BY DC CUEVA
As you begin this week (and for myself, the countdown to SoCal), time for this brief WRAP of Week 3 of The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros before a new episode tomorrow. Last week saw the challengers and athletes go one-on-one for the first time in that week's mission and saw the Pros take back control of the game. The week also saw Lolo Jones take to the forefront once again, as did Ashley M. in winning that week's Champs elimination, plus a proposal comes up which may change the game.
Ahead, we'll be taking our first trip of this summer into the Strategy Room to see where this game stands as we head into the season's second half (it's just a six-week mini-season, remember). Then, we'll scan Instagram to feature someone becoming that dragon from Pete's Dragon, a champion meet a challenger, and news about a new baby. That's next.
STRATEGY ROOM
CHAMPS VS. PROS: Halfway Mark
We are three episodes into Champs vs. Pros, with three episodes left until the end of this cycle of the Trifecta. We started this miniseries wondering how these ten pros from various sports can stack up to these ten Challenge champions, and just as it was in Thailand it's the newbies who are having the upper hand on the field in the challenges as we reach this halfway point. However, it's their gameplay that's been giving the champs and those of us at home reason to grab that popcorn and see what happens when they get to play that game of politics of having to pick who goes in.
As we are at this halftime of sorts before tomorrow night, we'll take this opportunity to evaluate where the two sides are at as we reach the fourth challenge tomorrow, and resumption of last week's elimination battle.
►CHAMPS
For the incumbent party, it's true that Wes' win over Johnny Bananas really changed the complexity of this game in that first guys elimination taking out the six-time champ. The man who made this thing possible was Jordan when he decided to throw in Wes instead of perhaps opting to go with the safe choice in one who hadn't been on a Challenge up until this year. Now, with the guys next up to be cut this coming week, should Wes decide to become captain and they win, undoubtedly he'll gun for Jordan. If you're Darrell or CT, it's best to just let the two others fight it out while they wait for their shot, and only show up for the challenges or provide commentary... just as it was over in Asia.
For the champion girls, three are left now in Cara Maria, Camila and now Ashley M. by way of her win over Ashley K. Things are much more defined here compared to the stacked lineup of the guys and it's probably best that things should stay this way in deciding not to throw in one another for the former two in this likely leading to them going into the final, and leaving Ashley with a chance to prove herself one more time between either of them for that finals berth.
►PROS
►PROS
For the Pros, they are surprisingly handling this game much better than we first expected of them, given that some of them were given this surprise call-up at last minute for this season to join others who are still active competitors and are in tip-top form for this season.
Here, it's the women who have had top-billing here, especially in the season's breakout star. For Lolo Jones, she has had a lot of doubters through the course of her career on the track and on the sliding courses, and what we saw from her in the first elimination was her biggest chance to answer to everyone. There's what we have seen from her outside the challenges that has made her public enemy #1 in the minds of many, but should she able to win tomorrow and then go all the way to the final, it will be as good as winning Olympic gold, and something for those who follow the Olympic world to talk to her about as she embarks on the road to South Korea.
It's also the case for her fellow Olympian Gus Kenworthy, who has also had a good showing here in him beating Jordan in last week's challenge, and will on this week discuss to Cara Maria the remarkable road he's had to this season... something we will be writing about here coming up shortly.
As for my predictions of who might have the advantage, for now it's the pros who have the momentum. But given what we've seen from them having difficulties of how to play the political part of this game, you'll think that eventually one of the Champs will likely win. With nine titles among the guys plus three for the girls, they'll have experience on their side. And for the Pros, those who are left have some titles, Olympic medals and the like on their side, and they can rely on having this momentum to guide them through. Now, let's see what the second half brings us.
Here, it's the women who have had top-billing here, especially in the season's breakout star. For Lolo Jones, she has had a lot of doubters through the course of her career on the track and on the sliding courses, and what we saw from her in the first elimination was her biggest chance to answer to everyone. There's what we have seen from her outside the challenges that has made her public enemy #1 in the minds of many, but should she able to win tomorrow and then go all the way to the final, it will be as good as winning Olympic gold, and something for those who follow the Olympic world to talk to her about as she embarks on the road to South Korea.
It's also the case for her fellow Olympian Gus Kenworthy, who has also had a good showing here in him beating Jordan in last week's challenge, and will on this week discuss to Cara Maria the remarkable road he's had to this season... something we will be writing about here coming up shortly.
As for my predictions of who might have the advantage, for now it's the pros who have the momentum. But given what we've seen from them having difficulties of how to play the political part of this game, you'll think that eventually one of the Champs will likely win. With nine titles among the guys plus three for the girls, they'll have experience on their side. And for the Pros, those who are left have some titles, Olympic medals and the like on their side, and they can rely on having this momentum to guide them through. Now, let's see what the second half brings us.
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#DCExtraTime
'GRAM SCAN
From the land of that known to the world as Instagram, we have a couple photos to share with you from social land in this Scan of the 'Gram.►PLAYING WITH FIRE
First as we wrote here last year, there's a time-honored tradition of performing with fire: ancient Aztecs fire dancing with the god of fire, juggling, fire eating, walking through a fire pit, and someone being lit on fire as we saw on Rivals III. And in our bit last year during the Rio Olympics, we spotlighted AYTO Second Chances runner-up Morgan performing a fire stick and fire breathing. That brings us to subject #1... and it seems we have found the perfect guy to do this activity that is so dangerous, this comes with the precaution to not try this at home.
At the end of our AYTO Season 5 finale WRAP back in March, we caught up with Challenge wild man Abram as he and Cara Maria (yes, her) decided to add to their long history by becoming characters from the movie Suicide Squad. Well in adding to his legendary wildcard personality, this past week Abe quite literally became a human flamethrower by doing some firebreathing. He captioned in the following picture below, "Lol😂-someone asked me about this and I said "I didn't really think of it as being fire.."
►GINGER AND LAURA... and Football in the Streets
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| TW @MTVLauraLee |
After that season came the first of the modern-era Challenge seasons I got to watch live in Battle of the Seasons II, and one of those who we saw on both of those seasons was Nebraska girl Laura, who we saw get paired up from the beginning with Baltimore guy Trey and became, as we have written here a lot, each other's perfect match in being together in that house on Hassel Island and then heading straight from there to Turkey for that Challenge. Wes had a brief time in that Challenge house by way of losing the first elimination battle to Eric/"Big Easy" in the premiere, and Laura & Trey made it to halfway through the season. And a few years after that season in paradise, Laura became a mom in welcoming young sweetheart Aveya Rian.
In addition to them meeting up in downtown KC, the alums also found a football and decided to do something with it. There, Wes channeled his own Len Dawson (Chiefs legend and longtime host of premium cable's Inside the NFL) and decided to take a random stranger named "Touchdown Jesus" deep in the streets and found him in the end zone, all in the closed streets. And if you remember watching that RW STT premiere, you'll remember her deciding to throw a football by the pier and it found the ocean.
Wes tweeted afterwards, "Playing football in the middle of an intersection, next to a million cops, with Kansas City's very own #runningjesus #westportrootsfestival #Westport #kcmo" The results of that are below.
Apparently this is a thing in KC. My girl @MTVLauraLee drops that angle route in right over the Mike #TouchdownJesus pic.twitter.com/4GAmNT1da0— Nick Weander (@NBeWe) May 28, 2017
NEW MOM… AGAIN
Finally, for the third week in a row we want to send our congrats yet again to another new mom in the Trifecta… well, make that a new mom for a second time. This past week, the follow bit of happy news was revealed by five-time Challenge vet and Real World Cancun castmate Jasmine, and her fiance, Dean. He tweeted at @ImperatorTruth the following:
"I just found out something. Really big news for me. The rest of you probably don't care but I am VERY Happy and excited to announce. My fiancée @JazMTV just called me and told me that she is pregnant again. I am now expecting my second child. I couldn't be more happier! Thank you to Jesus Christ for the opportunity to bring another child into this world! I will do my best to make it a place worth living in."Once again, our congrats go out to them, who join a handful of Challengers, as well as my sister & brother in law, in having to deal with not just one, but two kids... it is such a huge challenge in itself.
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And on that happy note, that will bring this week's episode posts to a close. As we head towards the end of this cycle, along with our remaining episode posts, we have plenty of In-Depth posts coming up during and after this cycle. And of course there's our midyear Reality Debrief with me and Andrew Kirk (@CSUGradAKirk). If you have questions on the Trifecta, Survivor or the upcoming 19th summer season of Big Brother, tweet them to #AskDCBLOG to me @DC408Dxtr or Andrew and we'll make sure to answer it later this month.
And with the usual reminder to bookmark DCBLOG and to follow live tweets on DCNOW at @DC408DxNow and #DCChallenge, plus buzz ramping up for Season 30 filming now, this is understandably a huge week for yours truly. Less than 48 hours after tomorrow's episode, I'll be in Southern California for my first trip to the Los Angeles area in 15 years, and first visit to Disneyland as an adult, but also with kids too. Expect plenty of coverage across all of my social media platforms, from live tweets and photos to daily stories and live hits, ranging from DCNOW to Instagram, SnapChat and beyond. To join the fun on social media, use my hashtag #DCSoCal.
For now, that's how we look at it Inside the MTV Trifecta...thank you for joining us. Talk to you on Twitter, and see you back here at mid-week for our single post before the big trip. And until then, enjoy your week ahead.
- I AM DC
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