Devin’s Capsized Boat and the Challenge 40’s First Rule-Breaking Scandal

We’re only one Challenge into Battle of the Era, but it already seems the rules have not been handled consistently.

On the Era 3 team, Devin completed the Light It Up challenge by swimming to his buoys and collecting all 10 of his lights. He was having a hard time with his boat and it capsized, but determined to light up his board, he swam through the water to complete the mission before Leroy.

Tori praise this as being a “G” move, but Ryan has since spoken out and stated that it was a rule violation. Like Devin, Ryan’s boat capsized, but unlike Devin, he claims he’s a “rule-follower.” According to the judges, Ryan was supposed to swim to shore, retrieve a new boat, and continue to collect his lights. Ryan also stated that this protocol was specifically stated as part of the rules for capsized boats.

In Ryan’s case, he completed the ’40’ puzzle before Derek and Brandon, so being able to swim and collect the lights could have saved him from last place.

Ultimately, this caused Leroy to come in last place, and he hasn’t spoken about the issue, but Amanda has chimed in to add fire to rule-breaking rumors.

Amanda implied that Tori didn’t follow the rules to get all of her lights, and rumor has it, someone threw lights to her.

While we can’t confirm Amanda’s accusation, we do know there is a lot of unseen footage from the challenge. So, it could be true — but Amanda also had her own lights to focus on. But it’s hard to immediately dismiss her claims when there are visible inconsistencies.

It is clear that Devin was the only person to swim to the finish line. While we don’t know how long the challenge took (sometimes rules change so the competition can wrap up) the change in rules will ruffle a few feathers. And, it’s totally understandable that people will be frustrated to see Devin swimming without penalty, especially people who had issues with their boats and came in last place.

EDIT: Jordan has addressed the controversy on Instagram Live. He stated that the expectation to use the boat was clearly in the rules and that he wants fairness to be part of The Challenge. Jordan feels he’s a good swimmer, and if he could have fallen out of his boat and swam, he believes he would have smoked everyone in this game.

He didn’t really blame Devin, because he implied that the ref gave him the green light to continue. And if you’re given that permission, even if it violates the rules, no one would choose to quit. However, he was irritated by the episode’s edit because producers hid their blunder with the “CT Pro Tips” and tried to fool viewers into thinking Devin outsmarted the competition.