'The Challenge Lies, Spies And Allies' Week 14 Recap And Power Rankings - a Surprise DQ And Amanda Dominated The Entire Cast
*Spoilers Obviously Ahead. Again, this is your warning*
We're going to keep these blogs going. If we can't have No Quitters (RIPIP, send all complaints on Twitter) we're going to have the blog damnit. The Challenge is too damn good of a show to not be talked about. Each Thursday I'll drop one of these recaps and power rankings so we all can argue about America's fifth sport. I'll try to convince the other guys to do something from time to time because something tells me this season is going on for months.
The DQ
Apparently this was expected. I don't read spoilers because I actually want to watch the episodes. Weird concept, I know. There are various reasons out there which you can google. But Ashley is gone. Brutal loss for Sapphire who actually had a decent team with Ashley, Emy, CT and Logan. Hell, they won the first daily challenge with this team together. Now you lose a team member when it's clearly important to have more players than every other team to win the challenges.
Having zero of the big names for the sponsored section was fucking hilarious
Just a bunch of people I couldn't pick out of a lineup. The movie sponsors for an episode is a classic Challenge move. But they always had at least the B list guy out there. This time? NO idea. This is where I wish we could have got together on No Quitters because there would have been 20 minutes of this talk.
Nope, no, never would do the daily challenge
Claustrophobia and some drowning all at once? Nope. They had to sit in this fake plane thing and as water started to submerge they opened the top, jumped out and had to collect puzzle pieces. The idea was there. I just have zero desire to do this. I'm still waiting for trivia, but at least this was one of the more watchable daily challenges. Unfortunately it went too long, again. We don't need 45 minutes of this.
Amanda dominated the entire cast
An absolute masterclass here by Amanda. She saw the writing on the wall. She was stuck on Ruby. That team STINKS. It's an insane move to stay on Ruby when you can win and move to any other team. Also the fact that not one person thought to infiltrate Emerald was asinine. Break up the best team, start getting numbers even and give yourself a better shot to win. Just common sense here. So what does Amanda do? She wants to throw herself in so she can pick who she goes up against. She gets to see the layout of the elimination and decide brains or muscles. It's the smartest play one can make, especially if you want to switch teams. Naturally she calls out Big T and dominates her. Smart play. Then she infiltrates Emerald, sending Tori to Ruby and breaking them up. I've seen more of this this season than anything else. People seem to forget you're playing an individual game within a team game. You need to set yourself up to make the Final, team, etc. You don't need to care about other people. People lost their shit that Amanda would do this. What else would she do? Join a 3-person Sapphire? No. Go back to Ruby? Even a dumber idea. This is the only decision she had.
Josh fucked up … shocking
Amanda played Josh like a fiddle. She sat down with him one on one to tell him she was going to come to Emerald. She actually gave him the choice of what female do you want to save. Obviously he picked Nany and Kaycee. They are in his alliance and he'll always pick them. It started a bit of an argument with Tori and him but really just drove home the fact that Josh 'wanted' Tori gone. Big brain move by Ashley knowing that Josh would crack because Josh always cracks.
Another twist
Because Ashley was DQ'd, TJ faked out Big T. She lost, but was able to stay in the game because they are trying to make this a 30 episode season or something. So he sends Big T back to Ruby. Sure.
Challenge All-Stars
Starts today and yes, I'll be blogging about it. I enjoyed the first season of All-Stars more than the current Challenge season. Make sure you watch, it looks good … again.
MVP: Amanda
LVP: Ashley
Power Rankings
Guys
7. Nelson
6. Kyle
5. Josh
4. Logan
3. Devin
2. Emanuel
1. CT
Girls
6. Big T
5. Nany
4. Tori
3. Amanda
2. Emy
1. Kaycee