Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet 2 is the 11th season of the MTVreality game show, The Challenge (at the time known as Real World/Road Rules Challenge).
The season is directly subsequent to The Inferno II.
The Gauntlet II marked T. J. Lavin's first time presenting the series, regularly hosting the program from this season forward. Prior seasons only used temporary hosts. The season is the second in the Gauntlet series, with the original Gauntlet airing in 2003–2004 and The Gauntlet III following in 2008.
The Gauntlet II aired in late 2005 and into 2006 with 32 contestants and took place in Trinidad and Tobago. The teams were designated Veterans and Rookies, based on the number of prior Challenge seasons on which each cast member had competed. Those on the Veterans team had been on at least two prior seasons, and those on the Rookies team had been on fewer than two seasons. For this season, a male and female captain were determined at the beginning of the season. After each team challenge, the losing team captain was sent to the "Gauntlet", where they would face an opponent of the same sex and same team who was voted into the Gauntlet by the respective team.
Royal Rumble: Players, divided by gender and team, are placed on a raft. The last male and female standing for each team are named the captains. Some chose to use rock-paper-scissors to decide who should be the last one standing.
Winners: Alton, Jo, Ruthie & Adam L.
Chock Full o' Coconuts: Players must work in pairs to transfer a total of 200 coconuts using bamboo sticks. If they lose coconuts long the way, a player has to pick-up the coconuts. The first team to transfer all of their coconuts in the designated area wins.
Winners: Rookies
Team Builders: Teams compete in a series of tasks to complete in order. The first team to advance all of their players through the obstacle course wins.
Team Bridge: Players are provided with tires and wooden boards, that they must use to get to the second station without touching the ground. If a player touch the ground, the whole team has to start over.
Up and Over: With the help of a wooden board, players must go over a suspended rope without touching it. If a player touch the ground, the whole team has to start over.
Carry the Load: Players must carry a ball up and down a hill without using their hands.
Winners: Veterans
Moving Pyramid: Both teams must form human pyramids with three people on the bottom, two in the middle and one on top. In pyramid formation, they must crawl trough a course and retrieve a total on 16 flags on top of poles, every team member must be on top at some point during the challenge. The team with the most flags after 1 hour wins. In the event of a tie, the teams must race trough the course in pyramid formation and the fastest team wins.
Winners: Veterans
Sponge Worthy: Players divide themselves in three categories: Soakers, Transferers, and Collectors. Spongers collect water directly from the ocean with a sponge on their body, they then pass it on the Transferers with the help of a second sponge. Collectors must then squeeze the sponge on the Transferers without using their hans. The first team to collect a certain amount of water wins.
Winners: Rookies
Body Painters: Wearing a speedo, the players must use their body to completely cover six canvases in different colors. The fastest team wins.
Winners: Veterans
Rickshaw Races: Teams must complete a total of six laps and transfer all of their players in a rickshaw using only six drivers (three males and three females. The fastest team wins.[d]
Winners: Rookies
Team Strenght: Teams selects two Pushers and one Driver to move a truck through a course. The back of the truck is then filled with cinder blocks and pushed back to the starting point. The fastest team wins.
Winners: Rookies
Balancing Act: Working in pairs, teams must balance on two parallel ropes using another piece or rope held by the pairs. The team with the most players to successfully complete the course wins.
Winners: Rookies
Buck-a-neer: Alternating in both positions, one team must balance on barrells connected to ropes without using hands while the other team tries to make them fall pulling the ropes. The team with the most players standing at the end of the challenge wins.
Winners: Rookies
Gauntlet games
Name That Coconut: Players compete for the coconut with the name of the person that is the answer to a Real World/Road Rules trivia question. If the answer is wrong, the other player can answer freely.
Played 3 Times: Derrick vs. Adam L., Kina vs. Cara, Derrick vs. Brad
Beach Brawl: Players have to wrestle their opponent out of a ring.
Played 4 Times: Alton vs. Danny, Derrick vs. Ace, Derrick vs. Syrus, Aneesa vs. Beth
Capture the Flag: Players have to climb up a 20-foot (approx. 6 meters) rope net to get a flag.
Played 3 Times: Kina vs. Cameran, Alton vs. Adam K., Alton vs. Jeremy
Reverse Tug of War: Players are tied to each other, facing opposite directions. The first to get to their flag wins.
Played 4 Times: Ruthie vs. Jisela, Beth vs. Ruthie, Beth vs. Montana, Timmy vs. Derrick
Sticky Situation: Players had to stick balls to a board as their opponent tries to stop you.
Played 1 Time: Kina vs. Jillian
Knock Off: The wheel never landed on this challenge; the rules and gameplay of the challenge are unknown.
Other spaces on the wheel
Spin Again: If a Gauntlet challenge was done 3 times, the next time there is a Gauntlet, that challenge is taken off the wheel for that instance and is replaced by Spin Again.
Captain's Choice: The captain of the team going into the Gauntlet will choose which challenge he or she will be doing.
Challenger's Choice: The person the team chose to oppose the captain in the Gauntlet will choose which challenge he or she will be doing.
The contestant's team won by default after the other team forfeited.[e]
The contestant's team forfeited after determining they weren't going to win.[e]
The contestant's team won the challenge and was safe.
The contestant won the Captain's challenge and was named the team captain.
The contestant sat out of the challenge and the contestant's team won the challenge.
The contestant sat out of the challenge and was exempt from the Gauntlet.
The contestant won the Gauntlet.
The contestant was selected for the Gauntlet, but did not have to compete.
The contestant lost the Gauntlet and was eliminated.
The contestant withdrew from the competition.
The final challenge
The final challenge, "Bet Your Booty" consisted of three games, roti eating, a memory challenge, and a relay race, to place bets on after receiving 250 gold doubloons each from the host, T. J. Lavin, with each contestant eligible to compete in only one event.
The reunion special, Shark Infested Waters: Gauntlet II Reunion, was aired after the season finale on March 27, 2006 and was hosted by Susie Castillo.
Teams/Pairs
Chock Full of Coconuts (Ep. 2)
Ace & Derrick
Adam K. & Kina
Adam L. & Timmy
Alton & Ibis
Aneesa & Jisela
Danny & Susie
Beth & Julie
Cara & Randy
Brad & David
Jamie & Jeremy
Katie & Ruthie
Jodi & MJ
Montana & Robin
Landon & Jillian
Balancing Act (Ep. 9)
Mark & Syrus
Alton & Landon
Derrick & Katie
Jillian & Kina
Julie & Robin
Cara & Susie
Aneesa & Montana
Jamie & Jeremy
Brad & David
MJ & Randy
Beth & Timmy
Ibis & Jodi
Easy Does It (Ep. 13)
David & Mark
Alton & Landon
Katie & Robin
Jamie & Jodi
Beth & Derrick
Jillian & Kina
Aneesa & Julie
Ibis & Susie
Brad & Timmy
MJ & Randy
Memorable moments
For this challenge, a male and female captain were determined at the beginning of the show based on physical prowess in a King of the Hill type of game. However some chose to use rock-paper-scissors to decide who should be the last one standing.
Jo made her first appearance in a Challenge, marking her first return to MTV in eleven years, and quickly caused controversy in the first episode. She called the police to escort her out and leave the show after she found being in the house with 31 other cast members intolerable.
Derrick blew up at his team for choosing a secret ballot method for voting into the Gauntlet rather than openly stating their votes.
After the Rookies lost the second challenge, Kina picked Cameran for the Gauntlet. Cameran voluntarily lost, feeling Kina would be a better captain than she would. Many of the Veterans were astounded at this, especially after Derrick and Adam L. fought so hard in the previous Gauntlet. This led to an argument between Cara and Aneesa, with Timmy mimicking Aneesa's rant behind her.
Danny harbored intense hatred towards his former Road Rules cast member Jodi, due to his belief that she manipulated the cast into voting him off. After being called out in the "Moving Pyramid" challenge, Danny lashed out at Jodi, which then led to Alton pulling Danny into the Gauntlet. He went on another tirade, claiming he would easily defeat Alton in the Gauntlet, but was beaten in a humiliating fashion. Jodi recounted at the reunion that Danny then suffered a painful medical crisis after he returned home, and that after she called him to talk about the events of the challenge he hung up on her. Danny never appeared on another Challenge after this one until he died in 2017 at the age of 33.
Jisela volunteered to go into the Gauntlet and lost to Ruthie. Host T.J. Lavin commented that Jisela pretty much quit the game.
In a Veterans team meeting Ace took fault for the failure during a mission and volunteered to go to the Gauntlet. He and Derrick went head-to-head in a wrestling beach brawl. Derrick stayed low and powered his way through Ace to keep his role at Veteran captain.
When Beth reveals to Robin that Jodi had told her that Mark, who Robin was seeing at the time, said he was in love with her, she confronted Mark, who became so angry with Robin that he punched the bus and walked home.
While strategizing for a mission in which a team member had to pull other team members around a track in a large rickshaw, Beth decided that she should be the one teammate who would sit out, due to her being the biggest woman on the team (the veterans had to sit one man and one woman out due to having more players than the rookies). Montana, along with several other members, believed that Beth was manipulating Ruthie so that she would get immunity from the Gauntlet. The team sided with Montana and let her sit out. Beth performed well in the mission, but the team lost. Beth was voted into the Gauntlet against Ruthie, but stunned the team by beating her at the Reverse Tug-of-War, thus becoming the new female team captain.
While her team hoped she would be eliminated as soon as possible, Beth defeated both Ruthie and Montana in "Reverse Tug of War" Gauntlets. Both of her opponents stated that Beth had the advantage over them because she weighed more than they did.
Jillian tells Kina that Susie and Cara approached her for an alliance with the other team, starting a rivalry between Cara and Kina.
After losing a challenge, Beth quit the Beach Brawl wrestling challenge against Aneesa, claiming it was "against her moral values", thus leading to a segue in which host T.J. Lavin stated, "I thought I told you to quit two weeks ago when the other quitters quit". The other cast members speculated that she was afraid of losing to Aneesa, who was praying for the Beach Brawl challenge. At the reunion, Beth defended her decisions, while Timmy said that the team's anger with her stemmed from her history of performing well for stretches and then not trying when she didn't feel like it.
Controversy arose amongst the Rookies team when Kina chose to go against Jillian in the final Gauntlet as opposed to Ibis, whom some of the Rookies believed to be a weaker player.
On the reunion show, Mark announced his retirement from the Challenges. He gave his bandana to Derrick saying, "From the first Road Ruler to the last Road Ruler, I give you my bandana." Mark joins Mike "The Miz" Mizanin, Eric Nies and Timmy Beggy as the only cast members to officially issue a "retirement" from the Challenges. However, Mark would come out of retirement for The Duel II in 2009 and Battle of the Exes in 2012 (and since 2012 stated numerous times he wants to come back for another one).
Jamie was mistakenly cast as a Rookie when he had previously been on two challenges. (Extreme Challenge and Battle of the Sexes).
On the final men's Gauntlet day, Timmy volunteered to face off against Derrick in the final men's Gauntlet, even though Derrick had stated he wanted David to go in. After two ties, with Katie and Aneesa opting not to vote, Timmy ultimately went in after time ran out and he told T.J. he wanted to go in. Despite stating beforehand that he did not even want to win, Timmy went on to win the Gauntlet, dethroning Derrick (who had already won 4 Gauntlet rounds), the Veterans' male captain, the day before the final challenge.
Notes
^ abBeth refused to compete in the "Beach Brawl" Gauntlet. Aneesa became the new team captain by default.
^ abCameran gave the win to Kina, and did not compete in the "Capture The Flag" Gauntlet.
^ abJo withdrew from the game in Episode 1 before the first challenge. As a result, Kina was named team captain for coming in second in the Captain's challenge.
^Since the Veterans had two more players, they had to pick one male and one female to sit out from the "Rickshaw Races" challenge. The designated players would also be automatically safe from elimination. The Veterans selected Syrus and Montana.
^ abcdefOnly the first event was played, after the Veterans team bet 248 coins on the roti eating challenge. After a loss gave the Rookies 249 coins, the Veterans elected to forfeit, on the basis that Aneesa could not win against the three Rookies that were to race her in the relay event. (Episode recap) During the reunion show, Mark and Robin attributed the loss to a bout of food poisoning the night before.
