The Challenge Spies, Lies & Allies Player Preview: Kyle Christie
After becoming one of the first players to debut on the Challenge from the UK, Kyle Christie is about to be on his 7th straight season of the Challenge. If you dig back into Reality Television forums from 2004, you will find Challenge Fans … my bad … If you dig back into Reality Television forums from 2004, you will find Real World Road Rules Challenge Fans complaining about Veronica Portillo doing six seasons in a row. Fast-forward to 2021, and being on all these seasons in a row feels common-day, except fans are still complaining about players doing a bunch in a row with no breaks in-between. Then again, as a new father with massive appearance checks on the line, Kyle does not give a shit if you think he is getting stale; he is here to put some bread on the table.
Introducing Kyle: Kyle became a staple to the franchise over the last few years, slowly evolving as a personality and a competitor. He has gone from the sneaky competitive guy to establishing himself as a consistent threat in the end-game. Kyle’s chances of winning have become exponentially higher in the last couple of seasons due to his biggest threats towards a winning path having left the franchise voluntarily or involuntarily (Jordan, Bananas, Theo, Rogan, Paulie). Could this be the season he finally gets over the hump? At the same time, Kyle is as much of a threat to win the season as he is to be an early exit — he is not a player who dominates daily challenges or even social politics. Kyle loves to coast to the end, and while it has been successful for him on Vendettas and Total Madness, it has gone on to blow up in his face, like on War of the Worlds 2 and Double Agents. Every season I’ve covered Kyle, I have wanted him to take a more active approach towards the game — each season, I realize that’s just not the person he is. Then again, maybe becoming a dad will change the way he plays the game.
Player Vitals & Stats
(TLDR breakdown)
Kyle Christie: 29 Years Old, 6'0, 185 lbs (estimate), 6 Seasons, 4–6 Elimination Record, 2x Finalist, Highest Finish: 2nd Place Total Madness
Career Daily Challenge Expected Win Ratio: 70.19% (The “Average” Player Would Be at 100)
Career Finals Appearance Expected Ratio: 110.25% (Again, the average is 100)
Skills and Physical Strength: Historically, Kyle is a below-average daily challenge competitor. Mainly due to indifference. If Kyle knows beforehand that he will not be going into elimination if he loses the daily challenge, he would rather take the loss than get blood on his hands.
Physically, Kyle is one of the bigger guys on the Challenge. While Fessy made him look small during their Hall Brawl on Double Agents, Kyle has squashed smaller competitors in the past (notably Bear during their elimination on WOTW 1) and has held his own against elite competition in the past. Kyle is slightly above average in all physical categories, whether swimming, running or pure brute strength.
Kyle fits the mold of a male partner who carries heavy stuff in terms of potential partnerships as the female partner follows along and solves their puzzles. This leads us to our next category…
SSMP (Social, Strategic, Mental, and Political) Game: As a mental competitor, Kyle is not a puzzle person, and if the game is partner-based, as many are speculating, then winning will be an uphill battle. Kyle did decode a word puzzle alongside Aneesa in an out of nowhere daily challenge win on Double Agents, but even he was shocked that he solved it. In his two final performances, Kyle had to solve a math problem on Total Madness and a color memorization pattern on Vendettas — both of which he performed adequately.
I mentioned in the introduction section that Kyle’s strategy in these games is to keep his head down, play with his friends, and hope he gets to the end by doing as little as possible. That strategy worked perfectly for him on Total Madness as all he did the entire season was get a cakewalk in Josh Martinez in elimination and then pulled out a shocking 2nd Place Finish. Last season, he tried the same thing and got blindside voted into the first male elimination, and then got put into the final elimination, a Hall Brawl with Fessy. Kyle’s #1 ally going into this season will be Devin — one of Devin’s main allies is CT, and in basically every season that CT and Kyle have been in the house together for more than a week or two, CT has thrown Kyle under the bus. Considering Cory & Nelson call him a Snake and Fessy & Josh call him a bitch, Kyle will need to swallow his ego and play with CT again to have his best chance at going far in the game. That is not even taking account of the rookies, adding a massive curveball to the game.
Kyle does have female allies in Big T and Nany.
Eliminations & Winning Potential: He is a career 4–6 in eliminations; three of those losses came on Final Reckoning alongside Brad, two came against Theo in WOTW 1 & 2 consecutively, and the sixth was, of course, his Hall Brawl with Fessy. Kyle’s signature elimination was his 3-way Ring Wrestle victory against JP and CT, where JP targeting CT gave Kyle the biggest assist of the century. Other than that, Kyle has beaten three less than stellar opponents in Stephen Bear, Josh Martinez, and Don’t Calm Me, Jacob Allen. A big headbanger elimination win over a legitimate opponent like Cory or Nelson would solidify Kyle’s place in Challenge history. On paper, he is a mathematically average player, yet fan sentiment towards him is generally favorable.
Will he make the final? It will come down to whether he, Devin, and CT can strike first against Fessy and the Big Brother alliance. Last season, they were in the minority. With the tides turning heavily against Josh and Fessy, Kyle’s chances to go far in the game look good. Can Kyle win? He’s been the second-place male in two separate finals; the guy is knocking on victory’s door. To win, he needs to ensure that CT is not in the final with him. CT is too good of an all-around player for Kyle to keep up with. If it is a partner-based final, a strong partner is also necessary, preferably someone like Ashley, whose puzzle-solving skills compliment him.
Kyle’s Overall Rating: 85/100 (+1 from Double Agents)
Double Agents Rating: 84/100
Total Madness Rating: 84/100
Final Reckoning Rating: 81/100
Vendettas Rating: 76/100
Also, if you want to know more about the entire cast before all the previews come out (which will be daily), check out my podcast on YouTube where my cohosts and I breakdown the best and worst of all the official cast photos.
