Mai Is the True Star of 'Squid Game: The Challenge'

*Warning: This post contains spoilers about the first nine episodes of Squid Game: The Challenge*

The original Squid Game and its reality TV competition offspring, Squid Game: The Challenge, share a lot more in common than a cookie-licking game and contestants living like jailed lab rats. In both, the best player was someone who was deceptively meek and unassuming yet possessed a level of cunningness and people skills to maneuver their way to being a finalist. Squid Game: The Challenge isn't as scripted as the original Squid Game (depending on who you ask), but Mai (Player 287) has emerged as the smartest of the 456 contestants, just like Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) did in the original.

In nine episodes, Squid Game: The Challenge has had the saddest picnic, the most stressful game of Battleship, people hilariously feigning death after being shot with paintballs, and one person stealing an extra ration of food. Like the original drama, the reality TV version rewarded those who knew not only how to play the games but also how to play people. In some games like Battleship, where players were eliminated if the opposing team could figure out where every player in a ship was positioned, having a tight-knit group and trust was the difference between winning and losing. But, in some tests like the picnic rouse, where the pairs in each picnic would unknowingly become competitors in the game Marbles, players had no choice but to tear their alliances apart. Regardless of the different rules for the various aspects of the show, the people who moved on were the ones who could manage their emotions and never lose sight of everyone around them being an obstacle on their way to the $4.56 million cash prize.

Bryton (Player 432) derived too much of his confidence from his athleticism instead of strategic intellect and ended up being eliminated in Battleship for choosing the smallest ship that required the least number of guesses to sink. Spencer (Player 299) cowered under peer pressure, picked the hardest shape to cut a cookie out of in the game Dalgona and ended up being eliminated. Everyone eliminated has made a key error they didn't realize until it was too late. And that's why Mai has succeeded.

Who is Mai from Squid Game: The Challenge?

Born in Vietnam, Mai was dealing with real life or death situations as a child. In the show, she recalls the time her family fled Taiwan in 1975, near the end of the Vietnam War, when she had a gun placed to her head before her mother pulled her to safety. She doesn't attribute that experience to her success in the show, but when you watch how easily she shifts between tears and stoicism, friend and foe, prey and predator, you can tell she didn't just pick that up when she stepped into the Squid Game drab dormitories.

She's garnered a reputation among her competitors as being a bit duplicitous for good reason. She saved Chad (Player 286) from elimination earlier in the season instead of a woman, going against the pact the remaining women made. She targeted Ashley Tolbert (Player 278) for elimination during the dice rolling game, even though everyone agreed they'd only gamble their own elimination because she felt she wasn't a team player.

Even with this perception attached to her, Mai managed to somehow earn the respect and trust of some of the best players in the game. TJ Stukes (Player 182) was the de facto leader in numerous challenges, and when it came time for him to select a player to save from elimination, he chose Mai. This was after a few contestants claimed they heard her saying she couldn't stand him. Chad (Player 286) lasted until the final 12 and swore to protect Mai. He trusted her and her alone to tell him where to move in the glass bridge challenge.

Outside of Squid Game: The Challenge, Mai lives in Fairfax County, Virginia, and is an immigration adjudicator who reviews international students' F-1 visa applications to study in the United States. Performing the job involves a balancing act of empathizing with the struggles of fellow immigrants and not letting emotions control her decisions. Throughout the competition, we saw why that unique ability served her well.

Did Mai Win Squid Game: The Challenge?

Mai demonstrated why she was the smartest player in Squid Game: The Challenge throughout the game. She secured her spot as one of the three finalists by surviving "Circle of Trust" thanks to sniffing out who tried to get her eliminated in such an efficient way no other player dared try to put her up for elimination again. She never truly excelled at any competition before that and mostly made it through to the next round by aligning with the right people at the right time. She got the coveted last spot on the glass bridge challenge after TJ gifted it to her because he saw himself in her and vice versa, which is a sign Mai's mind tricks worked. And she used that to her advantage until the end.

At the end of Squid Game: The Challenge, Mai was the last one standing with the golden debit loaded with the $4.56 million prize money. All it took was her understanding of the people in front of her. Phill Cain and Sam Wells were her fellow finalists, and they were also close friends. When the second to last game involved one person being able to press the correct button, move on to the final round, and pick who came along, she volunteered to go first, knowing they would pick each other if one of them got the correct button. When her bravery pays off with Sam choosing the button that eliminated him, the final challenge against Phill is when she shows how strategically far ahead she is than anyone else.

Playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with Phill was child's play, and she knew it. In her confessional interview, she spoke about how she analyzed his mannerisms and the tendencies of men to predict what moves he would pull. And most of the time, she was absolutely right. So, there was no reason to be surprised when she finally chose the correct key to open the safe to win the $4.56 million in Squid Game: The Challenge. Mai was always the sneakiest and, more importantly, smartest player in the competition.

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