A man from Mead is competing in high stakes kids’ games—and winning the hearts of reality TV fans across the country.
Justin Poloni made an impressive run on Netflix’s Season 2 of Squid Games: The Challenge. And he didn’t even kill anyone in their sleep.
But it all started as a joke.
"Me and my wife watched Season 1. And at the very last episode, there's this prompt that came up and it was like, Are you interested in casting for season two?" Poloni said. "And my wife just playfully is like, 'Do you think you can win?' And I was like, 'Of course I can win.' I'm a highly competitive person. She's like, 'Well, sign up.' I'm like, 'I'm not going to sign up. I'm not going to be on reality TV.'"
Boy, was he wrong. A one minute video application turned into a 13-month process of interviews, therapy, background checks and social media scrutiny.
Poloni found out last December he was one of 456 cast members. He spent most of February this year competing—because he just kept winning.
He missed his oldest son’s birthday and weeks of his job contracting for Space Force.
"I know you're not dying, but it felt life or death, right?" he said. "There's so much adrenaline and so much stress because we were barely being fed, [and] the lack of sleep."
No spoilers here—you’ll have to watch the episodes that dropped this week to see how number 378 fared.
But no matter what, this experience changed Poloni’s life.
"My goal right now is to do an Iron Man within like the next year or two," he said. "The fact that I can go in there and compete, like it was enough research for me that I'm capable of more than I'm doing.”
Listen to an extended interview with Poloni here:
And if you want Poloni to compete again, you can vote for him on Netflix's fan vote.
