Ryan Matthew

**Money Won:** | $230,000

**Ryan Matthew**, also known as the **King of Antarctica**, was a male contestant that competed on ***The Royalty Challenge***. He first appeared on the fifth season, The Royalty Challenge: Cold Zone, where he finished as the winner alongside Zaire Langill.

In **Cold Zone**, Ryan entered the game with close friend Danielle George; but he was left out of the alliances that she was getting pulled into. After winning his first daily challenge in Round 2, Ryan went against the majority by not voting for Mariah Neveraz; instead voting for Sylvia Riah. After being saved by Danielle during the chain in Round 1 over her alliance Ice Ring, Ryan/Danielle decided to not keep their friendship a secret when being questioned by Devin Tauruan; believing that there were multiple other obvious duos in the game. With Sylvia in elimination, Ryan was rooting for Mariah/Jamie Fitzgerald but was disappointed when they both got sent home in the double. Getting closer to Zaire Langill, Ryan created the Tres Tontos alliance between them and Danielle after consistently finding themselves around the bottom of the chain. Secretly wanting Evan Jewell out because he believes he would get closer to Drew Stephenson/Zaire, Ryan/Danielle were left feeling frustrated when Zaire picked Drew over them on the chain as it resulted in them being one short of being unpicked. With Drew/Evan out of the game, Ryan/Danielle got close to the Devin/James X duo after spending time together on voice calls. Making an official alliance called Mystery Inc, Ryan/Danielle saved each other and Kay Opondo over Zaire on the chain; leading to her pulling the reverse block that left Danielle unpicked and subsequently getting her eliminated from the game when she lost to Izel Bitcherzina. However, Ryan didn't blame Zaire too much and felt his side of the house pushed her towards the minority. After Sierra Castillo called-out a majority alliance, Ryan expressed his annoyance as he felt they were deflecting their bottom status onto the rest of the house.

During an intense battle for power during the Round 7 daily challenge, Ryan found himself on a team with Donald G, James and Zaire who were against the younger group of Izel/Sierra/Sylvia. Avoiding the growing conflict between the two sides, Ryan rooted for Zaire to go for the win rather than her throwing the challenge to her new alliance. Winning the daily, Ryan joined the majority of his team by throwing Sierra into elimination. He also joined Caoimhe Mulcahy's alliance Kid Killers; with the aim of taking down the younger group. With Devin being eliminated from the game, Ryan was worried about his positioning amongst the other players on his side; but wanted to stick with James and re-build with Zaire. With Izel/Sylvia winning the following daily, they took at shot at Ryan and sent him into his first elimination. With Fergus Crowe sending in Donald against him from his block pull, Ryan's physical performance defeated Donald and gained him his first elimination win. Choosing to be on a team with James, the duo and the rest of their team managed to win the Round 9 daily challenge; with Ryan taking revenge against Izel and sending him into elimination. He also formed the Canuk alliance with James/Kay. Once again winning another daily with James/Zaire, they took the shot at Fergus who had grown as a physical threat. Being left unpicked on the chain in Round 11, Ryan pulled the majority block and was left happy when the majority voted in Caoimhe against Remi as they were the quietest players. Winning the final daily challenge of the season, Ryan joined his team in sending in Dorian Washington; who was annoyed at his decision. Believing James' move to send himself in against Dorian was dumb, Ryan was glad to see him survive and make the finale. During the finale, Ryan was paired with Zaire and with their strong performance as a team they outperformed to become the second pair winners of The Royalty Challenge.

## **Trivia**

* Ryan is tied for the most daily wins in **Cold Zone** with 5.
* Ryan, along with Zaire, were the last rookie winners of Phase 1 of ***The Royalty Universe***.
	+ They also kept up the tradition of rookies winning.