"The Challenge: Rivals 2" Trailer Video: It's Going to Get Real Ugly

Culture

"Now I want you guys to picture a very large sum of money ... money so big, it could change your life forever. The only way to get that money is by putting all your trust in one person. What if that one person was your worst enemy?"

With a two-minute sneak peek, MTV announces that the next season of The Real World/Road Rules Challenge will continue to push the limits of its cast, physically and emotionally.

It's all a far cry from the late 90s, when The Challenge used to be a friendly competition, with tones of a dysfunctional and alcoholic family reunion, that just took up the space between Real World seasons. The cast was grouped together by gender or random chance and asked to do things like hang from a bar for a really long time or eat a lot of ice cream.

The past few years, however, the show has gone out of its way to set up ugly situations: ""Battle of the Seasons" cherry-picked the biggest personalities from each show while "Battle of the Exes" paired up one-night stands alongside former lovers that hadn't talked to each other in years. And the escalating drama is almost overshadowed by the wild evolution of the physical challenges. It used to be you just had to hike a mountain faster than your opponent to claim your prize; now, expect to spend at least two days crossing a desert or assembling giant wooden puzzles on a frozen tundra.

"Rivals 2" looks like it'll pick up right where "Battle of the Seasons" left off. Its format is the same as 2011's Challenge, "Rivals", with teams made up of anyone that's gotten into a scuffle of any kind. The teams range from Wes and CT, who exchanged death threats over the course of a nine hour argument on the first Rival season, to Frank and Johnny, who like to insult each other on Twitter, and Real World: Portland cast members Jessica and Anastasia, who disagreed over taking a vow of abstinence (visit MTV's Remote Control blog for a complete cast list).

Check out the trailer and tune into the new season when it begins on July 10. If you can't wait, the next episode of The Real World airs Wednesday, although it'll seem very quaint to see the roommates discuss whether or not Nia is too dangerous to stay in the house when you see what the Challenge cast has in store.