Netflix’s ‘Battle Camp’ Is a Crushing Wake-Up Call for Gio and Polly

In Netflix’s Battle Camp, alliances don’t guarantee survival, and your reality TV past won’t save you from the Wheel. The beautiful thing about Battle Camp is the opportunity to pit your favorite stars across the Netflix Reality Universe for the chance to earn ultimate bragging rights. Battle Camp is pure, adrenaline-fueled competition, but seeing your favorite team-ups isn’t always pretty. This game tests them in ways unimaginable.

Battle Camp welcomed former Squid Game: The Challenge foes Lorenzo Nobilio and Trey Plutnicki, and Selling the OC besties Gio Helou and Polly Brindle. The players shared with Collider about the pros and cons of entering this game with a past and how it may or may not have worked to their advantage. Spoiler alert: it’s all an even playing field.

Even Having Squashed the Beef, Trey and Lorenzo Were Still Opponents on ‘Battle Camp’

Squid Game: The Challenge breakout stars, Trey and Lorenzo, came with beef, and their reunion was a warning shot. “If he’s there, my goal is to take him down because he would want to take me down.” But here’s the brutal truth: none of that truly mattered. Despite their complicated history, the two didn’t clash the way fans might’ve expected as Battle Camp forced them to focus less on drama and more on surviving the game. “We are very strong-willed, some might say, ‘thick-skulled’ people,” Trey said, “but what we brought to the show didn’t really play into how the game played out.”

Originally a fan favorite for being a solid gamer, Trey became a perceived villain. The game forced everyone, even Lorenzo, to target Trey. Lorenzo played a safe and sound game, opting to instead align with his teammate, Georgia Hassarati. While there was always chaos surrounding him, his ability to be insulated through his new alliances helped him reach the very end and win. The dastardly persona from Squid Game: The Challenge was swapped for something affable and confident. “Being yourself is the best strategy because, ultimately, if you pretend, you can’t keep that up,” he said.

With drastically different playing styles, Lorenzo and Trey simply could not align. “I played the entire way as if it was a solo game, which was a terrible idea,” Trey admitted. “I think playing it as a team game up until a certain point is what you have to do,” Lorenzo countered, “I definitely feel it’s important to have strong connections in camp.” Of course, the biggest difference for Trey on Battle Camp was coming into the game as a solo agent without his mom. “I walked through my entire first reality experience with her, so to not have here, I finally got what people were getting at when they say they miss people from home,” he admitted. Even Lorenzo missed Trey’s mom!

Gio and Polly Owned Their Friendship but Got Owned

Unlike Trey and Lorenzo, Gio wanted Polly there when she was brought in as Lexi Goldberg‘s replacement. “At that point, I didn’t really care. I was just on cloud nine to see a familiar face. And not only a familiar one, but someone who I’m genuinely friends with, and I care about,” he said, not caring about how it could harm his game. “Ultimately, it worked out beautifully from a strategic point of view, having an ally there that I knew I could wholeheartedly trust, even if she wasn’t on my team,” said Gio.

Polly didn’t know what to think coming in. “I knew it was going to be a really difficult entrance to really make my place in camp known,” Polly revealed. Polly admitted they needed to bond fast with eliminations looming, but she and Gio prioritized their friendship first. The brutal truth? No matter how much they wanted each other, the game had other plans, and Gio was eliminated soon after.

The irony is that, as two sets of the same show pairs, it was actually Trey and Lorenzo who lasted longer than Polly and Gio. In the end, Battle Camp may be a celebration of the NRU, but the game’s elements and mechanics do not provide a conducive environment for outside alliances to thrive. Should Battle Camp return for another round of fun, future campers should be aware that just because you think you can beat fate, the Wheel will determine if your fellow alum sticks around.

Battle Camp is available to stream on Netflix.