BALTIMORE — Does the number 438 mean anything to you?
Well for 11 days, this is who Shelby Hoefling was.
The Baltimore resident competed on the new Netflix show "Squid Game: The Challenge," where she was identified as Player 438. Inspired by the original show titled "Squid Game," 456 players competed for a $4.56 million prize.
Hoefling considers herself an adventurer, so this was right up her alley.
"It didn't have to be this big squid games thing, or like this huge amount of money, I'm pretty up for kind of any adventure," Hoefling said.
Applicants were required to fill out an application and send a brief video about why you should be on the show.
The show was filmed in London back in January for four weeks, but one of the hardest parts was keeping it a secret.
"So at first, that was one of the hardest things not telling people and like sitting on it. And then coming home, sitting on this information for so long. It was like, kind of painful, especially in the beginning, because it had just happened, and you're like, I want to see it," Hoefling said.
The set stuck to the source material, from the guards in pink sweatsuits, to the living area and even the games matched the original show.
One of those games being Red Light Green Light, a game that Hoefling says took around nine hours to complete.
This is due to some behind the scene malfunctions.
In the original show, when a player lost a game, they were killed. The stakes here were a little less intense.
When players were eliminated, their "squid pack" would explode, leaving an ink stain on shirts.
"They were they were lining us up to check our squid packs and one person's squid pack kept bursting. So he would have to go change his shirt, change a squid pack and come back. And I kid you not, that took an hour," she explained.
The process of getting everyone's mic on and making sure packs were functional was tedious because there were 456 people in the first game.
Despite the number of people around her, she was determined not to be eliminated in round one.
"The biggest driver was not necessarily like, making it to the game, which it was. But the biggest driver was, if you did tell people where you were going, you didn't want to be like, 'no, I don't make it pass Red Light Green Light,'" she said.
Many players opted to team up and make alliances, but Hoefling wanted to have fun and not overthink things.
"I'm not the kind of person to like go kind of strategize too much and overthink things. I'm not sneaky enough or like kind of have the energy to form alliances and like, play the game and things like that. And so I would kind of like think about it, 'ok, if you're in this scenario, they're gonna try and break you down and try and get you to show this awful character, do I want to be like the worst version of myself on TV or for money?'"
Now back in Baltimore, Hoefling says she's proud of what she was able to accomplish.
"I would say I really learned a lot about myself, I was really proud of what the game was able to do, really pushing you to like, the very end of your boundaries. So every time you got past, even just like the smallest things, it was very rewarding. And you were able to be very proud of yourself," she said.
You can watch Hoefling on Netflix and the last episode will be released on Dec. 6.
