The Challenge’s Elimination Between Horacio and Derrick Sparks Debate: 'Wasn’t as Neck & Neck as the Edit Made It'

The Challenge’s Horacio Gutierrez Jr. and Derrick Kosinski are debating who actually won the arena battle on the most recent episode of Battle of the Eras.

Controversy over whether Derrick had a full board of pegs in the game of “Pick It Up” — where two players race to collect 40 pegs onto a board between throwing balls into a chute — stirred on social media after the elimination aired on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Fans and Challengers alike studied the footage that aired and questioned why Derrick’s board didn’t look full when the horn sounded if he truly was the winner.

“ALL MY PEGS were 'on the board' about :90 seconds prior to Horacio finishing,” Derrick wrote on X in response to Horacio's girlfriend, Challenger Nurys Mateo, who was eliminated earlier in the season. “Editing really did a # on this. It wasn’t as neck & neck as the edit made it.”

Derrick continued: “I heard his ball got stuck for 10-15 sec (after) & I believe I slowed down to the commotion, having no clue what the commotion was. What was I supposed to do?? Completely stop?”

Horacio spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the ruling, maintaining that he did win, calling it “the truth.”

“Everybody has their version of the story, but my truth is not just my truth, but also [what] everyone else on stage saw, which is that there were things that happened that were definitely not [in the episode],” he said. “At one point, my ball got stuck while it was going down the platform, so while I'm picking up these pegs, TJ [Lavin, the host] is trying to blow the horn — and TJ's horn never frickin' works, which I hated this season. So he's telling me to stop, Kyland is telling me to stop, and I stopped for a solid five to 10 seconds, which in that type of game, was extremely crucial.”

“Meanwhile Derrick is still running,” he added. “They don't show that.”

Explaining that the pegs on the board were unstable, Horacio also said producers would help put falling pegs back on — but only for Derrick.

“Nobody came in to help me when my pegs would fall, I would have to take my time and put them back in,” he revealed.

Watching it back, Horacio said he realized “I wasn’t wrong” after he said he saw an empty peg at the “top right corner” of Derrick’s board.

“I wasn't speculating,” Horacio said. “I called for a check and at one point, TJ actually blowed the horn and says, ‘Horacio wins.’”

Horacio claimed everyone congratulated him for winning and he thought the game was over, but suddenly, things changed.

“I walk over to Derrick and I give him a handshake and I say, ‘Heck of a battle, man,’” he began. “And he's still missing one. And then he fixes them there, he puts the final peg in — this is when it's all over — and I tell him, ‘Do you mind throwing a basket on my platform? I want to throw one on yours.’ I just wanted to see if there was a difference in how fast they would drop. We did that, and as soon as we do that, that's when [judges] were like, ‘Don't touch anything, we have to check.’”

An hour later, Horacio said they came back out and announced that Derrick had won.

"The rules for us were first person to get all 40 pegs in first and call for a check wins," Horacio said. "He might've maybe put all 40, I'll give him that. Hat off to you. But at the end of the day, you never called for a check.”

Clearly upset with the way the edit portrayed her boyfriend's game, Nurys shared her thoughts on X: "THE F--KING LIES FROM PRODUCTION!! I’m f--king lividdddddd. This is no hate to Derrick because I love him but production just didn’t want anymore era 1 people to go home which is why they lied and said he got it first! You CLEARLY see he’s missing a peg… #TheChallenge40"

Fans also took to social media to debate the winner, with one writing, “Derrick already had that peg in! The rules were to put it in and it fell out cause the board was flimsy. Doesn’t change that he already had it. Derrick won fair and square.”

This prompted Era 1 contestant Rachel Robinson to come to her costar’s defense, commenting on the post: “Exactly! They had to fix Aneesa’s multiple times too - not cause she did anything the wall wasn’t keeping them in place. What’s so hard to get, @DerrickMTV won this without any question. I saw it myself.”

Era 2’s Emily Schromm also stood by Horacio's defeat.

“Just an fyi TJ said rules were “first to put all pegs on the wall”. Not “in the hole”. ON THE WALL,” she wrote on X. “See photo of peg on wall. @DerrickMTV won. It was insanely close but don’t let anyone on Era 3 try to con youzzz.”

Meanwhile, Jordan Wiseley and Devin Walker have stood by Horacio's view on the chain of events, and competitor Theo Campbell teased this won't be the last questionable finish of the season. "If you think Derricks and Horacios elimination is controversial… boooi. There’s more of that to come that’s fact," he wrote on X.

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The Challenge: Battle of the Eras airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.