A winner was officially crowned on The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion as the second part of the final wrapped up.
Viewers saw which of the remaining finalists would become a champion for the first time in their Challenge career. Those still competing included Emanuel Neagu, Moriah Jadea, Nurys Mateo, Corey Lay, Berna Canbeldek, and Colleen Schneider.
However, there was a matter to be handled at the start of the episode, as the Chaos elimination arrived to get rid of another competitor.
Host TJ Lavin shared that Emanuel was the clear winner of the Chaos phase, which meant he got to choose someone to send into elimination.
He said he would choose Nurys since he hadn’t worked with her during the season.
With that, TJ brought everyone to The Draw, where Nurys had to choose one of six poles in the sand. Four poles had castmates’ names, and two were Chaos poles, allowing her to choose her opponent.
Nurys enters another elimination during the final
At The Draw, Nurys pulled Moriah’s name. Moriah said she felt she should have to prove herself since she hadn’t been to an elimination all season.
They competed in a game involving a puzzle box with a clear top and a large opening. The object was to fit all their puzzle blocks into the box through the slot.
Both women struggled to figure it out for a while, but Nurys once again proved herself to be the “Puzzle Queen” by solving it before Moriah. With that, Moriah was officially eliminated. She said a teary-eyed goodbye to everyone and wished them luck.
TJ tortures the finalists as night arrives
TJ informed the five remaining finalists that the final would continue, but they wouldn’t be getting any sleep.
Instead, they were required to stay awake all night or “face dire consequences.” They had to complete a task of retrieving tiles using only their fingers to bring them up from within a large cage wall.
The first three finalists to get all their tiles removed would get to choose a pillow, blanket, or chair they could use during the night as they awaited morning.
Nurys finished it first and sabotaged Emanuel and Colleen with extra tiles. However, Emanuel finished second and gained an advantage with an item. They all finished eventually and stayed together to stay awake until morning.
Conquest phase is the last grueling phase of the final
One morning hit, TJ arrived at the shore to greet the exhausted finalists in a speedboat. He announced the start of Conquest, the last part of the final.
They first donned lifejackets and had to swim over a mile to an island where they’d have to complete three checkpoints before they could race for the finish line and the championship.
First up, they were required to chug those disgusting energy drinks again. Four of the finalists downed their drinks. Berna started crying and complaining about it but eventually drank it down.
At the next station, the finalists had to rappel forward down a cliff area, which TJ said was a “baby hill.” Emanuel was in first place and got to start it first, seeming to get down the hill with ease.
Corey was the next finalist to start crying, as he had an extreme fear of heights. TJ yelled at him about quitting and encouraged him to participate. He pushed him to the edge and told him to get going.
Eventually, Corey got over his fear and started to rappel. Nurys, Colleen, and Berna also went down the hill.
At the bottom, they each had to complete a tangram puzzle before moving on.
Their next puzzle station involved placing Challenge champions’ names in the correct order on a puzzle board. The answer key was underwater in a cage, so they had to scuba dive to look at it and then come back to shore to assemble the puzzle.
Emanuel took off first to maintain a lead over his opponents. Nurys and Corey teamed up to finish their puzzles so they could try to catch up. Colleen and Berna did the same to stay in fourth and fifth.
Who won Battle For a New Champions?
The last portion of the final involved a setup similar to what Nurys encountered in two of the eliminations she won. There was an obstacle course, but it featured five unique tasks, each with a flag.
The five tasks included a sudoku puzzle, a balancing task, flattening a metal barrel with a sledgehammer, and several other puzzle boards. After a competitor finished a task, they retrieved a flag and ran it across the obstacle course to plant it at their flag spot.
The footage presented things as close down the stretch, but ultimately, Emanuel completed his fifth flag before the others and took off running for the finish. Nurys was the second to complete all five checkpoints and believed she could catch him.
Emanuel reached the finish spot first, with TJ there to greet him. He congratulated him on winning $250,000 and becoming the newest Challenge champion.
Nurys finished second. It was an emotional moment after all she’d been through. She talked about how much she’s grown from her rookie season to now. She took home $60,000 in prize money.
There was a bit of a race for the third-place spot as Colleen finished her five checkpoints ahead of Corey and Berna. Corey kept struggling with crossing a balance beam with his final flag but ultimately did and tried to catch Colleen.
However, Colleen had too much of a headstart and got third place, winning $30,000 in prize money. Corey still pushed himself to cross the finish line, as did Berna, even though neither received any prize money.
They had several group hugs, including one after TJ commended them on being the last five standing for the season and all crossing the finish line.
“That is a wrap for this season of The Challenge,” TJ said without any comments about Season 40, as a preview for the reunion special arrived after the episode.
The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
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