The show hasn't even started and we've got our first controversy and an owner booted! If that doesn't mean we're headed for a great season then we don't love our MTV. As first time participants of fantasy MTV Challenge, I was really curious how six complete strangers would assess the point scoring prowess of our favorite reality television personalities.
Would competitiveness and challenge ability win out over drama and tantrums? We'd love to hear more from each owner about why they picked each player and what kinds of secret strategies they harbored as they drafted. For now, we'll just take a look at how
the draft for Challenge Forum's Battle of the Exes unfurled. Plus, here are
the team rosters.
Round 1While there was some talk about Rivals' rookie of the year Jasmine being the top pick, the clear choice for number one overall is Chris Tamburello. CT would have won last year's Challenge in a walk if his partner wasn't so stupid, and he's back for the first time as a fan favorite. Everyone's cheering for CT to finally win one of these and this will probably be his best chance. CT! CT!
From the look of the previews and last year's outstanding showing, Jasmine is a five tool player. She hooks up, she unleashes verbal barrages, she cries, she is likely to be blurcled, and she's feisty enough to intimidate in some of the eliminations. The only question is how long will Jasmine stick around? It might not matter, as Jasmine is capable of putting up MVP numbers even in limited time.
Now we get to the controversy. On no planet except a cheating planet would Ty be picked ahead of many of the contestants selected later in this round. In his two recent Challenge appearances, Ty has been pathetic both times and while he's got a lot of crazy potential, he's pretty useless at competitions. What did ousted owner Kylexy know that we don't? (How to cheat apparently.) Either way, Kylexy has been booted and we all know that spoilers aren't usually accurate anyway. We applaud Expert for dumping Kylexy, as swift justice tells everyone that this league is all about fair play. Thanks for joining us Alaina! For your sake let's hope Ty doesn't suck as poorly as he usually has.
At the #4 slot, Kenhoffy took Robin, a very interesting pick as we all know Robin is around for her veteran social muscle and tears, not her work in direct competition. Last season we saw the old vets get tossed overboard pretty soon -- because there were too many (relative) newbies who had overtaken the throne -- so I'm curious how long Robin and Mark will last. Either way, we might as well give Robin a few crying points now, as she's good for at least two instances before she gets booted off. This is Robin's ninth Challenge and didn't she say something last season about wanting to spend more time with her new kid? Bravo mother of the year!
Merideth has been paying attention. We've been predicting Camila's breakout season for quite some time now and we think Battle of the Exes is it. While we're unsure of the nature of her and Johnny's hookup from Rivals, we are sure that Camila is a tough competitor who has plenty of attitude to spare. She's headed for some major bonus and competition points, and we think she'll finally have the social muscle to avoid getting tossed into all the eliminations. This Brazilian crazy is our dark horse female MVP.
Paula finally won a Challenge last season after nine tries and while we'd love to say that she's got repeat potential, our analysts are pretty sure that the drop off from having Evelyn as a partner to Dunbar is pretty steep. We'd be shocked if Paula makes it past mid-season. Queue up some crying points for her too though.
Round 2With the wraparound pick, Challenge_fans invested in another vet, the Methuselah of the Challenge, Mark Long. Seriously man, how can you keep coming back? The good thing is that 50-year old Mark is still in great shape. The downside is that he'll take a father figure stance with all these kids who are probably literally half his age, and we can't see him getting many bonus points. But Mark is a fun guy so we can see him sticking around for awhile as he pulls into a super vet alliance.
Our last image of Wes was him crying like a little baby as his legs cramped up -- and got bloody from the rocks in his socks. Our second to last image of Wes was him carrying Kenny up a mountain. Which is the real Wes? Recently, Wes hasn't done well points wise in this Challenge, as he rubs too many people the wrong way in order to survive to the end. However, Wes is clearly first round talent that slipped and let's not underestimate the fact that this is his second partnership with Mandi. An experienced team up could pay dividends.
If this was a solo Challenge, we'd take Abram top three, easy. The question is how good will Cara Maria be? Well, Kenhoffy and Alaina are dying to know, as they took the ex-lovers in successive picks. Newsflash: Cara Maria is one of
the top Challenge competitors. Overlooking Fresh Meat 2, she's made the finals every season since and is much more physically capable than she looks. With Abram around to support/antagonize her, we don't see many other teams wanting to mess with this strange duo. We'd be shocked if Abram and Cara Maria don't make the finals, dressed up in blood splattered Tanooki suits or something.
Matt gets a steal at the bottom of the second round with Johnny Bananas. Since we are so high on Camila, it makes sense that we are just as equally high on Johnny. We can't see any situation where Johnny doesn't have another long Challenge run -- except if CT decides to kill him -- and even without his douchebag trio around to help him socially, Johnny will have a pretty good shot at repeating this season. We're curious if Wes and Johnny will decide to team up versus big bad CT.
Speaking of CT, Nate decides to go all in with Diem as his second pick after scooping up her ex in the first round. We know Diem will be good for one drunken night, a few hysterical tears, and probably one hookup that will send CT bonkers. (Or is CT over that?) Diem isn't the most mentally strong contestant but she can sort of hold her own physically. Her role in this Challenge is to just play Ann Darrow to CT's King Kong and Nate is hoping that's enough to take him to the top.
Round 3I literally know nothing about Naomi. Was she more than friends with benefits with Leroy? Were they no strings attached? Did one incept the other? What? And is it just me or do they sort of look alike? Maybe Naomi has some secret physical/dramatic powers I don't know about. Someone fill me in. Bold pick Nate, bold pick.
Another candidate for breakout player is Emily from DC. She's athletic, she's well liked, she's no longer a rookie. While it's insane that she ever liked Ty romantically, there's a decent chance they could work well together right? If the rumors are true that Ty goes far, that means Emily does too. We're hoping she sticks around as we think she's got great Challenge potential.
Even saddled by the light hearted clown that was Mike, Leroy went far last season. We think he's got the potential to do it again but we're unsure how the veterans will receive him this season. Leroy is super likeable but without knowing how quickly the vets will accept or cast him out, it's hard to predict what'll happen. He's clearly the best guy left at this point in the draft though. Solid choice.
Mandi is looking to build on her huge breakout season on Rivals -- 34 points, coming in second only to Paula's 35 points -- and cement her status as a perpetual Challenge contender. Feel great about this selection Kenhoffy, we have Mandi as a virtual lock to make it to the finals. She's got some social clout this time with Wes around and they'll hook up for sure. We'd love it if Mandi asked CT to put the choke moves on her again, but we can't see that happening. Although a tag team match between Wes/Mandi and CT/Diem would be our ultimate pay per view this season.
The man so good that he was selected twice! Tyrie is well, not actually good. While he may be twice the size of some of the other competitors, he's definitely not even half the athlete. After seeing him get pushed around by Wes and Kenny during the Blast Off elimination last season, we question if Tyrie was actually even a college football player. His job on the show will be to prevent Jasmine from ruining too many inanimate objects.
Aneesa is the definition of all blow and no show. She's been on these challenges
like eight times and been pretty terrible each time as I recall. She's not only going to tank her own chances, she's gonna take Rachel down with her as a double whammy.
Round 4There was a time when Sarah looked like a rising star in these Challenges. Remember when she came on and was all feisty and competitive and in love/hate with Kenny? That was four Challenges ago -- she's the only contestant who hasn't missed one since Ruins 2. Now she's got a track record of failure and tends to wimp out at the worst times. She's the Vince Carter of this game. Unless the entire Challenge involves swimming, Sarah and her Jersey Shore knockoff partner, Vinny, are headed for an early exit. Also, we're not sure we like the blonde hair. Actually we are sure: we hate it.
We're a little surprised Rachel wasn't drafted higher, seeing as she's tough and will have some social pull. However, her partner is Aneesa so that's probably why she sunk to such a low spot. At least Rachel's not Dunbar! Dummy Bear is a veteran guy who is always selected low because he's just boring. Traditionally, Dunbar melts into the background and just does whatever his partners tell him to do. "Lame Human" should be his new nickname.
I don't watch Real World anymore so is Dustin just an accent-less, taller, not cool version of Cohutta? Yeah it sucks that his Real World roomates shunned him for his gay porn past but that sympathy will hardly keep him around with the Challenge crowd. If RW: Vegas was smart, they'd try to form up a mini-alliance and sell their votes to the highest bidder. Why doesn't this ever happen?
Matt tried to take Tyrie again but will end up with Vinny instead. According to
our advanced metrics, Vinny rated out as the worst Challenge player of the last four seasons. (Yes, even worse than Katelynn.) We'll see if this meathead can get past the second episode.
And with the last pick of the draft, Nate takes Priscilla, who is going to get at least one blurcle an episode now that she can legally drink. Not that being underage prevented her from being blurcled in any way. There's a great chance Priscilla is coming back next season, regardless of how she finishes during Exes. We predict she could soon become a franchise player.
Undrafted
San Diego Nate would have been an intriguing pick. He has some bonus point potential but as the reigning newbie, he's likely to be tossed very soon. Heather is, well, she's headed for a quick exit. Barring a miracle, neither Nate nor Heather will be around to be picked up by the first team that loses all of their drafted players.
I'm still in disbelief that Jenn and Kenny aren't on this Challenge. They should be here. Although maybe we're all tired of Kenny. And Laurel must be pissed that she's never actually hooked up with anyone enough to be considered an Ex. I bet with her first off-season, she'll return stronger than ever. Imagine if she was here instead of Diem? Next Challenge we'd also really like Theresa and Landon back. Thanks in advance Bunim/Murray!
