The Greatest Female Players in Challenge History: #4- Camila Nakagawa
12 Seasons: Cutthroat, Rivals, Battle of the Exes (Win), Battle of the Seasons, Rivals II (3rd place), Free Agents, Battle of the Bloodlines, Rivals III, Invasion of the Champions (2nd place), Champs vs. Pros (3rd place), Dirty 30 (Win), Champs vs. Stars
Final Efficiency: 5/12 (41.7%)
Win Efficiency: 2/12 (16.7%)
21 Mission Wins, 10–4 Elimination Record
Individual Missions: 2.25/8.25 (1 Quad) (30.3%)
Partner Missions: 4/31 (12.9%)
Combined: 6.25/39.25 (1 Quad) (15.9%)
Average Times Voted In Per Season: .82
Seasons Making Final Going Into Minimum Amount of Elims: 2
The fire-breathing Brazilian is far from the most popular player in Challenge history, but she’s clearly one of the greatest.
Although she didn’t make it to the end of either of her first two seasons, Camila showed early on that she would be a competitor to be feared.
Her elimination wins on Cutthroat taking out Emilee and Katie don’t look that impressive, but she was extremely close to taking out Laurel in the Die Hard elimination.
Camila was one of the best girls (if not the best girl on the red team), but she was the whipping girl for Tori and Brad and was repeatedly thrown in before the vets.
Camila and Theresa were probably the third-best team on Rivals, but they were thrown into the second elimination, where they fell to Laurel/Cara Maria.
Camila truly showed what she was made of on Battle of the Exes. Partnered with Johnny, the duo was the best team the entire season, winning the Power Couple three times.
They couldn’t stay out of elimination the entire season, however, getting last place in the final mission, forcing them to face Mark/Robin in X-Battle. Although Mark most likely threw his elimination to Johnny, Camila held up to her end of the bargain and defeated Robin.
In the final, Johnny/Camila trailed CT/Diem for most of the race, but finally passed them at the very end when CT collapsed.
Dubiously placed on the Fresh Meat team on Battle of the Seasons, Camila was doomed both politically and by having to be on a team with Big Easy. She and Eric took out Danny/Melinda in the second elimination, but there wasn’t much Camila could do to help prevent her team from going into the first four eliminations. Her season came to an end in a heartbreaking way, as Big Easy quit the elimination against Devyn/JD.
Although she was partnered with a lackluster partner in Jemmye on Rivals II, Camila overachieved, winning safety on the Swingers mission, beating Jasmine/Theresa and Diem/Aneesa in eliminations and finishing third in the final.
If Camila’s career has any real blemishes, it’s Free Agents. Although losing to Theresa in elimination (especially a physical one like Looper) is nothing to be embarrassed about, Camila didn’t display the normal fight she usually has and kind of gave up.
Camila was never going to have much of a chance on Bloodlines with Larissa as her partner, and the inevitable happened early when Larissa lost in the third elimination to Jenna, sending Camila home along with her.
On Rivals III she was in a toxic partnership with Tony. Although the duo competed fairly well, it ultimately ended in ugly fashion with a disturbing fight in the kitchen.
Camila really started moving up the all-time ranks in her final two seasons. Having to go through Ashley K, Cara Maria and Laurel to make the final on Invasion was a tall task, but Camila won the second Champions day mission to earn safety, then pulled one of the biggest upsets in Challenge history when she defeated Laurel in Knot So Fast. But in the final she fell short against Ashley M, finishing second.
Camila ended her career with her finest showing. Although it was her worst political season, Dirty 30 was her best physical season. Camila made her allies uneasy about her trustworthiness when she didn’t vote Cory into the first elimination, and she had a racial tirade against Leroy midway through the season.
She was in an alliance with the strongest females in the house — Cara, Tori, Kailah and Jenna — that helped her advance deep without having to go into elimination.
Toward the end of the game the latter three girls turned on the champions Camila and Cara, as Cara was sent to the Redemption House and Camila was sent into elimination twice. But she was able to take out Jemmye and Britni, then dominated the purge challenge against Kailah and Jenna. She defeated Cara and Tori in the final for her second championship.
Camila was by no means a stable political player, but she didn’t make many big mistakes other than on Dirty 30.
She was basically only targeted on Cutthroat for being a rookie (she did dumbly tell Tori she voted for Brad on Cutthroat, but that was just used as an excuse for Tori to continue targeting her when it was going to happen anyway). On Rivals she was thrown in for being a big threat, and on Bloodlines her cousin was thrown in by the blue team to get the strong Camila off the red team.
Physically she basically had no holes in her game, and if she hadn’t had her blowup on Champs vs. Stars she could have easily added more to her resume, as she would have remained one of top females on the show. But the show was clearly a toxic environment for her, and she hasn’t returned since the incident.
The Camilanator goes down as not only one of the craziest women to be on The Challenge, but also one of the best players.
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