Although the long-running MTV series The Challenge is ostensibly about competition, the reality of the game is that it's nearly impossible to get very far without an alliance. Ultimately it does come down to a player's abilities and skills, but a good alliance can get the worst players pretty far, and a bad alliance can leave even great players dead in the water.
So with The Challenge: Total Madness coming soon, we're taking a look at the alliances we want to see form, and some other alliances that should end.
Form: Any Girl Squad
Luckily it has improved over the past few years, but to be honest, The Challenge has never been super friendly to it's female competitors. Or rather, the men on The Challenge have never placed much value on female competitors.
If the game is an individual one then it really doesn't matter, but any time the dudes are stuck on teams with the girls, they usually try to get them out as soon as possible, and often times the girls don't do too much to stop it. It would be great to see them team up and throw their weight around a bit.
End: Wes & Rookies
Wes is one of the best political players in the history of The Challenge, and one of his go to moves is to team up with the rookies of the season and use their votes to further his own game.
What's hard to comprehend, though, is that the rookies typically go along with it when there isn't a ton of benefit for themselves. Sure, they're all a part of an alliance, but there's not much to gain beyond that, and it'd be nice to see some rookies learn lessons from season's past.
Form: Jordan & Someone He Doesn't Like
Jordan may be one of the best competitors on the show, but his inability to play well with others has always been and may always be a hindrance to his performance.
Jordan isn't shy about sharing his opinions on other people's capabilities, but the problem is that his assessment of their abilities seems to be very strongly linked to whether or not he likes them as a person. If he could play a little nicer and ally with someone who's good but that he doesn't like, it would really up his overall game.
End: Team Young Bucks
Team Young Bucks is only a squad of three, and only two of them are actually appearing on this season. And while Nelson and Cory are obviously going to be allies on any season they're in, the mentality behind Team Young Bucks is basically taking on the vets and making themselves into the people running the game.
And everyone in this alliance has done above average, but not because they're in an alliance with each other. If anything, positioning themselves as the enemies of the vets, especially in a season where they're outnumbered like this, has hurt them.
Form: The Real Vets
The Challenge is a unique series in that they bring back the same contestants often, plenty of competitors have been on up to 10 different seasons of the show. And because of that, the veterans of the series have a lot of history together, and often times have a lot of bad blood.
Typically certain vets wind up competing against each other and their squads, so it would be interesting to see those typical enemies work together instead of against one another for once.
End: The UK Kids
The UK contestants are new additions to The Challenge, but they figured out something that most newbs never seem to grasp. And that is that they're far stronger as a group than they are separately. Their alliances has been one of the strongest in recent years, and it has yielded great results for them.
So great in fact, that a lot of the competitors from their group have never been tested. It's time to see what they can really do as challengers, and an end to their alliance would let the audience see that.
Form: Wes & Johnny
At this point all of the vets have been through the wringer with each other, and their relationships are somewhat complex. However the rivalry between Wes and Johnny seems to be the most firmly established one in the game.
Regardless of how they're feeling about each other in the moment, they'll still play against each other. It's shocking that they haven't been a pair on a Rivals season yet, so why not beat MTV to the punch and just team up on a season to see what happens.
End: The War Of The Worlds 2 Alliance
That is, the WOTW2 alliance that was not Cara Maria's alliance. When the game first started it seemed like things were going to go smoothly, and the UK and US teams were going to go after the opposing team instead of their teammates.
But then Josh and Laurel went rogue, and the two alliances started going after each other. And ironically, Josh and Laurel's alliance wound up on the losing end the entire time. They spent most of the season complaining about how unfair it was that "Cara's Cult" had successfully done what they tried to do, and one season of that complaining was more than enough.
Form: The Big Brother Alliance
Big Brother contestants who have moved to The Challenge have had shifting alliances with each other, but they'd be much stronger if they were a solid, united block.
They're a big enough group to make a significant impact on the show even if they're lower on the overall totem pole, but that doesn't mean much when they're essentially willing to be allies until they're not. No allegiance can last until the end of the game, but their individualistic, opportunistic approach doesn't work well for new players in the game.
End: Wes & CT
Wes and CT's friendship developing after literally more than a decade of disagreement, argument, and rivalry is one of the weirdest and most endearing parts of this era of The Challenge. The beauty of Rivals-themed seasons is that big rivals wind up exiting the game as genuine friends, and that's what happened with Wes and CT.
However, as individuals they are two of the best players to ever play the game. The two of them looking out for each other and working together just gives them yet another advantage in a game where they're two of the GOATs. Splitting the two of them up would at least even the odds a little.
