The Challenge’s Elimination Between Horacio and Derrick Sparks Debate: 'Wasn’t as Neck & Neck as the Edit Made It'

challenge’with Horacio Gutierrez Jr. and Derrick Kosinski discuss who actually won the arena battle in the last episode Battle era.

Controversy over whether Derrick had a full board of pegs in the “Pick It Up” game — where two players race to collect 40 pegs on the board in between tossing balls into a chute — raged on social media after the elimination aired on Wednesday, 4/9.Fans and challengers alike studied the broadcast and wondered why Derrick’s board didn’t look full when the siren sounded if he was indeed the winner.

“ALL MY STUDS were ‘on the board’ about :90 seconds before Horacio finished,” Derrick wrote on X in response to Horacio’s girlfriend, challenger Nurys Mateo, who was eliminated earlier in the season. “The editing really did a # on this. It wasn’t as carefree as the editing looked.”

Derrick continued, “I heard the ball get stuck on him 10-15 seconds (after) and I believe I slowed down into the commotion, not knowing what kind of commotion it was. What should I have done?? stop completely?”

Horacio spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the verdict, claiming he won, calling it “the truth”.

“Everyone has their own version of the story, but my truth is not only my truth, but also [what] everyone else on stage saw, which was that things happened that definitely didn’t [in the episode]”, he said. “At one point, the ball got stuck on my way down the platform, so while I was collecting those pegs, TJ [Lavin, the host] tries to blow the horn — and TJ’s horn never works, which I hated this season. So he’s telling me to stop, Kyland’s telling me to stop, and I stopped for a solid five to 10 seconds, which in that type of game was extremely crucial.”

“Meanwhile, Derrick is still running,” he added. “They don’t show it.”

Explaining that the pegs on the board were unstable, Horacio also said that the producers would help put the falling pegs back in place – but only for Derrick.

“No one came to help me when my pegs fell off, I would have to take my time and put them back,” he revealed.

Looking back on it, Horacio said he realized “I wasn’t wrong” after he said he saw an empty peg in the “upper right corner” of Derrick’s plate.

“I didn’t guess,” said Horacio. “I called for the check and at one point, TJ actually honked and said, ‘Horacio wins.'”

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Horacio Gutierrez Jr.

Jon Roriz/MTV

Horacio claimed that everyone congratulated him on his victory and that he thought the game was over, but suddenly things changed.

“I walked up to Derrick, shook his hand and said, ‘Hell of a fight, man,'” he began. “And he’s still missing one. And then he fixes them there, puts the last peg — then it’s all over — and I say to him: ‘Can you throw a basket on my platform? I want to throw one at yours.’ I just wanted to see if there was a difference in how fast it would fall. We did that, and as soon as we do it, that’s it [judges] they were like, ‘Don’t touch anything, we have to check.'”

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An hour later, Horacio said they were back and announced that Derrick had won.

“The rules for us were the first person to get all 40 pegs in and claim the check wins,” Horacio said. “He might have put in all 40, I’ll give him that. Hats off. But at the end of the day, you never called for a check.”

Clearly upset with the way the edit was portraying her boyfriend’s game, Nurys shared her thoughts on Xu: “P–THE LIE KING OF PRODUCTION!! I’m the fuck-king lividdddddd. This isn’t hate on Derrick because I love him, but Production she just didn’t want the era 1 people to go home anymore, which is why they lied and said he was the first to get it CLEARLY missing his essence… #TheChallenge40”

Derrick Kosinski.

Juan Cruz Rabaglia PARAMOUNT+/MTV

Fans also took to social media to debate the winner, with one writing: “Derrick has been in it before! The rules were to put it on and it would fall out because the board was weak. It doesn’t change that he already had it. Derrick won fair and square.”

This prompted Era 1 contestant Rachel Robinson to come to her co-star’s defense, commenting on the post: “Right! And Aneesin had to be repaired several times – not because she did anything because the wall didn’t hold them in place. What is so hard to win, @DerrickMTV won this one hands down. I saw it myself.”

Era 2’s Emily Schromm also stood by Horatio’s defeat.

“Just FYI, TJ said the rules are ‘put all the pegs on the wall first’. Not ‘in the hole’. ON THE WALL,” she wrote on X. “Look at the photo of the peg on the wall. @DerrickMTV won. It was crazy close, but don’t let anyone on Era 3 try to trick you.”

Meanwhile, Jordan Wiseley and Devin Walker sided with Horatio’s take on the chain of events, with contestant Theo Campbell teasing that this won’t be the last questionable ending to the season. “If you think the elimination of Derricks and Horatios is controversial… boooo. There’s more to come, that’s a fact,” he wrote on X.

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Challenge: Battle of the Epochs airs Wednesdays at 8:00 PM ET/PT on MTV.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education