November 15, 2025 • 48 mins
Join Reality After Show Podcasters Lauren Pratt and Melissa Vigil as they take a deep dive into Tyler Hudson's (Player 030) experience on Squid Game The Challenge Season 2!
#squidgame #squidgamethechallengeseason2 #netflix #realityaftershow #realitytv
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#squidgame #squidgamethechallengeseason2 #netflix #realityaftershow #realitytv
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
What is going on reality after show? We are back
talking some more Squid Game The Challenge Season two.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm Lauren Pratt. I'm joined by.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
My co host Melissa and today we have a very
special guest. We have Tyler Player thirty in the house.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Tyler, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I'm fantastic.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
What's up?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Guys like you said?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
My name is Tyler Player thirty and I'm excited to
talk about Squid Game.
Speaker 5 (00:24):
Yeah, I got usit there and say that this was
actually the most impressive one for me because of the
fact that he was the youngest one that was actually
on the whole entire film. You turned what twenty one,
like three days before you got cast or something like that.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
The day that I turned twenty one, I applied to
be on the show. I had to wait for it
because you're not allowed topply unless they're twenty one year older,
So I was waiting for it. So yeah, I'm pretty
unless someone else applied on their twenty first birthday, I'm
pretty sure I'm the youngest on the show.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
Yeah, so that was awesome too. When I found out that,
I thought that was the coolest thing ever.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well, thank you, that's fun.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You went for it.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
You have to and that's that's the way you have
to do it to get on one of these shows.
So I want to start from the very beginning. What
made you want to do Squid Game? Why was squid
Game your show?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Well, I watched the first season and I really enjoyed it.
I watched it with my mom. I would definitely say
that she's a big part of the reason that I applied,
or at least a big part of the reason that
I'm into reality TV. I grew up watching Survivor and
now Squid Game, and I've been applying to other shows,
Survivor stuff like that since I was eighteen. I was like,
why not, I can do that, And I never really
(01:32):
expected to go anywhere, but you know, one thing led
to another and I ended up on the show. So
I mean, I would encourage everybody to apply. You never
know what might happen, and look where it got me.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
I mean, as we said, you just go for it
and if you never know unless you try. And that's
what people said, because I know people talk about the
x's and the o's of it all, saying, well, the
o's didn't really have a chance to play, but they
could have been on Team X and then maybe become
the winner. You don't know unless you go out there.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Yeah, it's true. Anything could happened. You could waste all
your time and go home on day one, and you know,
I feel for the people that that happened to, But
that's just the risk that you take.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
What's your take on that, Melissa, What did you feel
about that first game that they did?
Speaker 5 (02:19):
The first game was kind of intense for me. I
was like, Okay, they're just in there putting it out
there that they're like fifty to fifty right at the
beginning of it. I mean, I understood the whole red
light green light thing, and I was like, dang, they
are like moving quick on this one. It was interesting
to see. I kind of was like, if it was me,
I would probably been one of those ones that would
have been stepped up and been like, Okay, no matter
what I think, I'm staying if I step up. So
(02:41):
I think the Twins doing that was actually a smart thing.
I actually was like, that was actually pretty smart at them,
because I always, at least in what I've ever experienced
is from see watching squid games, it's always been a
reward if you step up and do something encouraging. So
was there a lot of people that were like fighting
over stepping up because it didn't seem like that in the.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, it was pretty chaotic.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I mean, there was other sets of twins or pairs
of people that wanted to volunteer, because that's who they
were looking for, was people who already knew each other
to step forward and so every so most of the people,
myself included, were just encouraging the nearby group to volunteer.
There was another set of identical twins and I was like.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yeah, you guys should do it. You guy should do it.
You guys should do it.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
And then eventually the iconic British twins stepped forward. And yeah,
I mean that's brutal. It's basically heads or tails, you know.
But yeah, I mean they definitely stepped up and it
paid off for them. They both survived. They were the
four to three. One brother was the only one to
survive on his entire team, and it definitely made them
(03:44):
a target.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
But I mean I think they I think it paid off.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
I mean they both went pretty far and they both
got featured pretty heavily, so I mean it was clearly
the right decision. For them.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
What was your reaction when the brother returned, he's there,
he pops through those doors, and you old boy, double
trouble here comes that.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Yeah. I mean that's one more person that I have
to compete against. So I, you know, wasn't really too
happy to see him there. And I knew something was wrong. Man,
I knew something was amiss when he was back, because
there was not enough beds for everyone. We were still
I fell at risk of the Ink Pacts exploding and
killing us. So I was definitely on edge and that
(04:24):
didn't make me feel better. And they were kind of
the guys, you know, they were the guys to be,
They were the cool guys. They had their click, and
now their click was even stronger that both of them
were back.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Did they come up and ask you a question?
Speaker 1 (04:37):
No?
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Not, No, I didn't really speak, so you were you
were fine? They like you were under the radar on them.
They were like, okay, well this kids could Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I was under the radar with them. With them, there
was other people that I talked to and other you know,
friendships that I was already starting to make, but I
didn't go out of my way to talk to them
on day one they were too. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
So well from what I seen in this show that
there was a lot of parings. There was a a
lot of like there was the father daughter, there was
the brother and sister. There was a twins you said
there was other twins, which I don't even I don't
remember other twins, but.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
They eliminated to they eliminate a set of twins, So okay,
they eliminated player one oh seven because of the yacht ordeal,
which is still hilarious to me.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
That's so much.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
And then they eliminated the other set of twins that
was there with one note, they were trying to stay
under the radar and hide from them because they believe
something was up, but it just didn't work out in
their favor.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Yeah, And I think I heard that there was like
forty pairs of people or maybe forty people that were
part of a pair. So there was a pretty significant
part of the cast. And there was an at least
three sets of identical twins. The twins from Las Vegas,
the ones that got eliminated them, and then the people
that I was encouraging to step forward, another set of
two brothers that were identical. So there was a lot
(05:53):
of stuff that happened that wasn't shown. I mean, of course,
you know, it was took many days to film, and
even on episode one it's condensed so much. Jackie the
first player to get eliminated by four to three one
the twin I was friends with her, and that was
like very you know, sad.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
That was kind of like setting it, setting the tone
that things.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Were getting real because I knew her and it was
sad to see her go and I was like the
first not she wasn't an oh, and she still didn't
get to spend the first night there.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
That's the way the cookie crumbles in this type of game,
and people know that going and you have to say,
it's going to be risky, risky. There is skill involved, yes,
but tons of luck in this type of game as well.
I want to dive into the pentathum of it all.
What was your position? How was the strategizing with your group?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Who was on your group? I need to know it all.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Oh man, the tathalon was crazy. So it was the
core ten friends that I had been making so far.
And as you know, we go into the arena and
they split us down the middle into two teams of five,
and so that was heartbreaking learning that I was going
to have to play against my friends in the pentathlon.
And my first reaction was that I was terrified because
(07:03):
the other five, you know, to be honest, we were
the underdogs. These people were strong, they were smart. I mean,
you know, PhD people, these gym teacher who was absolutely ripped,
just people that I was like.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
And then if you look.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
At my team, you know, not that we were I
don't know. We had an older guy, we had some
mom and like, I don't know, like it was just
we had athletes versus just random people. So I was
very scared going into it, but very quickly we figured
out which roles we were gonna do. I kind of
took charge here because I was like, we need to
(07:37):
figure it out asap so that we have time to
practice walking because as you know, we're chained together at
the legs and we have to move around the trap.
So I got the role of the house of cards,
So I have to stack seven cards into this like
pyramid shape, which I felt really good about because I had,
you know, I played with cards growing up. I feel
like I know kind of the physics of how to
(07:58):
stack it up. Quickly. Anyways, the game starts and it's
pretty close, you know, neck and neck. We whip through
the flying stone on the first throw, gon gee, we
speed through. I do the cards really quickly. But then
on Jedgie, the kicking one, our girl Reagan, she absolutely
(08:20):
is not getting it. Over and over and over again,
literally like thirty times she tries and she fails, and
I'm watching the other team slowly catch up until they're
at the kicking one too, and then eventually she gets
it and we passed and we win the game. But
oh my god, it was It was neck and neck,
and I was terrified. But what a great feeling to win.
What a bad feeling to see the other five die.
(08:43):
But it was a better feeling to win than it
was sad, because you know, you're another day.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
What I find interesting is the one that got y'all
was the jeggie, because my mindset goes, that's probably one
of the easiest ones, because we even saw a contestant
du two of them off the knee and then just
the last one with the foot, so there's various options there,
and you have one of the hardest ones in the cards,
and you didn't eat your cards at all did you?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
They were all good.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I wasn't even shaking.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
I was locked in.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And you would think Jedgie would be the easiest one.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
But this girl had never kicked the ball before, I think,
and she just couldn't get it.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
She would just drop it and kick it and it
would go flying.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
So how do you decide it off the knee and
then it would help, But it was.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
Just and she got it eventually, So how do you
decide the order on that? Like, how did she decide
that's the part that she wanted to do.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
She was just the last one to be picked. The
ball and cup. The Greg volunteered to do that. He
did it just fine. The flying tombstone. We actually picked
him to do that. Jones said he has good aim
because he's a cop, and he was like, you know,
it's two different things throwing a rock and you know.
But and then Joan had been practicing gonghy, so she
(10:01):
was the one to do that. Like I said, I said,
I could do the House of Cards and pretty much
all that was left was Jeedgi So she was just
kind of stuck with it, got it.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I mean, if you have to stick somebody in a
specific role, that's not a bad one, because we see
people were not communicating which their weaknesses would be in
this game, and then they ended up in the ones
that it was never happening from the jump. You were
never getting past that round no matter what she did.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Absolutely, I mean that was the weakest link.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
But I mean it was probably one of the easier games,
like you said, so that made it feasible for us
to still win.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I wish they would show some of these tight races,
because not only yours that I heard was tight, I
heard a couple other of them were also super super close.
And I love a good photo finish.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean I would have loved to see
it as well.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
But there's so many I think there was what twenty
three teams or something like that that were playing, So
I understand it's a lot of stories to tell.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Can you touch on? So the numbers were not even
for it to be ten and ten, right, was there?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
How did they go about that?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah? So whenever they told us we could pick teams
and to four in groups of ten, we knew that
there was an uneven amount, and they told us that
there would also be I think a team of three
against three and another team that was like four against four.
We didn't know what the game was, but they told
us that even if you get into one of these
smaller groups, the you know, the odds are still going
(11:34):
to be the same. So I actually haven't spoken to
any of the people that were on a smaller team,
but I would assume they just did three games instead
of five games. I'm not sure which ones, but yeah,
it was fair. They kind of lost over that in
the show, but that's a little behind the scenes backt
about what happened.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Definitely, And I'm interested too which games did they play, because,
as we said, some are way harder than others. So
that's one I definitely want to know down the road,
because as you said, they don't explain the show. We're
thinking that going in with the mindset ten v ten,
but then the numbers don't calculate the same.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Right, Yeah, made me too.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
So then the next game was what catch?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
The next game was Catch? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Yeah. Between the Pentathlon and Catch, they showed the boiler
room and I got to go, and so they said
that we could either take dinner or we could take
a scratch off ticket, and I ended up putting myself
in the line for a scratch out ticket. So whenever
I went and got mine, I received a coin, which
we later learned was something we could use in the
(12:39):
vending machine. So I got to go to the boiler
room and what I noticed was there was an option
something that you could buy from the vending machine that
said ten coins to buy one elimination. And so this
was brand new. We were the first group of people
to notice this. We didn't have enough coins to eliminate someone,
but that kind of is a big deal because now
we know that anybody who has enough coins can just
(13:00):
take anybody didn't want to get rid of it.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Did you end up utilizing your coin that you had
to get something or resaving me?
Speaker 4 (13:08):
I was one of the few people who kept my
coin to myself. I tried to keep it a secret,
but of course the people that were with me knew
that I still had it. I think my thoughts was
I could barter with it or maybe something else down
the line. It will it'll pay off. I don't know
why I want to keep it, but I don't think
it's worth it to buy a snack. I don't really
(13:29):
need like a little treat to survive, and you know,
going into catch which is the next game.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I was thinking maybe I could use.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
My coin to trade for a better position in the line,
because you know, in the game catch, you choose amongst
your team where you want to stand in the line,
and you know it's easier or harder depending on where
you stand. But my thoughts was, hey, maybe I could
go up to the person at the front of the
line and be like, I'll trade this coin, which you
could use to get yourself on an advantage in this game,
(13:57):
for your spot in line. That was what I was
going into.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
I think that's actually pretty swarm.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Thank you. I didn't I didn't end up needing to
do that. I basically just ran up to the front
of the line and stood there, and surprisingly nobody contested
me for it.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
You also catch the ball. We actually did see that.
You actually catch a ball?
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Thank god?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Oh catch catch?
Speaker 4 (14:19):
For me?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
What a game because you had so much drama within
that even with the selection of where you're going to stand?
What dot am I going to be on? What position
do I have?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Can I ask?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Do you know why the twins got in the front?
How are people letting that happen? How are they in
the front of the line.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
I was on the Pink team, so I was on
right across from from that group, and I know that
a lot of people were not very happy that the
twins were standing in the front of the line, but
I think that they pretty much just asserted themselves there.
I think he kind of said, like, you know, we
deserve to be here, and this is where we're going,
and you know nobody told them otherwise, and you know
(15:03):
they made it happen.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
So that's what happens.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I guess, well, yeah, because you can see some teams
are definitely strategizing more than others, and I truly think
some people just went for a spot when they said,
go pick your spot, and then you just get what
you get. Because Viper definitely made sure that he was
in the back of his line, and certain other teams
were making sure, Okay, this person's not the best catcher,
might not be the best thrower. Where can we put
(15:27):
them where they're going to be somewhat successful. So some
people I think had the more MEMI me mentality and
others had more of the group mentality.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Yeah, there may have been some people who were thinking
that a team strategy is the way to go. I personally,
I was more of the me me me strategy. I
feel like any group discussion is a facade because I mean,
if you think about it, everyone is thinking about themselves
or like if you're not, I don't know, maybe I'm
just a selfish person, but like you're here to win
(15:57):
and to compete, so like it doesn't make sense to
think about a group strategy there in my mind after
thinking about it, like you know, even leaving, since leaving
the game, like there's not really a group strategy that
makes sense. There's really not. So you kind of have
to think for yourself and or or somebody else is
going to kind of gaslight you into thinking that a
team's strategy makes the most sense. But when actuality, they're
(16:18):
just saying that to put themselves where they want to
be played.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
That's my thinking. Maybe someone else has a.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Different opinion, and that's totally valid, but it's a selfish game.
You have to think about yourself.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
See I absolutely love this because that leads completely to
the next segment of the Mingle. And in Mingle, you
absolutely seeing you just bouncing all over the place, running
like you were not a part of a group setting
at all, Like how they were all like stick with us, one, two, three, five, six,
you were dancing. You were I mean, I loved your
little dance as you were going around the circle. It
(16:49):
was thank you well, I mean, you were very much.
But it also seemed like you were one of the
fastest ones to get to the door. Was that exactly
how it was just working out for you?
Speaker 4 (16:59):
So I was a part of a very strong alliance
during Mingle. The guy Marcus who was the big football
player guy player twenty one before Mingle, he actually knew
that the game was going to be Mingled because in
his breakfast he found a little advantage which said the
next game is Mingle and the first number of six.
And so I was fortunate enough to be one of
(17:20):
the six people or I guess five people that he
ended up telling. Because we had the strategy of a
core six group of people and going into the game
ahead of time, we had enough time to strategize what
different numbers, how could we break apart our groups of
people so that we could all survive no matter what
the number is. And when Austin ended up getting the disadvantage,
(17:43):
he was a part of our group as well, and
when he got the disadvantage, our plans changed and what
we did was we had our core six, and there
was another core six which was Austin and the twin
that he was chained to, as well as four others
from their alliance, and the two of our groups had
all these different deals basically combinations of people that would
break off depending on the number. And yes, I was dancing,
(18:05):
I was running around, but I was locked in with
my team while everyone else was panicking and making deals.
I was essentially chilling because I was relying on my
team and specifically Marcus to basically do the hard work
for me. I was, you know, making deals and stuff
during the game as well. But about halfway through I
started to panic and I was just like, let me
(18:27):
just dance and not think about the stressful things because
it got pretty intense.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
So I think one of your shining moments is that
you actually caught when you were in the room that
you guys did not have was it enough people or
you didn't have you had one less, you needed one more,
or you had one and you were the one that
was like, we don't have enough, we need to get
another person. I remember that part of the show where
you were like you were the one that was calling
that out, So you essentially saved all those people.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
That that's one way to look at it.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
I mean I definitely saved Vanessa, who was the person
that got into our room. But that was the second
round of mingle, and what happened was we had enough people,
but Dan, one of the one of the players in
our group, essentially sacrificed himself for all of us. He
was under the impression that he like cheated or stepped
off the platform before he was supposed to, and so
he was like, I don't want to risk getting my
(19:14):
group in trouble, so he stepped out of the room.
And that's when I realized we didn't have enough people.
So we shout and we need one more, and one
more and too, and it was a race all the
way across the room to our room, and it was
very close. Vanessa ended up getting to our room. We
shut the door and we're safe. But yeah, that was
a very intense round. I mean, things definitely started to change.
(19:36):
We had to rerun some of our numbers now that
Vanessa was the new Dan for our group, So you know,
is she gonna stick with us? I don't know that
she trust us, Like she has no clue that we're
locked in and that we knew about the game beforehand.
So you know, that's when I started to sweat.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
The race was on, especially for her.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
So think about this, and this is why this game
is so compelling and interesting. She is moments away from
being eliminated from squid game and now finds herself in
the top five.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
That's incredible.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, she was quick, she was lucky,
she was in the right place at the right time,
and things worked out for her.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
That's why you never give up, especially in a game
such as Mingle, because how quickly it is.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
You're having to count boom boom, boom, bom boom, do
we have enough? Do we have too many? And then
who's leaving the room? Get out of the room. It
was chaos. This was probably my.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Top two in terms of games that we have seen
thus far on the show.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
It was so good. And I even said when.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
They were doing the drama of it all, can they
make Mingle happen? Because, oh boy, is it going to
give you a show?
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Absolutely. I mean it was chaotic, it was super fun
to watch, it was super intense to experience, and I
think it played out incredibly on screen.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
I mean, Austin was one of my favorites. I was
devastated that he left on there. It definitely was so
I was like my whole entire time when I was
watching that, I was like, why did Austin pick the
Twins group in over you guys that. I was like,
I thought that that was a mistake, But I guess
that's just how it had to happen.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it didn't work out
for them. Ultimately, in the end, I'm thankful that it
happened because it allowed our two groups to merge when
there was previously tensions, And I mean it worked out
for me.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Uh yeah, I don't know. I think part of.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
It was he didn't want to choose. He didn't want
to single anybody out. But I mean it's easier to
single out the twin because they're already such I don't know,
they stand out, they're highlighted, you know, like nobody's going
to really hold it against him. Yeah, I don't know,
you'd have to have.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Austin was the races to the door just as intense
as they actually looked from the thing, because I mean
it looked like like you've seen that one girl I
know she didn't get pushed, but she like fell down
the stairs.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Right.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
It was like, was there a actually damage happening?
Speaker 4 (22:01):
It was very intense. It was super chaotic. I mean
we were all running for our lives. So yeah, what
you saw was what happened. It was insane.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I mean they even had Trinity was even being held
in a room and they're like, you are not leaving
this room. It is not happening. And you just see
them screaming Trinity, Trinity because they need an assistance from
an Alliance member. And so just sometimes you end up
in a room with people where you go whoa not
necessarily in my group, but like I had nowhere else
to go.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Yeah, I mean this game is designed to put you
under as much pressure as humanly possible. I mean, it's
designed to make you hate each other to It's just
it turns you into a different type of person to
play this kind of game, you know, I mean it's intense,
it really is. Those are real emotions and real people
that you're that you're essentially ending their dream.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
So was the standoff actually a real standoff? Was that
like actually they're like, we're not playing this anymore? That
was like a real thing, and they had to star
up the game because of it.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
That was a that was a genuine protest.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
I mean we all were protesting the game because we
did not want to play anymore, including myself.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
I you know, I was holding hands with everybody.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
I was going with the flow.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
I didn't expect it to work, but it appears to
have stopped the game. I mean the Frenchman gave us
marbles as an appreciation token of us protesting and acknowledge
our bravery. So yeah, I was done. I was also
ready to run to a door and to continue playing
the game I had. The final number was two.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
And you know, even though we were protesting, I did
end up ultimately, you know, sticking with somebody else and
breaking the formation.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
So you know I was with the protest, I really was.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
But I was also ready to run to a door
before the people that were, you know, really protesting.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
That has to have been like an intense decision because
you're like looking at it from both ends. You're like, Okay,
if I'm the one that runs to this, what's gonna happen?
And then you're like, but if you don't run to this,
and nobody else runs to this. I mean that had
to have been just a complete, like minds fuck. At
that point, it is like, yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
It was a conflicting and tough decision. Well, actually no,
it was easy. I am able to I don't know.
I was consolidating my feelings. You know. I had two
different I had the Angel and the Devil. I was like,
all right, we're gonna pretend to protest, you know, to
agree with everyone else.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
But then the little Devil was.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Like, scroll these people. I'm running to the door before them, Like, yes,
I'm protesting, but I'm not, you know, kinda I'm not.
I don't know, you know, I'm just doing what everyone
else is doing. I don't even know what kind of
headspace I was in. I think I've blacked out, to
be honest.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Also, you're filming for so long too, and we see
it as viewers. The people were very excited at the
start of this game because everyone's going, oh my goodness, mingle,
we are doing this, and so the amount of people
dancing and they seemed all happy.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
And then you get to.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
The end of the game and just the reactions from people.
Everyone is shut down. So that game completely breaks everyone down.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
I mean, I will say there's a few people that
look like they were still doing all right by the
end of it, and I think those were the people
who have experienced incredibly emotionally intense things in their life.
For example, Marcus the football player, he told me that
it was a very comparable feeling to playing in an
NFL game, a primetime game, not just a regular one.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah, it's intense. But so we see you're matched up
with your duo and you go into marbles, and I
can't wait to hear it from your end. I want
to know what happened when we got to the marble section.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
Well, I want to know how did you pick your two, Like,
how did you end up with him?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Like?
Speaker 5 (25:49):
Was that just a convenience thing? Or like tell us
from that part.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Well, So, I, like I said, I've heard with Greg,
and I had known Greg the entire game. We were
on the same we were both X obviously, we were
both on the same fantathmon team. We were both on
the same catch team. We talked every day, and you know,
most of my friends I ended up losing, you know,
by at that point in the game, and while I
had new friends, Greg was the only person who was
(26:13):
there the whole time, and even during mingle, whenever Austin
got the disadvantage, we needed a new sixth to replace
in our group. So it was my decision to pull
in Greg and he ended up being another number for
our six and you know, if the number was two.
We had knew the whole time that me and him
would be paired together, and that's what played out.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
We paired together.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
And I was devastated when they brought out the marbles,
but I was also at peace with it because I
knew that I would have a respectful game, that we
wouldn't do anything malicious to each other. We had built
a real relationship and I think we trusted each other,
and so you know, basically immediately after we play marbles,
(26:57):
and you know, it's sad because one of us is
going home and we decide on a game to play.
I want to play a game of chance. I don't
want to play a game that requires throwing or any skill.
Something we had bonded over was the fact that we
were both into like crypto and gambling and just kind
(27:18):
of these things. And I knew he was a poker player,
so I just thought a game of chance was fitting.
But the game that we ended up was this game
where I would put a marble. I would put some
number of marbles in both my hands, and then he
would pick one of my hands. Let's say he picked
his hand, and then he would guess even or odd
and if he and I would show and if he
was correct, and there was you know, he had guessed right,
(27:39):
whether there was an even number or odd number, he
would get a point. Otherwise he would not get a point.
And we did this back and forth seven times, so
kind of a weird random game.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
But it was close.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
It was three and three on the last round, and
that last round he got a point and I didn't,
and so that was it. We had a couple of
minutes before the timer ran out, and you know, I
gave him my marbles.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
We hugged me.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
I was sad. I mean, that is heartbreaking feeling knowing
that I'm imminently going to be eliminated. I still had
the coin from earlier, so I took it out and
I gave it to him. I told him I wanted
him to win, and then eventually he left and my
thing went off, and then I did enjoy.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
We got to dramatic.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yes, there there you we missed that. We got it.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
We got it on this podcast. Yes, I do want
to touch on I liked how.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
You said you knew you were going to get a
fair game, because in season one we saw some matchups
that people weren't even able to agree on what they
were going to do for the marbles, and then the
time was crunching. In one group, they both got eliminated
because nobody did anything with it. So for you, you're saying,
(29:01):
I know I'm going against a really close friend in
the game, but at least I know a game is
going to occur and one of us will go through.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Yeah, on hunty percent, there was no doubt in my
mind that I mean nothing. It was we were going
to be friendly with each other. I mean, we both
were aware of the situation. I had no doubt in
my mind that, you know, he was going to try
and trick me, and I even had an opportunity to
essentially like gaslight him into me winning if I wanted to.
Halfway through the game, he was losing track of what
(29:30):
was happening because of you know, he was getting anxious
and nervous, and he lost track of the count and
I mean there was an opportunity there for me to,
you know, lie to him and tell him a different
number and.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Potentially win the game. But I didn't do that, and I.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
Knew that you wouldn't do anything like that to me,
and that's how it ended.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
But if you were against somebody that you weren't as
tight with, I think, just based on how you're talking,
you maybe would have been going on that end of
the stick saying, you know what, I'm gonna be pretty
deceitful here.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
I guess we'll never know.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
I guess we'll never know unless we see you again.
That's the thing, you never know.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yeah, it is possible. I mean I'll definitely be applying.
And Season three fan that was going on to vote
for me.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Give us a pitch, give a pitch.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Why you have this?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
You used this all right?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Well, I mean I want to make it back.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
I want to win season three. I could use the money.
And I had a great time on season one and
I would love to have a great time on season two.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
I'm spontaneous, I'm good at making friends.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
I think I had a pretty strategic way of playing,
and it worked out well for me until it didn't.
I lost to a game of chance, and that was
something that I chose. So that's a lesson that I've
learned and I won't make again. I've always liked a
likable villain like Fanos or there's a lot of likable villains,
(31:00):
and I kind of want to be a likable villain.
So I played a very honorable game. I would say
I didn't do anything evil, but I might if I
went back.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
He's going for the evil pitch on there. He's like,
he's like, I might be a little bit more you know,
controversial if I come back.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Yeah, that's one.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
That's one way to put it.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
And listen, likable villains are very entertaining to watch play
because you just don't know what they're going to be
sneaky sneaky about.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
You never know what can happen.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
You never know, like Eric, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah everything.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
Yeah, and yeah, I didn't know what to think of that.
I was like on the point where I was like, okay,
you know, well at least you confessed at the end.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
Yeah. I mean, and you know, it's funny. If he
had won that Marvel's game, nobody would have known. He
would have gone you have lived on I would have
loved to see that. Yeah, I say my favorite characters
are the people that were that were a little bit evil,
you know, not that he was evil.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
I think he was just trolling.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
But him, uh, Steven the poker player, I mean, he's
another controversial when I know a lot of people are
not too happy with his uh comments and you know
kind of expressions that he was doing during the Shoots
and Ladders game. But I personally thought it was hilarious
and it maybe it maybe want him to win even more.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I think there's a difference between intensity versus I'm just
being blatantly, like disrespectful regarding everything.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
What people have to remember is when.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
You are in a cooker situation such as this, your
passion for the game is going to come out.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
And some people.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Are very out there with their passion. They show it,
it shines bright and other people it's internal. So for
someone such as Steven, he's just so.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Into the game because he wants to win the game.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
Yeah, absolutely, he wants to win the game. I mean,
I think everyone has a different perspective on it. I
know that John t who's another big character, went there
of course with the intention of winning the game. But
I think the big part of it him, A big,
a big part of it for him was what.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Kind of character?
Speaker 4 (33:12):
What kind of performance can I put on? And uh,
you know how people remember me? What is my screen
time going to be?
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Like?
Speaker 4 (33:19):
You know, so the character that your portray is something
that people will remember. And sometimes by doing things that
are not nice, you know that that that stand out
is something you wouldn't normally say that's going to be
included because it's different. So there's also an argument for
why is he doing it. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
It's it's a it's a it's a I think it's
a controversial, not a controversial.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
I think everyone's gonna have a different opinion on how
you should behave on the reality TV show. So I
understand both perspectives, but I like it when they are
literally well, it's just it's just entertaining. It's entertaining.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
At the same time, I mean, everybody has to understand
it's still it's just a character. A lot of people
are just playing a character in order to get screen
time and stuff like that. Most of these people, and
they're amazing real life. It's just a matter of I
want to get the screen time and I want to
sit there and do this. I'm going to sit there
and do that absolutely. What is what is something that
you feel You're actually shocked that you didn't get featured
(34:11):
on that you like you did and you're like, oh, well,
I thought for sure they would have like featured that.
Is there anything that you want to put there?
Speaker 3 (34:19):
There's a few things.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
I mean, they didn't show my Pentathlon game or my
Marble's game, which is unfortunate. But I also did a chore,
so I went into the boiler room another time and
I had to scrub dirty guard boots. I had to
like scrub mud off of them. So I just did that.
I went into the kitchen room too. The door was
(34:40):
open and I just walked into it because I wanted
to check it out. It was like a kitchen, I
don't know. Whenever I got the scratch off ticket, I
was like, oh, this would be cool. I got the
coin right and I flipped it up in the air.
I got it, and I walked off all coolike and
I was like, yeah, they better put that. That was
pretty cool, you know, But they didn't. There was I mean,
(35:01):
there was so much that they filmed that that wasn't used. Uh,
even like behind the scenes when they weren't filming, when
we were like you know, walking between the sets or whatever.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
I mean, we were still kind of bonding, you know
with the cast.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Makes even if it's just with you know, eye contact
and body language, you're still like sharing this experience.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Yeah, there's so much I could talk about there.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
This is why we really enjoy doing these podcasts because
we want to know the behind the scenes as of
viewer because we know they can't show everything and you
get great stories that come out of it that just
didn't hit the final cut.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
Yeah, and this is why we want to advocate for
you to be back on. So we want to be like, hey,
what are you gonna tell us that you did that.
We could sit there and get these people to vote
for you to be like Lee should watch this, so
this is a kid to watch. We want to see
them on again.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Well, I want to be on again so bad.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
That would be so fun. It's like it's like a
little like I want the thrill again, you know.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
So it has anything like effect to you since after
you're getting like has you been like has there been
like I think you were just in Philadelphia this week?
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Right?
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Yeah? Yeah, I was just in Phil. It was great.
I mean a lot has happened since filming the show
that has never happened before my life. I've done more traveling.
I mean going to London was like pretty much the
first time I've flown a plane. I think I flew
a plane like when I was younger once. So since then,
I've traveled to Chicago, Philly, New York for watch parties
(36:28):
and different you know, cast meetups. I got to meet
my from season one and Sam and Phil and you
know Dash, all these people, Leanne Trey and you know,
I'm a part of this like squiging community and it's
super fun to you know, I have two hundred relationships
that I didn't have a couple of months ago, and
(36:48):
you know, going places that I've never gone before. Since
the show came out, I've received probably one hundred messages
from random strangers on the internet and like that's just cool,
Like it's a it's a fun experience. I feel like
a little celebrity, like influencer online and that's kind of
I don't know, honestly, it's a dream come true.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
It is.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
It's it's amazing and it's incredible, and I know that
whatever stranger things comes out, it's gonna be old news.
But until then, I'm going to fully like be present
and enjoy it. And I mean I'm having a blast.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
You have to enjoy enjoy the moment. That's really what
you have to go with here, and just keep talking
to people because people love hearing the stories and they're invested,
they're interested, they ask you about it.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
You just lay it all out there for them.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
And that's why it's so great hearing your perspective on
the game, because someone else's perspective is way different.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Four hundred and fifty six different stories could be told
and they would all be fascinating.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
So walking away from the game, what do you take
away from the experience?
Speaker 4 (37:53):
I mean, put yourself out there is a big thing
that I've learned. I mean that's kind of something I've
done for a while. Do things that may or may
not pay off, because they might. I mean, big things
can happen from from little seeds. You know, I've learned
a lot about myself, what I'm capable of, what how
I feel, and how I react to extreme pressure. You know,
(38:18):
socializing in an environment like that is is you know,
I think I think I'm more skilled at that than
I was before, you know, communication skills, and you know,
going forward, Like I'm just excited to like tell my
future children one day about these stories. Like it's just
kind of epic war.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
And you know, now I know I can do it again.
I know that, you know, it's possible to maybe win
one of these shows and actually like make it not
not necessarily a living, but if I did win one
of these shows, like I would you know, be able
to support myself. And I know it's a one in
a million shot, but like, look what I've already done.
Like who knows what could happen? Who knows?
Speaker 5 (38:55):
Yeah, and you're just starting out. You're literally just starting
out on this. I mean there's such a path that
you could go on this that could be amazing. Like
like I said there said, I think you'd be great
on Survivor. I think that that'd be fun to watch.
I think that these games anything like that, you could
actually do all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
So yeah, absolutely, I would love to do this. I'll
keep applying.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
That's what you have to do.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
You just have to keep applying, and you see what
happens and you don't apply, you'll never get on, So
that's always the mentality when it comes to that.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I do want to touch on though.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
You've watched the other episodes, progress any surprises, any people
where you're shocked and saying, whoa that actually happened?
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Hmm man, there are so many good moments on the
on the newer episodes. I loved the how Shoots Matters
look I mean visually, I did not expect it to
be so stunning. I mean it's really cool, and I
really like the game design behind it. I mean, I
think the production has done a fantastic job. I think
after filming the show, I you know, talked many of
(40:00):
the players and became friends with them, where I pretty
much knew everything that was going to happen. So I
don't think anything that I saw surprised me because of
Honu's gossiping I've already heard, but actually see it play
out as something else than just hearing about it alone.
Speaker 5 (40:15):
I will say the Shoots and Ladders was amazing. It
looked awesome. The way that they set it up, yeah,
looks great.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
It was, and also just the design of the set
and then the pairings the duos. Then you had singles
and you're trying to decide which slide do I go down?
Which slide do I not go down? There's the dilemma there.
This game offered every bit of strategy and it was fantastic.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
Yeah, it was the same intensity as a as a
regular board game. But is life size? I mean it was,
it was cool, It was god. I wish I could
have played it. I wish I could have fallen into
the void.
Speaker 5 (40:53):
So how do you think that you would have done
on the Circle of Trust?
Speaker 4 (40:58):
Man? The Circle of Trust is a one. At one
of the meetups that I went to, which is in Chicago,
we actually played Circle of Trust. Well, we played like
a bunch of squid game games and I had made
it far.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
I made it to the Circle of Trust.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
We were kind of, you know, like replaying the same
games that we played on the show. And I was
the first person that somebody put a box in front
of me and you know, opened my eyes look around
and I ended up picking the right person and I
got them eliminated instead of me. So I don't know
if that means I would have done good on the show,
But in real life, when I was playing that game
with the other people who actually played that game, I
(41:36):
did get it right on my first tride. I think
that my strategy would be to just immediately look at
everyone's eyes and kind of basically catch you vibe on
if I think they're suspicious. That's what I did at
the reunion, and I kind of caught the spot. I
was like, Ah, they're they're pretending to not look at
me right now, I can tell I could definitely see
(41:56):
it in their eyes. But yeah, that's a tough one.
I mean they went from like eleven people to like,
I don't even remember, but they.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Eleven to six.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah, I mean they played a ton of rounds.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
It is tough.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
And what's also tough about that game if you're the
very first person that gets the box on your desk,
you have a tough time figuring out who it is
because the odds are not in your favor. So a
lot of that relies on luck too. And we even
see some people didn't even have to go so you
could just chill there the whole game and just keep
on going through.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
Yeah, again, I would say it's mostly based on like
pure luck. Even if you're the first person to get
it and you somehow survived around, you are the easiest
target going forward until the game is over. So I
mean it's not a very fair game. I mean it's
fair in this insead. It's just luck, but it's you know,
it's not it's not it's tough.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
It's just tough. It's really tough.
Speaker 5 (42:53):
Yeah, all, yeah, I think I think that that's one
of the toughest games that they play, is the trust
cever trust, because it's one of those I mean, you
have to be able to read people or.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
At least know every single person, and every single person
that got the box was eliminated.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yes, yeah, in season one that wasn't the case, but
this season that's what did happen. I want to also ask,
what was your take on the monitor twist?
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Oh, the monitor twist. I thought that was fun.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
I thought it was a good way to change the
social dynamics.
Speaker 5 (43:29):
A little bit.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
You know, those people who volunteered for that knew they
were taking a risk. They also knew it might be
something good. And yeah, I mean four out of six
of those people were eliminated, so that's over half. So
it's not it's not a it's not a risk that
I would have taken. I think, especially considering I've kind
of taken a risky game up until that point. I mean,
(43:52):
scratch Off went into the different rooms, was on Dancing
Dury Mingle, which kind of put a target on my back.
But the people that did step up, good for them.
I mean, I think they were the best choices. I
think they were kind of honorable people.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
But yeah, I loved that twist, especially when it was
that room versus the other someone has to sacrifice and
stick it in.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
I can't wait. I am having.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Matthew player ninety eight on the podcast and I cannot
wait to hear that because just what I was watching,
it was taking their guy a while to take that
patch off and even slowly try and stick it in.
The So I'm curious for this one.
Speaker 4 (44:34):
And my boy Greg, who beat me in Marvels, I
wanted him to make it all the way to the end.
He was one of those that was also eliminated in
that challenge. I think he may have slowed them down
a little bit. I'm not sure if I if you know,
I want to blame him or anything, But because it
was so close, I was like, oh man, and yeah,
that's great. Matthew is such a big personality and I
just saw him in Philadelphia as well and got to
(44:55):
know him a little bit.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
So I wasn't actually that slow. Was it like that
intense that it was that close? Or are you not sure?
Speaker 4 (45:04):
I mean I wasn't there, so I can't really speak
on it.
Speaker 5 (45:07):
Yeah, I mean because the the way that they showed
it on TV, it was just.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
Like from what it was that close, I think you will.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
That's yeah, and you're relying on some see I'm curious
too at that point my mind, so would go just
give me the patch and I'm putting it in for
you because I want to get through to the next round.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
Oh what another unbelievably tough challenge.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
I mean I would personally, never, ever, ever volunteer to
eliminate myself to rescue people. And I'm amazed and shocked
that somebody was willing to do that at that stage
in the game. I mean, there's the money is like
kind of very foreseeable at that point. I mean you
actually have a chance.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Yeah, right, And the odds were even less than the
other guy's favor because they let Kate survive the round.
So now it's only a fifty percent chance right there,
from potentially still having that opportunity to go through so
that's why I love these twists that they added into
the season. They did a fantastic job with it because
it wasn't like season one, because then it gets predictable.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Yeah, nothing was predictable there.
Speaker 4 (46:15):
I was always overthinking and anxious about what was gonna
happen next, And every time I thought I might have
an idea of what was going to happen next, something
else happened. It was always unpredictable.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Well, Tyler, is there anything you want to pitch plug
before you put a bow on this podcast?
Speaker 4 (46:36):
I mean, thank you so much for having me. I
am an indie game developer, so I make PC games
on Steam, so you should check me out. I have
a website which is www dot t y l a
r dot io Tylario. It's also my handle on Instagram
TikTok everything else Tyler dot io t y l a
r dot io follow me. I guess thanks for letting
(46:58):
me plug myself. But yeah, I'm just happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
We loved having you, Melissa, any final thoughts.
Speaker 5 (47:06):
Absolutely loved having you. As you know, anytime you want
to come back, just let us know. We'd have absolutely
love to have you if you get you know, any
partners with you, You're always welcome. So but I enjoyed watching you.
But I also know you personally so and I love
you and your dad so.
Speaker 4 (47:23):
So thank you.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
That's very sweet. Thank you so much for having you guys.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
It's a honor.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
Thank you so much once again, Tyler, Melissa, everyone else.
Be sure to check out everything we have going on
on the reality after show, Squid Game, The Challenge Covers,
and Boy Isn't Booming. I have more interviews, more podcasts
coming your way, and tons of people from the cast
hopping on.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Be sure to check out ninety nine to Beat. We
have a football podcast.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
Survivor is also going on Survivor season forty nine.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
Check those out as well.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
Bobby Goodsby does a live stream as well on the podcast.
So much content, but with that, everyone, Tyler, Melissa, everyone else,
have a good one.
Speaker 5 (48:09):
The Lasting Fast First, The Busting Fast Beast
What is going on reality after show? We are back
talking some more Squid Game The Challenge Season two.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm Lauren Pratt. I'm joined by.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
My co host Melissa and today we have a very
special guest. We have Tyler Player thirty in the house.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Tyler, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I'm fantastic.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
What's up?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Guys like you said?
Speaker 4 (00:20):
My name is Tyler Player thirty and I'm excited to
talk about Squid Game.
Speaker 5 (00:24):
Yeah, I got usit there and say that this was
actually the most impressive one for me because of the
fact that he was the youngest one that was actually
on the whole entire film. You turned what twenty one,
like three days before you got cast or something like that.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
The day that I turned twenty one, I applied to
be on the show. I had to wait for it
because you're not allowed topply unless they're twenty one year older,
So I was waiting for it. So yeah, I'm pretty
unless someone else applied on their twenty first birthday, I'm
pretty sure I'm the youngest on the show.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
Yeah, so that was awesome too. When I found out that,
I thought that was the coolest thing ever.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well, thank you, that's fun.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
You went for it.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
You have to and that's that's the way you have
to do it to get on one of these shows.
So I want to start from the very beginning. What
made you want to do Squid Game? Why was squid
Game your show?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Well, I watched the first season and I really enjoyed it.
I watched it with my mom. I would definitely say
that she's a big part of the reason that I applied,
or at least a big part of the reason that
I'm into reality TV. I grew up watching Survivor and
now Squid Game, and I've been applying to other shows,
Survivor stuff like that since I was eighteen. I was like,
why not, I can do that, And I never really
(01:32):
expected to go anywhere, but you know, one thing led
to another and I ended up on the show. So
I mean, I would encourage everybody to apply. You never
know what might happen, and look where it got me.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
I mean, as we said, you just go for it
and if you never know unless you try. And that's
what people said, because I know people talk about the
x's and the o's of it all, saying, well, the
o's didn't really have a chance to play, but they
could have been on Team X and then maybe become
the winner. You don't know unless you go out there.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Yeah, it's true. Anything could happened. You could waste all
your time and go home on day one, and you know,
I feel for the people that that happened to, But
that's just the risk that you take.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
What's your take on that, Melissa, What did you feel
about that first game that they did?
Speaker 5 (02:19):
The first game was kind of intense for me. I
was like, Okay, they're just in there putting it out
there that they're like fifty to fifty right at the
beginning of it. I mean, I understood the whole red
light green light thing, and I was like, dang, they
are like moving quick on this one. It was interesting
to see. I kind of was like, if it was me,
I would probably been one of those ones that would
have been stepped up and been like, Okay, no matter
what I think, I'm staying if I step up. So
(02:41):
I think the Twins doing that was actually a smart thing.
I actually was like, that was actually pretty smart at them,
because I always, at least in what I've ever experienced
is from see watching squid games, it's always been a
reward if you step up and do something encouraging. So
was there a lot of people that were like fighting
over stepping up because it didn't seem like that in the.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, it was pretty chaotic.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I mean, there was other sets of twins or pairs
of people that wanted to volunteer, because that's who they
were looking for, was people who already knew each other
to step forward and so every so most of the people,
myself included, were just encouraging the nearby group to volunteer.
There was another set of identical twins and I was like.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yeah, you guys should do it. You guy should do it.
You guys should do it.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
And then eventually the iconic British twins stepped forward. And yeah,
I mean that's brutal. It's basically heads or tails, you know.
But yeah, I mean they definitely stepped up and it
paid off for them. They both survived. They were the
four to three. One brother was the only one to
survive on his entire team, and it definitely made them
(03:44):
a target.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
But I mean I think they I think it paid off.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
I mean they both went pretty far and they both
got featured pretty heavily, so I mean it was clearly
the right decision. For them.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
What was your reaction when the brother returned, he's there,
he pops through those doors, and you old boy, double
trouble here comes that.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Yeah. I mean that's one more person that I have
to compete against. So I, you know, wasn't really too
happy to see him there. And I knew something was wrong. Man,
I knew something was amiss when he was back, because
there was not enough beds for everyone. We were still
I fell at risk of the Ink Pacts exploding and
killing us. So I was definitely on edge and that
(04:24):
didn't make me feel better. And they were kind of
the guys, you know, they were the guys to be,
They were the cool guys. They had their click, and
now their click was even stronger that both of them
were back.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Did they come up and ask you a question?
Speaker 1 (04:37):
No?
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Not, No, I didn't really speak, so you were you
were fine? They like you were under the radar on them.
They were like, okay, well this kids could Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I was under the radar with them. With them, there
was other people that I talked to and other you know,
friendships that I was already starting to make, but I
didn't go out of my way to talk to them
on day one they were too. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
So well from what I seen in this show that
there was a lot of parings. There was a a
lot of like there was the father daughter, there was
the brother and sister. There was a twins you said
there was other twins, which I don't even I don't
remember other twins, but.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
They eliminated to they eliminate a set of twins, So okay,
they eliminated player one oh seven because of the yacht ordeal,
which is still hilarious to me.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
That's so much.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
And then they eliminated the other set of twins that
was there with one note, they were trying to stay
under the radar and hide from them because they believe
something was up, but it just didn't work out in
their favor.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Yeah, And I think I heard that there was like
forty pairs of people or maybe forty people that were
part of a pair. So there was a pretty significant
part of the cast. And there was an at least
three sets of identical twins. The twins from Las Vegas,
the ones that got eliminated them, and then the people
that I was encouraging to step forward, another set of
two brothers that were identical. So there was a lot
(05:53):
of stuff that happened that wasn't shown. I mean, of course,
you know, it was took many days to film, and
even on episode one it's condensed so much. Jackie the
first player to get eliminated by four to three one
the twin I was friends with her, and that was
like very you know, sad.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
That was kind of like setting it, setting the tone
that things.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Were getting real because I knew her and it was
sad to see her go and I was like the
first not she wasn't an oh, and she still didn't
get to spend the first night there.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
That's the way the cookie crumbles in this type of game,
and people know that going and you have to say,
it's going to be risky, risky. There is skill involved, yes,
but tons of luck in this type of game as well.
I want to dive into the pentathum of it all.
What was your position? How was the strategizing with your group?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Who was on your group? I need to know it all.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Oh man, the tathalon was crazy. So it was the
core ten friends that I had been making so far.
And as you know, we go into the arena and
they split us down the middle into two teams of five,
and so that was heartbreaking learning that I was going
to have to play against my friends in the pentathlon.
And my first reaction was that I was terrified because
(07:03):
the other five, you know, to be honest, we were
the underdogs. These people were strong, they were smart. I mean,
you know, PhD people, these gym teacher who was absolutely ripped,
just people that I was like.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
And then if you look.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
At my team, you know, not that we were I
don't know. We had an older guy, we had some
mom and like, I don't know, like it was just
we had athletes versus just random people. So I was
very scared going into it, but very quickly we figured
out which roles we were gonna do. I kind of
took charge here because I was like, we need to
(07:37):
figure it out asap so that we have time to
practice walking because as you know, we're chained together at
the legs and we have to move around the trap.
So I got the role of the house of cards,
So I have to stack seven cards into this like
pyramid shape, which I felt really good about because I had,
you know, I played with cards growing up. I feel
like I know kind of the physics of how to
(07:58):
stack it up. Quickly. Anyways, the game starts and it's
pretty close, you know, neck and neck. We whip through
the flying stone on the first throw, gon gee, we
speed through. I do the cards really quickly. But then
on Jedgie, the kicking one, our girl Reagan, she absolutely
(08:20):
is not getting it. Over and over and over again,
literally like thirty times she tries and she fails, and
I'm watching the other team slowly catch up until they're
at the kicking one too, and then eventually she gets
it and we passed and we win the game. But
oh my god, it was It was neck and neck,
and I was terrified. But what a great feeling to win.
What a bad feeling to see the other five die.
(08:43):
But it was a better feeling to win than it
was sad, because you know, you're another day.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
What I find interesting is the one that got y'all
was the jeggie, because my mindset goes, that's probably one
of the easiest ones, because we even saw a contestant
du two of them off the knee and then just
the last one with the foot, so there's various options there,
and you have one of the hardest ones in the cards,
and you didn't eat your cards at all did you?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
They were all good.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I wasn't even shaking.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
I was locked in.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And you would think Jedgie would be the easiest one.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
But this girl had never kicked the ball before, I think,
and she just couldn't get it.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
She would just drop it and kick it and it
would go flying.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
So how do you decide it off the knee and
then it would help, But it was.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
Just and she got it eventually, So how do you
decide the order on that? Like, how did she decide
that's the part that she wanted to do.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
She was just the last one to be picked. The
ball and cup. The Greg volunteered to do that. He
did it just fine. The flying tombstone. We actually picked
him to do that. Jones said he has good aim
because he's a cop, and he was like, you know,
it's two different things throwing a rock and you know.
But and then Joan had been practicing gonghy, so she
(10:01):
was the one to do that. Like I said, I said,
I could do the House of Cards and pretty much
all that was left was Jeedgi So she was just
kind of stuck with it, got it.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I mean, if you have to stick somebody in a
specific role, that's not a bad one, because we see
people were not communicating which their weaknesses would be in
this game, and then they ended up in the ones
that it was never happening from the jump. You were
never getting past that round no matter what she did.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Absolutely, I mean that was the weakest link.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
But I mean it was probably one of the easier games,
like you said, so that made it feasible for us
to still win.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I wish they would show some of these tight races,
because not only yours that I heard was tight, I
heard a couple other of them were also super super close.
And I love a good photo finish.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean I would have loved to see
it as well.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
But there's so many I think there was what twenty
three teams or something like that that were playing, So
I understand it's a lot of stories to tell.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Can you touch on? So the numbers were not even
for it to be ten and ten, right, was there?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
How did they go about that?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah? So whenever they told us we could pick teams
and to four in groups of ten, we knew that
there was an uneven amount, and they told us that
there would also be I think a team of three
against three and another team that was like four against four.
We didn't know what the game was, but they told
us that even if you get into one of these
smaller groups, the you know, the odds are still going
(11:34):
to be the same. So I actually haven't spoken to
any of the people that were on a smaller team,
but I would assume they just did three games instead
of five games. I'm not sure which ones, but yeah,
it was fair. They kind of lost over that in
the show, but that's a little behind the scenes backt
about what happened.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Definitely, And I'm interested too which games did they play, because,
as we said, some are way harder than others. So
that's one I definitely want to know down the road,
because as you said, they don't explain the show. We're
thinking that going in with the mindset ten v ten,
but then the numbers don't calculate the same.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Right, Yeah, made me too.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
So then the next game was what catch?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
The next game was Catch? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Yeah. Between the Pentathlon and Catch, they showed the boiler
room and I got to go, and so they said
that we could either take dinner or we could take
a scratch off ticket, and I ended up putting myself
in the line for a scratch out ticket. So whenever
I went and got mine, I received a coin, which
we later learned was something we could use in the
(12:39):
vending machine. So I got to go to the boiler
room and what I noticed was there was an option
something that you could buy from the vending machine that
said ten coins to buy one elimination. And so this
was brand new. We were the first group of people
to notice this. We didn't have enough coins to eliminate someone,
but that kind of is a big deal because now
we know that anybody who has enough coins can just
(13:00):
take anybody didn't want to get rid of it.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Did you end up utilizing your coin that you had
to get something or resaving me?
Speaker 4 (13:08):
I was one of the few people who kept my
coin to myself. I tried to keep it a secret,
but of course the people that were with me knew
that I still had it. I think my thoughts was
I could barter with it or maybe something else down
the line. It will it'll pay off. I don't know
why I want to keep it, but I don't think
it's worth it to buy a snack. I don't really
(13:29):
need like a little treat to survive, and you know,
going into catch which is the next game.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I was thinking maybe I could use.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
My coin to trade for a better position in the line,
because you know, in the game catch, you choose amongst
your team where you want to stand in the line,
and you know it's easier or harder depending on where
you stand. But my thoughts was, hey, maybe I could
go up to the person at the front of the
line and be like, I'll trade this coin, which you
could use to get yourself on an advantage in this game,
(13:57):
for your spot in line. That was what I was
going into.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
I think that's actually pretty swarm.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Thank you. I didn't I didn't end up needing to
do that. I basically just ran up to the front
of the line and stood there, and surprisingly nobody contested
me for it.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
You also catch the ball. We actually did see that.
You actually catch a ball?
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Thank god?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Oh catch catch?
Speaker 4 (14:19):
For me?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
What a game because you had so much drama within
that even with the selection of where you're going to stand?
What dot am I going to be on? What position
do I have?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Can I ask?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Do you know why the twins got in the front?
How are people letting that happen? How are they in
the front of the line.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
I was on the Pink team, so I was on
right across from from that group, and I know that
a lot of people were not very happy that the
twins were standing in the front of the line, but
I think that they pretty much just asserted themselves there.
I think he kind of said, like, you know, we
deserve to be here, and this is where we're going,
and you know nobody told them otherwise, and you know
(15:03):
they made it happen.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
So that's what happens.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I guess, well, yeah, because you can see some teams
are definitely strategizing more than others, and I truly think
some people just went for a spot when they said,
go pick your spot, and then you just get what
you get. Because Viper definitely made sure that he was
in the back of his line, and certain other teams
were making sure, Okay, this person's not the best catcher,
might not be the best thrower. Where can we put
(15:27):
them where they're going to be somewhat successful. So some
people I think had the more MEMI me mentality and
others had more of the group mentality.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Yeah, there may have been some people who were thinking
that a team strategy is the way to go. I personally,
I was more of the me me me strategy. I
feel like any group discussion is a facade because I mean,
if you think about it, everyone is thinking about themselves
or like if you're not, I don't know, maybe I'm
just a selfish person, but like you're here to win
(15:57):
and to compete, so like it doesn't make sense to
think about a group strategy there in my mind after
thinking about it, like you know, even leaving, since leaving
the game, like there's not really a group strategy that
makes sense. There's really not. So you kind of have
to think for yourself and or or somebody else is
going to kind of gaslight you into thinking that a
team's strategy makes the most sense. But when actuality, they're
(16:18):
just saying that to put themselves where they want to
be played.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
That's my thinking. Maybe someone else has a.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Different opinion, and that's totally valid, but it's a selfish game.
You have to think about yourself.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
See I absolutely love this because that leads completely to
the next segment of the Mingle. And in Mingle, you
absolutely seeing you just bouncing all over the place, running
like you were not a part of a group setting
at all, Like how they were all like stick with us, one, two, three, five, six,
you were dancing. You were I mean, I loved your
little dance as you were going around the circle. It
(16:49):
was thank you well, I mean, you were very much.
But it also seemed like you were one of the
fastest ones to get to the door. Was that exactly
how it was just working out for you?
Speaker 4 (16:59):
So I was a part of a very strong alliance
during Mingle. The guy Marcus who was the big football
player guy player twenty one before Mingle, he actually knew
that the game was going to be Mingled because in
his breakfast he found a little advantage which said the
next game is Mingle and the first number of six.
And so I was fortunate enough to be one of
(17:20):
the six people or I guess five people that he
ended up telling. Because we had the strategy of a
core six group of people and going into the game
ahead of time, we had enough time to strategize what
different numbers, how could we break apart our groups of
people so that we could all survive no matter what
the number is. And when Austin ended up getting the disadvantage,
(17:43):
he was a part of our group as well, and
when he got the disadvantage, our plans changed and what
we did was we had our core six, and there
was another core six which was Austin and the twin
that he was chained to, as well as four others
from their alliance, and the two of our groups had
all these different deals basically combinations of people that would
break off depending on the number. And yes, I was dancing,
(18:05):
I was running around, but I was locked in with
my team while everyone else was panicking and making deals.
I was essentially chilling because I was relying on my
team and specifically Marcus to basically do the hard work
for me. I was, you know, making deals and stuff
during the game as well. But about halfway through I
started to panic and I was just like, let me
(18:27):
just dance and not think about the stressful things because
it got pretty intense.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
So I think one of your shining moments is that
you actually caught when you were in the room that
you guys did not have was it enough people or
you didn't have you had one less, you needed one more,
or you had one and you were the one that
was like, we don't have enough, we need to get
another person. I remember that part of the show where
you were like you were the one that was calling
that out, So you essentially saved all those people.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
That that's one way to look at it.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
I mean I definitely saved Vanessa, who was the person
that got into our room. But that was the second
round of mingle, and what happened was we had enough people,
but Dan, one of the one of the players in
our group, essentially sacrificed himself for all of us. He
was under the impression that he like cheated or stepped
off the platform before he was supposed to, and so
he was like, I don't want to risk getting my
(19:14):
group in trouble, so he stepped out of the room.
And that's when I realized we didn't have enough people.
So we shout and we need one more, and one
more and too, and it was a race all the
way across the room to our room, and it was
very close. Vanessa ended up getting to our room. We
shut the door and we're safe. But yeah, that was
a very intense round. I mean, things definitely started to change.
(19:36):
We had to rerun some of our numbers now that
Vanessa was the new Dan for our group, So you know,
is she gonna stick with us? I don't know that
she trust us, Like she has no clue that we're
locked in and that we knew about the game beforehand.
So you know, that's when I started to sweat.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
The race was on, especially for her.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
So think about this, and this is why this game
is so compelling and interesting. She is moments away from
being eliminated from squid game and now finds herself in
the top five.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
That's incredible.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, she was quick, she was lucky,
she was in the right place at the right time,
and things worked out for her.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
That's why you never give up, especially in a game
such as Mingle, because how quickly it is.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
You're having to count boom boom, boom, bom boom, do
we have enough? Do we have too many? And then
who's leaving the room? Get out of the room. It
was chaos. This was probably my.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Top two in terms of games that we have seen
thus far on the show.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
It was so good. And I even said when.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
They were doing the drama of it all, can they
make Mingle happen? Because, oh boy, is it going to
give you a show?
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Absolutely. I mean it was chaotic, it was super fun
to watch, it was super intense to experience, and I
think it played out incredibly on screen.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
I mean, Austin was one of my favorites. I was
devastated that he left on there. It definitely was so
I was like my whole entire time when I was
watching that, I was like, why did Austin pick the
Twins group in over you guys that. I was like,
I thought that that was a mistake, But I guess
that's just how it had to happen.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it didn't work out
for them. Ultimately, in the end, I'm thankful that it
happened because it allowed our two groups to merge when
there was previously tensions, And I mean it worked out
for me.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Uh yeah, I don't know. I think part of.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
It was he didn't want to choose. He didn't want
to single anybody out. But I mean it's easier to
single out the twin because they're already such I don't know,
they stand out, they're highlighted, you know, like nobody's going
to really hold it against him. Yeah, I don't know,
you'd have to have.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
Austin was the races to the door just as intense
as they actually looked from the thing, because I mean
it looked like like you've seen that one girl I
know she didn't get pushed, but she like fell down
the stairs.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Right.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
It was like, was there a actually damage happening?
Speaker 4 (22:01):
It was very intense. It was super chaotic. I mean
we were all running for our lives. So yeah, what
you saw was what happened. It was insane.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I mean they even had Trinity was even being held
in a room and they're like, you are not leaving
this room. It is not happening. And you just see
them screaming Trinity, Trinity because they need an assistance from
an Alliance member. And so just sometimes you end up
in a room with people where you go whoa not
necessarily in my group, but like I had nowhere else
to go.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Yeah, I mean this game is designed to put you
under as much pressure as humanly possible. I mean, it's
designed to make you hate each other to It's just
it turns you into a different type of person to
play this kind of game, you know, I mean it's intense,
it really is. Those are real emotions and real people
that you're that you're essentially ending their dream.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
So was the standoff actually a real standoff? Was that
like actually they're like, we're not playing this anymore? That
was like a real thing, and they had to star
up the game because of it.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
That was a that was a genuine protest.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
I mean we all were protesting the game because we
did not want to play anymore, including myself.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
I you know, I was holding hands with everybody.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
I was going with the flow.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
I didn't expect it to work, but it appears to
have stopped the game. I mean the Frenchman gave us
marbles as an appreciation token of us protesting and acknowledge
our bravery. So yeah, I was done. I was also
ready to run to a door and to continue playing
the game I had. The final number was two.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
And you know, even though we were protesting, I did
end up ultimately, you know, sticking with somebody else and
breaking the formation.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
So you know I was with the protest, I really was.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
But I was also ready to run to a door
before the people that were, you know, really protesting.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
That has to have been like an intense decision because
you're like looking at it from both ends. You're like, Okay,
if I'm the one that runs to this, what's gonna happen?
And then you're like, but if you don't run to this,
and nobody else runs to this. I mean that had
to have been just a complete, like minds fuck. At
that point, it is like, yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
It was a conflicting and tough decision. Well, actually no,
it was easy. I am able to I don't know.
I was consolidating my feelings. You know. I had two
different I had the Angel and the Devil. I was like,
all right, we're gonna pretend to protest, you know, to
agree with everyone else.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
But then the little Devil was.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Like, scroll these people. I'm running to the door before them, Like, yes,
I'm protesting, but I'm not, you know, kinda I'm not.
I don't know, you know, I'm just doing what everyone
else is doing. I don't even know what kind of
headspace I was in. I think I've blacked out, to
be honest.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Also, you're filming for so long too, and we see
it as viewers. The people were very excited at the
start of this game because everyone's going, oh my goodness, mingle,
we are doing this, and so the amount of people
dancing and they seemed all happy.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
And then you get to.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
The end of the game and just the reactions from people.
Everyone is shut down. So that game completely breaks everyone down.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
I mean, I will say there's a few people that
look like they were still doing all right by the
end of it, and I think those were the people
who have experienced incredibly emotionally intense things in their life.
For example, Marcus the football player, he told me that
it was a very comparable feeling to playing in an
NFL game, a primetime game, not just a regular one.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah, it's intense. But so we see you're matched up
with your duo and you go into marbles, and I
can't wait to hear it from your end. I want
to know what happened when we got to the marble section.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
Well, I want to know how did you pick your two, Like,
how did you end up with him?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Like?
Speaker 5 (25:49):
Was that just a convenience thing? Or like tell us
from that part.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Well, So, I, like I said, I've heard with Greg,
and I had known Greg the entire game. We were
on the same we were both X obviously, we were
both on the same fantathmon team. We were both on
the same catch team. We talked every day, and you know,
most of my friends I ended up losing, you know,
by at that point in the game, and while I
had new friends, Greg was the only person who was
(26:13):
there the whole time, and even during mingle, whenever Austin
got the disadvantage, we needed a new sixth to replace
in our group. So it was my decision to pull
in Greg and he ended up being another number for
our six and you know, if the number was two.
We had knew the whole time that me and him
would be paired together, and that's what played out.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
We paired together.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
And I was devastated when they brought out the marbles,
but I was also at peace with it because I
knew that I would have a respectful game, that we
wouldn't do anything malicious to each other. We had built
a real relationship and I think we trusted each other,
and so you know, basically immediately after we play marbles,
(26:57):
and you know, it's sad because one of us is
going home and we decide on a game to play.
I want to play a game of chance. I don't
want to play a game that requires throwing or any skill.
Something we had bonded over was the fact that we
were both into like crypto and gambling and just kind
(27:18):
of these things. And I knew he was a poker player,
so I just thought a game of chance was fitting.
But the game that we ended up was this game
where I would put a marble. I would put some
number of marbles in both my hands, and then he
would pick one of my hands. Let's say he picked
his hand, and then he would guess even or odd
and if he and I would show and if he
was correct, and there was you know, he had guessed right,
(27:39):
whether there was an even number or odd number, he
would get a point. Otherwise he would not get a point.
And we did this back and forth seven times, so
kind of a weird random game.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
But it was close.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
It was three and three on the last round, and
that last round he got a point and I didn't,
and so that was it. We had a couple of
minutes before the timer ran out, and you know, I
gave him my marbles.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
We hugged me.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
I was sad. I mean, that is heartbreaking feeling knowing
that I'm imminently going to be eliminated. I still had
the coin from earlier, so I took it out and
I gave it to him. I told him I wanted
him to win, and then eventually he left and my
thing went off, and then I did enjoy.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
We got to dramatic.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yes, there there you we missed that. We got it.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
We got it on this podcast. Yes, I do want
to touch on I liked how.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
You said you knew you were going to get a
fair game, because in season one we saw some matchups
that people weren't even able to agree on what they
were going to do for the marbles, and then the
time was crunching. In one group, they both got eliminated
because nobody did anything with it. So for you, you're saying,
(29:01):
I know I'm going against a really close friend in
the game, but at least I know a game is
going to occur and one of us will go through.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Yeah, on hunty percent, there was no doubt in my
mind that I mean nothing. It was we were going
to be friendly with each other. I mean, we both
were aware of the situation. I had no doubt in
my mind that, you know, he was going to try
and trick me, and I even had an opportunity to
essentially like gaslight him into me winning if I wanted to.
Halfway through the game, he was losing track of what
(29:30):
was happening because of you know, he was getting anxious
and nervous, and he lost track of the count and
I mean there was an opportunity there for me to,
you know, lie to him and tell him a different
number and.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Potentially win the game. But I didn't do that, and I.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
Knew that you wouldn't do anything like that to me,
and that's how it ended.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
But if you were against somebody that you weren't as
tight with, I think, just based on how you're talking,
you maybe would have been going on that end of
the stick saying, you know what, I'm gonna be pretty
deceitful here.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
I guess we'll never know.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
I guess we'll never know unless we see you again.
That's the thing, you never know.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yeah, it is possible. I mean I'll definitely be applying.
And Season three fan that was going on to vote
for me.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Give us a pitch, give a pitch.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Why you have this?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
You used this all right?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Well, I mean I want to make it back.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
I want to win season three. I could use the money.
And I had a great time on season one and
I would love to have a great time on season two.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
I'm spontaneous, I'm good at making friends.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
I think I had a pretty strategic way of playing,
and it worked out well for me until it didn't.
I lost to a game of chance, and that was
something that I chose. So that's a lesson that I've
learned and I won't make again. I've always liked a
likable villain like Fanos or there's a lot of likable villains,
(31:00):
and I kind of want to be a likable villain.
So I played a very honorable game. I would say
I didn't do anything evil, but I might if I
went back.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
He's going for the evil pitch on there. He's like,
he's like, I might be a little bit more you know,
controversial if I come back.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Yeah, that's one.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
That's one way to put it.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
And listen, likable villains are very entertaining to watch play
because you just don't know what they're going to be
sneaky sneaky about.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
You never know what can happen.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
You never know, like Eric, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah everything.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
Yeah, and yeah, I didn't know what to think of that.
I was like on the point where I was like, okay,
you know, well at least you confessed at the end.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
Yeah. I mean, and you know, it's funny. If he
had won that Marvel's game, nobody would have known. He
would have gone you have lived on I would have
loved to see that. Yeah, I say my favorite characters
are the people that were that were a little bit evil,
you know, not that he was evil.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
I think he was just trolling.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
But him, uh, Steven the poker player, I mean, he's
another controversial when I know a lot of people are
not too happy with his uh comments and you know
kind of expressions that he was doing during the Shoots
and Ladders game. But I personally thought it was hilarious
and it maybe it maybe want him to win even more.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I think there's a difference between intensity versus I'm just
being blatantly, like disrespectful regarding everything.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
What people have to remember is when.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
You are in a cooker situation such as this, your
passion for the game is going to come out.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
And some people.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Are very out there with their passion. They show it,
it shines bright and other people it's internal. So for
someone such as Steven, he's just so.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Into the game because he wants to win the game.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
Yeah, absolutely, he wants to win the game. I mean,
I think everyone has a different perspective on it. I
know that John t who's another big character, went there
of course with the intention of winning the game. But
I think the big part of it him, A big,
a big part of it for him was what.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Kind of character?
Speaker 4 (33:12):
What kind of performance can I put on? And uh,
you know how people remember me? What is my screen
time going to be?
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Like?
Speaker 4 (33:19):
You know, so the character that your portray is something
that people will remember. And sometimes by doing things that
are not nice, you know that that that stand out
is something you wouldn't normally say that's going to be
included because it's different. So there's also an argument for
why is he doing it. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
It's it's a it's a it's a I think it's
a controversial, not a controversial.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
I think everyone's gonna have a different opinion on how
you should behave on the reality TV show. So I
understand both perspectives, but I like it when they are
literally well, it's just it's just entertaining. It's entertaining.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
At the same time, I mean, everybody has to understand
it's still it's just a character. A lot of people
are just playing a character in order to get screen
time and stuff like that. Most of these people, and
they're amazing real life. It's just a matter of I
want to get the screen time and I want to
sit there and do this. I'm going to sit there
and do that absolutely. What is what is something that
you feel You're actually shocked that you didn't get featured
(34:11):
on that you like you did and you're like, oh, well,
I thought for sure they would have like featured that.
Is there anything that you want to put there?
Speaker 3 (34:19):
There's a few things.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
I mean, they didn't show my Pentathlon game or my
Marble's game, which is unfortunate. But I also did a chore,
so I went into the boiler room another time and
I had to scrub dirty guard boots. I had to
like scrub mud off of them. So I just did that.
I went into the kitchen room too. The door was
(34:40):
open and I just walked into it because I wanted
to check it out. It was like a kitchen, I
don't know. Whenever I got the scratch off ticket, I
was like, oh, this would be cool. I got the
coin right and I flipped it up in the air.
I got it, and I walked off all coolike and
I was like, yeah, they better put that. That was
pretty cool, you know, But they didn't. There was I mean,
(35:01):
there was so much that they filmed that that wasn't used. Uh,
even like behind the scenes when they weren't filming, when
we were like you know, walking between the sets or whatever.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
I mean, we were still kind of bonding, you know
with the cast.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Makes even if it's just with you know, eye contact
and body language, you're still like sharing this experience.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Yeah, there's so much I could talk about there.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
This is why we really enjoy doing these podcasts because
we want to know the behind the scenes as of
viewer because we know they can't show everything and you
get great stories that come out of it that just
didn't hit the final cut.
Speaker 5 (35:36):
Yeah, and this is why we want to advocate for
you to be back on. So we want to be like, hey,
what are you gonna tell us that you did that.
We could sit there and get these people to vote
for you to be like Lee should watch this, so
this is a kid to watch. We want to see
them on again.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Well, I want to be on again so bad.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
That would be so fun. It's like it's like a
little like I want the thrill again, you know.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
So it has anything like effect to you since after
you're getting like has you been like has there been
like I think you were just in Philadelphia this week?
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Right?
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Yeah? Yeah, I was just in Phil. It was great.
I mean a lot has happened since filming the show
that has never happened before my life. I've done more traveling.
I mean going to London was like pretty much the
first time I've flown a plane. I think I flew
a plane like when I was younger once. So since then,
I've traveled to Chicago, Philly, New York for watch parties
(36:28):
and different you know, cast meetups. I got to meet
my from season one and Sam and Phil and you
know Dash, all these people, Leanne Trey and you know,
I'm a part of this like squiging community and it's
super fun to you know, I have two hundred relationships
that I didn't have a couple of months ago, and
(36:48):
you know, going places that I've never gone before. Since
the show came out, I've received probably one hundred messages
from random strangers on the internet and like that's just cool,
Like it's a it's a fun experience. I feel like
a little celebrity, like influencer online and that's kind of
I don't know, honestly, it's a dream come true.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
It is.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
It's it's amazing and it's incredible, and I know that
whatever stranger things comes out, it's gonna be old news.
But until then, I'm going to fully like be present
and enjoy it. And I mean I'm having a blast.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
You have to enjoy enjoy the moment. That's really what
you have to go with here, and just keep talking
to people because people love hearing the stories and they're invested,
they're interested, they ask you about it.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
You just lay it all out there for them.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
And that's why it's so great hearing your perspective on
the game, because someone else's perspective is way different.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Four hundred and fifty six different stories could be told
and they would all be fascinating.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
So walking away from the game, what do you take
away from the experience?
Speaker 4 (37:53):
I mean, put yourself out there is a big thing
that I've learned. I mean that's kind of something I've
done for a while. Do things that may or may
not pay off, because they might. I mean, big things
can happen from from little seeds. You know, I've learned
a lot about myself, what I'm capable of, what how
I feel, and how I react to extreme pressure. You know,
(38:18):
socializing in an environment like that is is you know,
I think I think I'm more skilled at that than
I was before, you know, communication skills, and you know,
going forward, Like I'm just excited to like tell my
future children one day about these stories. Like it's just
kind of epic war.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
And you know, now I know I can do it again.
I know that, you know, it's possible to maybe win
one of these shows and actually like make it not
not necessarily a living, but if I did win one
of these shows, like I would you know, be able
to support myself. And I know it's a one in
a million shot, but like, look what I've already done.
Like who knows what could happen? Who knows?
Speaker 5 (38:55):
Yeah, and you're just starting out. You're literally just starting
out on this. I mean there's such a path that
you could go on this that could be amazing. Like
like I said there said, I think you'd be great
on Survivor. I think that that'd be fun to watch.
I think that these games anything like that, you could
actually do all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
So yeah, absolutely, I would love to do this. I'll
keep applying.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
That's what you have to do.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
You just have to keep applying, and you see what
happens and you don't apply, you'll never get on, So
that's always the mentality when it comes to that.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I do want to touch on though.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
You've watched the other episodes, progress any surprises, any people
where you're shocked and saying, whoa that actually happened?
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Hmm man, there are so many good moments on the
on the newer episodes. I loved the how Shoots Matters
look I mean visually, I did not expect it to
be so stunning. I mean it's really cool, and I
really like the game design behind it. I mean, I
think the production has done a fantastic job. I think
after filming the show, I you know, talked many of
(40:00):
the players and became friends with them, where I pretty
much knew everything that was going to happen. So I
don't think anything that I saw surprised me because of
Honu's gossiping I've already heard, but actually see it play
out as something else than just hearing about it alone.
Speaker 5 (40:15):
I will say the Shoots and Ladders was amazing. It
looked awesome. The way that they set it up, yeah,
looks great.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
It was, and also just the design of the set
and then the pairings the duos. Then you had singles
and you're trying to decide which slide do I go down?
Which slide do I not go down? There's the dilemma there.
This game offered every bit of strategy and it was fantastic.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
Yeah, it was the same intensity as a as a
regular board game. But is life size? I mean it was,
it was cool, It was god. I wish I could
have played it. I wish I could have fallen into
the void.
Speaker 5 (40:53):
So how do you think that you would have done
on the Circle of Trust?
Speaker 4 (40:58):
Man? The Circle of Trust is a one. At one
of the meetups that I went to, which is in Chicago,
we actually played Circle of Trust. Well, we played like
a bunch of squid game games and I had made
it far.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
I made it to the Circle of Trust.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
We were kind of, you know, like replaying the same
games that we played on the show. And I was
the first person that somebody put a box in front
of me and you know, opened my eyes look around
and I ended up picking the right person and I
got them eliminated instead of me. So I don't know
if that means I would have done good on the show,
But in real life, when I was playing that game
with the other people who actually played that game, I
(41:36):
did get it right on my first tride. I think
that my strategy would be to just immediately look at
everyone's eyes and kind of basically catch you vibe on
if I think they're suspicious. That's what I did at
the reunion, and I kind of caught the spot. I
was like, Ah, they're they're pretending to not look at
me right now, I can tell I could definitely see
(41:56):
it in their eyes. But yeah, that's a tough one.
I mean they went from like eleven people to like,
I don't even remember, but they.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Eleven to six.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah, I mean they played a ton of rounds.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
It is tough.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
And what's also tough about that game if you're the
very first person that gets the box on your desk,
you have a tough time figuring out who it is
because the odds are not in your favor. So a
lot of that relies on luck too. And we even
see some people didn't even have to go so you
could just chill there the whole game and just keep
on going through.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
Yeah, again, I would say it's mostly based on like
pure luck. Even if you're the first person to get
it and you somehow survived around, you are the easiest
target going forward until the game is over. So I
mean it's not a very fair game. I mean it's
fair in this insead. It's just luck, but it's you know,
it's not it's not it's tough.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
It's just tough. It's really tough.
Speaker 5 (42:53):
Yeah, all, yeah, I think I think that that's one
of the toughest games that they play, is the trust
cever trust, because it's one of those I mean, you
have to be able to read people or.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
At least know every single person, and every single person
that got the box was eliminated.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yes, yeah, in season one that wasn't the case, but
this season that's what did happen. I want to also ask,
what was your take on the monitor twist?
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Oh, the monitor twist. I thought that was fun.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
I thought it was a good way to change the
social dynamics.
Speaker 5 (43:29):
A little bit.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
You know, those people who volunteered for that knew they
were taking a risk. They also knew it might be
something good. And yeah, I mean four out of six
of those people were eliminated, so that's over half. So
it's not it's not a it's not a risk that
I would have taken. I think, especially considering I've kind
of taken a risky game up until that point. I mean,
(43:52):
scratch Off went into the different rooms, was on Dancing
Dury Mingle, which kind of put a target on my back.
But the people that did step up, good for them.
I mean, I think they were the best choices. I
think they were kind of honorable people.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
But yeah, I loved that twist, especially when it was
that room versus the other someone has to sacrifice and
stick it in.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
I can't wait. I am having.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Matthew player ninety eight on the podcast and I cannot
wait to hear that because just what I was watching,
it was taking their guy a while to take that
patch off and even slowly try and stick it in.
The So I'm curious for this one.
Speaker 4 (44:34):
And my boy Greg, who beat me in Marvels, I
wanted him to make it all the way to the end.
He was one of those that was also eliminated in
that challenge. I think he may have slowed them down
a little bit. I'm not sure if I if you know,
I want to blame him or anything, But because it
was so close, I was like, oh man, and yeah,
that's great. Matthew is such a big personality and I
just saw him in Philadelphia as well and got to
(44:55):
know him a little bit.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
So I wasn't actually that slow. Was it like that
intense that it was that close? Or are you not sure?
Speaker 4 (45:04):
I mean I wasn't there, so I can't really speak
on it.
Speaker 5 (45:07):
Yeah, I mean because the the way that they showed
it on TV, it was just.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
Like from what it was that close, I think you will.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
That's yeah, and you're relying on some see I'm curious
too at that point my mind, so would go just
give me the patch and I'm putting it in for
you because I want to get through to the next round.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
Oh what another unbelievably tough challenge.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
I mean I would personally, never, ever, ever volunteer to
eliminate myself to rescue people. And I'm amazed and shocked
that somebody was willing to do that at that stage
in the game. I mean, there's the money is like
kind of very foreseeable at that point. I mean you
actually have a chance.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Yeah, right, And the odds were even less than the
other guy's favor because they let Kate survive the round.
So now it's only a fifty percent chance right there,
from potentially still having that opportunity to go through so
that's why I love these twists that they added into
the season. They did a fantastic job with it because
it wasn't like season one, because then it gets predictable.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Yeah, nothing was predictable there.
Speaker 4 (46:15):
I was always overthinking and anxious about what was gonna
happen next, And every time I thought I might have
an idea of what was going to happen next, something
else happened. It was always unpredictable.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Well, Tyler, is there anything you want to pitch plug
before you put a bow on this podcast?
Speaker 4 (46:36):
I mean, thank you so much for having me. I
am an indie game developer, so I make PC games
on Steam, so you should check me out. I have
a website which is www dot t y l a
r dot io Tylario. It's also my handle on Instagram
TikTok everything else Tyler dot io t y l a
r dot io follow me. I guess thanks for letting
(46:58):
me plug myself. But yeah, I'm just happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
We loved having you, Melissa, any final thoughts.
Speaker 5 (47:06):
Absolutely loved having you. As you know, anytime you want
to come back, just let us know. We'd have absolutely
love to have you if you get you know, any
partners with you, You're always welcome. So but I enjoyed watching you.
But I also know you personally so and I love
you and your dad so.
Speaker 4 (47:23):
So thank you.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
That's very sweet. Thank you so much for having you guys.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
It's a honor.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
Thank you so much once again, Tyler, Melissa, everyone else.
Be sure to check out everything we have going on
on the reality after show, Squid Game, The Challenge Covers,
and Boy Isn't Booming. I have more interviews, more podcasts
coming your way, and tons of people from the cast
hopping on.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Be sure to check out ninety nine to Beat. We
have a football podcast.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
Survivor is also going on Survivor season forty nine.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
Check those out as well.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
Bobby Goodsby does a live stream as well on the podcast.
So much content, but with that, everyone, Tyler, Melissa, everyone else,
have a good one.
Speaker 5 (48:09):
The Lasting Fast First, The Busting Fast Beast
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