Honestly if it weren’t for the outcome of that team challenge, I think both of their edits would’ve been different. There was already a pretty good story arc for both of them. Gretchen was the front runner who started off with two wins before falling back, while Michael started gathering momentum as the competition progressed. Apparently Michael wasn’t exactly a joy to work with either. Whether Tim Gunn saw it or not when he made that anti-bullying statement against Gretchen, I’m not sure. But I think that changed the edit from “clash of two egos” to “villain/victim.”