On last night’s episode of WCG Ultimate Gamer 2, the Alliance/Pentagon – the partnership of the top five male players in the house – broke. Yaz Ammari shocked all the players by putting Ryan Burnett against Caesar Noriega. While the two are top Xbox gamers (Noriega was a top 8 finalist in Gears of War), both were shocked when the challenge this week was competing against each other in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on PC.
The real life challenge had two teams of four scrambling to solve puzzles in order to get pieces to create a satellite. While one team solved challenges, the other team distracted them by shooting paintballs at them. Noriegas’s team – which also included Faye Mata, Rachel Quirico and Burnett – lost, but he claims this favorite moment got cut. The base at the last challenge was wide open. Noriega said asked for everyone else’s paintballs and let loose. “I basically had a Scarface moment: Say hello to my little friend,” he said laughing.
“None of them on the other team had any paintballs left,” he said. “I asked Rachel and Faye to give me their paint, so I had a full hopper worth of paint….I had a lot of fun on defense.”
He wasn’t laughing when Ammari chose him to go against last place Burnett for the elimination challenge. In the isolation challenge, the players faced off each other in two groups of four. Ammari, Quirico, Mata and Kat Gunn had the clear advantage since they were all PC players, and Ammari and Gunn lead their team to victory. Because of their loss in the real life challenge, Burnett and Noriega came in last and second to last, respectively. The two friends were forced to face off, and neither one was happy about it. Still, it wasn’t enough to sacrifice friendship for $100,000.
Though it made sense to pick the two last place people, the rest of the players were still shocked. Ammari had turned against the guys, saying he didn’t come to the show to become friends. Noriega retorted that although Ammari might win the $100,000, if his word wasn’t true it wasn’t worth anything.
“(Ammari) just drops the bomb on it,” Caesar said. “He basically tells me that he chose me. He knows I’m not a strong PC player. But, he was watching me play, and he knew I adapted quick to the game so I think he knew I had a chance.”
The elimination challenge was a 2 v 2 competition, so the players were asked to pick partners. Burnett picked Gunn, who came in second in the isolation challenge. Noriega was unsure who to pick. Ammari was the clear isolation challenge winner; at the same time, he just turned Noriega by choosing him for elimination. Noriega admitted he wavered but he’s an overall positive thinker, and since Ammari promised him that he would perform on his top game, Noriega chose him to be his partner.
“Hannah said that could have been the smartest or the dumbest decision you have made in your life,” Noriega added. “I picked the person who destroyed the Pentagon. I picked the person who threw me in.”
Noriega was lucky because Ammari did perform like a champ in the elimination challenge. But, Noriega held his own. He got the final shot, ensuring that he would live one more day in the competition. Looking back, he has no hard feelings, but he still wishes that Ammari wouldn’t have forced him to take out one of his best friends in the competition.
“The only thing I would change is if Yaz didn’t pick me and would have picked someone else,” he said. “I didn’t want Ryan to go home. He was good positive energy in the house.”