If you have read my coverage of the Challenge, it may or may not surprise you that I am an avid sports junkie. I grew up watching SportsCenter every morning before I walked to school, in the Summer I’d watch ESPN News until I knew everything going on in the world of sports. I would spend hours watching golf highlights — I don’t even like golf that much.

Athletes versus some of the greatest Challenge competitors excites me so much, it’s my 2 worlds coming together, the only way they could have made it better was by adding a cooking portion, or have it be hosted by Emilia Clarke and Peter Dinklage.

Time to talk about the episode.

Opening: Not sure if I 100% enjoyed them showing the Champs/Pros in the house then flashing back to the competition. It was fun to see them all interacting in a Challenge environment. What I have noticed is that they are filming in a party location, and they most likely all have hotel rooms elsewhere. While it is a “Challenge” they probably have to accommodate the Pros as such.

At the Challenge we get some good bickering between Lolo and Bananas. The Champs are anti-Bananas, while the Pros are also anti-Bananas, love it. They play the game “Against the Ropes” the same one from Free Agents where Cohutta told Bananas to dry off, and where Preston beasted it. In the first heat for the Champs, they sent up Wes, Bananas, Jordan, Cara Maria, and Camila. Except for Wes, all of them did this challenge on Free Agents, all falling in the water except for Cara Maria.

On this attempt it was much more difficult, the ropes were very thin, the platform knots were smaller. However, most of the people in this group are in the best shapes of their lives, except for Wes, the one person who fell, but got pretty close. In the end, they timed out, only getting Camila across. Had it been no time limit, all four would have most likely made it.

For the Champs first go, Shawn and Candice were too big to support themselves, and while their size makes them juggernauts in their sports, it does not help when trying to hold yourself up when you’re over water. They proceeded to get Louise, Tia, and Gus over to the end, scoring them 3 points. Shawn and Candice falling was almost like a blessing in disguise, as they only had to support a few people to get to the end.

On their second go, the Pros decide to have Wimbley go through everyone to the finish line, and this only gets him across, scoring them 1 point, 4 in total.

Once I saw who was going for the Champs on the second go, I knew they wouldn’t score a point. Veronica is fit, but doesn’t have upper body, same for Ashley M, CT has a dad bod, and Ashley K has little experience in general. They all fall, leaving Darrell hanging. The Pros win 4–1.

There’s a subplot of team captains, Ashley M and Louise Hazel are the team captains, for losing Ashley ends up in elimination, while Louise gets immunity. The Champs vote in Veronica to face Ashley, as they have not seen her compete in a long time. While the Pros choose to pick limes out of a bowl, with Lolo’s name coming out. Candice Wiggins volunteers to go in due to her falling in the water.

After the nominations the whole group goes on a fun outing to the bowling alley. Swear to God, I thought bowling was going to be the elimination, and was weirdly okay with it. At the alley, Jordan gets flirty with Lolo Jones who is enamored with his pornstache. The scene alone made this series worth it to me.

Elimination: They play Wrecking Wall, the famous elimination from Free Agents where Bananas beat Jordan, CT beat LeRoy, and Frank beat Dustin. Except this time the walls are a little higher, and a bit thicker, which is tough considering most of the girls on Free Agents struggled with the original wall. During this elimination we get a good view of how small Veronica really is, she’s always been a smoke show when it comes to looks, but physically she is nowhere near the level of the other champs. Ashley falls down the wall during their elimination, but is still able to climb back up and win. Then again, Ashley had the small advantage of being pretty dainty in that she could step up small wholes in the wall easily.

For the Champs elimination, Lolo put up a CT-like performance, destroying the wall with open palm hits. She is bigger, stronger, and faster than any female competitor that we have ever seen.

Overall, it was great to get those awkward opening introductions out of the way, and I am excited for what the show has to come in the upcoming weeks.