(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".
