The Challenge: Ranking every Champion from seasons 20–30 Allan Aguirre Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 5, 2017

With season thirty being over, there now have been thirty Challenge wins since Season 20 Cutthroat. Many people have had repeated wins (CT, Paula, Bananas, etc). While others are one time champions. In this I decided to rank the power of every single win during this point. I will not be ranking the players based on their entire Challenge careers, I am basing it off the win in that single season. Everything is taken into account for this, challenge wins, elimination wins, degree of difficulty, social game, political game, clutch factor. winning as an individual versus pair versus teams. On top of it, there’s a ton of subjectivity going into this. Sometimes you can put all the stats on paper, and it doesn’t tell the full story. 30–26

30th Dunbar Merrill — Cutthroat

29th/28th Brad & Tori Fiorenza — Cutthroat

27th Sam McGinn — Battle of the Seasons

26th Ashley Kelsey — Battle of the Seasons The worst champion is obviously Dunbar. He was a decent social player as he was friends with many of the top players and hooked up with multiple girls. He barely won any daily mission wins, had a 2–4 elimination record, and lost his winnings on Cutthroat for filming a porn. While Brad and Tori are in fact good players their win on Cutthroat was underwhelming. As the first female picked in the Cutthroat draft, Tori did little to validate the spot, and Brad coasted through. They only won the final due to the dehydration and possible concussion of Abram. Ashley gets one spot above Sam because Sam was often the fourth best person on the San Diego team on Battle of the Seasons. 25–21

25th Jamie Banks — Battle of the Bloodlines

24th/23rd Zach Nichols & Frank Sweeney — Battle of the Seasons

22nd/21st Johnny Bananas & Paula Meronek — Rivals 1 Apologies go out to the wonderful Jamie Banks. He won a season with a weak cast and was carried a bit by his cousin. One of his two elimination wins was technically a loss. His championship also holds less weight after his bad performance on Rivals 3. The weakened Battle of the Seasons cast is why Zach and Frank end up so low. Combined their team won the most daily challenges and won three total eliminations (2 by Zach, 1 by Frank). They anchored and dominated the game. No disrespect to Paula. This win meant a lot to her and her story as a competitor. Her win on Rivals 1 was mostly due to Evelyn destroying the missions while Paula remained competent. She elevated herself to another level on Rivals 2. Paula’s Rivals 1 win was a bit lacking. The same goes to Bananas. The hard part about his win is that he and Tyler lost day one of the final by almost an hour, and Johnny struggled up the mountain on day one the same amount as Wes. 20–16

20th/19th Ashley Mitchell & Chris CT Tamburello — Invasion of the Champions

18th/17th Tyler Duckworth — Rivals 1/Cutthroat

16th Cara Maria Sorbello — Battle of the Bloodlines Both winners for Invasion of the Champions benefited a ton from the format. Ashley likely would have never sniffed the final if multiple of the female champs were allowed in, while CT probably would have still coasted to the final, but lost to either Bananas or Darrell who were in better shape to run a final. Rivals 1 Tyler gets 18th. He showed out a little less for most of the Rivals season, taking a backseat to the stars of the franchise. His best showing was the final where he did incredibly well despite having food poisoning. He also took two major hits from CT in Dug Out. On Cutthroat he was the best player of the Red Team who eliminated both Derrick and Bananas. Again, while Cara Maria has proven to be a strong player over the years with her 5 finals appearances, her win came with a watered down cast. The big thing going for her is that she eliminated Bananas/Aneesa, her two biggest enemies en route to her win. 15–11

15th Wes Bergmann — Rivals 2

14th Camila Nakagawa — Battle of the Exes 1

13th Paula Meronek — Rivals 2

12th/11th Johnny Bananas & Sarah Rice — Rivals 3 This is kind of the section for dominating performances that didn’t have enough zest. As much as I love Wes, he was carried a bit by CT on Rivals 2. He helped manage CT’s emotions and piloted their political game for most of the season. They’d be higher if the two didn’t coast through the first half of the season. From a physical standpoint, Camila was probably the best girl on Exes 1 (yes, even over Emily, watch all the episodes and pay close attention to the missions). Then you consider one of the major reasons she got far was due to the social relationships that Bananas had. If not, she would have likely seen a ton of eliminations. Still a phenomenal performance. Paula finishes 13th for one of the greatest sidekick performances ever. Her and Emily won more than half of the daily missions on Rivals 2 and killed the final. Paula’s ability to eat was the reason they won the final. Particularly tough to rank and gauge is the Sarah/Bananas win on Rivals 3. In a weak cast, they were unanimously the best team put together before the season. It’s not fun to watch the best two players on the cast be on the same team against a cast of scrubs. They dominated the season and the final. 10–7

10th Jordan Wiseley — Battle of the Exes 2

9th Johnny Bananas — Battle of the Exes 1

8th/7th Camila Nakagawa & Jordan Wiseley — Dirty 30 I didn’t want to give Jordan the title of greatest sidekick because he was more than that on Exes 2. When partnered with Sarah he took her game to another level while being the same dominant athlete that he has been his whole career. Exes 2 had a strong cast, so winning the final in dominating fashion gives him a ton of clout. Exes 1 was a dramatic turn for Johnny Bananas character on the show. With Evan and Kenny out of the MTV picture, they finally gave him a main character edit, and boy did he produce. Bananas socially and physically dominated most of the season until CT/Diem’s late game surge in daily missions. His ability to manage Camila’s emotions in order to win the season was magnificent. It could be recency bias putting this too high or too low, but the wins for Jordan/Camila were quite impressive. Jordan was on a cast with four other champions, four finalists, and whatever Hunter is. His absolute demolishing of the other guys in the final is the grand work of art that defines his illustrious career. Camila won by winning missions, winning eliminations, and killing the final. As much as the house hated her, she still pulled out the win in the end. Camila winning is almost like a superhero movie where the superhero and all their friends die, and the last ten minutes is watching the villain reek havoc on the world. 6–4