This week was saw Lolo & Nam at each other’s throats. They’ve reached a point in their relationship where they feel they can no longer work together, and Nam is hoping to win an elimination so he can switch partners.
This is common on The Challenge. Sometimes we have two people who are strong on paper, but a poor team dynamic destroys their chances at winning.
Some teams push through drama and survive to see a longer life in the game. This isn’t the list for them. This is a list for the teams whose drama led to their downfall in the game. Any team that was joined based on formatting will be considered. The only exception will be teams with no sense of permanency, so Ninja & Turbo won’t be on this list.
Honorable Mentions:
15. CT & Veronica (Final Reckoning)
14. Devin & Tori (Double Agents)
13. Cara Maria & Abram (Battle of the Exes)
12. Johnny & Jessica (Rivals 3)
11. Tonya & Johnnie (Fresh Meat)
10. Dunbar Merrill and Tyrie Ballard (Rivals 2)
Anyone with a moderate understanding of Challenge history knows that the pairings on Rivals 2 were weak. Most people had minor drama or had patched up the holes in their relationships. One of the oddest pairings was Dunbar and Tyrie, but in retrospect there’s some sense behind it. The two have been on multiple seasons together, never really talked face-to-face but they shit on each other in the confessionals. So when they were paired together, they were less than thrilled. As a result, Dunbar threw the elimination and took his ass home. An unfair ending to Tyrie’s game who pulled his weight in the elimination and showed up to the season in his best shape.
9. Tori Deal and Derrick Henry (Final Reckoning)
If you watch The Challenge you’ll quickly come to realize that Tori is really confident in herself. Derrick H., on the other hand, has a reputation for having “popcorn muscles.” When the exes found themselves paired on Final Reckoning, Derrick was going to have to do a lot to fill Tori’s expectations. Surprisingly he fell short, which caused a lot of arguing and a lot of blame. Then they lost elimination and never got to compete in a Redemption game. Farewell!
8. Piggy Thomas & Chadwick Pelletier (Battle of the Seasons)
The Challenge has changed a lot over the years, but some things stay the same. One of those things: married couples have big targets. On the original Battle of the Seasons, Chadwick and his wife Holly tried to keep themselves safe by voting off their biggest threats. This way, there’d be a lower chance of these teams replacing them in the inner circle. Of course, this was at the expense of team morale. On the other side, Piggy wanted the stronger teams to stick around but Chadwick orchestrated a move to take Veronica & Yes out of the game after the first mission. After the second mission, Piggy & Chadwick slipped out of the inner circle. Chadwick’s cutthroat mentality stuck and they were cut from the Road Rules team.
7. Evan Starkman and Nehemiah Clark (Rivals)
Evan and Nehemiah came into the game of Rivals with a dislike for each other. While they didn’t have the most dramatic past, they also weren’t friends. Throughout the season, communication was awful. Evan was really playing the game so Kenny could win, and he threw a challenge to get himself sent into elimination against CT. It was really a kamikaze mission, and Nehemiah was out of the loop. The team lost, and Nehemiah’s chances of winning dissolved due to Evan’s dumb plan.
6. Johnny Reilly and Averey Tressler (Battle of the Exes 2)
When it came to the pairings on Battle of the Exes 2, Johnny and Averey may have had the rockiest past. The nails in their relationship’s coffin occurred on Free Agents, and during that season Johnny became allies with Bananas. As a result, Averey entered a house where Johnny didn’t talk to her. She became allies with people on the other side of the house, and they never saw eye to eye. They did OK in some of the challenges, but their lack of communication stifled all strategic gameplay and hurt their performance in competitions.
5. Eric Banks and Camila Nakagawa (Battle of the Seasons)
On Battle of the Seasons (2012), a team could become a duo once the other half got eliminated. That’s exactly what happened to the Fresh Meat 2, who had been riddled with conflict for the first day. They were targeted by the rookie teams and forced go into elimination after elimination. When Camila and Eric were the only two left, Eric’s motivation in the game came into question. Camila was willing to fight the uphill battle, bit Eric gave up. He (literally) left Camila high and dry in the Water Torture elimination, resulting in a loss for both competitors.
4. Luke Wolfe and Evelyn Smith (Fresh Meat 2)
Ev was accustomed to being a top-tier player, so when she was stuck with the last-picked guy on Fresh Meat 2 she was bound to have some problems. In her eyes, she was picking up Luke’s slack and he was dragging her down. At times they may have been truth to this, but there were other times when he was just the whipping boy. This all came to a head in their Blackout Exile against Landon & Carley. They lost, only because Landon & Carley completed a puzzle with a time deduction as a prize. Luke wanted to do the puzzle, Ev said to bypass it, and it was Luke’s fault in the end.
3. Lolo Jones and Nam Vo (Double Agents)
It’s hard to pinpoint the reason this team doesn’t work so well together. Lolo claims they have different mentalities, and Nam isn’t showing the same intensity as her. Meanwhile, Nam views the game from a more realistic point of view. He’s not going to hustle when he’s already lost, even though she’s strong enough to put in the effort. Their constant bickering keeps them from winning, and now they’re both desperate to get a skull.
2. Zach Nichols and Amanda Garcia (Final Reckoning)
No team has ever worked so well together yet had such an extreme level of drama. Zach came into the game with (allegedly) one main ally: Tony. Amanda had her Lavender Ladies, and a secondary alliances with Team Young Buck. While Zach was the muscle on the team, Amanda was the brains. This allowed them to win Challenges, but once they couldn’t keep burning votes on rookie teams they had to draw a line in the sand. Both were stubborn, and Zach refused to send Bananas & Tony into elimination. As a result, he & Amanda were sent into an elimination that would ultimately get them out of the game, even though they had safety.
1. Tony Raines and Camila Nakagawa (Rivals 3)
A recurring theme on The Challenge: Camila’s partner makes one mistakes and she freaks out. Another recurring theme on The Challenge: Camila goes wild and becomes The Camilinator. A third recurring theme on The Challenge: Tony gets really drunk and does some things that are really dumb. Throughout Rivals 3, Tony complained that he hated his partner and her lack of support. One drunken night, Camila was entering Camilinator mode. Tony tried to get her to go to bed, but the fight escalated and Tony cornered Camila. Their drama was so intense that TJ sent them home out of fear of a physical alternation.
Stop Being Polite 