Wes Bergmann — 3 wins (2 canon wins + Rivals 1)

explained ⬆️

Paula Meronek — 3 wins (2 canon wins + Gauntlet 3)

explained ⬆️

Zach Nichols — 3 wins (1 canon win + Vendettas + Final Reckoning)

Vendettas was the first season where there was only one winner (which they bizarrely called a “genderless” winner). Zach “killed it” on the season, making the Troika 4 times and avoiding elimination through his power alliance with Tony and Kailah. In the final, he again excelled, beating everybody in the first leg by a large margin (with Kyle coming in second and Cara third).

However, similar to Kenny/Wes on Rivals 1, his lead was cut down to almost nothing or the second leg. In a “genderless” final, for some reason both Cara and Zach were given the same head start for the memory puzzle — only 30 seconds, when Zach stomped both Kyle and Cara the previous day.

This rendered the entire first leg essentially moot, as it all came down to a colour-matching puzzle, which Cara finished first.

On Final Reckoning, Zach again shone, winning 4 dailies in his time there. He and Amanda were safe during the voting after the Caged In challenge, but they could not decide who of the eligible teams to throw into elimination — Ashley/Hunter or Johnny/Tony. Zach and Tony were each other’s #1s, and the same with Ashley and Amanda.

They deadlocked and thus had to go into elimination themselves, against Da’Vonne/Jozea, who had not won any dailies theretofore. No big deal, right? Wrong. This was the second Mercenary elimination this season, and Cory/Devin had to beat both Zachmanda and Da’zea to enter the game. And interestingly, both the teams had a lead over Cory/Devin but could not shake off a certain medallion no matter how hard they tried. It was the same one in each round, and apparently, after the elimination round finished, someone tried to take it off with their hands — to no avail.

Many people see this is rigging. And it all would have been fine in the end, because Zach/Amanda had a great chance of winning the redemption challenge to re-enter the game. Except during the elimination, one medallion smacked Zach in the face, breaking his nose and medically DQing him and Amanda.

Several cast members have since declared that if Zachmanda had avoided that elimination, they would have gone on to win the season. I contend that if Zach hadn’t broken his nose, they would have had no issue winning the math-climbing-wall redemption challenge either, since Zach is 6' 3" and has won climbing-wall eliminations, and because Amanda murdered the X-It daily during Invasion, which included math (in a sudoku puzzle).

Chris “CT” Tamburello — 3 wins (3 canon wins + Gauntlet 3 but - Invasion)

G3 explained ⬆️

Conspiracy theories abound about the Invasion final, considering how close he and Nelson were in the end, with a purported 2 minutes separating them. Many people believe that Nelson is the “true” winner, but production awarded the W to CT, as a beautiful conclusion to his comeback / redemption story arc. Where he performed admirably on Exes 1, Rivals 2, Free Agents, and Exes 2 before leaving the game because of Diem’s cancer. CT came back in a new form — the Dadbod — on Invasion, and winning the season was a perfect capstone to an inspiring story. The conspiracy theory contends that production manipulated the times to get the ending they wanted.

It is also worth mentioning that the Invasion final had much less distance running than your typical final and several swimming portions. CT is not known for his endurance (see how he performed in the following final, on XXX) and Nelson and Cory are both poor swimmers. What’s more, with the Invasion final being spread over 3 days, the competitors had plenty of time to rest and recuperate before and after the daily stages. If it were a straight-up run, Nelson’s endurance would have outshone CT’s.

Various reasons why Nelson might have been the true winner of Invasion (though I know this is a controversial take).