Challenge Double Agents Player Preview: Nam Vo
One of the newest rookies this season is Nam Vo, our first German representative. I believe his parents were Vietnamese, or at least one is based on his look/name. Nam is an absolute physical specimen. I expect fans to fall in love with Nam this season, similar to how they fell in love with Fessy and Joss on their rookie seasons. They are giant, muscular, and gorgeous men who should kill the game physically. When I was researching him before this article, I really couldn’t find anything of him speaking English, and it worried me as it’s crucial to socially blending in and playing the game generally. Then I watched the video that MTV posted on Twitter of the rookies talking about how their original shows prepped them for the Challenge, and it made me feel better about Nam’s English prowess. It’s not fantastic, but he’s better than JP on WOTW 1. When I watched the clips of him speaking German, his German sounded excellent (I don’t know any German, it just sounded good).
The Quick Breakdown in Video Format: Some gems in both the article and video. If you could, please Subscribe to the YouTube channel where tons of content and my new podcast will be coming out daily/weekly.
Introducing Nam: His original show is The Ultimate Beastmaster. He appears on Season 1, Episode 9 (on Netflix if you want to watch). The competition is similar to American Ninja Warrior, where players take on intense gymnastic/parkour obstacle courses. Each round, competitors get eliminated until the final round, where one person wins and moves on to the championship bracket. Nam finished second place on his episode, proving he was a strong player, but he barely missed out on the champions episode.
Other than that, he is most known for his Instagram where has 250k followers, and works as both a fitness model and coach, specifically a fitness coach for Men’s Health Germany (the magazine). There are no signs of Nam having a girlfriend on Instagram, which would make the social game much easier for him. Then again, maybe you get more Instagram followers if you look single.
Player Vitals
Nam Vo: 28 Years Old, 6'2, 215 lbs, Rookie, 2nd Place Ultimate Beastmaster Episode
Skills and Physical Strength: What is so impressive about Nam’s performance on Beastmaster is the fact the guy is massive. He’s 6'2 and 215 and can hold his entire muscular body mass while gripping a rope or tiny cliff. On Ninja Warrior, the best players are 150–175 lbs. The fact Nam almost won his episode is crazy. Even wilder, during the opening part of the first round of his Beastmaster run, Nam jumps onto a rope that he’s supposed to swing from onto a platform. Nam slips down to the bottom of the rope, which seemed like immediate doom and what looked like one of the all-time worst runs in the show’s history. Instead, Nam pulls himself up the rope, gets onto the platform, and continues on. He is a more athletic Joss Mooney, if anything. Nam is very committed to fitness, both in the gym and with his diet. He is somewhat known for not consuming many carbs and espousing Keto/Paleo diets, making me wonder if he even drinks alcohol.
His success on Beastmaster makes me assume he will do well with the heights challenges since those generally require a ton of balance and grip strength. Nam will be a threat from the jump.
SSMP (Social, Strategic, Mental, and Political) Game: The social game will come easier if he is single because if so, he will have suitors lining up. If not, the game could be a bit rough as the men will see him as a threat, and if he doesn’t drink, he will stick out like a sore thumb. However, if he immediately establishes himself as a top player, people might back off and avoid him, similar to how people didn’t want to throw Fessy into elimination last season, fearing he’d come back and gun for them. I’m not sure if he has a political or strategic game, he will need to do a lot of learning on the fly. The same goes for his mental game. I’m not sure if he can do puzzles at all or if he would be willing to eat gross food.
Eliminations & Winning Potential: Nam should thrive in physical games and headbangers. The guy is built so incredibly well and can likely go toe to toe with anyone, except for maybe Fessy. I’m not saying he would beat someone like Darrell or Leroy in a physical elimination; I’m more or less predicting that it will be highly competitive match-ups.
Can he win? I think he could place highly, and a win is not out of the question based on this man being an overall beast. At the same time, I will have the same skepticism that I have for most, if not all rookies, especially when facing a final. Do I think he could make a final? Yes. If any male rookie makes it to the end of this season, it will be Nam. At the same time, we have no clue if this man will be able to keep up with the house environment or if he can solve puzzles. Those are huge question marks that we need to get answered. If you were a bettor, he’s the rookie with the best shot to win.
