MTV.com - On-Air - The Gauntlet Fantasy Challenge

Photos of Motherearth29's Big Win! Last Year, motherearth29 beat out thousands of other team-owners to land herself the grand prize! We asked her to share some of her smart game tactics so you can do the same this year. Here's what she has to say: motherearth29: I was in total shock when MTV, Ruthie and Mark came to my house one morning with a brand-new Saturn ION^TM...for me! When I think about it, I am still in shock. It is very surreal and crazy to believe that all these fun things could happen in one day! Meeting Ruthie and Mark was awesome...they were both so nice! I am glad my son Noah got to part of the experience too, he really enjoyed the whole day and loved seeing himself on TV. Another great thing that came out of this experience was getting phone calls from people I hadn't talked to in years. Everyone was so excited I won the car. I have connected with a lot of friends from college that I lost contact with. Now for the best part...I got a car, a brand new Saturn ION quad coupe. I never--in my life--thought I would own a brand new car. When I got it, it only had .5 miles on it. Unbelievable! It is awesome. Getting a car was so great because I have to drive a lot for my job, so I am definitely putting it to good use! Plus, I got to get rid of a car payment that was killing me financially each month. I am so lucky!! Check out my tips below and you might be so lucky too.

Tip #1: Don't feel like you're at a disadvantage if you haven't played the Fantasy Challenge before...you have just as good of a chance as those who played the game the first two times. I hadn't played the Fantasy Challenge before and I won the whole thing on my first try!

Tip #2: Sign up for the Fantasy Challenge as soon as you can! You need as many points as you can get right away. If you haven't watched every season of Real World and Road Rules and don't know the cast members very well, try to find out as much information as you can about them. I spent a lot of time looking on the Messages Boards for any gossip about the show. Just make sure that when you're reading through all those messages, you can decipher which information is credible and which isn't.

Tip #3: At the beginning of the game, choose cast members that you think will get "drama" points and stay in the game a long time. If you have a lot of people on your Fantasy Team who get voted off early, you'll use up a lot of your trades...which you'll need for later in the game.

Tip #4: Save some trades. Make sure you save a couple trades for the end of the season because you never know what might happen. For example, I had one trade left for the very last week of the game and that's what gave me the advantage over the person in 2nd place.

Tip #5: Play every week and don't give up! There were times when I actually thought about giving up--no kidding--because I thought there was no way I was going to win and it was really time consuming. (Well, for me it was because I analyzed every scenario trying to figure out who to start each week and who to trade for.) I'm really glad I stuck it out.

Bonus Tip: Watch the Preview Special. The best thing I did before I chose the cast members for my team was watching the preview special to see if there was anything in there that would help me...and there definitely was!