Wes McKinley

== Summary ==
Wes McKinley is a contestant from World Tour. He later appeared on Dynamic Duos alongside Maheen Chowdhury and was the prime antagonist of All Stars 2.
== Gameplay ==
=== World Tour ===
Wes started off on the Fans Tribe and worked well with the other members. Facing the first tribal, he formed a quartet alliance with Anthony, Allyson, and Shea. His alliance targeted Joey, and he was successfully voted out. Wes received two votes against him, seemingly out of nowhere, but he just brushed it off. After winning the second immunity challenge, he swapped onto Nakamura. The Nakamura Tribe dominated immunity challenges, not having to attend tribal until it was mandatory. On Day 6, Wes became part of a majority alliance alongside former ally Allyson, Corri, and Maheen. Together, they voted out Kenzie with majority rule.
Wes merged onto the Expedia Tribe the next day and purchased an Advantage View in the auction for $500. After Kat won the first immunity challenge, he and his allies stuck together and decided to finally take out Colin. However, Anthony revealed his true alignment and played his legacy advantage on Colin. As a result, five votes were nullified, and Allyson was sent home instead. After Colin won the following challenge, Shannon became the backup target. Wes was originally going to turn on Corri to better his chances in the game, however, he used his Advantage View, seeing that Corri had an extra vote. As a result, he and Maheen stuck to the original plan and a 5-5 tie occurred. In order to avoid rocks and build trust, they flipped on the revote, and Corri went home. From here, Wes decided to align with Colin, Kat, Shannon, and Anthony. Kat went on to win the next immunity challenge, but when the aforementioned group brought up Maheen, he shut the idea down to protect his number one ally. Instead, he suggested Delaney. Michaela cast a vote for Delaney to distract while the other members decided to stick to their initial plan and vote off Maheen, as they still were unsure if Wes was trustworthy. Despite this, Wes still had faith in this alliance. At the next tribal, he suggested that Michaela should go home as she was a bigger threat than Delaney and not part of the alliance. However, everyone was secretly aligned with Michaela, and as a result, this pitch sent him home in a 5-1-1 vote. He later voted for Shannon to win. It was also revealed at the end of the season that Anthony and Joey were the two that voted against him on Day 2.
=== Second Chance ===
On Second Chance, Wes was placed on the Amaral Tribe by random draw. Despite being separated from most his former allies from his debut season, he still had Allyson and he liked his tribe overall. He and Allyson formed a duo. The Amaral Tribe absolutely flourished in every single challenge. Wes had strong challenge contributions, most notably recognizing Pheromosa as a bonus character in Everybody Is Here. Their tribe dominated every challenge except for 21 Flags, which was the tribe's first and only loss of the season. Wes targeted Simon due to his low profile, but he was ultimately sent home in a 4-2 vote due to the rest of Amaral being united as allies. Ironically, he pulled a "Simon Moment" by accidentally sending his parchment to the tribe chat, which most likely resulted in him being targeted over Allyson. Wes lost to Corri by default on Redemption Island, which left him in twelfth place overall.
=== Dynamic Duos ===
Wes came back on Dynamic Duos alongside Maheen as his duo, being one of two returnee/returnee duos. Put on the Blue Biohazard Bugatti Tribe, he did the best with what he had, essentially on a tribe of complete strangers. During the season, Wes maintained average challenge performances, but The Pussies were also good, winning more challenges. Facing the first tribal, Wes created the Good Vibes Only alliance with the top players on his tribe. The alliance put Wes in a great position for the following tribals, allowing the easy eliminations of Lily and Erin, the latter of which was unanimous. During Music Mania, Wes had poor performance, finishing with the lowest rating in the entire cast. It raised some red flags with many Bugattis calling it "lazy," but fortunately his tribe won the challenge. Celebrity Recognition took place next, where he performed well and had a lot of fun during the challenge and trolling the cast alongside Ailish. (Read more on Chaos & Cum). The Bugattis lost the challenge. One of the members of Good Vibes Only, Meg Hailer, organized a blindside against Wes to overthrow him and take over the alliance. Their plan was successful as Wes became the fourth person voted off in a 6-1 vote. Despite the short-lived time, he became extremely iconic this season, mainly due to the meme-ing by the Bugattis throughout the season and glorification from Ailish O'Hara. He even was invited back to the Pusgatti Tribal Council Chat toward the end of the season to talk for a short bit as Ailish suggested it.
=== All Stars 2 ===
==== Villain Origin Story ====
After a rough showing in his past two seasons, Wes returned to All Stars 2, surprising many participants during the cast reveal. Despite not being known for his gameplay, he was brought back due to his incredible social standing after the season prior and glorification among the cast. This time around, he was prepared to enter his villain arc and totally screw around as much as possible. He was placed on the Hollywood Tribe, and quickly bonded and created an alliance with his biggest fan, Ailish. Soon, he was picked to be a part of The Hollywood Dream, which would serve to be the dominant alliance on the Hollywood Tribe. Wes had an average performance in challenges, but ultimately shined in the game's social factor. Every time he engaged with the main chat, it comedically erupted. Ayla Aponte and Lady Madonna McCarthy even claimed he had the biggest redemption in every aspect in their first diary of All Stars 2: The Complete Confessions. The Hollywood Tribe was only sentenced to tribal council twice. The first time, it was an easy decision as the tribe decided to boot Llewellyn. The second time, it was a joint tribal council with the Malibu Tribe. The other tribe as a whole decided to pool their votes together and target Wes for having a history of being an easy vote. Fortunately, fast thinking by his ally Ayesha Murphy came to his aid, and he was saved by a hidden immunity idol. She used her intuition to get Michaela out that night. Hollywood had good challenge reputation, and Wes helped a lot, as he essentially led his tribe to Craig Tucker and the first-place spot in Unlimited Questions! During Supersona, Meg Hailer returned as a special guest, which only made playful bickering more comedic between Wes and the rest of the cast, as they in particular LOVED to pick on him.
Two weeks into the season, a tribe swap occurred, and Wes remained on the Hollywood Tribe, but with a much different group than before. Either way, there was no reason to worry as the tribe won every single challenge thrown at them. His duo with Ailish still remained strong while Wes himself remained a hot topic among strategic alliance chats and fun social chats. The unfortunate side was that he did not have that many firm alliances, and he remained as an easy vote if it came down to it. Things turned very complicated once he made it to the merge / onto the Angeles Tribe.
==== Ultimate Redemption ====
Wes had no group alliances, only connections, which put him in a very risky position. At the first tribal council, he cast the one and only vote for Ayla. He received two votes against him, but a rebellion against Colin ended up being the majority, and he went home with six votes. Still, Wes knew he had to step it up if he wanted to live, and luckily the auction was next on Day 17. Wes won the first mystery item with a bid of $260, and it ended up being the Gamble Ticket, an infamous advantage with a history of changing the game. He played for a Super Idol and was met with rough conditions. He had to stay up to send a message at 2am, which he was upset over due to literally having a field trip the very next day. This was not even the worst of it, as he had to send not only a movie review but the entire Gettysburg Address in the main chat. These texts ended up crashing Emilee Dunham's session of Clash Royale while on trophy road, and she was PISSED. She vented over it in one of the highlights of the entire video diary compilation. At the end of the day, Wes' efforts were successful as he received the Super Idol, guaranteeing himself safety if he needed it. Moving on to the next day, things started to go his way as Ailish recruited him in a move to blindside Lady. This ended up being a success, and afterwards he became an official part of Karma, which would last to the end of the game. Ailish was unfortunately lost in Day 19's messy tribal council, but the alliance prevailed. Wes was so safe strategically that he did not even have to use his Super Idol at all! It was definitely a highlight when he clowned on Stella after she got voted out, despite it being since Josh gaslighted him into believing that she was after him. On Day 22, he had his first ever individual win by scoring close-to-perfect in Touchy Subjects! He received 3 free points for the next immunity challenge as well as a $5.00 USD cash tip. The only roadblock occurred when Ayla won Color Your World, and Karma was forced to turn on one another. Voting alongside Kat, he attempted to separate the power duo of Josh and Emilee and take the former out. Ayla joined up and his move was successful. Wes literally was responsible for taking out the kingpin of the season! He survived the final tribal council as Ayla was the obvious choice, and ended up making it to the finale, much to the disbelief of the entire cast. It was one of the greatest moments in Gauntlet history as he proved the entire cast wrong about their predictions. He received one vote to win by his Day 1 ally Ailish, tying for runner-up alongside Kat Mini. It was his main goal to beat his placement in World Tour, so this season was not only a personal win, but also established him as an amazing social icon in the series.
== Personality Assessment ==
==== Dynamic Duos ====
* Favorite Color: Orange
* Favorite Day: Friday
==== All Stars 2 ====
* Favorite Beverage: Soda
* Favorite Show: TPOT
== Trivia ==
* Wes was referred to the game by Maheen in 2022.
* He was eliminated in Thailand (World Tour).
* He has no statistics for Personality Assessment in World Tour due to a technical error.
* He was the first person to ever play an Advantage View!
* He was the first person to never use a Super Idol.
* Wes was incredibly close to receiving the Villain Award in All Stars 2.
* With the joke being hating him, he ended up being loved by many castmates and alumni.
** He scored 5th in the AS2 Fan Favorite poll.
* Very talented in animation and video editing.
* Owner of the YouTube channel GelatinWarrior and 10/10 show BAOS! It's worth checking out.
Category:Runners-up
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