17 Seasons: The Inferno (Final), Inferno II (Final), The Duel, Inferno III, Gauntlet III (Final), Duel II, Rivals, Battle of the Exes (2nd place), Rivals II (Win), Free Agents, Battle of the Exes II, Invasion of the Champions (Win), Dirty XXX (3rd place), Final Reckoning, War of the Worlds, War of the Worlds 2 (Win), Total Madness

5–5 Elimination Record

48 Challenge Wins

Daily Challenges: 10/10

Eliminations: 9/10

Finals: 8.5/10

Politics: 8.5/10

There’s no one in Challenge history who has been as successful for as long as Christopher Tamburello.

With three victories and eight finals (tied for the most for a male in Challenge history), CT’s resume speaks for itself.

Not counting his exits on Inferno III and Duel II for fighting and having to leave due to Diem’s illness on Exes II (and to be clear I’m not factoring any of those early exits into these rankings) CT reached at least the final elimination in 10 straight seasons to start his career, an absolutely staggering accomplishment.

CT was an excellent competitor from the beginning. On The Inferno he won four life shields and beat Shane in elimination to make the finals, then on Inferno II he won a ridiculous six life shields even with guys like Abe and Derrick on his team.

It looked like he was more interested in wooing Diem on The Duel than actually winning, but he still won three dailies and beat Evan in elimination.

On Gauntlet III, CT beat Derek in the first daily and breezed into the final with the dominant vets, but didn’t get his first win because Big Easy died.

After getting put in exile for his fight with Adam on Duel II, he returned on Rivals with the entire house against him and still dominated. CT and Adam won two dailies and took out Evan/Nehemiah before losing the final elimination to Johnny/Tyler.

On Exes, CT and Diem started slow but won the final two dailies to reach the finals. They led for almost the entire final, until CT broke down and Johnny/Camila passed them at the last minute.

CT finally captured his first victory on Rivals II, as he and Wes won three dailies, stayed out of elimination the entire season, and led basically from wire-to-wire to defeat Johnny/Frank and Jordan/Marlon.

He had a low-key run on Free Agents but still took out Leroy in Wrecking Wall and won four daily challenges.

After Diem’s death, CT returned on Invasion with a dad bod. But even in his worst shape, CT still proved to be a freak of nature, having one of the most impressive elimination wins in Challenge history by destroying Darrell in Knot So Fast, then defeating Nelson and Cory in the final to earn his second victory.

Dad Bod CT again dominated Dirty XXX, winning all but one daily challenge and earning his way back from the Redemption House. The only reason he was in the Redemption House was a twist that allowed the winning team of the Blackout mission to send someone straight there, and CT was picked because he was the biggest threat.

CT’s cardio held him back from beating the more in shape Jordan and Derrick in the final, as he placed third.

Some people wrote off CT after a couple of early exits late in his career, as Veronica caused him to get purged on Final Reckoning, and on War of the Worlds he was called out by JP and lost the three-man Ring Tossed elimination round to Kyle.

But he came back on War of the Worlds 2 and was the only stabalizing force guiding Team UK, ultimately helping them win the final without ever having to go in.

While I’m not factoring Champs vs. into these rankings, it should be noted that he’s won the spinoff twice, including a ridiculous comeback win on Champs vs. Stars season two where he overcame back pain to defeat two tough teams in Casper/Louise and Wes/Boobie.

CT’s 5–5 elimination record isn’t impressive, although the people he’s beat are impressive (Shane, Evan, Evan/Nehemiah, Leroy and Darrell, not to mention the Banana Backpack on Cutthroat).

Some might point to CT’s less than stellar elimination record as a reason he should be lower, but I think there’s context in his losses.

He dominated Brad in Push Me on The Duel, but lost for ripping the flag. It’s on CT for making the mental mistake, but for all intents and purposes CT absolutely destroyed Brad in that elimination.

His other losses were because of Adam’s mistakes in the final elimination on Rivals, a puzzle loss to Bananas on Free Agents, the loss on War of the Worlds, and when he sent himself into elimination on Total Madness and lost to Jay. The Bananas and Jay losses are really the only time where he was beat straight up.

The Free Agents loss, his collapse in the Exes final, his bad cardio in the Dirty XXX and the loss to Jay on Total Madness are really the only three times where you can totally blame him for not winning (you can throw The Duel loss in there too but that was more of a fluke loss, even though I don’t think he beats Wes in the final because of the soccer advantage).

I think there’s a valid case that CT was the best male competitor on six seasons — The Inferno, Inferno II, Gauntlet III, Rivals, Rivals II and Invasion. I don’t think there’s another guy who was the best on more than four seasons.

CT is undoubtedly a top-five competitor of all time, but while guys like Alton and Landon only did four seasons apiece, CT put together at least 10 elite seasons.

Politics isn’t what CT is known for, and most of the time he didn’t really have to play that hard politically because people were afraid of putting him into elimination.

But I think CT’s political game is vastly underrated, especially late in his career.

After having the whole house against him on Rivals, he was able to get himself in with the other vets on Exes (having Diem as his partner helped too). CT and Diem made horrible mistakes in throwing in Paula/Dunbar against Ty/Emily and Mark/Robin in against Johnny/Camila, but those were portrayed to be Diem’s decisions rather than CT’s.

On Rivals II, he employed the best polidicking strategy in Challenge history, hooking up with girls on four different teams (Diem, Anastasia, Nany and Cooke), which helped keep himself and Wes out of elimination the entire season.

And on War of the Worlds 2, he was the puppet master pulling the strings on Rogan, staying out of elimination as his alliance maintained control the entire game.

Although CT usually never has a true number one ally (other than Cara Maria), he almost always works with the top dogs like Bananas, Leroy, Zach, Wes, Derrick, etc. After having more enemies than almost anyone in the history of the show early in his career, he really doesn’t have a legitimate vendetta anymore.

Even with as big of a target as he usually has due to always being a top competitor, he is able to downplay his threat level better than anyone.

Other than The Inferno (when he stepped in for his cousin David Burns to face Shane) War of the Worlds and Total Madness, CT has never been into an elimination earlier than the second-to-last round (he’s gone six full seasons without ever having to see an elimination — Inferno II, Gauntlet III, Exes, Rivals II, Dirty XXX, War of the Worlds 2).

Whether he’s in shape or has a dad bod, CT is a massive threat to make it to the end and win. He’s one of the best males ever in dailies and can destroy someone in an elimination, if he even has to see one at all.

And that’s what makes CT Tamburello one of the greatest players Challenge history.

Rankings

25. Nelson Thomas

24. Paulie Calafiore

23. Leroy Garrett

22. Frank Sweeney

21. Jamie Murray

20. Tyler Duckworth

19. Hunter Barfield

18. Timmy Beggy

17. Dan Setzler

16. Zach Nichols

15. Abram Boise

14. Mike Mizanin

13. Theo Vonkurnatowski

12. Brad Fiorenza

11. Alton Williams

10. Wes Bergmann

9. Darrell Taylor

8. Derrick Kosinski

7. Kenny Santucci

6. Mark Long

5. Jordan Wiseley

4. Evan Starkman

3. Landon Lueck

2. CT Tamburello

1. Johnny Devenanzio