The Challenge USA: Can You Solve Tyson’s Sudoku Puzzle? We Did

On The Challenge USA, Tyson Apostol fans were shocked to see him go after he had such a commanding lead.

The Survivor four-time player and one-time winner dominated this season, even literally dragging dead-weight partners to wins during key challenges. Yet it was a very minor knowledge gap that led to his defeat on the MTV/Paramount competition show.

Tyson Apostol Taken Down by Improbably Opponent on The Challenge

Tyson Apostol conquered math challenges in the past on the CBS comp show. In the first five challenge games, he won three of them. And he managed to avoid the arena the entire time, despite many rivals hoping to topple Tyson.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Tyson said he even felt that production wasn’t always playing fair.

For instance, on the finale, he and Angela Rummons had their math right and production had it wrong. They made the repeat the run on the last episode of The Challenge USA (it wasn’t shown on the episode).

Tyson Apostol - CBS

He argued with them and his persistence paid off as they finally acknowledged the win but edited out the controversy before it aired on CBS.

Tyson Didn’t Like the Angela Disqualification Decision

Tyson Apostol also challenged another Angela issue in the finale where he thought they didn’t play fair.

He didn’t like that production assigned her to move 2/3 of a pile instead of one-half since she was without a partner.

Angela knew 100% that with such a disadvantage she would come in last no matter what she did. So, she made a strategic decision to come in last and take the 2 points that you get for coming in last and used the time to rest.

Tyson said that on other shows (Survivor, Amazing Race, etc.) production will warn you if your strategy violates rules.  But, then again, those shows have written rules.  According to Tyson, all the rules for The Challenge USA are in the producers heads and you can’t get any clarification. Many fans think the rules change as production sees fit to get rid of players they want gone.

Also, it should be pointed out that no one finished that challenge because production said it was going on for too long.

Even with all that, Tyson overcame obstacle after obstacle only to see a logic puzzle take him out of the game.

Can You Sudoku? Tyson Can’t

The finale of The Challenge USA required mental acuity as well as endurance in unfriendly and extreme terrain. In the chilling code, the players had to trek up the side of a hill.

Then, they faced their first puzzle, a Tetris-type puzzle to make a series of pieces fit together. Tyson Apostol easily vanquished this one while Sarah Lacina sat frustrated.

Production also told Tyson Apostol that Sarah was allowed to skip the second to last puzzle of The Challenge. They allowed her to quickly move past the puzzle she couldn’t complete and said they let her time out.

Did production come up with a new rule to let her time out. Many viewers saw that they never showed her finishing, but showed her shivering and frustrated.  A horn sound effect was added in, but they never showed the finished puzzle.

So, while it seems like Sarah was allowed to skip a puzzle, Tyson was not allowed to time out on his Sudoku puzzle.

When Tyson arrived at his Sudoku puzzle, this is what he had to solve. Could you solve it?

The Challenge USA - Tyson Apostol - Sudoku Puzzle Blank

Sudoku is one of those things that you either know how to play it or not. If you’ve never seen or solved one before, it’s likely impossible to get past the learning curve while exhausted and shivering.

That was what Tyson faced during the 10-mile gauntlet with only two hours of sleep after a grueling night of hard labor.

Tyson Freezing & Frustrated on The Challenge – Sudoku Sinks Him

The puzzle above has 32 revealed numbers to start with and 49 empty spaces to solve. If you don’t know how to play Sudoku, here’s a quick rundown. In each of the nine squares within the larger square, there should be the numbers 1-9.

And when you run across a row or down a column, the numbers 1-9 must all be there with no repetition. So, there are three elements to consider when filling in the blanks. These can be pretty difficult if you’re not a puzzle person.

The Challenge USA

Plus, you can see from above that they were in the freezing cold, in high altitudes, exhausted, and with bare hands putting the number squares onto the board. It’s less than ideal to think logically while under these conditions on The Challenge USA.

Tyson Got Less Than Half Right – Epic Fail on The Challenge

Given how Tyson Apostol dominated this reality series, you almost have to wonder if they asked him during pre-show prep what type of puzzles he’s bad at or doesn’t know. Because he was utterly lost, having never played Sudoku before.

Meanwhile, Danny McCray (Survivor) intentionally included Sudoku in his prep work for his season of Survivor. That certainly served him well. Did production know that too when choosing finale challenges?

In the end, Tyson had 23 numbers in the wrong spot on The Challenge USA finale. And he had two number tiles still in his hand. The two numbers he didn’t use were 9 and 6.

Sudoku solved – see below.

CBS The Challenge 2022 - Tyson Sudoku Puzzle Solved

Tyson did have 25 numbers out of 49 correct. So, he was at 50% (still failing). As he started, he was strong, putting all his 1’s in the right spot, but then his game fell apart.

It appears that he made sure all his top nine blocks added up and his top 6 rows added up as he played from top to bottom. But, he lost sight of the overall picture and made some major blunders.

Of course, Tyson was playing on only two hours of sleep after a grueling night of hard labor on The Challenge USA. Then he took a 6-mile run in the freezing snow. Anyone’s mind would be fried.

The staff at Soap Dirt recreated the Sudoku puzzle. And we had an editor who’s a casual puzzler solve it. It took her six minutes and she ranked the difficulty as “medium”. (But we didn’t make her run six miles first or lock her in a freezer while she did it).

What do you think of Tyson going out like this? Did you expect Tyson Apostol to win the show against his former Survivor rivals and all the other reality rabble?

Check out more reality show scoop here at Soap Dirt daily.