Team Surprise Me

I have to admit that after never having won a Challenge season, my interest in picking a winning team is waning. I had to exhibit extreme self control to not select a team of my favorite people rather than competitive players. This team would have been:

• Leroy (okay, I still chose him on my real team)
• Issac
• Cohutta
• Rookie Johnny (on a side note, why did he and Averey break-up? they seemed so good together on their episode)

All lovable, easy-going (except when Johnny drinks), funny. A team a girl could really fall for... Now perhaps I should have gone with that team, but lacking faith in the athletic prowess of these hilarious dudes (even though Cohutta's endurance never ceases to impress), I opted for a more practical team.

My first pick was with Dustin. The preview shows him making out and possibly beating Frank in a challenge (I'm hoping that wasn't a challenge with a "best out of 3" type scenario). Plus we've seen Dustin snap in the past. Given these clips, and given my place in the drafting order, I took a big risk and selected Dustin for my first pick. There is a strong Las Vegas presence in this show, and hopefully that should also protect him for a while.

Next up: Leroy. He has shown himself to be a strong (physical) competitor in both of his challenge shows so far. He's part of the Las Vegas crew, and I'm hoping for an LV alliance. And I think it was Aneesa who said, "I love me some Leroy." That sums it up.

Theresa: I wanted to pick a female competitor next, and Theresa seemed like a decent pick. She seems generally athletic and is usually aiming to make out with someone, so hopefully she'll stick around for a while and get me a decent amount of points in the meantime.

Devyn: I had a hard time with this round. I wanted to go with Jasmine based on past points performance, but I doubted Jasmine's ability to stick around if she was by herself. Devyn seemed like the best option for my last pick. Decently athletic, sometimes makes out (though I didn't feel the chemistry between her and Big Easy), seems to make friends enough to stick around for at least a little while. We'll see on her.

I feel like the previews didn't show a lot of the cast. Where were the preview clips with Camila yelling? Or Cara Maria crying? Or Jemmye screaming about ketchup? Also, in what looked like the finals, all the body types seemed to be average size - no large dudes like Zach or CT in the mix. That might have been the camera angle and puffy coats, but I kind of think that we have a bunch of average sized folks who win. This left me a bit baffled about who to pick. However, as I said in the beginning, my losing streak is depressing my motivation to win, so I'll be content this season to cheer for my team and for my team-that-could-have-been.