The Six-Legged Pentathlon in Squid Game, Explained: Rules and How is it Played?

As a fiction-to-reality adaptation, Netflix’s ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ arguably breaks all bounds since it manages to accurately underscore the scope of the eponymous original drama. It actually comprises not only 456 players from across the globe as they face off for a chance to walk away with a grand prize of $4.56 million, but also additional missions, plays, and tests. Amongst them in season 2 is the Six-Legged Pentathlon, as also seen in the second installment of the South Korean production, but there are some notable differences between the two.

The Six-Legged Pentathlon Truly Lives Up To Its Title

The introduction of Six-Legged Pentathlon was a complete surprise in ‘Squid Game’ season 2 (2024) since we were all expecting the games to follow the same format as the previous one. In other words, like Player 456 Seong Gi-Hun, everyone had assumed Game 2 would involve salivating over a stressful dalgona cookie to ensure a perfect cut, but everything was different. After all, instead of a sandy set resembling a playground, the contestants had all walked into a colorful hall divided into two exact patterns of a rainbow circle, which was further split into 5.

The players were subsequently divided into groups of 5 too, following which they were essentially thrown into a relay race of sorts with their legs tied together – hence, the six-legged aspect. The aim for each team was to go around the circle and have a member complete a particular mini children’s game to move on to the next before ultimately making it down the finish line. What’s more is that they had to do so within 5 minutes. However, in the reality counterpart of the original, this race against the clock to complete the circuit or be eliminated did not exist. Instead, it was always a competition between two teams – formed after splitting a players-chosen group of 10 straight in the middle – meaning one would survive while the other would not.

The Six-Legged Pentathlon Comprises Five Different Mini Games

While the Six-Legged Pentathlon was Game 2 in the South Korean original’s season 2, it was actually the first official one in its reality iteration, with teams racing head-to-head for survival. Yet, if we’re being honest, the most significant difference regarding it between these versions was in the mini games as two of them were completely different in ‘Squid Game: The Challenge.’The drama gave the world Ddakji, Flying Stone, Gong-gi, Spinning Top, and Jegi, yet the reality show chose to have Ball-in-a-Cup instead of Ddakji and House of Cards instead of Spinning Top. The creators have not revealed the reason behind these switches, but we assume it was likely because fans had already become familiar with Ddakji, and Spinning Top is also common.

Therefore, the 5 mini games in the Six-Legged Pentathlon of the reality series were: Ball-in-a-Cup, Flying Stone, Gong-gi, House of Cards, and Jegi, with each of them having rules of their own. The first mini children’s game is actually rather simple since all a player needs to do is catch a small ping-pong or tennis-like ball inside the cup it is attached to with a small piece of string. As for the second mini game, it requires nothing but clear aim, calmness, patience, and precision. That’s because the player has to stand behind a line and attempt to knock over a heavy stone by throwing the comparatively jagged one in their hand. If they miss, the entire team must move together to retrieve the stone, following which they must return to their original throwing point to try again.

As for the mini game of Gong-gi, a player has to throw five colorful die pieces and catch them in the air in increasingly complicated patterns until they have all of them in their hands again. They must start by rolling the dice on a surface, after which they have to throw and catch them in the air one by one until they have all 5 in their hands. They then have to repeat this pattern in twos, in threes, in fours, and finally throw and catch all 5 pieces together in the air – if they miss any one time, they have to start all over again. House of Cards is also relatively simple in terms of its concept, as all it requires is for players to build a balanced two-storey structure using a total of seven cards. Last but not least, there is the mini game of Jegi, which involves kicking an object that is a mix between a pom-pom and a shuttlecock three times in a row without letting it fall to the ground. With this, all that’s left for a team to do is rush to the finish line.

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