Is the Team Captain Twist a Good One?

Throughout the history of The Challenge, the term “team captain” has taken different meanings, and on Battle of the Eras, the twist has started to dictate the early stage of the game.

Starting on episode 3, each era has been required to nominate two representatives to lead their teams in the daily challenges. The first captains had no idea what they were signing up for, but it was quickly revealed that this was a position that could earn power, but it was also a risky position to be in.

Eight people will need to be in the leadership positions during every challenge. Half of them will find themselves in the Arena, two will win power, and two lucky souls will skate by. While some people like having the ability to set up an Arena match, most Challengers don’t want to make those decisions because they know it can make you a target.

For the players on Season 40, it seems like this twist will get messy really fast, but it could be a good thing for viewers.

The Good

• One of the best things about this twist is that the Arena winners get to pick the representatives for the next daily challenge. To the credit of the Challenge editors, they quickly stopped promoting the captain roles as a good place to be and they started treating them as targets rather than leaders.
• This twist can only exist in its current state on a four-team Challenge, taking advantage of elements that make this season unique.
• The format also gives competitors reasons to compete in the daily challenges. Winning guarantees safety, but even if a team doesn’t get first place, they’ll want to do well to avoid last and the guaranteed a spot in The Arena.
• From a drama standpoint, this could create tension. We already saw this at the end of episode 4 when Josh and Cory went back on their word and didn’t volunteer to be captains.
• If a captain feels particularly strong about a decision, they can force a stalemate and go into The Arena (though this might be considered a bad thing for some viewers).

The Bad

• It seems Era 1 has been taking a beating very quickly, and there’s serious potential for teams to fully dissolve before this twist ends.
• Arena winners don’t like assigning targets to their competitors, so it can feel like a punishment for winning.
• When alliances form, it will feel like the real challenge winners are the captains that come in second or third and don’t have to go into The Arena. Essentially, they avoid creating targets but they don’t need to jeopardize their games in the Arena.
• Throwing challenges may still make sense. If someone has a rivalry with their team captain, they could throw the daily challenge to guarantee that the captain goes into The Arena.

While this isn’t a perfect twist, it generally encourages competitors to actually compete — a necessary element of a good formatting choice. It also takes advantage of this season’s larger-than-average cast, which is another benefit. So, regardless of the potential shortcomings, I am happy to see that the show gave us a new twist this season that feels like it could only take place on season 40.