Squid Game: The Challenge is Netflix’s latest reality TV show, a way to provide all the thrills and stakes of the hit South Korean drama Squid Game without any of the deadly consequences.
Filmed in the UK, the series may not be exactly like the scripted drama that inspired it, but there are still shocking twists that are keeping audiences on the edge of their seats. You’d think watching another group of people play the same childhood games from the show would seem repetitive and boring, but it actually makes it even easier to root for the real people on the show, as they attempt to use what they’ve learned from watching Squid Game to win $4.56 million. Everyone thinks they’d have the perfect strategy if only they were on the show, and now audiences can see what it’s really like to face those fictional challenges and make them reality.
Squid Game: The Challenge, much like its scripted counterpart, also gives us a focused look at individual participants. And just like in the fictional series, it’s thrilling to see contestants win and devastating to watch them lose. In Squid Game: The Challenge, viewers have focused on a few individuals, including Contestant 278, who is gaining attention for her intriguing gameplay moves. If you want to know more about them, like how they fared in the show, and their background, we’ve got all the information you need.
Who Is Ashley Tolbert, Player 278?
Netflix
A 30-year-old civil rights investigator from Georgia, Ashley speaks Chinese and does puzzles in her spare time. While it may have been challenging for Ashley to stand out among the larger pool of participants early on, she has placed a spotlight on herself in one of the most recent episodes of the series.
Ashley survived the emotionally challenging Marbles challenge, sending her friend in the competition home, and then later moved on to one of the show’s notorious challenges, the Glass Bridge.
Featured in the scripted series, Squid Game, the glass bridge is a bit like hopscotch. To traverse a tiled glass bridge, players must jump from tile to tile. The catch, however, is that not all of the tiles are stable. Land on the wrong tile, and you’ll be eliminated. There’s only one correct path forward to the other side.
On Squid Game, the glass bridge brought chaos as some players tried to work together to strategize around the challenge, while others focused on their individual game, pushing others onto the tiles in front of them, or blocking the path so that others were unable to progress. To add even more pressure, there’s a time limit. For those with higher numbers, it all depends on how quickly other participants manage to figure out the puzzle.