Given that so many popular contestants on a shot at a win a few times before actually finally winning. And any challenger with a knack for the game can usually score a victory at least once in their Challenge career.
However, there are of course a lot of great players who bring a ton to the game who never actually go home with a gold medal. And out of the best male contestants in Challenge history, who really deserves to win despite not actually winning?
Hunter Barfield
Technically, Hunter Barfield has actually already won a Challenge. However, as a result of being paired up with take the entire cash prize for herself, she didn't even think before she opted to take his half.
Ergo, Hunter deserves a win that isn't just a technicality, one where he actually wins and yields the benefits of winning.
Nam Vo
Nam might just be a rookie on this season of The Challenge: Double Agents, but he still seems like a future winner of the series, and one of the rare competitors who actually deserves it.
This Ultimate Beastmaster alum clearly has all the physical chops it requires to kill it at The Challenge, but he seems incredibly nice, and after a season of being blamed and berated by Lolo, he deserves a fair shot at a win.
Cohutta Grindstaff
Given how many contestants show up on The Challenge either looking to make a name for themselves or with something to prove, it's incredibly refreshing when someone is not only comfortable with themselves, but seems to be a genuinely good person naturally.
Cohutta clearly seems to be the latter sort of guy. He actually proved his ability to perform quite a few times over his Challenge career too, but he never saw a final and got his shot at a win.
Nelson Thomas
Nelson might be best ed for providing a lot of unintentional humor to The Challenge, but he's actually an incredibly talented competitor, and more importantly, a really great friend.
Nelson deserves to win not only because he's a capable player, but because he willingly put himself at risk so that his fellow "Team Young Buck" bestie Cory Wharton would have the opportunity to win and provide for his family.
Jay Starrett
Jay Starrett has only been on two seasons of The Challenge, but in that short tenure, he's still managed to prove himself as a much greater threat than most of the other players seem to think he is.
But what differentiates him from a lot of the other current crop of contestants is that he's not a follower, and he's actually there to play the game. He makes every season he's on more interesting, so he deserves to win a final.
Cory Wharton
None of the Team Young Buck dudes are particularly good strategists, and it's a bit worrying that someone with Cory's lack of foresight is sort of the leader of the pack.
But with that said, although someone who is so easily felled by counting triangles is unlikely to ever take home a final win, Cory deserves to win for at least trying to shake up the game and being willing to take on some of the biggest players in Challenge history.
Joss Mooney
Hunter Barfield has "technically" won without winning because Ashley took his winnings from him, but he also technically won because, without a time penalty being tossed onto Joss and Sylvia in Final Reckoning, they would have been the winning team over Hunter and Ashley.
Being robbed of the actual prize has got to hurt, but the fact that Joss had his rightfully earned win taken away from him is an even more brutal loss.
Devin Walker
Devin has always been a player who provides a lot of interesting commentary and drama to every season he's been on, but he has nearly single-handedly carried Double Agents this season as well.
While he might fit more into the traditional IT guy archetype than a badass super-agent Challenger, people underestimate Devin, and his willingness to always fight for his spot and his lack of fear when it comes to playing the game is awesome to see.
Kyle Christie
Devin has clearly been making Double Agents twice as entertaining as it would be without him there, but honestly, Kyle has been absolutely bringing it as well. He tries to pretend that he's a weak competitor, but when it comes time to play he always shows up and kills it.
And that aside, he feels more like an old-school Challenge player in that he's always down to have fun, and he actually gets that he's on a reality show, so it doesn't need to be that serious.
Leroy Garrett
Leroy might finally pull out a win in this season of The Challenge, but if for some reason he doesn't, he might go down in Challenge history as the greatest male player to never actually win a final.
Leroy really has it all (besides swimming skills, obviously), and he's such a genuinely cool and down-to-earth guy that it'd be a shame if he never actually scores a Challenge victory.
