The first season of Squid Game: The Challenge has come to a conclusion, and after ten episodes of well-known players falling short of the prize, one contestant was left standing with the $4.56 million grand prize. The reality hit and soulless IP grab brought a Big Brother vibe to the original K-drama's pastel sets and brutal children's games, with the short-lived alliances and quick betrayals of the players taking up as much space as the homages to the original series. The player standing at the end of it all would either win based on cunning strategy or plain luck, and at the end of the day, Mai Whelan's (perhaps better known as Player 287) cutthroat gameplay propelled her to victory. Read on to learn more about the reality competition's first winner.
She's a Vietnamese immigrant who hoped to use the prize money to buy a house and retire.
Whelan, 55, is an immigration adjudicator for the Department of Homeland Security, who was born and Vietnam and is currently based in Fairfax County, Virginia. She came to the U.S. as a refugee at the age of 8, following the Fall of Saigon in 1975; on the show, she recalls a harrowing memory where a soldier placed a gun to her head before her mother pulled her to safety. She later joined the navy at age 18 and went on to serve 20 years in the military while raising her daughter as a single mom. She now has a 12-year-old granddaughter she's especially close with.
She became a cunning standout player as the games went on.
Near the end of the competition, after the contestants made it through the iconic games from the show including Red Light, Green Light, Dalgona, and the Glass Bridge, Mai was one of the final contestants standing among the early standouts who received testimonials. She had several big moments where she chose self-preservation over her fledgling alliances, including her attempt to eliminate Ashley (Player 278) over what Mai considered Ashley's "selfish" behavior from the latter during Glass Bridge game, and her decision to target her closest remaining friend Roland (Player 418) during the Circle of Trust. She also had several close alliances with notable characters, including TJ Stukes (Player 182) who saved her from elimination and gave her the highest number in the glass bridge, and Chad (Player 182) who trusted her to tell him where to move in the glass bridge.
By the final round, only Mai and self-proclaimed "go-with-the-flow" guy Phill (Player 451) were left to play the round based on the titular squid game. Instead of a battle to the death, like in the original show, the two faced off in a glorified game of Rock, Paper, Scissors: after each round, the victor got a chance to draw a key out of a pile. One of those keys opened a safe with the golden debit card loaded (probably only symbolically) with the $4.56 million prize.
"I am so happy because this is my childhood game," Mai said in a confessional. While Phill admitted he was drawing randomly, Mai explained her strategy: "Playing against an adult male, they tend to draw towards rock and scissors because it symbolizes to them the power within them. Rock is solid and it's strong, and scissors has the power to cut, and it's also strong." Ultimately, Mai found the key to the safe, and became the winner of the biggest game show prize in history.
She said in her last confessional interview, "Today just validates that anything is possible. Even when [you] feel down and afraid, you have to pick yourself up, be a strong person and focus. Whatever you fear is, fight it with everything you got, and you can accomplish anything. And I've proven that tonight. I am the winner."
She's spent her time since filming laying low at home.
In a Tudum interview, Mai reveals that she's spent the months since winning Squid Game: The Challenge at home with her husband, their two dogs, and her 12-year-old granddaughter, while recovering from the anxiety of the two-week experience. “It was a relief to go back to normal life and not worry about getting eliminated. I needed that after two and a half weeks of intense go, go, go, and emotional ups and downs,” she says. “But the person that came into [the competition] is me. I’m still Mai, and she hasn't changed — except that I came out stronger.”
She also told the outlet that she plans to spend the near future renovating her home, and that she has plans for how to spend her winnings. "My heart is with people, animals, and climate change. If we continue what we’re doing, there won’t be a future for all the little kids growing up right now."
