Wes Bergmann considers himself among the all-time master strategists when it comes to playing The Challenge.
However, he discovered on the USA 2 spinoff that some of the newer CBS stars from Survivor and Big Brother may have developed some wise gameplay of their own.
In Episode 4 of the spinoff, his teammates from Green Team pulled off a sneaky move by getting his teammate and fellow MTV vet, Amanda Garcia, put into elimination.
That was because Green Team’s captain, Desi Williams, felt she had the best chance of winning the elimination she was already going into against the smaller competitor.
Following the episode’s airing, Wes called out Desi and others for the move suggesting they had done nothing more but “erode trust” by doing that.
He also credited himself for another team’s strategy during the daily challenge, claiming he originally invented it, even though it was another of The Challenge greats who did.
This report will contain spoilers through Episode 4 of CBS’ The Challenge: USA 2.
Wes calls out Desi and allies for USA 2 move
Taking to his Twitter after the airing of The Challenge: USA 2 episode, Wes called out the game move pulled off by his teammate Desi and some of the other rookies. It involved them keeping Wes in the dark about their plan to secretly vote for Amanda, also a member of the Green Team.
“Desi is queen. Period. But, she picked me. I didn’t cross her, disrespect her, vote differently than her, or perform poorly (I’ve been crushing). Her and company needing to keep me in the dark to blindside Amanda was cute but did nothing but erode trust,” Wes tweeted.
He followed that up with several more messages in which he criticized their move, suggesting it hurt team trust and put their Survivor star at risk.
Wes suggested their best move would’ve been to bring him in on the plan, although that’s debatable.
“Say, ‘look, we’re doing this. If you can simply be quiet it will earn trust. If you vote her in too, it will be even better. Regardless, we want to play with you cus your actions prove you’re green strong,'” Wes suggested.
He said instead of involving him, they made a move that didn’t change the matchup or add value to them. That said, the newer players may have been making the best move they could to safeguard their plan.
Green Team still knew Wes was connected with MTV vets, including Johnny Bananas and Tori Deal. Therefore Desi and her group probably figured the vets may have devised a way to prevent their plan, even if Amanda wasn’t someone at the top of the vets’ list for people to protect.
Wes gave himself credit for a former cast member’s strategy
In Episode 4, viewers witnessed a clever strategy used by the veterans, which came courtesy of rookie Chris Underwood, also from Survivor. Chris, a member of the Blue Team, helped orchestrate a move where they would throw the daily challenge to block Green Team from winning.
That would also prevent Green Team from gaining power over the two players to vote for the elimination. Blue struck up the deal with Red Team as a way to ensure none of the Blue Team members would get voted in.
In his confessional after the daily, Wes called it “brilliant” that Blue threw the challenge just to ensure Green Team didn’t win.
“In fact, I was the inventor of this move almost a decade ago,” he said after praising what the Blue Team did.
However, it was actually created by one of his castmates, another multi-time show winner, Veronica Portillo. On Instagram, a clip shared by Challenge superfan @jaychallenge1 shows Veronica developing a plan to throw a mission.
It was a bit different in the instance of Veronica’s original move. Her team planned to throw the “mission” and give Veronica the special Aztec Lifesaver that season. With the Lifesaver, Veronica could send Katie (Doyle) Cooley into the elimination in her place.
That brilliant move from Veronica arrived during The Real World/Road Rules Challenge’s eighth season, The Inferno. Katie was part of the Road Rules team with Veronica and other OGs, including Abram Boise, Kendal Sheppard, and Darrell Taylor.
Katie went into two eliminations that season and emerged victorious from each of them. Later, she and seven other Road Rules stars, including Veronica, won the final with $300,000 in prize money.
Wes taking credit for Veronica’s move during The Challenge: USA 2 spinoff may have been one of the most typical Wes things ever. The two-time MTV Challenge winner and one-time All Stars champ loves to take credit for just about anything and everything he can, which has made him another of the show’s memorable stars.
The Challenge: USA 2 airs Thursdays at 10/9c and Sundays at 9/8c on CBS.