Cheer’s Gabi Butler Talks Battle Camp Elimination, If Tony Pursued Her (Exclusive)

Warning: this story contains spoilers from season 1 of Netflix’s Battle Camp.

• Cheer star Gabi Butler was one of the frontrunners on Netflix’s new competition reality series, Battle Camp
• In a shocking turn of events, Gabi was eliminated from the competition in episode 4 after the wheel landed on her name, despite it being up there only once
• Gabi now opens up to PEOPLE about her time on the show, her flirtatious friendship with fellow costar Tony Castellanos and how her days at Navarro Cheer helped prepare her for the competition

Gabi Butler has no regrets about her time on Battle Camp.

The Cheer star was one of the frontrunners on Netflix’s new reality competition series, but sadly saw her time on the show come to an unexpected end in episode 4 when the wheel landed on her name, despite it only being up there once.

“I think everybody was shocked,” Gabi tells PEOPLE of the fateful spin. “It’s weird though, because I had this very weird intuition that somehow it was going to land on me. I don’t know how, I just had this weird feeling.”

Prior to the elimination ceremony, Gabi’s team, the Wolves, had lost the daily group challenge. This landed her, as well as Bri Balram (Too Hot to Handle), Louis Russell (Too Hot to Handle) and Trey Plutnicki (Squid Game: The Challenge), on the wheel. Gabi was then selected as one of three people to compete in the punishment, but she ended up winning the challenge, effectively keeping her name from being added any further. Finally, when it came time to the camp vote, Gabi received none from her fellow costars — but still, things didn’t work in her favor.

“Looking back on it, I think the way that I went out was on a win off of a punishment,” she says. “I was upset. I am not going to lie. I was a little bit bummed — well, a lot bummed. I was like, ‘Dang, I really thought I could go way longer.’ I expected to go way longer. But obviously the spin was just a really, really unlucky spin.”

Despite that, Gabi felt proud about the way she went out. “I did everything that I could have done — well, in my control, I did everything I could have done,” she says. “I had an amazing team. I met a lot of amazing people within the time that I was there. It was just no better way to go out. I won a punishment. I didn’t have votes. So I’m like, if there was a way, then I’m okay with that.”

In addition to dominating the challenges, Gabi also developed a bit of a flirtatious relationship with costar Tony Castellanos (The Mole). Gabi was upfront on the show about her intentions with Tony, noting that she had a boyfriend at the time but would flirt with him if it meant keeping him from voting against her. (She even voted for him on the night she was eliminated.)

But after the wheel landed on Gabi and sent her home, Tony was devastated and broke down in tears. He continued sobbing even after Gabi had left, distraught about how things played out.

When asked if things ever panned out with Tony, Gabi tells PEOPLE his words didn’t quite match his actions and they never explored things further.

“In regards to my situation with Tony, I was in a relationship on the show and I let him know, ‘Hey, I have a boyfriend,’ numerous times. The man didn’t care. He was like, ‘I’ma shoot my shot regardless.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t see a ring on your finger. I’ll marry you tomorrow,’ ” she explains. “I’m like, ‘No, this guy is just love bombing me.’ ”

However, four months ago, Gabi split from her then-boyfriend. “This is what’s confusing about Tony,” she says. “He’s like, ‘Oh, the second that you’re single, I’m coming after you, 100%.’ This man unfollows me a few months ago. I’m like, [what] the heck? Then he just followed me back a few days ago and I’m like, ‘Tony, what’s going on? What is that?’ But yeah, I got really close to Tony on the show.”

“I did tell him one time, I was joking, but I was like, ‘Yeah, if things don’t work out with my boyfriend and I,’ which I didn’t expect that to happen, I was like, ‘Then I’ll call you,’ ” she adds, before joking, “You got to keep him on your side. Got to do what you got to do!”

Now that all of the Battle Camp episodes are out for the world to see, Gabi says she’s excited for her Cheer family — including former coach Monica Aldama — to see her compete on the show.

“Monica actually reached out to me when she saw this thing coming out. She’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, I know you already killed it. I don’t even have to watch it to know,’ ” she says. “I was like, ‘Girl … you have no idea what’s going to happen. I’m not going to spoil it for you.’ But I am like, ‘I hope I would make you proud.’ I did the best I could.”

She’s also thankful to them for helping her compete as well as she did — and would happily jump at the chance to do the show again.

“Me, personally, I know everybody’s different and wired a little differently, but I have a dog mentality. I will not stop until I get [to] where I’m wanting to go. So let’s say the goal is right here, I’m taking it two steps ahead,” she says.

“I’m going to give a big shout-out to Monica and even some of my other coaches that did have the opportunity to mold me into the athlete that I am,” she adds. “I would run it back with the same people that were on it [this season]. I would do it all over again.”

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Battle Camp is now streaming on Netflix.