A few days ago I posted an interview with Rachel Quirico, AKA Seltzer, who is a contestant in this seasons WCG Ultimate Gamer. What I haven’t been posting are the episode reviews, so here I am! If you’re unfamiliar with the show, let me try to summarize it for you: gamers across the United States and Canada are selected and then put into a house for weeks where they have no contact with the outside world, and duke it out to become the best. Now, on to the review!
Prior to the show even starting, fans were given the opportunity to vote for the 12th contestant. I can’t even tell you how glad I am that Jake was the one who made it through, and it’s not because I know the kid, because I don’t. It’s because I knew one of the girls, still don’t care for her after all these years, and that’s all I’m really going to say about that.
Anyways, this season started like the previous one, everybody meeting up on the roof to see who they will be competing against. One by one the contestants walked out and were greeted by hosts Hannah and Joel. Once all 12 were introduced, everybody went back to the loft and the following day they participated in the first real-life challenge.
The game for this episode was Tekken 6, so the real-life challenge required the gamers, who were split up into two teams, to be hoisted into the air and perform some wire work. Actress Kelly Hu, known for her roles in The Scorpion King and X2, was there to give the teams a pep talk, and to choose the top overall gamer for the bout. The contestants had one team member in the air, wearing a suit that I assume was made of velcro, and it was covered in multiple balls of various colors. Each color represented a particular amount of points, and the object was that the members below would control the player in the air, with one below holding a bag to catch the balls. The two in the suits would go after each other, trying to grab balls off their opponent, while trying to keep distance so their balls stayed intact.
Yaz was singled out by Kelly Hu as the best overall player, since he was the only one to get one of the high point balls, and Team Purple was victorious, having the most points overall. Team Green, understandably disappointed, knew that they really needed to give it their all in the Isolation portion that was coming up.
Having Justin Wong, who is known for his ridiculous fighting skills, in the house certainly had some worried as the first challenge required the gamers to play Tekken 6. Kat, who had an interesting talk with Vanessa earlier in the episode, was considered to be a huge threat by the other members as she was showing some serious skills during the practice sessions. After the players went into the Isolation chamber one by one, it was announced that, because of his low scores and placement, Mike would be up for Elimination, and that Yaz would be the one deciding who he would be up against.
Now, here is where things begin to already get a little interesting and shady: Yaz and Vanessa are friends. Vanessa and Kat do not get along at all. Kat is considered by a threat to everybody else in the house. The guys, and especially Vanessa feel that Kat should go into it right now so she can be gotten rid of as quickly as possible. See what’s beginning to happen here? Yaz, claiming that his decision is purely strategic, put Kat up for elimination hoping that she wouldn’t be returning.
This lit a fire under Kat’s ass, and she was determined more than ever to own Mike in elimination. Fearing her potential wrath, other members of the house were already telling Mike that they needed him to win, and were helping him out as much as possible. When it was time for Kat and Mike to head off to Samsung Stadium for the big showdown, Mike was, again, told how he needed to seal the deal and send Kat packing for good. Kat and Mike got down to business, and at first, it seemed as if Mike would be the one coming back victorious, but that is not what transpired. Knowing that she had to come up clutch, Kat unleashed a furious assault and Mike ended up getting the boot from the competition.
With Kat on her way back to the loft, and slightly (well, probably more than slightly) miffed, you can bet that the other gamers will be shocked when the door swings open and they see who it is!
WCG Ultimate Gamer airs every Thursday night at 11 on SyFy.
Be sure to check back as we will be having more interviews with the cast of WCG Ultimate Gamer season 2, and for our episode reviews!
