It used to be that people just showed up on The Challenge without much preparation other than maybe hitting their local gym a couple of times before filming.

That has changed.

I used to think I could compete reasonably well on this show if I were on it. I’m fairly athletic, strong and can swim — which would at least have given me a leg up on Jozea.

But with the mutants they’re casting these days, I wouldn’t stand a chance.

The male cast of The Challenge is so strong and deep that it’s reasonable to argue it’s the most stacked pool in Challenge history. The infusion of real athletes like Division I soccer player Paulie, Great Britain national team sprinter Theo, and real life terminator Turbo has made the show closer to a legitimate sport than it ever has before.

With filming of season 34 underway, I am ranking who in the cast is best equipped to have success next season and beyond.

My definition of success here isn’t who has the best chance to win (because we’ve seen in recent seasons that the final is often a crapshoot), but to actually make the final.

If you don’t want to know casting spoilers for season 34 (I have no knowledge of elimination spoilers), don’t read beyond this point.

Note: I’m only ranking people who were on Final Reckoning, War of the Worlds or will be on season 34 that have appeared on the show before, and I only ranked the people who I think have a decent chance of being on the show in the future (sorry Alan, JP, Chase, Derrick Henry, ect.). I also didn’t rank Rogan, who will appear on season 34 but only competed in one mission on Vendettas.

21. Josh- While he wasn’t as bad of a competitor as Big Brother watchers predicted, he is still one of the worst competitors on the show. The only reason he got into the game on WoW is because Alan got injured, as Josh finished last in the opening challenge. He and Amanda were eliminated on dubious circumstances by Kam/Ashley, as they weren’t disqualified for moving up the ladder with their backs against each other in Uphill Battle.

Although Josh is in tight with his fellow Big Brother alums like Da’Vonne and Paulie, he is also known to go on a temper tantrum and piss people off. I don’t see him getting cast on another season after 34, but I can see why he was brought back because he does deliver some drama for the show.

20. Cory- I don’t think there’s any need to see him on the show again, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we do since he’s an MTV favorite. Politically he has all his chips in the TYB alliance, which usually never has much power, and he’s a much worse competitor than his comrades Nelson and Hunter. Despite making two finals in his first three seasons, I don’t see how Cory ever even makes it past the halfway point in a game again.

19. Devin- He’s just not on the same level athletically as any other “mainstay” on the show. He has some strong friends in Wes, Nelson and Tony, and he could go deep in any given season by being kept around as a layup card, which happened on Vendettas. But if he finds himself in an elimination that’s not mental, he’s probably going to go home.

It’s a bit surprising Devin won’t be on two seasons in a row, as he toils in the minor leagues of Ex on the Beach while the big boys go to Thailand to be on The Challenge.

18. Leroy- In his early seasons, Leroy was an above-average competitor who was someone to be feared in elimination. It’s not like he’s clearly gotten worse as a competitor, but the rest of the cast has gotten so good that now he has to be considered below average.

He’s never been a good political player, and his style of floating and only being in a true alliance with Bananas is just never going to work out for him. Leroy could do 10 more seasons and I don’t see him ever winning.

17. Shane- We’re probably never going to see him again based on him constantly attacking MTV on social media, but I’m going to rank him anyway.

Shane is a solid overall competitor, but just overmatched with the current crop of mutant males. His biggest advantage is his brain, as he’s one of the smartest guys on the show, and he’s also one of the best swimmers. But put him into anything that requires physicality and he’s screwed.

Politically, he’s usually in lockstep with the Lavender Ladies, but with so many new strong competitors it’s hard to see that group of slightly above-average competitors dominating again.

16. Ashley C- The most obviously roided out male in the history of the show, Ash may (by appearances) be physically intimidating, but there’s more to The Challenge than who can bench press the most weight.

Ash isn’t a bad competitor, but he was partnered with one of the best females on the show and still only reached the tribunal one time. A member of the UK alliance, Ash should be set up fairly well politically if he returns, as its members are fiercely loyal to each other.

15. Bear- Bear is almost like Shane on steroids (not literally on steroids I don’t think, although who can really tell these days), in that he’s extremely loyal to his alliance and extremely annoying to everyone else.

Bear can’t help but constantly put a target on his own back due to his antics. He protects his alliance (maybe even to a fault), and they should have his back in return. But although he was better than expected as a competitor with two elimination wins, he is still seen as one of the weakest guys on the cast, as evidenced by him getting called out by fellow UK mate Kyle.

14. Bananas- It seems crazy to put the six-time champ this low, but there’s nobody who has a bigger target on his back coming into a season than Johnny.

He really only has one person now who truly has his back in Leroy. Tony, Kyle and CT will likely work with him to some extent, but when push comes to shove none of them will probably be there for him. Former allies Zach and Cara probably aren’t on his side anymore, and he will be targeted every time by Wes and the Young Bucks.

Physically he’s not in quite the shape he was in his prime, but I think his dropoff is a bit exaggerated, as he made the troika four times on Vendettas and he was one faulty production elimination away from making the finals of Final Reckoning. Still, with the most stacked male cast in Challenge history and the weight of being the winningest challenger ever on him, it would be a miracle for Bananas to even make a final in the near future.

13. Brad- Despite being a top-15ish male competitor of all time and being in the best shape of his life (the steroids help), Brad somehow finds himself as almost the baseline of an average competitor in this current crop.

The consummate jack of all trades, Brad is still very solid in dailies, eliminations and presumably finals. His biggest issue is he doesn’t have any true number one allies, although he is friends with people like Kyle, Zach and Wes. I just think Brad would have a tough time finding his place among this current crop.

Brad recently retired again to take a new job, so we might not see him again, but no one is ever really retired when it comes to The Challenge.

12. Wes- Turning in one of his best career performances on War of the Worlds, Wes returned after a four-season hiatus and has proven that he still has what it takes to be a champion.

The problem is I think it’ll be extremely difficult for him to repeat his game politically.

Only nine castmembers on War of the Worlds had been on a previous season with Wes, and that plays into his game of rallying the rookies to his side. There’s not going to be another season anytime soon where half the cast is rookies, and most of the newbies are going to wise up to Wes’ scheming.

He’s in better shape now than he was before his retirement, but Wes is still one of the least physically intimidating males in the game. Despite making six tribunals on War of the Worlds and being the all-time elimination king, I don’t see too many people being afraid to challenge him one-on-one.

I just think if he goes back to being a mainstay it’s going to be very difficult for him to repeat his War of the Worlds performance. As glad as I am to see him on the season 34 cast, I think it probably would have been best for his game to come on the show every now and then to lessen his target.

Wes has proven throughout his career that he’s always a threat to make it to the end, but I think he will have a massive uphill battle next season.

11. Nelson- In his five seasons, Nelson has proven that he’s a very strong competitor, as he was mere minutes away from winning Invasion. He just has two flaws — he has rocks for brains and he almost always finds himself on the wrong side of the numbers in the house.

I really think Nelson’s best chance to win a season was being partnered with Shane, who complimented his skill-set perfectly. Unless he gets partnered with someone else who can compensate for his lack of a mental game, it’s hard for me to see Nelson winning a season, but he almost always goes deep.

10. Tony- Tony is by far the hardest person for me to rank in this crop of males.

Competitively, you could argue that he’s the worst competitor besides Devin, Josh, and Cory despite his run of making the finals of Vendettas, winning Champs vs. Stars season three and making the final elimination of Final Reckoning.

But Tony ranks this high for me because he has a lot of friends in the game. With people like Zach, Kyle, Bananas, CT and Devin all on his side, Tony is very well-connected and should go fairly deep on most seasons because of his political game.

9. CT- Listen, if you want to count CT out for being too out of shape, go ahead. I’m just never going to rule him out as being a serious threat until he hangs up his Under Armour.

Despite having the two earliest exits of his career on Final Reckoning and War of the Worlds, CT is still less than a year removed from winning a tough Champs vs. Stars season three final.

Even his recent losses weren’t really his fault, as Veronica’s ineptitude got him eliminated on Final Reckoning and it took two guys ganging up on him to get him knocked out of War of the Worlds.

Politically, War of the Worlds was the first time CT’s lone wolf strategy backfired on him, as Nany put him into the tribunal for not aligning with anyone. Going forward it might be in his best interest to have real, handshake agreements with some guys so that someone will have his back when push comes to shove.

If he’s going to win another final, CT will clearly have to get in better condition, as he had a tough time with cardio in both the Dirty 30 and Champs vs. Stars season three finals. There’s no way he would have been able to do well in the War of the Worlds final in his current state.

But he’s still a monster in daily challenges and eliminations, and has to be seen as a major threat to make it to the end of any season.

8. Zach- Still one of the best competitors on the show, Zach probably had his stock drop the most out of any males on War of the Worlds. His head just wasn’t in the game, and he made enemies in Bananas and Cara (and by proxy Leroy and Paulie).

Still, Zach has loyal allies in Kyle and Tony, and if he’s on a season with Jenna that’s another person who will always have his back. It’s still insane that Zach hasn’t won since his rookie season, but it just feels like he lacks what it takes to be a champion.

7. Hunter- In terms of pure physicality, Hunter is one of the best competitors in Challenge history. But his flaws are almost the exact same as Nelson’s flaws. He never has many allies, as his political game is borderline horrendous.

He’s probably the dumbest person in the Young Bucks alliance, which is like saying Moe is the dumbest of the Three Stooges. With Hunter’s lack of brains and his bad cardio (which is ultimately why Ashley was able to take his money on Final Reckoning), it’s hard for me to see Hunter winning a final without a partner similar to Ashley to balance out his flaws.

6. Joss- I’m a little surprised we’re seeing Joss again since he was kind of a bore on his two seasons, but there’s no denying the guy is an excellent competitor.

He proved it from his first mission on Vendettas when he won the Rock of Gibraltr challenge that he would be a forced of be reckoned with, establishing himself as one of the top contenders until Derrick beat him in one of the greatest eliminations of all time.

On Final Reckoning he and Sylvia won two eliminations, were the only team to be in the main house for the entire game and were only stopped from winning the entire game by a Paulie/Natalie grenade.

It’ll be interesting to see how Joss integrates himself in with the UK castmembers on season 34, as he’s only played with Rogan (who’s one of his best friends), Kyle and Kayleigh before.

5. Kyle- As a competitor, Kyle probably isn’t in the top half of the guys on this list. He’s obviously not a bad competitor, as he placed third on Vendettas and took out CT, JP and Bear on War of the Worlds before losing in Hall Brawl to Theo. Heart gets you a long way on The Challenge, and Kyle has proven he has that despite not being on the same level athletically as a lot of the other guys on the show.

But Kyle is this high due to his superb political game, as he has been able to integrate himself with established vets like Zach, Tony, Bananas, Leroy, Wes, Nany and Da’Vonne, while still having plenty of friends on the UK side.

Of course his rivalry with Paulie and Cara will likely continue until the end of time, but when you have the rest of the house on your side I’m not sure how much that really matters. Kyle is really the modern day Kenny, a slightly above-average competitor who makes himself an elite player by having so many friends.

4. Paulie- It’s hard to argue against Paulie being one of the biggest douches to ever be on the show. It’s also hard to argue against him being one of the top competitors on the show.

Despite losing three eliminations on Final Reckoning, he and Natalie improbably (or perhaps inevitably when you have four chances) got back into the game, then won two missions and beat Johnny/Tony in elimination to make the final, where they placed third. It was clear that Natalie N was holding Paulie back, and when he got paired with a better (Ninja) Natalie he proved how strong he is, making the tribunal six times and taking out Kam/Ash in elimination.

My biggest problem with Paulie’s future is that I don’t really know who his allies are outside of Cara and maybe Wes. Having Josh and Natalie Negrotti on your side isn’t going to do much for you. The lone wolf game only gets you so far on this show, and he could be an easy person to target early on future shows.

3. Turbo- The most satisfying champion since CT won Invasion, Turbo came onto the show and was instantly a fan favorite and one of the top competitors. The guy really has no holes as a competitor — he has insane cardio, he’s physically one of the strongest males and he can solve puzzles.

Turbo has the personality of a teddy bear, unless you piss him off (as Hunter, Ninja and Dee found out this season). It’s almost like he’s the new CT, but he skipped the hothead phase and is already the mellowed out CT from Free Agents on.

Turbo really did play a CT-like game on War of the Worlds. Despite not having many close allies, he was able to stay out of elimination the entire season by winning missions (six tribunals, including a victory on the Crash Landing mission to move straight to the final) and being too fearsome of a competitor to be called onto the Killing Floor.

The only reason Turbo is outside of my top two is because like CT, he is kind of a man without a country politically. It seems like Nany is the only one who will truly have his back going forward, and she’s not exactly a power player. If he returns, I expect people to start taking shots at him early to get him out, because nobody wants to run a final against him.

2. Theo- Someone Theo’s size shouldn’t be as good as he is. Generally, the best guys in Challenge history have been of medium height in build — Landon, Jordan, Bananas, Wes, Abram, Brad, etc. Obviously there have been exceptions of bigger guys dominating like CT, Mark Long and Evan, but there’s never been anyone as tall and as lanky as Theo who has performed this well.

Theo won five tribunals on War of the Worlds, took out Kyle in Hall Brawl and finished second in the final. He and Turbo finished the most grueling final in Challenge history in a full on sprint. Seriously, these guys are bad asses.

I have Theo above Turbo purely based on politics. Theo is solidly in with the UK people, as his fantastic four alliance with Ashley, Georgia and Bear dominated the early part of War of the Worlds.

With that combination of athleticism and connections, Theo is set up to go deep on every season he’s on.

1. Jordan- When you’re the champion of the last two seasons you’re on, you get the benefit of the doubt in being the number one contender.

Despite having only one functioning hand, Jordan is arguably a top-five competitor all-time. His Dirty 30 final performance is legendary, having crash landed out of a plane and tearing up his knee, yet still defeating Derrick and CT.

I can’t wait to see how Jordan stacks up against the new crop of competitors on season 34.