On The Challenge: All Stars, eliminations are still in play, and they don’t have Gold Skulls like Double Agents. However, they still involve competitors going into tough battles against their castmates.
They also involve a deliberation meeting and votes from most of the cast regarding who will go into the elimination. Several of the losing competitors have been given the respect of their castmates to choose who they’d want to go against in the elimination.
That held true with All Stars Episode 5, although the opponent a competitor asked to face may have surprised many viewers in terms of game strategy.
Spoiler alerts will follow for The Challenge: All Stars episodes through the fifth episode of the season on Paramount Plus.
What happened with Episode 5 elimination?
In All Stars Episode 5, competitors took part in a daily challenge that started as groups, then reduced to people working in male-female partnerships. The last leg of the daily event featured competitors having to run solo.
Since they crossed the finish line first, Laterrian Wallace and Kendal Sheppard were safe from elimination. Meanwhile, Syrus Yarbrough and Beth Stolarczyk finished in last place. That meant Syrus was going into elimination automatically.
A twist later popped up at The Arena when host TJ Lavin told the competitors they’d have double-elimination events for the rest of the season. So that meant Beth was joining Syrus in the elimination as his partner.
Ahead of that, Syrus spoke up about wanting to take on Alton Williams in the elimination. Syrus felt Alton held his team back in the first part of the daily challenge.
Basically, Alton was getting winded and out of breath as his team was trying to go at a good pace with the heavy log they had to carry. That kept the team back, and Syrus believes it hurt his chances at winning the event.
Most of the cast votes went for Alton to give Syrus what he requested. Once everyone got to The Arena, TJ announced the twist. Alton could then choose any female as his partner, except for Kendal.
He chose Aneesa Ferreira, and they dominated the Up and Over elimination event.
That ended Syrus and Beth’s time on the show. While Beth said in her exit interview, she had a fun time seeing everyone and doing the show, Syrus seemed upset. He said he wanted a one-on-one elimination against Alton.
Competitor comments on choosing elimination opponent
With the events of Episode 5 in mind, many fans were probably wondering why Syrus would choose to face Alton, someone who seems in peak physical condition, for the elimination.
In fact, a fan sent that question in for an interview that Syrus did, which he shared in an Instagram video on May 4. Around the 10:30 mark of the video (below), the interviewer read a fan’s question to Syrus.
The fan was wondering why Syrus didn’t choose a “total layup” like Eric “Big Easy” Banks and asked if he chose Alton, “one of the fittest men in the house,” as an excuse to get out of there, or if Syrus is “done.”
Syrus laughed about the fan’s “done” comment. He said it came down to a theme that often plays into Challenge eliminations, as Syrus explained his connection with Big Easy.
“First off, I’m never done. Second off, it was not an excuse for anything. A lot of people don’t always know what happens on these shows. A lot of things go down, and you know, you’d be a fool to think that I’m not smart enough to figure out who the hell I wanna go against,” Syrus said.
“For one, me and Big Easy, which people were throwing his name out there, have been suite mates at Spring break for years, and we don’t go for one week like you little normal Spring breakers do, we do an entire month to two months straight. Every day, wake and bake. Rage the entire time,” he explained.
“You create a bond doing that, day in and day out, for years,” Syrus added with regards to his friendship with Big Easy. He said they’ve been doing the Spring break thing for maybe 20 college years, which is a “long time.”
“That’s my boy. I respect him. I would never want to go against him,” he shared about Big Easy.
Syrus brought up the Hall Brawl event and said banging against a big guy like Big Easy wouldn’t be an easy feat. He added that Easy “trains with thousand-pound tires.”
“Do I think Alton could hurt me like that? He could probably hurt me, but not the same way Big Easy could hurt me,” Syrus said about a physical event like Hall Brawl.
He explained that Alton came for him early on by trying to convince someone to use the Lifesaver to throw Syrus into an elimination.
“You come for me, I’m coming for you,” Syrus said.
He also shared a story where he’d hung out with Alton at a club in Texas for a gig they did. Syrus said after they left the club, he saw Alton had climbed the building even after having cocktails.
He said it impressed him that Alton did that with his particular physical and mental state after having drinks.
“I don’t dislike Alton. Do I want a chance to compete against him? Yes. Do I become a better competitor for doing so? Hopefully. Will I win always? Possibly not. But if I do win, what does that mean? It’s great television,” Syrus added.
The Challenge: All Stars episodes arrive Thursdays on Paramount Plus.