new person to the series called "Fresh Meat". The pairs would team up against each other and participate in missions and exiles (the elimination of the show) until four were left (in this case three thanks to the departure of Coral and Evan) to participate in the final mission.

One of the Fresh Meat cast members was named Evelyn Smith from Harrison, New York. She was originally the first female picked in the draft, the first picked overall in the draft and the best female participant on the skills combine challenge that all of the Fresh Meat players partook in. With the first overall pick, Danny Jamieson from the "Real World: Austin" (2005) her and they were immediately targeted along with Wes, Johanna, and Melinda for being apart of the Austin cast, for being allies with each other and for being in relationships with each other (Danny/Melinda and Wes/Johanna). After the first episode, Danny and Evelyn were voted into the first exile against Wes and Casey and lost during an exile on a beach.

Evelyn Smith on Fresh Meat (2006) in Sydney, Australia

After this season, Evelyn went on to appear on six total challenges, go to four total final missions, and win three total challenges. Evelyn has also been a workhorse that has never been afraid to take anyone on, but the one thing that has always bugged me was what her birth gender originally was. Now don't get me wrong, I am not someone who cares about a person's gender and honestly, if you have a sex change operation, then that is up to you and I am not one to judge someone's personal preference. One thing I do know is that she is a lesbian as she did have a challenge fling with Brooke on the "Gauntlet III" (2008) but that is it.

Evelyn on the "Inferno 3" (2007)

Johnny "Bananas" and Evelyn on "The Island (2008)

Paula and Evelyn on "Rivals" (2011)

Now I bring this up because of the many rumors by "The Challenge" alumni that make claims that Evelyn was actually born male. Now I am not here to claim that this is a bad thing or that transgender people are abominations to the human race, I just think this is an interesting topic to talk about. Now I have heard a broad range of opinions of this ranging from "no, she was born a woman" to "I knew her in Harrison, New York and she used to be a dude." I have even run across a source that said that there are three challenge alums that know the truth, but are barred from saying so on camera. I am guessing those people are Johnny "Bananas", Kenny, and Kelly Anne, her best friend. Not to mention, Evelyn has been referred to on the show as being a man or even manlike. However, despite the fact that she has a deep voice, she is strong, has endurance, and has some male features, it is possible that she has always been a woman and just has more testosterone.

My personal opinion is this and I don't want anyone insulted by it, I think she was born a man. The fact that there are people out there who knew her in her past and there is actual manifests of the doctors who could have performed the operation, makes me think that the rumors are true. However, with that said, it doesn't really matter to me what she is or what she isn't, she is a great competitor and wouldn't be the only challenger to be a transgender person. Katelynn from the "Real World Brooklyn" was actually born a man and became a woman and from what I know, she is living a perfectly normal life. I know this because I once ran into her and her male partner at the Fort Lauderdale Airport and she was on my flight to San Francisco. After being on the challenge, Evelyn went to Harvard Law School and is likely pursuing a career in law. If you know anything about this subject or you have personal insight, please, feel free to give it.

The Challenge Theory IV: Why Were They on That Team?

This in my mind will be the first segment in a series of posts about why certain players ended up on certain teams during the history of "The Challenge". The reason being is because I can name about 10 or 15 examples of times in which a player should have or shouldn't have been on one team or another, but I don't want to relegate 10 or 15 posts about the topic. Because of this, I will use this post to name THREE examples that I can think of and why they ended up on the team that they ended up on. Hopefully this will tie every who reads what I am writing over until I can think of a new topic.

Number 1: Dan and the Miz "Inferno 2" (2005)

 

Dan (left) and Mike "The Miz" (right) in the "Inferno 2" (2005)

So way back in the day (2000 to 2004) the format for the "Real World Road Rules Challenge" was Real World versus Road Rules, just so that there wasn't any confusion. However, because Road Rules had absolutely wiped the floor with Real World in the "Gauntlet" and the "Inferno", Bunim/Murray Productions decided to make a change in the team format. So in the "Inferno 2", they added the format of "Good Guys" (blue) versus "Bad A**es" (red) in order to get a sort of angels versus devils system going on. For most of the players on both teams, the selection was very obvious. On the Bad A** team you had:

Derrick Kosinski, whose previous challenge "Battle of the Sexes 2" showed him making negative outbursts with his fellow teammates during a team meeting.

Chris "CT" Tamburello, made a splash on his season of "Real World: Paris" by being rude to his fellow cast members and especially push Adam King into the middle of the street, not to mention being rude to Leah Gillingwater during the first season of the "Inferno" back in early 2004.

Veronica Portillo was a designated "mean girl" who used her body in the "Gauntlet" to get people to not vote for her and especially being extra mean to Katie Dooley.

Tonya Cooley, did you see her during the "Battle of the Sexes 2" basically do everything to get into every guy's pants?

Tina Barta was one of the only true bad people on the team. Not only does she look like a bad a**, she has the attitude to back it up. We all remember her outburst at Tonya over a telephone on "Battle of the Sexes".

Abram Boise sure didn't act like a bad person on "Battle of the Sexes 2" but he sure didn't have a great attitude on the "Inferno". Especially with the way he mocked Katie during a mission and by the way he fashioned that mohawk.

And now some of the Good Guys:

Jon Brennan is the self-proclaimed Christian and follows Jesus Christ, so he was an easy pick to be a Good Guy.

Jaime Chung is a good girl and doesn't show any side of being evil.

Shavonda Bilingslea was someone who didn't have many outbursts on her show and was genuinely a nice person.

Darrell Taylor, while a boxer and someone who looks like the devil was actually a nice guy up until this season and even after the chance to hit CT in the "Inferno", he actually sat back.

Jodi Weatherton probably could have been considered to be a Bad A** because of her intentions to get drunk and hook up, she likely wasn't because of her timid personality.

Landon Lueck leading up to this season was also more of a tool than a bad person, and yes, I am saying that even though he threw knives.

As for Brad Fiorenza and Robin Hibbard, yes, I know they spent time in jail during "The Real World: San Diego", but they have not done anything since then and Brad went to jail for no good reason at all.

With that said, there is one major "unknown" controversy in the casting of the teams (besides Julie and Beth because Julie told Bunim/Murray that she wouldn't do the show if she wasn't a Good Guy, so they likely swapped her with Beth) and that controversy is between Mike "The Miz" Mizanin and Dan Renzi. You see, if it was up to me, I would have put Mike on the Bad A** team and Dan on the Good Guys team. Reason being is that besides one outburst on "Real World: Miami", Dan was actually a good guy. He was at that point known on the "Battle of the Sexes" in Jamaica as being a honorary female cast member because being gay, he would often spend time in the women's villa.

Mike on the other hand was consistently known for being bad. At first he declared himself "The Miz" and challenged Lori on the "Real World: Back to New York" for being a sellout for getting a 9 to 5 job. Not to mention him yelling at Kendall in the "Inferno" for volunteering herself to go into the Inferno with Leah and for getting epically wasted on his 21st birthday and verbally beating himself up for losing "Hands of Saturn. My point is that Mike had more of a reason to be a Bad A** than Dan did. It is more than likely, they made Mike a Good Guy to balance out the teams as it wouldn't be fair if the teams were Landon, Dan, Brad, Darrell, and Jon versus CT, Derrick, Mike, Kuramo, and Abram. Not to mention they probably wanted to keep Abram and Mike on separate teams in order to balance things out.

Number 2: CT and Wes versus Johnny and Frank "Rivals II" (2013)

The second major casting question that I had was the one that pertained to the pairing of CT with Wes and Johnny "Bananas" with Frank. Now everyone knows that CT had a huge rivalry with Wes, pretty much since the beginning. After CT ripped off the flag in "Push Me" and was disqualified, CT first yelled at Brad, who tried to calm CT down and then got in a huge argument with Wes. I seemingly remember the argument going a little something like this:

Johnny "Bananas" and Frank (top)
CT and Wes (bottom) on "Rivals 2" (2013)

CT: Go home to your girlfriend you are putting the ring on lay away.

Wes: You are going to bring up the girlfriend? Why don't I fake date someone to get to the end of this?!

CT: Why don't you mind your own business?

Wes: You're a scumbag!

CT: YOU'RE A SCUMBAG!

Afterwards, we all know that in "Rivals" (2011), CT and Wes had an argument which escalated in Wes throwing CT's mattress out the window and on to the deck. It is safe to say that while I am questioning the partnership, I can see them as being Rivals.

However, the pairing that I cannot see as Rivals was the pairing of Johnny "Bananas" and Frank from the "Real World: Back to San Diego". Johnny and Frank had never been on a challenge, merely the only interaction they had was on twitter where Johnny dogged Frank, Zach, Ashley, and Sam for being rookies and people complaining about them being on TV. Yes, there was a bit of a twitter "spat", but in my mind, they didn't spend any time on TV with each other and the move just confused me.

In my opinion, the real pairings should have been Johnny/CT and Wes/Frank. Johnny and CT because they actually had a rivalry with Johnny arguing with CT in the "Gauntlet 3" over Johnny getting nominated for an elimination and CT carrying Johnny on his back like a transformer with his own personal "Bananas" backpack to eliminate Johnny from "Cut-Throat" (2010). Not to go off on a tangent, Wes and Frank could have been rivals from "Battle of the Seasons" (2012) where Frank had an argument with Wes because the San Diego cast had free reign over the house and the Austin cast was upset about it. To be honest, I don't know what the argument was about, but I know it happened. I think that they paired the teams up that way so that things would be more fair. Lets be honest, a CT/Johnny pairing would have just been plain unfair in almost every way.

Number 3: Why was Jaime Murray a Rookie on "Gauntlet II"? (2005)

Finally for a bit of lesser known tidbit on the "Real World Road Rules Challenge" was the placing of Jaime Murray from the "Real World New Orleans" (2000) on the rookie team on the "Gauntlet II". You see, after they scrapped the Real World versus Road Rules format, they decided to make a Rookies versus Veterans format. A veteran was contestant that had been on two or more previous challenges and a rookie was someone who had been on one or no previous challenges. That all became a mess when Jaime Murray was put on the rookie team when he had already been in the "Extreme Challenge" (2001) and "Battle of the Sexes" (2003) already with the "Gauntlet II" being his third challenge. More than likely, this is more easily solvable as Bunim/Murray Productions had a male rookie (most likely either Steven or Frank from "Real World: Las Vegas") and merely inserted Jaime in there to take that person's place. Don't get on Jaime for this mishap though because he ended up winning his third consecutive challenge and being the second player in the history of the show to do it.

Jamie Murray on "Gauntlet 2" (2005)

The Challenge Theory III: Partner Challenge Domination

"The Challenge" or what was once the "Real World Road Rules Challenge" was at first a competition between alumni from "Real World" and "Road Rules". Out of the first nine challenges, six of them were exclusively competitions between Real World and Road Rules. These seasons included "The Real World Road Rules Challenge", "Challenge 2000", "The Extreme Challenge", "Battle of the Seasons", "The Gauntlet" and the "Inferno". In four of these challenges the Road Rules team usually won by a large margin, especially at the end, which caused Bunim/Murray Productions to scrap the whole idea of Real World versus Road Rules. The swapped it with themes like "Good Guys versus Bad A**es" or "Rookies versus Veterans" or "Champions versus Challengers" or "Red Team versus Blue Team versus Gray Team".

Usually in these challenges you would have one team vote a player from their team to go against a player from the other team or visa versa where one team would vote in a player from the other team to face one of their players that was voted in by the other team. The individual challenges (formerly called "missions") would allow the winning team to split the $10,000 or $20,000 winnings in their team bank account or their individual bank account. And finally, it would allow the remaining teammates at the end of the season to split the winnings from the final mission if their team happened to win. These were my favorite types of challenges to watch because I always liked seeing the challengers work as a team and always rooting for the underdogs on said teams. 

Bad A**es win Inferno 3 (top)
Road Rules team wins the first Inferno (bottom)

Now, while I always liked this approach to the show, it always carried with it many problems. The first of many problems was in every one of these team challenge seasons, there was always that one player who was always picked to go to eliminations. Whether it was because their team didn't like them or they thought they weren't as good, it always seemed to happen and it always made the rest of their team scared of go into eliminations. Also, when immunities and life shields were involved, teams would always try to make sure that a certain person got the life shield so they could throw in said "undesired" players or when it came to male and female elimination days, the men would always throw the mission so that they would get a chance to get rid of a female on their team. Probably the best example of this was the case of Sarah Greyson in "The Gauntlet". Sarah was seen as being weak because of her performance on "Road Rules: Campus Crawl" where she consistently quit in missions and was sent home because of it. The Road Rules team put her into the Gauntlet five times and each time she came back and eventually went on to split the "Handsome Reward" with the rest of her team that tried to get rid of her.

Sarah Greyson in the "Gauntlet"

Now it wouldn't be fair to also address the fact that there were pair and individual challenges during this time. They included two seasons of the "Battle of the Sexes", two seasons of "Fresh Meat", two seasons of "The Duel" and one season of "The Island". "Battle of the Sexes", while considered a team challenge was also an individual challenge because of how they voted players off their own team. "Fresh Meat" was a challenge where each "Real World" or "Road Rules" alumni could draft one fresh meat player based on statistics from a sort of combine trial. "The Duel" was a free for all challenge and "The Island" was a challenge where the contestants went to an island off the cost of Panama, didn't compete in any missions or eliminations, but rather eight different "Face-Offs" in order to earn a key and not get voted off the island.

Abram and Johnny "Bananas" in the 

voting ceremony on "The Island" (2008)

Now before I discuss my theory for why they made the change to partner challenges, let me talk about the current gripings that I have with pairing challenges. First and foremost, they have run it into the ground. Since 2011 they have had three "Rivals" seasons, three "Battle of the Exes" seasons, which are basically rehashes of "Rivals" with coed pairs, and "Bloodlines", which paired a challenge alumni up with a brother, sister, or a cousin of theirs. Basically it just laziness on the part of Bunim/Murray Productions to see something in the past that was received decently and replicating it five or six times. And while there have been minute rule changes to make "Rivals" different from "Rivals 2" and "Rivals 3" it still hasn't been enough to stop the fan griping. 

Not to mention the individual challenges are very repetitive and so are the eliminations. I swear, 90% of the challenges or "missions" are merely high up in the air where the contestants have to jump from one place to another or go across a beam that is high off the ground, or one partner has to help the other partner across. And don't even get me started with some of these eliminations. I think I can name four or five eliminations that have merely been reused because they have "run out of ideas". Likely because they cannot come up with something else that shows the physicality of the players instead of what was used before which was a lot of personal endurance and mental toughness.

Jessica performing phase 3 of "Out on a Ledge" in Free Agents (2014)

With that said, this is my theory. Back during the "Gauntlet" and "Inferno" era, one of the negative aspects was the fact that at the end, the team that won the final mission would win around $250,000, but they would have to split that amount with anywhere between four players and nine players. The main issue with this is the fact that instead of getting half of the amount of money they won, they would only end up getting anywhere between $25,000 to $55,000 so it wouldn't be nearly as much if you and a partner won $250,000 and got to split the amount right down the middle. This also added the ability to have the runners up and the second runners up win $35,000 a piece and $15,000 a piece. At the end of the day, it is more money gained per final and you don't have to worry about getting rid of people or worry about others attempting to sabotage you in a mission to make sure that you end up in the next elimination challenge. Not to mention, imagine splitting $230,000 with nine people, which is $25,000 rounded down and you end up with a lot of useless coinage in the wake of you winning. 

I actually liked the idea of having a challenge where at times players were partners, at times they were on a large team and at times they were on a small team like "Free Agents", which is a more modern version of "The Duel", but they really need to find a way to reinvent themselves. Even though "The Challenge" is getting a 29th season, the show has slowly regressed in viewers and the originality that made it so special in the beginning. The amount of drama in the show can only do so much until it discontinues and everyone needs to go ahead and watch a new reality show. I think we are all looking forward to that 29th season and hoping that they will do something different to keep the mouths of the fanboys watering.