RI Contestants Compete on Netflix's 'Squid Game: The Challenge'

Netflix's Squid Game has officially wrapped, but its competition show Squid Game: The Challenge continues.

Out of the over 100,000 applicants who threw their names in the ring for Season 2, two of them happen to be from the Ocean State.

A pair of contestants that hail from Cranston, Rhode Island, are among the 456 people vying for the title – and get this, they didn't know each other until they showed up on set.

Cranston Native Gets the Call

"My husband and I love Squid Game," Robin Ruggieri-Blackburn (Contestant 052) said. "We've been fans from the beginning."

"We love to watch competition shows. We also love to play games, do puzzles, things like that," she said.

Her husband was the first of them to apply, but it wasn't long until Robin submitted her entry form as well.

Another Cranston Contestant

Perhaps joining forces with another Rhode Islander could work in her favor. Giovanni Canales (Contestant 235) is a former Division I collegiate baseball player and Ruggieri-Blackburn's competition.

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"This was actually my first time ever applying for a reality TV show," Canales said. "I grew up watching reality TV and I always wanted to be on it."

His experience as an athlete is something Canales feels helps him in the competition, calling baseball "a mental game and a physical game." Contestants need both to take home the big prize.

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The term "drop shock" is common for competition shows where contestants are suddenly thrust into a new environment expected to hit the ground running.

"There's a lot of people that are really overstimulated," Canales said. "Whenever a situation is different or the atmosphere is different, I really thrive in that."

You can even see Robin and Gio in the trailer for Season 2:

I couldn't let my conversations with the two end without asking the obvious: How comfortable are the track suits?

"They are super comfortable," Canales said. "Mind you, when you're indoors and you're competing, you sweat a lot and the sweat gets absorbed by the tracksuit. So there are some interesting smells going on."

For Ruggieri-Blackburn, they're not quite her style or fit. She called them "the worst of the worst."

You can watch Robin, Gio and their fellow contestants compete for the $4.56 million cash prize on Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 on Netflix.

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Gallery Credit: Brittany Rose