By Cyrus Sarfaty

TLDR: It’s Squid Game but with house points and you don’t actually die.

Squid Game. It was the most popular Netflix show at its release, with over 140 million viewers in this past month. It’s a worldwide phenomenon, with guard Halloween costumes and honeycomb candies selling out like fire. Here at UCC, interest in the show is high. A couple weeks ago, when everyone was still binging it, people were playing the card flip game during lunch, while everyone else was watching the show on mute. 

A few weeks ago, me and a few other classmates came up with the idea to host a house Squid Game tournament. Although it was met with some initial pushback (death isn’t always a good sales pitch), we got some more people kind of onboard with it, including my grade’s community rep. Someone in my design class is even creating a logo for the event. So how would this work?

• Same rules

Just like the actual show, there would be three rules that would dictate the entire event:

1. A player is not allowed to stop playing.
2. A player who refuses to play will be eliminated.
3. If the majority of players agree to stop playing, the games are allowed to end. (However, they would be able to continue playing if a majority agrees to resume.)

“Eliminated” in this scenario would result in the player not being allowed back in the game. They would be able to watch, but not influence any existing players in any way.

• It’s a house tournament

For each grade, the participants would be instructed to wear their house colours. At least ten “guards” would wear a neutral uniform and patrol around the games, ensuring there’s no cheating. As soon as anyone messes up at a game, a guard would notice and walk them out of the arena. A house point from their house would enter the grand prize winnings.

• Game by game

Every game would be played on a different day (maybe not the glass bridge one because that would be pretty hard to build). The participants who don’t mess up would advance to the next game. Just like the show, teaming would be allowed, but the participants would have to keep in mind that it’s a house competition.

• One lucky day

Eventually, after the first five games have been completed, some people will have advanced to the final game. Whoever takes home the dub would also earn for their house all the accumulated house points. (In case of multiple winners, the winnings would be split equally.)

That’s about it. If you haven’t seen Squid Game yet, you definitely should (pretend everything I just wrote is made up). At some point later this year, pending difficult-to-obtain approval from the faculty, this may actually happen.