DULUTH — Dustyn Godfrey got excited when he saw a notification from his favorite YouTube personality appear on his phone in late October. Jimmy Donaldson, better known by his online alias, "Mr. Beast," was streaming a video. An avid follower of Mr. Beast, Godfrey guessed it had something to do with the influencer's recent promise to "recreate Squid Game in real life."
"I got excited and got into it right away because he doesn't usually livestream unless he's up to something," said Godfrey, of Duluth. "He was selling T-shirts and said he'd pick 100 random T-shirt buyers to be flown out to be in his real-life version of 'Squid Game' and have a chance at winning $456,000."
Godfrey bought the shirt right away, not expecting anything to result from his purchase other than a new shirt for his collection. Two days later, he received a call from Mr. Beast's people telling him he'd won a spot.
"I saw the call was from North Carolina and I didn't think anything of it, but I answered it and she said, "Hi, I'm calling on behalf of Mr. Beast,'" Godfrey said. "And I just went 'What?' and started recording for my own purposes. I figured if it was legit, it was insane. And if it was a scammer, it'd still be good to have it recorded."
Duluthian Dustyn Godfrey is in this sea of faces of participants in the Mr. Beast Squid Game event held in November 2021. Screenshot / Mr. Beast
It wasn't a scammer. Godfrey was one of 456 players invited to participate in a series of children's games to win money inspired by a South Korean survival drama made popular by Netflix. After the immense popularity of the show in the fall, Mr. Beast recreated the games featured in the series, albeit with less deadly consequences.
Once he got the invite, Godfrey called work to explain the situation. But he'd also been instructed to keep his involvement in the video private until after it came out.
"So I had to kind of indirectly explain what I was doing because I wasn't allowed to just say it," Godfrey said. "I was like, 'Hey, I’m going to a competition thing in North Carolina.' Eventually I just said, 'Do you know who Mr. Beast is? Do you know what Squid Game is?' And they understood and let me take it off."
Godfrey said the reality of the situation didn't hit him until he was riding down the escalator at the airport in Raleigh, North Carolina. There, he joined his fellow contestants on a bus to a hotel. The Mr. Beast crew paid for the flights, hotel and food for the 100 fly-in participants.
The next morning, all the contestants got fitted out in the iconic green jumpsuits inspired by the show as well as a squib pack (a small explosive charge that detonates to create gunshot effects). The first game they played was a brutal game of "Red Light, Green Light." Whenever the announcer said "green light," participants could take steps forward toward a white line at the end of the playing field. But players had to stop moving whenever they heard "red light" and freeze in place. If they moved, their squib pack would explode and they'd be kicked out of the game.
Dustyn Godfrey can be seen just over Mr. Beast's right shoulder during the introduction sequence of the "456,000 Squid Game in Real Life!" video produced by the YouTube creator. Screenshot / Mr. Beast
"It was rather intimidating at first when you were being hooked up," Godfrey said. "There's this thing on your chest that stands between you and nearly half a million dollars. Once it goes off, that was it. You're done. No second chances, no 'Oh, it was an accident.' You were out."
Godfrey went in with a strategy. He planned to take three steps each time. He figured he could make it across the floor if he just kept counting to three in his head.
"I knew that if you were to get greedy and take more steps, you're probably going to get out. That's enough steps to get caught in a red light," Godfrey said. "And unfortunately, that's what happened to me."
Godfrey recognized one of Mr. Beast's friends Karl in one of the pink guard costumes. Karl and the rest of the crew kept walking past people when they were frozen and trying to psych them out.
"I kept telling Karl to stay away from me, so he got up real close and stared at me and we both started laughing and it threw me off my game," Godfrey said. "The next time, I took more steps during the green light and stopped too late. My squib popped and I was out."
Dustyn Godfrey points out to himself sitting out on the floor during a game of "Red Light, Green Light" as part of the Mr. Beast Squid Game competition in a screenshot from his reaction video. Contributed / Dustyn Godfrey
In the video version of the games, Godfrey can be spotted sitting out within the first few minutes. He didn't make it very far into the 25 minute video, but said he wasn't too disappointed.
"In the end, I walked away having had a incredibly fun experience," Godfrey said. "I'm a part of YouTube history now and I ended up walking away with $2,000 just for participating and having made some really cool friends and getting to meet some of my heroes, so I'm pretty happy."
His one regret was not being able to see how the following games were filmed, as he was later impressed by the set production involved. Back in Duluth, Godfrey waited patiently for the video to be released, and then quickly made his own reaction and narrative videos on his experiences for his YouTube channel. He plans to take what he learned from his experience and apply it to his future videos as he continues to build his channel. In the meantime, he'll keep on watching Mr. Beast.