Heartbreaking story behind why 'bullied' player 299 joined Squid Game: The Challenge

Just a heads up that this article contains some spoilers for Squid Game: The Challenge

Squid Game: The Challenge’s Player 299 - aka ‘The Man with the Umbrella’ aka Spencer Hawkins has shared the moving reason he decided to take part in the show.

Viewers may remember poor Player 299 had a rough time when he was tasked with choosing the shape his team would be taking on in the Dalgona game.

If you need a quick reminder, the Dalgona game is the one where players have to cut out a shape in a honeycomb-like cookie without snapping it - a lot harder than it looks.

When it came down to it, Hawkins had to choose the most difficult shape - umbrella - or get eliminated, much to the annoyance of his team.

Viewers watched on as Hawkins worked himself into a bit of a state and could be seen practically gagging as he attempted the challenge.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hawkins said he started to feel ‘physically sick’ when the other people walked into the room and he could ‘see the pain on their faces’, realising they had the dreaded umbrella.

Netflix

He was so stressed about the responsibility for their struggle and seeing them hurt it made him feel sick.

Hawkins also shared the poignant reason he decided to sign up for the challenge in the first place, after admitting that he wasn’t actually a massive fan of the original Netflix series.

“I wasn’t a diehard fan,” he shared.

“The biggest reason I signed up for the show was a few years ago I recovered from cancer, and with that I became much more intentional about the things I wanted in my life, meaning deep human connections and unique experiences. This show provided me the opportunity to be able to meet new people and to be able to hopefully win money to be able to take care of the people I care about.”

Netflix

Hawkins went on to say that the decision was made all the more difficult as he was ‘there to make friends’, and choosing the umbrella did not help him to win anyone over.

He added: “Coming into Dalgona, it's a competition and not everyone there is there to be a friend, and so I had to give everyone a shot and I wanted to try to support everyone as best we could. And we ended up not being able to support each other in the game, but everyone at least got a chance to play.”

Squid Game: The Challenge is streaming on Netflix now.