Oops

The 4th Major Sport humbly apologizes for the dearth of posts since the Ruins premiere. It seems that the powers-that-be have decided that it is high time for me to return to being a "legitimate" law student. Needless to say I have spent entirely too many 14 hour days at school lately. Also getting in the way was a brief excursion to Lexington, Va., the spiritual home of our blog. 'Twas on the pool deck that I learned that apparently we are attracting readers beyond the 5 participants in the fantasy league. Welcome! All who love The Challenge are welcome here. Except the girl I was dancing with last Saturday night at the Lodge. I think you may have been a freshman and/or born in the 1990s. Please don't attempt to contact me.

Excuses aside, the dramatic events of week 2 demand reflection. It seemed that the Champions team was slowly but surely coming to a common-sense conclusion that the man-beast that is Wes would be preferable as an ally rather than an enemy. It escapes me how they could have ever thought otherwise, considering that (a) he could quite literally rip all of their arms off, and (b) IT'S A TEAM FINAL. The whole point of the competition is not to see which individual is still standing at the end, but which team is better, the Champions or the Challengers. On paper it would of course appear that the Champions should win in a waltz, but stranger things have happened on The Challenge (see Eric's collapse in the final of Gauntlet 2 leading to the shocking Rookie upset).

Perhaps the problem is that it's been so long since there's been a team format to any of these seasons that the players still conceive the competition as every man for himself. More likely is that their vodka-soaked brains are operating at about 15% capacity. At any rate, the scheme hatched by Johnny Bananas early in episode 2 was the stuff of legend, perhaps even overshadowing his deviousness on The Island. For those who might have missed it, he decided that Wes was a liability rather than an asset. He also noted that Wes is currently attached to the formerly-lovely-but-now-far-too-augmented-and-crazy KellyAnne, a member of...the other team. Connecting the dots, Bananas came to believe that if KellyAnne were eliminated, Wes would be out of allies, become depressed, and be easier to get rid of. Brilliant, right?

It was, until he concluded that the lady to assign the elimination of KellyAnne to was none other than Ev. This could go down as perhaps the stupidest decision in the history of The Challenge, if not in the entire history of mankind (OK, so that may have been hyperbole, but then again, Barack Obama just won the Nobel Peace Prize for little more than buying a Portuguese Water Dog). Doesn't EVERYONE know that KellyAnne and Ev are thick as thieves? How did Johnny Bananas think that Ev would be OK with eliminating her BFF? They became friends on The Island - for pete's sake, that was the season that Johnny won! Yet somehow he failed to anticipate the aftermath of this colossal blunder. To paraphrase Michael Wilbon, Old Man Alchol is undefeated.

What happened next was obvious: The high-strung and emotional Ev instantly reverted from team player to Johnny-hater and team saboteur. The only question was how she would hatch her plan to bring down the Champions. Would she give her all in the elimination, defeat her BFF KellyAnne, and stay in the game so as to destroy her team's chances from the inside? Or would she quit and thereby hurt her team by leveling the playing field for the benefit of the Challengers?

During the elimination round it seemed early on as if Ev herself didn't know. She did beat KellyAnne twice in the best-of-five format, taking the Shadow-Fighter competition down to the end. Yet for the final round Ev simply stepped off the platform, sacrificing herself and allowing KellyAnne to stay in the game. By far the most dominant player across the gender divide, she shall not be returning.

Earlier, Wes chose the opposite strategy and absolutely PWN3D the still-mysterious Nick, literally ripping his frail torso off the platform three times in rapid succession. Hey Wes, Jose Canseco called, he wants to write a book on you. The Champion men trembled in fear when exposed to this sight, aware of the awesome power that radiates from Wes' HGH-infused body. Needless to say, tensions were high as the episode closed.

It remains to be seen how these events will affect the final outcome of The Ruins, but their impact on the fantasy season has already been dramatic. 4th Major Sport contributor Clark had selected Ev with the first pick of the female side of the draft, and all participants were in agreement that she was the only legitimate choice. Yet after accumulating just 2 weeks worth of points for his squad, she is gone and replaced with...Sarah, the tattooed hairdresser from Brooklyn. This is quite possibly the most devastating loss since Michael Jordan decided to play baseball. Clark's team will have to significantly step things up in the weeks to come if he wants to remain competitive for the championship belt.

With that said, enjoy tonight's episode!