The Greatest Female Players in Challenge History: #16- Ashley Mitchell
12 Seasons: Rivals III, Invasion of the Champions (Win), Champs vs. Pros, Dirty 30, Champs vs. Stars, Champs vs. Stars 2, Final Reckoning (Win), War of the Worlds, War of the Worlds 2 (Final), Total Madness, Double Agents, Spies, Lies & Allies
6–7 Elimination Record
29 Challenge Wins
Daily Challenges: 7.5/10
Eliminations: 7/10
Finals: 9.5/10
Politics: 8.5/10
I mean what the fuck. That’s my assessment of Ashley’s career. What the fuck.
How else can you describe the most up-and-down career in Challenge history?
How the girl who was voted out of the house in episode three of her Real World season has the most career winnings out of any woman in Challenge is simultaneously the craziest and dumbest thing ever.
I don’t want to knock Ashley too much because she’s a solid competitor and a good political player who has stuck with her alliance to skate to the end three times, but it just doesn’t feel right that she has the same number of wins as girls like Rachel, Cara Maria, Camila and Sarah, and more wins than Laurel and Emily.
Still, what she’s accomplished in her crazy ass career has to put her this high.
Ashley and Cory were a solid team on Rivals III, winning the Out On a Limb challenge and aligning themselves with Bananas and Vince, which looked like a sure way to make the finals. But Cory got caught playing both sides of the house, and they were thrown into elimination where they shockingly lost to Nate/Christina.
On Invasion, Ashley earned her way into the Oasis by winning the Shell Shocked challenge with Hunter, who she was in a “showmance” with at the time. That relationship quickly devolved, but Ashley was able to stick with her Lavender Ladies alliance with Shane, Amanda, Sylvia, plus Hunter and Nelson. Ashley reached the final by winning the purge elimination against Nicole and Amanda, then shockingly defeated Camila and Nicole in the final to capture her first championship.
On Dirty 30, Ashley for once followed through on her perpetual claims to quit, leaving before the purge challenge.
She was kept off of Vendettas (other than coming in as a mercenary, where she lost to Kam), but returned on Final Reckoning as a mercenary with Hunter. The pair narrowly beat Faith/Angela to get into the game, entering the house in an extremely cushy position. With loyal allies in Amanda, Shane, Sylvia and Nelson, Ashley/Hunter never had to worry about getting voted into elimination. They won one daily challenge and skated to the final.
Ashley/Hunter trailed Joss/Sylvia going into the last part of the final, but Paulie/Natalie threw their grenade at the leaders, helping Ashley/Hunter earn the victory. Ashley ended up with more points in the head-to-head competition with Hunter, and infamously stole his half of the money, making her the biggest winner in Challenge history with the $1 million prize.
Hunter got his revenge in the first elimination of War of the Worlds, calling out Ashley/Chase and defeating them with Georgia.
Ashley proved she wouldn’t be a pariah for taking Hunter’s money on War of the Worlds 2, again finding a solid alliance with Cara and Paulie. She rode her alliance all the way until the final elimination, where she took out Nany and made her third final.
But her up-and-down career continued the next two seasons, as she was taken out just four episodes into Total Madness by Dee, and lost eliminations to Natalie and Kam on Double Agents.
She was looking like she could be heading to her fourth final on Spies, Lies, & Allies, having beaten Priscilla in elimination, but she was kicked off for an unaired fight with Josh.
The Champs vs. series doesn’t help or hurt her résumé for me, as she beat Veronica and Ashley K before losing to Lolo Jones on Champs vs. Pros, left Champs vs. Stars due to the death of her father, and lost to Kailah midway through the season on Champs vs. Stars 2.
While Ashley is by no means an elite competitor, I just don’t see an argument for her to be much lower than this.
Her victories have some small asterisks to them — on Invasion the Underdogs didn’t have to face the Champions in eliminations, and on Final Reckoning she won a relatively easy final when she got to come into the game late.
But the bottom line is this — she has won an individual season and a partner season in one of the toughest eras in Challenge history. Every girl ranked below her only has victories in team formats (besides Jonna’s All Stars wins), which are inherently easier to win.
Ashley has established herself as one of the smartest and best political players on the show today.
Even if she doesn’t win another season, no one can take away the $1.12 million she has won on the show, or the fact that she is one of just 13 women with multiple championships.
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