The Greatest Male Players in Challenge History: #4- Landon Lueck
4 Seasons: Inferno II (Win), Gauntlet II (Win), Duel II, Fresh Meat II (Win)
Final Efficiency: 3/4 (75%)
Win Efficiency: 3/4 (75%)
24 Mission Wins, 5–1 Elimination Record
Individual Missions: 4/14 (28.6%)
Partner Missions: 6/17 (35.3%)
Combined: 10/31 (32.3%)
Average Times Voted In Per Season: 1
Seasons Making Final Going Into Minimum Amount of Elims: 1
Arguably the greatest competitor in the history of the show, Landon was one of the few players who didn’t need politics to thrive.
He dominated every season he was on physically, leaving one of the most enduring legacies in the history of The Challenge despite appearing on just four seasons.
His first two seasons were big team competitions, where he helped the Good Guys win Inferno II and the rookies take home the grand prize on Gauntlet II. He was at the very least the second-best guy on his team on both of those seasons, with the Miz on Inferno II and Alton on Gauntlet II.
Defeating Karamo and Dan in Infernos isn’t anything to brag much about (although Dan was an underrated competitor), but he proved himself from the beginning of his career that he was one of the best competitors on the show.
Even with three wins under his belt, his most impressive season was the one he didn’t win — The Duel II.
In a cast of guys that included Mark, Evan and Brad, Landon completely dominated, winning five daily challenges, not to mention an elimination win over Isaac (never clip another man’s toenails, Landon).
Of course, Landon fell short of making the finals by losing the epic final elimination against Brad. Landon was thrown in by the other guys when he left the deliberation room to get a hat, and he chose to face Brad. In the Back Off elimination, Landon got flustered when Brad threw his hook, resulting in his only defeat.
He came back on Fresh Meat II and turned in another legendary performance. Saddled with Carley as his partner and being in a house that had Kenny and Laurel partnered together, he was never going to have much of a chance to dominate in dailies (although they did win twice and were the only other team besides Kenny/Laurel to win multiple missions).
But his dominance was truly on display in both the exiles and the final. They took out CJ/Sydney (although to be fair they’d still be trying to solve that puzzle today nearly a decade later, and CJ later claimed he threw the exile), but defeating Evelyn/Luke when Carley was nearly dead in the exile brought Landon’s status to another level.
And to top it off, he ended his career (at least to this date) with his most impressive feat, taking down the Goliath duo of Kenny and Laurel in the finals, literally putting his head between her butt cheeks and pushing her up the final mountain.
There’s no denying Landon’s greatness as a competitor, but he is out of my top three for a few reasons. First of all, his sample size is small. He has just four seasons, and two were big team challenges. He also wasn’t much of a politician.
He wouldn’t have gone for the final life shield on Inferno II even if Darrell hadn’t dug himself out first, he made the mistake of leaving the room on Duel II, and he was thrown under the bus by Wes and Evelyn on Fresh Meat II, causing him to be in no-man’s land the rest of the game.
Landon had a major aversion to playing the political game, and I think that could have hurt him tremendously if he had continued to do more seasons.
But Landon is one of those guys who really doesn’t need politics to succeed. He’s one of the greatest competitors of all-time, he just doesn’t have the longevity of the next three guys in these rankings.
Rankings
30. Turbo Çamkıran
