Has Winning The Challenge Changed Devin?

Josh stopped by the Death, Taxes, and Bananas podcast to talk about his experience on Battle of the Eras, and unsurprisingly, Devin’s name eventually entered the conversation.

Both Josh and Bananas had their own experiences with Devin this season. Josh found himself having to pick between two alliances while Bananas found himself in an alliance with Devin that had an expiration date. Despite having different storylines, both competitors reached the same conclusion: Winning a Challenge season changed Devin.

In Bananas’ words, Devin went from being a frat bro to a cult leader, and he’s trying to be the ultimate mastermind who controls the game. Obviously, neither Josh nor Bananas benefited from Devin’s game play, so they’re not pleased with Devin’s new strategy.

While I can’t confirm that Devin changed, his game doesn’t seem drastically different from a viewer’s perspective. He’s been known to rely on “mental warfare” in the past, and Bananas was a victim to this on Vendettas. We’ve also seen him make micro-deals on past Challenge seasons. Notably, he made an agreement with Michele on Ride or Dies that kept him safe from the Zone.

Even if Devin has changed, is this really that unexpected? He had a very clear strategy on Spies, Lies and Allies and Ride or Dies: prevent a champion from getting another victory. Now that Devin is a champion, he’s not going to rely on that mantra, and he’s not going to perpetuate a strategy that hurts his BFF Tori’s game.

Clearly, Devin (like Josh) had too many allies this season and he was bound to disappoint a few as the game progressed. And like Josh, these disappointments eventually caused his game to unwind. Though in Bananas’ defense, he seemed willing to work with Devin for the duration of the season until Devin exposed his intentions.

The funny thing is that Josh and Bananas were more successful than Devin this season. Calling Devin a “cult leader” may be giving him too much credit. He didn’t lead anyone to make outrageous decisions, he just solidified a smaller group of allies which demonstrated that Josh and Bananas weren’t in the core group.

No one should be surprised that Devin has a different strategy now that he’s a winner. The bigger issue is that his new game was unsuccessful, and if Devin wants a second win, he’ll need to change his strategy on his next season.