"Rules are rules"— The Challenge 40 star Nurys Mateo criticizes production for "cheating" during Horacio's elimination

The Challenge: Battle of the Eras, also known as season 40, aired episode 4 on Wednesday, September 4, 2024. The segment marked the end of Horacio Gutierrez Jr. and Aneesa Ferreira's journey from the milestone season.

Soon after the episode aired, Horacio's girlfriend, Nurys Mateo, who was eliminated in episode 2, took to social media to discuss the elimination challenge. In a series of posts on X, Nurys alleged foul play by production and said that they helped Horacio's opponent, Derrick, win. She said that as part of Pick it Up's rules, the contestants had to pick up their pegs if they fell off the block.

"You can also ask Aneesa AND Jenny what the rules were. They were in charge of picking up their own pegs, not some off camera ref. Also why can the off camera ref pick up derricks but not Horacio’s?! It’s still cheating. Rules are rules," she wrote.

While Nurys expressed anger towards the MTV show's production crew, she clarified that she had nothing against Derrick. She said she loved him and that there was "no hate to Derrick."

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Nurys Mateo criticizes The Challenge's production team on social media

After the latest episode of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras aired on September 4, 2024, Nurys Mateo commented on the latest elimination task online. The task saw Derrick send Horacio packing but Nurys alleged foul play. In her first post on X, she teased drama and said she "might go live" and keep it "100" with facts.

In a following tweet, she shared some behind-the-scenes details with The Challenge 40 fans. She claimed that although it didn't make it to the final edit, production helped Derrick pick up his fallen pegs, even though it was against the rules. She added that a "minimum of 8 different people" who were present for the task confirmed it.

"AND THE RULES WERE YOU NEED TO HAVE ALL PEGS IN BEFORE CALLING CHECK," she added.

The Challenge season 40 star further criticized the production for "the f*cking lies" and said she was "livid." Nurys Mateo clarified that there was "no hate" for Horacio's opponent. She explained that the MTV show didn't want more Era 1 contestants to be eliminated. Pointing to the end of the elimination task, she said Derrick was "clearly" missing a peg.

She added that she decided against going live on social media because she was "fuming". Nurys was upset to "see and know" what happened. While a majority of fans agreed with the elimination season 40 cast member, some pointed out that Derrick's peg was still on the wall. They said that the crew was "re-placing pegs" that fell out of their socket but were still on the board.

Responding to fans, Nurys questioned why they would help Derrick and not Horacio and called it cheating. She added that the contestants were "in charge" of picking the pegs up and it didn't make sense.

While addressing fans' comments, she said that those who were trying to explain the rules to her sounded "d*mb." Nusy stated they didn't know what the "real rules" were because they didn't make it to the final cut.

"Some of yall telling me what the “rules” are sound d*mb. You guys don’t know that production tells us the REAL rules, the dos and don'ts, off camera. What is told to players isn’t told to the public," she said.

Episodes 1-4 of The Challenge season 40 are available to stream on Paramount+. New episodes air weekly on Wednesdays at 8 pm ET on MTV.