Who Is Mai from Squid Sport: The Problem?

This story comprises spoilers for the season finale of Squid Sport: The Problem.

After Squid Game: The Challenge picked off early hopeful after early hopeful, one participant rose by means of the ranks to win Netflix‘s massive cash prize. Her identify is Mai Whelan, however everybody is aware of her higher as Participant 287. By some crafty play and grounded choices, she made it by means of to the December 6 finale with two different finalists. And now, due to some main rock, paper, scissors abilities, she simply received $4.56 million.

Hailing from Virginia, Whelan is a 55-year-old immigration adjudicator. She left Vietnam when she was simply eight years outdated, based on her Netflix profile, in the course of the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Whelan recounts that she barely escaped an opportunity encounter with a soldier who noticed her transfer in a killing area. Mai later joined the Navy, and, later, a single mother after which a grandparent. “Of all of the issues that life throws at you, I have been all the way down to the underside of the pit,” she says in Episode Six. “My household doesn’t belief me, in my choices… being within the army, or be a single father or mother at 19. It is onerous, as a result of I’ve no one.” She then tells one other contestant to “by no means quit,” earlier than she’s compelled to remove them in the course of the sport.

Over the following couple of episodes, Mai survived the Glass Bridge by drawing a quantity additional down the road. She additionally appropriately guessed the participant who tried to remove her in a sport of deceit known as “Circle of Belief”—by intently observing her opponents’ physique language. “She’s actually intuitive,” stated Hallie (Participant 355). Even one of many most hated players, Ashley (Participant 278), agreed. Ashley quipped, “Mai is so good,” including that her development within the sport ought to’ve been “a wake-up name for everybody.”

Nicely, it is protected to say that Ashley was proper, wasn’t she? We’re pleased to see Mai—somebody who clearly earned each little bit of her success within the sport—take house the prize. Now, it is time to begin prepping our Season Two applications. And turn out to be extraordinarily expert at rock, paper, scissors.