A new season of MTV’s The Challenge is upon us. The season is War Of The Worlds 2 and pits some of best reality stars the United Kingdom has to offer against a crew of Challenge Veterans from the US of A (with a few exceptions). The season opens with each team on its own armored truck, adorned with flag and logo. The US is in all black while the UK wears camouflage. Seems like a massive missed opportunity to make the UK in redcoats, but I digress.

The opening lineup for the season.

We get right into the first mission for the episode, entitled Trench Warfare. The mission has the teams charge at each other, attempting to grab the other teams’ flags and return them to their side of the field. The first team to return the twenty-eight flags of the opposing team wins. The winning team also gets to select which two reinforcements (one man and one woman per team) they want on their team. The reinforcements are CT, Turbo, Ninja, and Dee.

Trench Warfare.

The mission starts and immediately picks up from the physicality of last season. Each team is pushing back and forth, and everyone seems drained from trying to hurdle the opposing team’s barricade. It is pretty dead even until Laurel takes the initiative and starts blocking some of the UK girls from getting through. She pushes them back to the point of moving them out of the structure completely and allowing her and Faith to put in the last flags, getting the win for the US.

The Reinforcements.

After securing victory, the US gets into a debate of which reinforcements to select. Everyone seems to agree to pick Ninja over Dee, but there is a lot of division over CT vs. Turbo. I think Turbo is a more valuable competitor in a team construct, but CT has such a history with the US team and was rooting harder for them than some of their own members during the mission. Cara Maria, Kam, Smashley, and Wes, in particular, seem to want CT, but Jordan and Johnny are adamant in acquiring Turbo. The US team ends up picking Ninja and Turbo, much to CT’s chagrin.

Team USA.

TJ also announces that the US team needs to select one person to act as a voice for their team. Since he got his way in the previous scenario, the team selects Jordan. Jordan is allowed to pick two people to join him, and he takes Wes and Laurel; who form the Tribunal. This Tribunal consists of the two veterans returning after the most time off as well as the most calculated political player in the history of the show, so it should be very interesting. The way the Tribunal is formed reminds me a lot of Vendettas, which I have a problem with as I think it rewards political standing too much and the loudest voices can just bully their way into the Tribunal. We’ll see how it plays out, and some of the other format specifics (such as not being in the Tribunal twice in a row) should mitigate these concerns, but it could be problematic moving forward. The Tribunal is allowed to select one male player from either team to face whomever the losing team has voted into the Tribunal.

The Bergman Bunch

We get back to the house, and after some debrief on the closeness of Georgia/Nicole Bass and Joss/Rogan as well as the antipathy between Cara Maria and Laurel, we find some burgeoning relationships between Wes/Joss/Rogan, Dee/Rogan, and Georgia/Josh. Wes has apparently been aggressive in acquiring alliances in the offseason, contacting people such as Georgia, Paulie, Cara Maria, Zach, and the aforementioned Joss and Rogan. Hunter and Joss are good friends, so after the success of the Wes/Hunter pairing last season it makes sense he would link up with Hunter’s English counterpart. While having Joss and Rogan by his side should certainly be a help, not having Hunter on the US team is going to be a problem for Wes unless he can find a new one.

Georgia and Josh.

Georgia and Josh have a flirty relationship and apparently have been back and forth since last season’s reunion. Hunter and Amanda had a back and forth relationship last season, so interesting their former partners are now back and forth in a different way. Sean and Big T, both of Shipwrecked, remark how they are feeling ostracized by their team as Rogan and Dee spark up a relationship elsewhere. Dee has come into this season single but wants this relationship to remain “exclusive casual.”

Josh being held back by a producer.

Sparks start flying in a different way when Josh and CT get into an argument. It’s a strange argument, where CT is screaming at Josh for being in his room as he is having a conversation with Kyle. Producers end up having to separate the two, with CT unleashing a scream of frustration. He clearly seems affected by being shirked by his American comrades, and it will be interesting to see how he carries himself going forward.

Team UK voting almost unanimously for Sean.

We get to the nominations for the episode, where Big T breaks the tension by throwing Bear’s name out. However, the rest of the team responds by voting almost unanimously for Sean. The Tribunal now gets the chance to “interrogate” Sean. I’m not quite sure what the point of this is, as I don’t know what the interrogated is going to say to swing the mind of the Tribunal, particularly the minds of Laurel, Wes, and Jordan. Wes takes the lead in a big way here and asks Sean for information. Since it is the first day and Sean is a rookie, he doesn’t have much to spill, but he does ask for Bear in elimination.

Rogan pleasing for mercy from Jordan.

After the Tribunal discusses things, Jordan and Laurel go back to talk to Johnny. Interesting to see Laurel and Johnny working together as the two haven’t always seen eye to eye in the past. Johnny tells Jordan to offer up Joss or Rogan as they appear to be working with Wes and see what he does. Jordan tells Wes he is thinking of putting in Rogan, and Wes isn’t happy about it. He tells Joss, who tells Rogan, who runs to beg Jordan for mercy. It becomes pretty obvious what is going on here, and it is not looking good for the ginger genius.

The Tribunal preparing to make their decision.

We get to the elimination, and the Tribunal gets to decide who they want to put in. Wes votes for Bear, while Laurel and Jordan vote for Idris, setting up an all-rookie clash. The elimination is pole wrestle, a Challenge classic where competitors fight for control of a pole. First to gain sole possession of the pole wins the round, first to two rounds wins the elimination.

Idris and Sean in Pole Wrestle.

The elimination starts, and it is pretty even. These two are clearly rookies, as they seem to just be flailing around, and aren’t making the calculated moves a veteran would make in this type of game. Soon Idris is able to slowly gain the advantage, and wrenches the pole away from Sean, giving one point to the former boxer. The next round follows a similar suit, giving Idris the win and sending Sean packing. TJ makes an announcement that the winning player of an elimination round will get to choose if they want to rejoin their team or move to the other team, and that closes the episode.

Eliminated

Sean: With the way this episode was edited, you could kind of tell it was not going to be ling stay for Sean.

Power Rankings

31) Big T: Losing the one ally you have probably is not the way you want to open a season.

30) Esther: Don’t know much of Esther, and since everyone seems very entrenched in their alliances, she could be on her way out of here soon as well.

29) Idris: Good job in the elimination, but rookies in this type of setup get thrown in early and often.

28) Nicole Bass: Common theme in the bottom of these rankings is rookies are in trouble. Having Georgia by her side will help, but not enough.

27) Josh: Getting into a fight with CT is not the way to open a season, and he seems to be easily the worst male on the US team.

26) Faith: Similar position to Josh, with a bit more athletic promise but less social connections.

25) Zahida: We barely saw Zahida this episode, and maybe Georgia carries her for a bit but her athletic abilities did not show out last season.

24) Bear: He already seems to have his team against him, and with enemies all over the place it probably won’t be long before he heads to the proving ground.

23) Jenny: There is room for a female to surge up the ranks on the UK side, but until Jenny does that, she hangs around here.

22) Leroy: This season seems to be set up pretty well for Leroy, but until he does something besides float around and leaves midway through it’s hard to place him higher.

21) Kayleigh: Kayleigh seems to have some decent connections this season, but if she reverts to her Vendettas athletic form she won’t be around for long.

20) Wes: Hate putting my guy Wes this low, but he seems to have well overplayed his hand and doesn’t really have the alliances on the US side with CT, Joss, and Rogan on the UK.

19) Johnny: This could be much too low, but he’s not a top tier physical competitor anymore and has a lot of enemies in both camps.

18) Rogan: He seems like someone who has a lot of upward mobility, with your name getting thrown around so early and his disappointing start to last season he can only be so high.

17) Kyle: Most of his connections are on the American side, which has benefits but he could also be voted in by his teammates because of this.

16) Smashley: Smashley doesn’t have many allies right now, but she is one of the better political players of all time and could work her way up.

15) Nany: Similar to Smashley, Nany is also a social ace but outside of Johnny, Leroy, Laurel, and Wes (and it is probably difficult to be in an alliance with all four) not many immediate allies are at the forefront.

14) Dee: She seems to be clearly a top three female on her team and has connections on both sides, putting her in solid position for now.

13) Kam: Kam should succeed in this heavily political format and is in a strong spot for now.

12) Ninja: Ninja’s a dynamite competitor who could show herself to be atop tier female of all time after this season.

11) Zach: Zach seems to have come to play this season, and as long as he and Cara have made up, he should be in a strong spot.

10) CT: He’s on the worse team but should be a leading voice there and seems to have come with a vengeance this season.

9) Theo: I’m not sure where his alliances are outside of Georgia, Zahida, Cara Maria, and Bear; but providing he garners some he is a good enough competitor to last.

8) Joss: Joss has always impressed athletically, but he’ll need to flex his political abilities to win this game.

7) Laurel: She is an all-time competitor, but without the alliances of her rival Cara I could see her meeting the proving ground a few times.

6) Turbo: He’s probably the best competitor here, but he’ll need to be a bit more politically active to survive this game.

5) Georgia: She is the most proven competitor on the UK team and seems to have the best web of alliances.

4) Tori Deal: This might be a little high for Tori, but her social ability is outstanding and having Jordan at her side should be a great benefit.

3) Paulie: His brashness could be an impediment, but he has the alliances and physical ability to win this season.

2) Cara Maria: Quiet episode from Cara, but she doesn’t need to make any noise to show her solidified position.

1) Jordan: He seemed to be the far and away leader of Team USA, and while that could make him a target, for right now it makes him in power position #1.

Extra Notes

· Theo Campbell sustained a severe injury to his eye. No word on if it happened during or after filming (indications lean towards after) but prayers his way that all goes well.

Fantasy Scoring