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Squid Game: The Challenge wrapped up its season 1 on December 6, 2023. The show started with 456 players competing to become a multi-millionaire by winning the Korean show-inspired reality show. One of the players, Player 030 or Jinwoo Oak, recently spoke to SK POP about his time on the show and gave insights about what happened behind the scenes.
Like most reality shows, not everything that happened was showcased on television, including Jinwoo using different items such as hair ties, socks, and underwear to make a ball that the players could play with.
"We were so bored, I made a ball out of underwear. So in the bathroom, they had a huge stock of underwear, socks, and everything that they would reload after like doing laundry," Player 030 said.
It took a lot of "trial and error" for Jinwoo to create it. The first one wasn't the best, as it would break if the players would kick it once. The main elements of the ball were underwear, hair ties, and socks.
"Full blown volleyball game"- Player 030's underwear ball was featured in some Squid Game: The Challenge clips
Squid Game: The Challenge is one of the most popular Netflix shows at the moment. The reality show dropped its first five episodes on November 22, followed by four more on November 29. It aired the season finale on December 6, 2023.
Fans only got to know certain cast members in the first set of episodes due to the large number of people who took part in the show; others were featured a little more during the next set of episodes.
One player who made it past the first set of episodes and ultimately got eliminated during a Dorm Test was Jinwoo Oak, aka player 030. During an exclusive conversation with SK POP about his time on the show, he revealed that he made a ball out of underwear to keep himself and his fellow contestants entertained.
He said that the ball can be seen in short clips of the show. He added that people can be seen standing in a circle and kicking the ball around like a football.
"I am proud to say I did start all that and there was once a full-blown volleyball game too. Everyone track suit jackets, we tied it from left all the way to right and then it was a full blown, like, volleyball match," Jinwoo Oak added.
He said he didn't think the production crew liked it too much since it stopped the Squid Game: The Challenge season 1 players from bonding and having conversations. Jinwoo mentioned that they wanted more drama, people talking to each other more, and "maybe potential backstabbing later." He said that the production asked them to stop playing volleyball.
"Not enough Koreans": Player 030's take on lack of diversity
Squid Game: The Challenge had people from all over the world, including countries such as America, the UK, India, Korea, Australia, and more. However, Jinwoo Oak noted that there could have been more Korean and Asian players.
He added that the US contestants were the majority, followed by the UK players. He said that if they were to split the cast by percentage, it consisted of 60% American contestants and 35% UK.
"I was a little surprised at the number of Koreans that were there, not enough Koreans honestly. I was a little disappointed on that and because Squid Game is a Korean show and even few of the Koreans that were there weren't like native language speakers," Player 030 added.
All episodes of Squid Game: The Challenge are available to stream on Netflix.
