We're only 5 days away from the Challenge returning to television and my office mates can't contain our excitement! We conducted our Reality Fantasy draft on Thursday, here's the breakdown on what occurred...
Link to Complete Rules and Team Breakdowns
The festivities began with the drawing of straws... I picked the shortest straw so I ended up with the 5th & 6th pick of the snake draft.
Round 1 Picks
1st Overall Pick of the 2014 Challenge Fantasy League Draft: Hurricane Nia - by Team Jaime. Before we delve into how this was a COMPLETE shock to everyone in attendance, Jaime is new to our office, new to the league and new to the show. She did however pick a player with a freakishly high ceiling. Hurricane Nia would have likely gone in the top 10. Nia is a 4 tool player: Drinker, Confrontational, Emotional and Promiscuous. I'm down grading her on "physical specimen"... I suspect she'll be lazy and I don't think she has the chops to stay in the game long enough to win. She's earned the nickname "Hurricane" for a reason tho'. Nia will undoubtedly turn the house upside down.
Team Jaime later went on to pick: Aneesa, LaToya, Jemmye, Brandon.
Overall draft grade: B-
2nd Overall Pick of the Draft: CT - Team Sylvia
Sylvia just placed third in our Reality Fantasy Real World Ex-Plosions league. She's a lifetime viewer of the Challenge, which will undoubtedly help her putting together a quality team. Having CT fall into your lap is like tripping over a pile of gold bars on your way to the kitchen for a midnight snack. I can't say enough about CT. I've never had him on any of my fantasy teams, but he was atop my short list of round 1 depth chart players. I'm especially worried about how he will behave with Diem off the show. This pretty much means he will likely try to get with every girl in the house that likes a "bad boy".
I just threw up a little in my mouth...
Team Sylvia later went on to pick: Camila, Isaac, Jasmine, Swift
Overall draft Grade: A
3rd Overall Pick of the Draft: Frank - Team Glenda
Glenda is also new to the league and is has been watching the Real World/Challenge for over a decade. She's been wanting to join this league since she caught wind of us playing last year and she put together a team that I think is built to win it all. Frank in my opinion brings you the best bang for buck in Reality Fantasy. He's a 5 tool player: Physical Specimen, Emotional, Confrontational, Drinker and Sexually Promiscuous. He was in a relationship in the last season of the Challenge... his upside is limitless really. I suspect that he will be out to prove that he's not one to push around after what happened last year with Knight.
Team Glenda later went on to pick: Dustin, Nany, Leroy, Jonna
Overall Draft Grade: A+
4th Pick of the Draft: Laurel - by Team Ashley
Ashley is our defending Reality Fantasy CHALLENGE champion. In my opinion she took the best available player on the board... I was hoping that she reached for a male contestant so that I could potentially pick up the best female participant on the show. She's reached the final of every Challenge she's ever participated in and she will undoubtedly do fine without having to worry about being saddled with a teammate.
Team Ashley later went on to pick: Cara Maria, Jordan, Chet, Theresa
Overall Draft Grade: B+
Last pick of the first round: Johnny Bananas by Team Ro Ro
Picked up Johnny Bananas because he's a safe bet to go far in the Challenge. He's a 4 time overall winner and he reached the finals last season. Having a character active throughout the show is just as valuable has having a character score a lot of points but ultimately leave the show after 3 weeks. My biggest fear is that he doesn't connect and establish friends with younger cast mates quickly. He's quickly becoming one of the older members in the Challenge House. The young will undoubtedly be out to extinguish him.
Team Ro Ro later went on to pick: Zack, Cohutta, Johnny (Portland) and Jessica (Portland)
Overall Grade: A-