Challenge Dirty 30 Player Preview: Devin Walker
Devin: Want to go to the jungle and pull skulls?
Vince: NO, I don’t want to pull skulls!
This was the moment where I fell in love with Devin. He was so stupid, such a dumb-ass, but also a quiet brilliance to him. He truly knew how to get under someone’s skin, how to be the perfect instigator, and how to pull white skulls!
I had not watched Are You The One? before watching Rivals 3. After watching AYTO, I grew a greater appreciation for Devin in general. He was a total bitch-ass manipulator on his season of AYTO. He would play with the emotions of his love affair of the season, Kiki. Devin would drop and pick her back up constantly. Whenever she would try to find a new fling, he would get jealous and win her back. They fucked all around the house, including front of everyone in their living area. There’s a BOOM BOOM ROOM FOR A REASON.
At the end of the season, Devin was a much better guy. He was the reason why their cast won the game despite doing horribly all season. After not even hitting 5 beams of light all season, Devin plays the red cup games where he assured a 50–50 shot of 10 beams or no beams for the final Match Up Ceremony. Devin won the whole cast 750k dollars, and a great day.
Devin’s Challenge performance was all luck. He and Cheyenne only made it to the final due to the amount of teams that were quit and/or removed from the game, so they were brought in as a replacement after being eliminated. From there, their biggest achievement was not finishing in last during any challenge, seriously. They went into 5 straight jungles as picked by the Power Team, and all 5 times they pulled white skulls, meaning they were safe. In the final four, all the teams had to pull corks to decide who goes to the final elimination, where of course, they pulled white corks. The luck is hilarious.
His partner, Cheyenne, had distaste for him early in the season, but after he defended her, supported her in Challenges, and got her through the final, she grew fond of him. In all honesty, Cheyenne was a bad partner, she’s not athletic, has no history of being athletic, and is a bit soft when it comes to physicality. Though she is a bad-ass with a strong, no bull shit personality, not someone you would want to compete with in a Challenge.
Devin got to show off on the AYTO spin-off show, Second Chances. He had a partner in Rashida, who although better than Cheyenne athletically, was not a major step-up. From the jump, Devin’s focus was to treat his teammate like his queen, he made her feel good while pushing her athletically to be her best self. He’s a smart guy and knows how to get a rise out of people, but he also is aware about how to get the best out of them as well. He won AYTO Second Chances because he was playing to win. It will be interesting to see how he does in the Free Agents type format as he is a mental player more than anything.
Now here’s a review of Devin as a competitor, as well as his social media handles for reference:
Skills & Physical Strength: Wes described it well in an interview he did on FB Live: “Devin has the potential to be a really good athlete and in shape, he just drinks too many foamers.” A lot of people like to say that Devin is the future of the Challenge, the problem is that he loves his Dad bod, he enjoys beer, and is not a big fan of the whole working out thing. Devin is also part of a start-up brewery, where he’s focusing on putting in hours there instead of training for the Challenge.
On Second Chances, Devin did not look the best with his shirt on, but he consistently did well in all athletic events. Until after the finish line when he was spewing puke in victory. Devin the anti-Nelson. Nelson is in the best shape out of anyone on these shows, yet he struggles in many of these missions as he lacks the natural athletic skills. Devin is an athlete who has poor fitness and a lack of muscles. Not sure who I’d rather take when it comes to the physical missions.
Social & Mental Game: It would be smart of him to take all the outsiders and AYTO people and create a coalition against the vets. If you are going to win, or at least get some outsiders to the end, you need to take the vets head on from the start. In Free Agents type formats people get selfish when they need to realize they are stronger in a group. In Rivals 3, they had no chance against Bananas and Sarah as it took them too long to align against them.
Devin could be an easy target during the season. The double XX kill card involved in this game could mean his name gets called out for elimination pretty quickly.
Eliminations: Not only is he 0–1 in eliminations, Devin only ever saw 1 “choice” in AYTO Second Chances, and that was after they had won to decide if he was 170k or 85k. In their one elimination, Devin was doing a good job of carrying Cheyenne. They were playing a variation of the co-op wall ladder game from Exes 2, where in this one the wall was shorter, but you also had to put a ball in a basket to score. Cheyenne could not fully support herself, so Devin would lift her weight as well in order for them to win. A least second stutter and fall off the wall led to a victory for Jessica and Reilly.
He better hope for a puzzle or something that takes on the fly thinking.
Final Potential & Endurance: We did not get to see Devin truly fulfill his potential in the Rivals 3 final due to him having to support Cheyenne. The AYTO final was nowhere near an actual Challenge final. Devin could get second in a final if he shows the same heart that he did on AYTO Second Chances. Hard to see him winning a final with a stacked cast.
Final Score: 78/100
