S01.E12: World Domination

[shantown]

Quote

The fight for $500,000 and the title of Challenge World Champion is on as teams push themselves to their limits across the South African countryside in their most brutal test yet.

Available May 17 on Paramount+

[lilabennet]

I feel like I'm going crazy right now.  The answer to that first puzzle was 062, not 042.  This is the Dirty 30 final all over again, where all the teams were passed with an "answer" to the Sudoku-like puzzle that had multiple of the same numbers in the same columns/rows, even though it was possible to solve it so that there weren't any repeats in any row/column/stream.

[AntFTW]

Good for Jordan and Kaz! Kaz won the Challenge UK and now World Championships. Jordan gets his 4th Challenge win. I like Kaz so I’m good with her winning.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty decent final. Too bad about Theo though… but the one person I didn’t really want to see win was Sarah so I’ll take that as a ‘glass half full’ thing.

4 hours ago, lilabennet said:

I feel like I'm going crazy right now.  The answer to that first puzzle was 062, not 042.  This is the Dirty 30 final all over again, where all the teams were passed with an "answer" to the Sudoku-like puzzle that had multiple of the same numbers in the same columns/rows, even though it was possible to solve it so that there weren't any repeats in any row/column/stream.

I see how you got that. I'm confused as well.

I figured out that the first digit is '0' and the last digit is '2.' One of hints clearly rules out '4' as a possible number in the code so... wtf?

The third hint on the first row says two of the numbers are correct but are in the wrong places, and those two correct and wrongly placed numbers are 0 and 2, meaning 4 is not in the code. That's how I interpreted it.

If the final answer is '042' then that means the hint itself is wrong because three (not two) of the numbers are correct but in the wrong places.

Edited May 17, 2023 by AntFTW

[bunnyface]

I heartily agreed when Troy said something to affect of "we work so hard to get to a final and when we get here, we're scared."  Oh yeah.  I would love to go do some of the carnival game kind of comps.  Those look fun.  I want no part of a final.  Ever.  I'd rather work for a living.  

From the way TJ explained the loops in the beginning, "first come, first served," it sounded like someone could have to do the smoothies more than once.  Which would be horrifying.

[Michichick]

8 hours ago, AntFTW said:

Good for Jordan and Kaz! Kaz won the Challenge UK and now World Championships. Jordan gets his 4th Challenge win. I like Kaz so I’m good with her winning.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty decent final. Too bad about Theo though… but the one person I didn’t really want to see win was Sarah so I’ll take that as a ‘glass half full’ thing.

I see how you got that. I'm confused as well.

I figured out that the first digit is '0' and the last digit is '2.' One of hints clearly rules out '4' as a possible number in the code so... wtf?

The third hint on the first row says two of the numbers are correct but are in the wrong places, and those two correct and wrongly placed numbers are 0 and 2, meaning 4 is not in the code. That's how I interpreted it.

If the final answer is '042' then that means the hint itself is wrong because three (not two) of the numbers are correct but in the wrong places.

I’m just boggling at the misspelling on the hints. Numer? 😂

[AntFTW]

2 minutes ago, Michichick said:

I’m just boggling at the misspelling on the hints. Numer? 😂

LMAO! I didn't even notice!

[Lamb18]

I liked when TJ entered the train car and Kaz says "Oh shit!" And everyone's wearing outfits from 100 years ago.

[bunnyface]

In an interview, Jordan said, "We had our first run and puzzle and everything with the waterfall, all that."  Would be interested in knowing what "all that" was.  A waterfall sounds fun.  Then came the Loops of Hell.  And apparently the second day had a canoe portion also.

[MaggieG]

I did get a kick out of TJ's conductor hat. Also them splashing water on each other to make sure everyone stayed awake.

[aghst]

It seems like they had hours of footage and it was only down to 50 minutes or so?

They couldn't sell enough ads to stretch to 90 or 120 minutes?

Kaz and Jordan, or rather Jordan pushed them harder and it paid off.

It's winner take all so the second and third place winners, it's good moral victory to finish but I'd have faked an injury or exhaustion and saved the legs.  Fuck TJ and his "I hate quitters."

Give me a reason not to quit then.

If there's no money in it, I'm saving the legs for the next competition.  Don't tap out, just say my knees have sharp pain.

There's no reason not to give them more sleep than 60 minutes for just the one team.  Results probably would have been the same but if they were allowed to rest, some might have recovered faster.

That shake must have some emetic substances, not just nasty in taste and smell.  Because people puking out on camera must be so entertaining to the producers.

 

 

[Lantern7]

*sigh*

I’m not really what I can say that I haven’t said already. The franchise is stretched too thin, there’s too much emphasis on things being “extreme” in the finale, and it’s only a matter of time before someone gets really, really hurt . . . or worse.

Would this count as two wins for Jordan? As big an ass as he can be, he was the ideal partner for Kaz. Who knows if Theo could have won if he didn’t roll his ankle. It would’ve been a great victory for him (he was the strongest human in WOTW who had the misfortune of competing with a demigod like Turbo) . . . until you remember his partner is Sarah. No thank you.

Danny mentioned his wife. Two Kiki namedrops in twelve episodes . . . too few. Pity he hitched his wagon to Tori. Kaycee is still likable, albeit boring by comparison to the others. I’m hoping she and Nany make things work. Troy probably won’t come back because he seems too nice a guy for the franchise. He’s basically the Australian Cohutta. You can’t tell me different.

More puke, IV’s, shock collars, TJ as Mr. Conductor . . . maybe that train was the Fear Express.

Good news . . . thanks to the writers’ strike, the second season of USA will air on CBS. I’ll probably watch because I honestly cannot quit this show. And if there was a foolproof way to do that, I don’t know if I’d actually do it.

[aghst]

If they can sell ad time or sell additional Paramount + subscriptions, all these different incarnations of The Challenge are a relatively low-cost way to generate content, since they need dozens of hours of content, not just for the cable channels (MTV and now CBS) but also the streaming service.

I wouldn't be shocked if production of the next Challenge shows they wanted to produce are minimally or not at all affected by the screenwriter's strike currently going on now.  B-M doesn't even need ChatGPT to generate scripts cheaply.  In fact, ChatGPT or some other AI might come out with better scripts or season plots for some of these Challenge incarnations -- eliminate Wes in week 2, Johnny in week 8 and Jordan comes in third place in the Final, TJ castigates some quitters, there are 3.5 twists during the season depending on the costs to implement them, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ImpinAintEasy]

I’m assuming every time they don’t show half of a final it’s because one team was dominating and they want to make it appear like it was close. But then again, the producers don’t reward people who win a leg with much of a lead. A team could have a 30+ minute lead and it will be reduced to a minute. 
 

Jordan and Kaz were the heavy favorites going in and once Kaycee started having issues the writing was on the wall. Jordan now has won 4 of his 9 seasons. A person on Reddit has that as the highest winning percentage of any player with 5+ seasons. Coming off of his worst season, it was a good rebound for him. I think he’s proven that as an individual, he’s probably the best in finals, though CT’s ability with puzzles and math is an equalizer. It’s a shame CT wasn’t in good shape on Dirty 30, as that was the only individual final that they competed against each other in. 
 

I’ve had enough of pairs seasons. Give me large teams or individual seasons for a couple of years. And please keep automatically sending the last place finisher in a daily into elimination. 

[AntFTW]

1 hour ago, ImpinAintEasy said:

Coming off of his worst season, it was a good rebound for him.

I think Total Madness was his worst season. He didn’t make it very far. At least, he made it to the final last season.

1 hour ago, ImpinAintEasy said:

I’ve had enough of pairs seasons. Give me large teams or individual seasons for a couple of years.

I’ll take a season of teams. I liked how they did WotW2. I wouldn’t mind bringing that format back.

1 hour ago, ImpinAintEasy said:

Jordan and Kaz were the heavy favorites going in and once Kaycee started having issues the writing was on the wall. Jordan now has won 4 of his 9 seasons. A person on Reddit has that as the highest winning percentage of any player with 5+ seasons.

I think this win puts him in the million-dollar club with CT, Ashley, and Johnny. 🤔

[snarts]

I've never liked Jordan so this was obviously not my favorite season. Plus, the country format made little sense once they were paired with the "legends".  What was the point of making them stay awake all night?  Let them sleep and show us the finale events that didn't involve running in a circle for hours. 

Also sick of seeing the same crop of people every season with the same group able to protect each other all season. Kaycee's on the top of my most annoying list right now as she garners protection from so many while personality wise, she's boring as hell. 

I liked the UK reps, so may watch the UK Challenge but I found the Aussies annoying and hoping it's the last we'll see of Troy & Emily.

[ImpinAintEasy]

4 hours ago, AntFTW said:

I think Total Madness was his worst season. He didn’t make it very far. At least, he made it to the final last season.

He lost to Fessy in pole wrestle. That just wasn’t fair. In ‘Ride Or Dies’ he was bad in dailies and was eliminated before being brought back and ended up blowing the final by losing to Bananas in ‘Balls In’. To me he seemed checked out because of his partner. 

Edited May 21, 2023 by ImpinAintEasy

[AntFTW]

42 minutes ago, ImpinAintEasy said:

He lost to Fessy in pole wrestle. That just wasn’t fair.

Sure, but there's no fairness in The Challenge.

[millennium]

Very pleased with the outcome!   Love him or hate him, Jordan is a Challenge legend.   IMO he deserves the title of Challenge World Champion more than any other player.   And it's worth pointing out he won it as a person with a disability.  (I can't recall his disability being given much if any attention this season -- in fact, viewers new to the franchise may not even realize he has only a partial hand).

Kaz was a great partner for Jordan.   She has a lovely personality.  She almost seems to glow in the confessionals.   For the first time, Jordan managed to be 100% supportive of his partner, with no Type A flare-ups.

I really dreaded some unforeseen calamity would sideline players and enable Sarah or Danny to win.   Thank you, Challenge gods!

I hope BMP continues to mine new talent from UK and Australia.   They're a lot of fun.   Leave the wannabes from Survivor in Fiji, please.

Finally, I wish Jordan and Tori could find some way to make it work.  

[luckyroll3]

On 5/17/2023 at 9:51 PM, Lamb18 said:

And everyone's wearing outfits from 100 years ago.

And they were all still smelly! So gross!

On 5/17/2023 at 8:39 AM, AntFTW said:

I figured out that the first digit is '0' and the last digit is '2.' One of hints clearly rules out '4' as a possible number in the code so... wtf?

The third hint on the first row says two of the numbers are correct but are in the wrong places, and those two correct and wrongly placed numbers are 0 and 2, meaning 4 is not in the code. That's how I interpreted it.

If the final answer is '042' then that means the hint itself is wrong because three (not two) of the numbers are correct but in the wrong places.

This must be some Challenge cast dumb logic, cause all the groups somehow got 042. But that answer makes no sense given the first and third clues....Looking at this a bit more, I see that we're making the assumption that each clue is giving us ALL the information and they aren't. If they were, both clue 1 and 3 would be written differently. Throwing out that assumption and using the second clue last, we know that that 0 has to be first. And since 4 is in 2 different locations (1st in hints one and two, but last in hint three), it can't be the "well-placed" number, so the 2 has to be the last digit. We know it can't be 1, because if it's correct and in the wrong place, there's nowhere for it go given that we've already placed the 0 and the 2. That leaves the 6 or the 4. I would have gone for the 6, because of the poorly written clues/assumptions, but I guess at that point it's just making the guess and if you got it wrong, you know it's the 4. This would have made me real mad if I was on the show. 

On 5/18/2023 at 9:35 AM, bunnyface said:

In an interview, Jordan said, "We had our first run and puzzle and everything with the waterfall, all that."  Would be interested in knowing what "all that" was.  A waterfall sounds fun.  Then came the Loops of Hell.  And apparently the second day had a canoe portion also.

Seems like they left out a lot! I guess they didn't want to give us another 3-4 episode finale? I don't really enjoy the run, run, run, puke, run, run, cramp up, run, sprain something, run, run finales. Stuff involving a waterfall and canoes would have been fun to see. 

On 5/19/2023 at 4:29 PM, aghst said:

B-M doesn't even need ChatGPT to generate scripts cheaply.  In fact, ChatGPT or some other AI might come out with better scripts or season plots for some of these Challenge incarnations -- eliminate Wes in week 2, Johnny in week 8 and Jordan comes in third place in the Final, TJ castigates some quitters, there are 3.5 twists during the season depending on the costs to implement them, etc.

They need to use ChatGPT to create better dailies and clear puzzle instructions!

Congrats to Kaz and Jordan. I'm really just happy that Sarah and Kaycee, and to a lesser extent Danny and Tori, didn't win. Wanted to root for Troy and Theo, cause I actually like them both, but they had shit partners. 

 

[millennium]

On 5/20/2023 at 9:12 PM, AntFTW said:

Sure, but there's no fairness in The Challenge.

"All's fair in love, war and Challenges"

 

6 hours ago, luckyroll3 said:

Congrats to Kaz and Jordan. I'm really just happy that Sarah and Kaycee, and to a lesser extent Danny and Tori, didn't win. Wanted to root for Troy and Theo, cause I actually like them both, but they had shit partners. 

We're all about to get some much-needed Kaycee and Nany detox.

Nany and Kaycee taking a break from The Challenge

 

[AntFTW]

On 5/25/2023 at 7:56 AM, luckyroll3 said:

This must be some Challenge cast dumb logic, cause all the groups somehow got 042. But that answer makes no sense given the first and third clues....Looking at this a bit more, I see that we're making the assumption that each clue is giving us ALL the information and they aren't. If they were, both clue 1 and 3 would be written differently. Throwing out that assumption and using the second clue last, we know that that 0 has to be first. And since 4 is in 2 different locations (1st in hints one and two, but last in hint three), it can't be the "well-placed" number, so the 2 has to be the last digit. We know it can't be 1, because if it's correct and in the wrong place, there's nowhere for it go given that we've already placed the 0 and the 2. That leaves the 6 or the 4. I would have gone for the 6, because of the poorly written clues/assumptions, but I guess at that point it's just making the guess and if you got it wrong, you know it's the 4. This would have made me real mad if I was on the show. 

I'm stubborn. They would have had to explain how they get 042.

I would have had to sit there and explain to them why that makes ZERO sense! I had a nice social media chat on the day this aired, and someone starts the chat with "just so we're clear, the answer to that code checkpoint is 062. I don't care. They were all wrong."

I couldn't argue with that. In my view, the 3rd hint rules out 4 as a number. Therefore, the 4 is not a wrongly placed correct number for the 2nd hint. I don't see how else am I supposed to interpret the 3rd hint because when you get to the 3rd hint, you're supposed to figure out which of the two wrongly placed but correct numbers. The 3rd hint itself narrows your two correct numbers to 0 and 2, and narrows down their positions to 0 - (#) - 2. However, if the answer is 042 then that must mean that 4 was also a wrongly placed correct number in the 3rd hint. Because we know that 4 isn't the third digit if it's in the code. Then, in the 3rd hint, they're all correct but wrongly placed, all three numbers. How do you get two numbers that are supposed to be a part of the code out of a hint that correctly describes all three numbers?

I feel like I'm glitching just thinking about it.

The other option is that they're fucking with us, and the board that they showed us isn't the same board that the Challengers saw. It's different in some small and minute way that we didn't see.

Edited May 27, 2023 by AntFTW

[millennium]

5 hours ago, AntFTW said:

The other option is that they're fucking with us, and the board that they showed us isn't the same board that the Challengers saw. It's different in some small and minute way that we didn't see.

OR, the show let it slide because the producers were terrified everyone would quit, lol.

[AntFTW]

5 hours ago, millennium said:

OR, the show let it slide because the producers were terrified everyone would quit, lol.

Yes. I'm leaning toward them letting it slide.