The Challenge 40 Battle of the Eras Player Preview: Amanda Garcia

Whether you love or hate her, Amanda Garcia has become Challenge casting’s version of three shots of tequila. When the show is boring, they throw her in to give it some energy and a kick. When the show is already messy and chaotic, Amanda escalates it to another level.

I’m not going to lie; when you look at this cast, it’s clear Amanda isn’t winning. That’s perfectly fine because Amanda’s role on this show is to bring drama. Amanda is a triple threat: a Mom, a Nurse, and The Challenge’s Pop-Off Queen.

Amanda’s Cheat Sheet (TLDR Version)

Introducing Amanda:

Amanda’s original show was Are You The One Season 3, a season that brought us multiple notable Challenge alums, including Devin Walker, Nelson Thomas, Cheyenne Floyd, and Britni Thornton. On this season, Amanda had an explosive showmance with a guy named Mike, who was later on the Real World, who was later revealed to have joined the Aryan brotherhood while in prison, and later dated Tori Deal. I’m not sure why I put those three things in that order or even mentioned it at all.

Back to Amanda, she made her Challenge debut on Rivals 3, coming into the game during Episode 3 as part of a replacement team with Nelson as her partner. As both a replacement team and being from AYTO, they had a massive target on them, so Amanda made it her mission to make some while they were there. Amanda came in like a ball of fire, popping off on all the vets and getting into her first of many blowups with Camila. She & Nelson won an elimination that season and had another competitive elimination with KellyAnne & Jamie.

Following Rivals 3, Amanda came back for Invasion of the Champions, where she went from public enemy #1 to running the game as the co-head of a majority alliance alongside Ashley. Their devilish duo went the entire game without seeing an elimination before the Underdog Bloodbath, and they had pawns working under them. Eventually, once the pawns were gone, we saw the true Lavender Lady alliance come into form, one of the most important alliances in Challenge history. This season, Amanda got into massive fights with Camila and the other champions, and she had a finger-blast gate with Jenna. Amanda’s rivalry with Jenna was a significant part of her early run on The Challenge. On top of the drama, Amanda also proved to be a solid competitor mentally. Unfortunately, Amanda came up short in the final physical portion of the purge, where her beef with Nicole Z allowed Ashley to win Part 1, and then she lost to Nicole in a great battle in Round 2.

Amanda returned for Dirty 30 and looked in much better shape than Invasion but was a casualty along with Darrell of the opening Purge & Redemptions. She had a really good 40+ minute battle against the much larger Jenna in the Redemption challenge.

We would later see her again for Final Reckoning, where she got partnered with Zach Nichols. The funniest part about Amanda’s “rival” pairing with Zach is that they had zero on-screen interactions before the season and probably lived in a house together for at most five days on Invasion. Despite having no interactions prior, these two were easily the most chaotic and dysfunctional team. And yet, they were also far and away the most complementary pair competitively. Amanda had gotten into her best shape entering Final Reckoning, where she could somewhat keep up alongside Zach, an athletic powerhouse. Meanwhile, her puzzle prowess and mental toughness is what gave them an extra edge. On Final Reckoning, Amanda had a showmance with Joss Mooney. She was the most interesting thing to ever happen to Joss and he was the boring thing to come into her life.

A big part of Amanda’s Final Reckoning experience was her getting to play with all four of the Lavender Ladies. The Lavender Ladies were getting into loads of drama and kicking ass in the game — Amanda & Zach specifically. Except their success came to a head after they won their 4th daily challenge of the season, which for reference, for the entire season, no other team won more than two. Now, where the issues arose was Zach & Amanda bickered over whether to vote Hunter & Ashley or Bananas & Tony into elimination with their immunity/power vote. Amanda wanted to save her friend, and Zach didn’t like the idea of her controlling their team, so instead of caving, he threw himself and Amanda into elimination. I understand that Tony was Zach’s friend and Amanda didn’t have the best tact in their discussions. But if you’re on Zach’s side, you’re dumb as fuck. Bananas was a 6x Champ, and Tony was coming off a Champs vs. Stars win; they were the biggest threats by a country mile, and if you’re trying to win, it’s a no-brainer to vote them in. It’s an even huger no-brainer if you’re Zach, a guy who has betrayed Bananas multiple times already in his Challenge career.

And what was super fucked up was that elimination MTV put them in against Cory & Devin. For anyone who watched that elimination…Let’s all say it right here… That shit was rigged for Cory & Devin to win. The way the final medallion would not fall for Zach & Amanda in the elimination was just way too suspect. Which it makes sense it was rigged because they got brought in as twists/additions to the game; you don’t bring them in like that to send them out. Zach stepping off that platform was idiotic on so many levels. He and Amanda were an infinitely better version of the team that won (Hunter & Ashley). With the way the Lavender Ladies ran the game and how intimidated teams would’ve been to face their duo in elimination, I genuinely believe Amanda & Zach would’ve won. And if they won, Zach would’ve likely stolen the million dollars, and casual fans would’ve said that’s what “The Devil,” aka Amanda, gets as karma.

So what I’m saying is there’s a realistic alternate timeline where Amanda is a Challenge Champion, and Zach Nichols steals a million dollars from her. This is important to note as this marked the last time Amanda ever had and will likely ever have to win a season.

Amanda was on War of the Worlds 1, where she was the last pick in the partner draft and got the already eliminated Josh Martinez as a partner. It was funny to watch Amanda deal with Josh, but they were an unserious pair. They then lost a controversial elimination to Kam and Ashley Cain. The loss to Kam & Ashley on WOTW 1 was sketchy as Amanda and other cast members noted that Kam & Ashley were allowed to do the elimination in a way that the rules initially explicitly said they were not allowed to do.

After this season, Amanda had a baby, and it felt like we wouldn’t see her again on The Challenge. Well, until she split with her baby daddy. We then saw Amanda back for Spies, Lies & Allies. She was able to coast for the first half of the season as part of the majority veteran alliance and had a notable showmance with Messy Fessy. Once Fessy got DQ’d, Amanda’s game began to spiral, and then once Ashley DQ’d, her back was completely against the wall. To which, Amanda fighting for her life and talking shit was one of the few brights season in that brutal second half of SLA. Without Amanda, SLA would have unequivocally been the worst season in Challenge history. Sadly, she came up short of the Final after losing the last elimination to Tori.

A testament to Amanda’s entertainment level was shown when MTV cast her for USA 2 as one of the six legends of the game alongside Wes, Bananas, Tori, Jonna, and Cory. Amanda’s run on USA 2 was brief. Still, she brought drama and fire to the show.

Player Vitals & Stats

Amanda Garcia: 31 Years Old, 5'3, 6 Seasons, 1 USA Season, 2–5 Elimination Record, 0–1 USA Elim Record

Skills and Physical Strength:

For her size, Amanda is incredibly scrappy and has much better upper body strength than most realize. The Challenge has no size divisions, though, and Amanda isn’t going to devote her entire life to the gym to be an elite physical competitor on this show. Against a cast like this, she does not hold up in any challenge that requires raw power, speed, explosive athleticism, or size. She’s not a big fan of water, so swimming challenges aren’t great for her.

Frankly, I’m not expecting any wins from Amanda in overtly physical or skill-based daily challenges when going up a cast like this.

SSMP (Social, Strategic, Mental, and Political) Game:

One of the most annoying things about the current era of The Challenge is players don’t hold grudges like they used to. They’re all buddy buddy and even when they have issues, they just make up in the offseason. Amanda is the exception. If Amanda doesn’t like someone, she keeps her foot on the pedal. Which makes for great TV because we need more authentic messiness. However, Amanda’s refusal to kiss ass has put a massive target on her back, and she enters every season with loads of enemies. This season alone, Amanda is coming in with beef with Tori, Michele, Theo, Derrick, and Tony. There are other players I could include on this list that I know have had issues with Amanda but am not naming because things might be mended now or those players have higher-priority enemies. For example, Cara might potentially not hate Amanda anymore, which would be crazy as Amanda once wished Ebola and death upon Cara’s horse.

Look, Amanda has a shit ton of enemies, and she doesn’t intimidate people competitively. It’s going to be an uphill battle from Day 1.

Also, in terms of the mental game, puzzles and memorization games are Amanda’s forte. The best-case scenario for Amanda’s season is that she ends up in a puzzle elimination and pulls off a big upset against a strong competitor.

Eliminations & Winning Potential:

Including Challenge USA, Amanda’s elimination record is 2–6, though I don’t think the record is very indicative of her abilities. Amanda’s elimination luck has been awful as she’s never faced a jabroni competitor, other than her first career elimination against Jessica (& Johnny Reilly) on Rivals 3, which she won. When you look at her six losses, two were physical eliminations against juggernauts like Desi or Tori. Then, two of her losses were controversial, such as the loss to Cory & Devin on Final Reckoning and Kam & Ashley on WOTW 1.

I’m not saying Amanda is some secret elimination beast. However, I do think that if Amanda had gotten the opportunity to play against similar players from her era, like Britni, Natalie, and Nicole Ramos, she would have won out.

Now, how will Amanda fare in eliminations against most of this Season 40? Badly against most of its physical. I can really only see Amanda beating Katie in a Headbanger-type elimination. If Amanda wants to win an elimination, it must be a puzzle, as I mentioned above.

Can Amanda win this season? No. With how many enemies Amanda is entering with, if we get more than 5 episodes of Amanda this season, that is a win for the fans.

Amanda’s Overall Rating: 74/100

Previous Ratings I’ve Given Amanda:
Spies, Lies & Allies Rating: 82/100
War of the Worlds 1: 84/100
Final Reckoning: 84/100
Dirty 30: 81/100
Invasion: 74/100