Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Seasons

Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Seasons is the fifth season of the MTV reality game show, The Challenge (at the time known as Real World/Road Rules Challenge).

Battle of the Seasons
Season 5
Presented by
No. of contestants32
Winners
LocationCabo San Lucas, Mexico
No. of episodes17 (including the Reunion special)
Release
Original networkMTV
Original releaseJanuary 28 (2002-01-28)[1] –
May 27, 2002 (2002-05-27)
Season chronology
← Previous
Extreme Challenge

Battle of the Seasons premiered in early 2002 and took place in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. In each episode, the cast competed in a challenge, and the top three Real World and top three Road Rules teams would become the "Inner Circle" and have the power to vote off teams. The "Inner Circle" was determined by a cumulative score that would be tallied on a leader board. The final six teams would compete for a final prize worth $300,000.

This is the first edition of Battle of the Seasons series, with the second Battle of the Seasons, following in 2012 with a completely different format.

Format

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Separated into teams of Real World and Road Rules, each cast member is paired off with a castmate from their original season and they gain points after each daily mission based on their performances. The pairs with the most points cumulative from each team form the "Inner Circle" and vote off another pair from their own team. The individual winning pair of each challenge also earn additional prizes. After five pairs from each team are voted off, the final three Real World teams and final three Road Rules teams compete against each other in a series of challenges before the final race, that earns the winning teams $300,000.

Contestants

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Real World team
Male partner Female partner Original season Finish
Sean Duffy Elka Walker The Real World: Boston Winners
Mike Mizanin Coral Smith The Real World: Back to New York Winners
Danny Roberts Kelley Limp The Real World: New Orleans Winners
Norman Korpi Becky Blasband The Real World: New York Episode 8
Mike Lambert Flora Alekseyeun The Real World: Miami Episode 6
Stephen Williams IV Lindsay Brien The Real World: Seattle Episode 5
Mike Johnson Sharon Gitau The Real World: London Episode 4
Jon Brennan Beth Stolarczyk The Real World: Los Angeles Episode 1
Road Rules team
Male partner Female partner Original season Finish
Theo Vonkurnatowski Holly Brenston Road Rules: Maximum Velocity Tour Runners-up
Dan Setzler Tara McDaniel Road Rules: Northern Trail Runners-up
Timmy Beggy Emily Bailey Road Rules: USA – The Second Adventure Runners-up
Josh Florence Holly Shand Road Rules: Latin America Episode 8
Adam Larson Jisela Delgado Road Rules: The Quest Episode 6
Chris Melling Belou Den Tex Road Rules: Europe Episode 5
Chadwick Pelletier Piggy Thomas Road Rules: Down Under Episode 4
Yes Duffy Veronica Portillo Road Rules: Semester at Sea Episode 1

Gameplay

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Challenge games

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  • Hang Man: Teams must hang on a pole as long as they can. The contraption is made so after one team member falls, the other team member will fall immediately.
    • Winners: Theo & Holly B. (Team Road Rules)
  • Musical Inner-Tube Tango: In a game similar to musical chairs, teams will dance around a pool. Once the music stops, they must get an inner tube around their head. After each round, there will be two less inner-tubes. If one person from a team does not get an inner-tube, the whole team is eliminated.
    • Winners: Stephen & Lindsay (Team Real World)
  • Vertical Limit: Each member of the team will climb as high as they can on a rope with buoys on it in three minutes. They will gain a point for every buoy they pass. If they fall off the rope, they cannot get back on, and the number they ended on will be their final number.
    • Winners: Danny & Kelley (Team Real World)
  • Slam Dunk - Teams will bungee jump together back to back and try to score into hoops valued at 5, 10, and 15 points.
    • Winners: Theo & Holly B. (Team Road Rules)
  • Ladder of Doom: A relay race where each member needs to climb down a ladder over a 50-foot basin and retrieve a flag and bring it back to the top of the ladder.
    • Winners: Theo & Holly B. (Team Road Rules)
  • Round 'Em Up: Teams will enter a ring on horses and have a maximum of 15 minutes to round up at least one cow and get it into the pen.
    • Winners: Sean & Elka (Team Real World)
  • Rush Hour: Teams will have to move one car out of the puzzle by moving other cars within the puzzle forward and backwards. The cars are not allowed to make any turns. Cars are also not allowed to hit any other cars; if this does happen, the team will be disqualified, and receive a score of 0. Teams will be sequestered for fairness.
    • Winners: Sean & Elka (Team Real World)
  • Hands on the Saturn: Teams must have at least one whole hand on an ice sculpture of a Saturn sedan at all times. After two, three, and four hours, competitors must place another extremity (hand or feet) until all four are on the ice. Five minute breaks are allotted every three hours.
    • Winners: Dan & Tara (Team Road Rules)
  • Sidekick Showdown: Similar to the game show, The Newlywed Game, team members must match answers to their team member's responses to personal questions.
    • Winners: Mike M. & Coral (Team Real World)
  • Blockhead: Each member of the team has a responsibility: a swimmer and a builder. The swimmer must go into the ocean and retrieve cubes. The builder then must build a tower at least 4 cubes high with all the same color face of each cube facing outwards. Afterwards, one player must stand on the structure and blow a whistle.
    • Winners: Timmy & Emily (Team Road Rules)
  • Siamese Wrestling: Team members will be bound together back to back wrestling another team. The teams need to pin down (a shoulder touching the mat) the other team for three seconds. It will be broken into two rounds: the first round will be two minutes and the second round will be a sudden death.
    • Winners: Timmy & Emily (Team Road Rules)

Final challenge

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For the final mission, the Ultimate Teams (Sean & Elka for Real World and Theo & Holly B. for Road Rules) must delegate tasks for each team members to accomplish. The finale is divided in a relay race to collect fish. Once the teams collect their fish and solve their puzzle, they must climb a rope ladder to the top of a cliff and cross the finish line.

  • Kayaking: Two teams will race on their kayaks to a buoy with a pair of fish hooked to a carabiner. After unhooking their fish, they must kayak to the yacht.
  • Free Dive: The two next teams will deep sea dive into the ocean and to retrieve their next set of fish and allow the next team to pass.
  • Longboard: The final two teams will swim in tandem on a longboard, unhook their last set of fish from a buoy, and swim out to the beach shore.
  • Fishticks Puzzle: After retrieving all of their fish, the teams will then stack them from the smallest fish to the largest fish and transfer them from one end of a stick to another. Once completed, the team may advanced to the rope ladder and cross the finish line.
    • Winners: Team Real World (Sean & Elka, Mike M. & Coral, and Danny & Kelley)

Game summary

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Elimination chart

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Episode Winners Inner Circle Eliminated
# Challenge Team Prize Winners
1 Hang Man Road Rules Theo & Holly B. Danny & Kelley, Mike M. & Coral, Norman & Becky Jon & Beth
Chadwick & Piggy, Theo & Holly B., Timmy & Emily Yes & Veronica
3/4 Musical Inner-Tube Tango Real World Stephen & Lindsay Dan & Tara, Theo & Holly B., Timmy & Emily Chadwick & Piggy
Mike M. & Coral, Sean & Elka, Stephen & Lindsay Mike J. & Sharon
5/6 Vertical Limit Real World Danny & Kelley Danny & Kelley, Mike M. & Coral, Sean & Elka Stephen & Lindsay
Dan & Tara, Theo & Holly B., Timmy & Emily Chris & Belou
6 Slam Dunk Road Rules Theo & Holly B. Danny & Kelley, Mike M. & Coral, Sean & Elka Mike L. & Flora
Dan & Tara, Theo & Holly B., Timmy & Emily Adam & Jisela
8 Ladder of Doom Road Rules Theo & Holly B. Dan & Tara, Theo & Holly B., Timmy & Emily Josh & Holly S.
Danny & Kelley, Mike M. & Coral, Sean & Elka Norman & Becky
9 Round 'Em Up Real World Sean & Elka
10 Rush Hour Real World Sean & Elka
11 Hands on Saturn Road Rules Dan & Tara
12 Sidekick Showdown Real World Mike M. & Coral
13 Block Head Road Rules Timmy & Emily
14 Siamese Wrestling Road Rules Timmy & Emily
15 Handsome Reward Real World Sean & Elka

Scoreboard progress

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Teams Episode
1 3/4 5/6 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Sean & Elka 10 29 44 55 74 94 114 131 150 169 186 WINNER
Mike M. & Coral 16 25 43 54 71 87 104 123 143 158 174 WINNER
Danny & Kelley 14 23 43 54 70 89 107 122 138 154 172 WINNER
Theo & Holly B. 20 34 53 73 93 108 127 143 161 178 194 LOSER
Dan & Tara 15 31 46 57 70 87 103 123 139 157 176 LOSER
Timmy & Emily 18 33 50 61 75 93 93 111 128 148 168 LOSER
Norman & Becky 13 23 38 49 64
Josh & Holly S. 12 25 38 49 68
Mike L. & Flora 6 24 34 45
Adam & Jisela 11 20 32 43
Chris & Belou 7 19 29
Stephen & Lindsay 9 29 41
Mike J. & Sharon 5 21
Chadwick & Piggy 19 26
Yes & Veronica 17
Jon & Beth 8
Teams
  The contestant is on the Real World team
  The contestant is on the Road Rules team
Competition
Bold indicates the Inner Circle
  The team won the final challenge
  The team did not win the final challenge
  The team came in first in the mission and won a prize
  The team was safe from elimination
  The team was eliminated by the Inner Circle

Episodes

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No.
overall
No. in
season
TitleOriginal air date
401"Hang Man"February 4, 2002 (2002-02-04)
412"Hurricane Juliette"February 11, 2002 (2002-02-11)
423"Who To Vote Off?"February 18, 2002 (2002-02-18)
434"Musical Inner-Tube Tango"February 25, 2002 (2002-02-25)
445"Vertical Limit"March 4, 2002 (2002-03-04)
456"Slam Dunk"March 11, 2002 (2002-03-11)
467"Montezuma's Revenge"March 25, 2002 (2002-03-25)
478"Ladder of Doom"April 1, 2002 (2002-04-01)
489"Round 'Em Up"April 8, 2002 (2002-04-08)
4910"Rush Hour"April 15, 2002 (2002-04-15)
5011"Hands of Saturn"April 22, 2002 (2002-04-22)
5112"Sidekick Showdown"April 29, 2002 (2002-04-29)
5213"Blockhead"May 6, 2002 (2002-05-06)
5314"Siamese Wrestling"May 13, 2002 (2002-05-13)
5415"Handsome Reward"May 20, 2002 (2002-05-20)

Reunion special

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The reunion special, Real World/Road Rules Challenge Battle of the Seasons: Inside the Inner Circle, was aired live on May 27, 2002 and was attended by the contestants who were in the Inner Circle until the season finale. The special was hosted by Lindsay Brien from The Real World: Seattle and Mark Long from Road Rules: USA – The First Adventure.

References

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  1. ^ Amatangelo, Amy (January 28, 2002). "MTV casts prepare for 'Battle'". Boston Herald (All ed.). p. 034. ISSN 0738-5854.
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