Is Aneesa Actually a Threat on Vets & New Threats

Bad news Aneesa haters — she’s been doing sneakily well this season.

After episode 5, Aneesa has accumulated the third-most points for a female this season. Aside from Mud Ball Madness, she’s finished in the top five for every single daily challenge, but hasn’t come in first yet. So while she’s silently amassing points, she’s not getting a lot of attention.

This is a welcome change of pace for Aneesa. On her most recent seasons, she’s had an early target. On Battle of the Eras she went into the Eras Invitational and on All Stars: Rivals she went home in the third elimination.

Objectively, this is a really good look for Aneesa, and it’s obvious that she’s been training for this season. She looks like she’s in better physical shape, and she seems to be prepared for most of the daily challenges that are coming her way.

If we were going to have a final right now, and points determined the competitors, Aneesa would be in the final — but does she actually have a chance of getting to the real final, the one that’s about 12 challenges away?

As of now, it feels doubtful. While Aneesa has been consistently earning points, we’ve seen some struggles. She didn’t do well during the puzzle on Water Tower, a skill she prides herself on, and she didn’t get any points during the endurance-based Mud Ball Madness challenge. Though if we’re being fair, she did come in fifth during Dirtballer, a game that required a lot of stamina, so she has shown improvements in the endurance department.

Her biggest issue: She’s playing a sloppy social game.

On All Stars: Rivals, Aneesa claimed she excelled at the social aspect of The Challenge, but on Vets & New Threats she finds herself in the middle of two alliances. Many of the super veterans want to work together (like Ashely, Nany, Leroy, and Aviv), and Aneesa could easily be part of that group. However, she’s also friends with Olivia.

This means Aneesa’s been playing in the middle of two alliances, and she tried to burn her vote to avoid picking a side on episode 5. Then, the stalemate forced her to show her cards, and she voted to send Yeremi into The Arena (therefore endangering his partner, Ashley). This shows the super vets where her loyalties lie.

We also saw Aneesa snooping around the house and interrupting the rookies while they were having a chat. Likely, this isn’t a big deal for her game, but it does make her look like a fairly suspicious player.

Sadly for Aneesa, this type of game play has a fairly predictable result. If I had to guess, Aneesa will find herself in eliminations near the end of the season, a very familiar spot for her. This is because people can’t fully trust her, but she’s not a big enough threat that they need to eliminate her right away. So, she’ll get 75% of the way through the game before the target shifts onto her back.

Still, we need to give Aneesa credit for showing some improvements this season. I have more confidence in her than I’ve had in the past four years, and if she does manage to pull off a win, it may be the biggest Challenge shock to date.