Once the sun went down over CBS Studios, the crown jewel of Television City in Los Angeles, the production house was converted into a massive escape room, in celebration of Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge — a reality spin-off contest based off the smash hit Korean series Squid Game, and featuring many of the games that make an appearance in the drama.

An early 8 AM junket, featuring sit-downs with the most popular and remaining contestants, including T.J. Stukes, LeAnn and Trey Plutnicki, Roland Hannigan, Spencer Hawkins, Bianca Sarafian, Mai Whelan, Phill Cain, Sam Lantz, and others, led into a night of Squid Game-themed festivites.

The main room was decorated into a neon Korean Night Market, full of arcade games, Korean finger foods and snacks. A couple of men with brief cases — portraying The Salesman from the original series — rotated around the room throughout the night, complete with Ddakji envelopes in hand and stakes in mind, approaching people with a challenge.

Journalists and people selected to join the actual simulated, live-action games were given wristbands with designation shapes for their groups (star, square, circle, etc). Once the countdown on the television screen beside the red carpet and step-and-repeat reached zero, a different group would be called to participate. The games themselves reflected extremely closely to the ones from the show, with my personal favorite being Battleship, and of course, non-lethal.

Photo ops were in abundance, with the aforementioned carpet set up as well as several photobooths set up in different rooms, including a “VIP” section, created to imitate the voyeuristic space the financiers from the series spectate from. Fans, journalists and players mingled with the stars who hung around to participate and introduce various games and clips from the upcoming series finale. Contestants left with goody bags, souvenirs and, hopefully, bragging rights that they survived Squid Game.