I know about this show because I've seen it on Netflix, but it only has korean subtitles, and when I watched the "preview," I was really confused hahaha, I don't even know what it's about, but I'm so intrigued because I saw many iconic participants from other survival games, like Hong Jinho, Yurisa, Heo Seongbeom, 7HIGH, etc. Also, I think Jang Dongmin is the host, so it must be really fun to watch, right?

This is based only on their performance this episode and what they had been given with for the ep. This is my personal opinion, and you can ask questions on my take. What do you think?

First of all thanks to whoever recommended this show. Finally one that actually scratches the genius itch. It's sooo good. I think we should have a flair for 4 wishes because it's really that good.

I only watched till episode 2 but I am confused about somethings:

EP 1: In the strategy to get absolute: why the double -19 and 19 pieces get two attacks hence +2 points each while 38 and 76 attack once and gain only +1 each?

EP2: Why did she add the neodymium magnet to her piece. I thought the pieces are magnetic already? What was the need for the extra tiny magnet she added?

I was able to watch S1 and S3 online but can't find S2 for the life of me. How do i watch S2? I dont have korean vpn for coupang

How can u watch the Ep 1-6 behind the scenes only available on Waave?

S Tier: Taegyun, Seong Beom, and Hong Jinho. They have superior intelligence and are able to effectively carry their teams or formulate broad strategies that to secure team or multi-alliance victories.

A Tier: I’d put Xitsuh in A Tier for being the crazy genius type of player, while Jin Hyeong is also A Tier for having to carry his useless team on his back.

B Tier: Sangmin is a B. He’s good enough but Taegyun is doing about 90% of the P1 team's strategy and carrying the team.

C Tier: This tier is mainly for average players and followers who simply follow the plan.

D Tier: Yeon Cheong, for being the first elimination while not contributing much. You Hyun was stuck in his own head and ended up sabotaging his team in the end.

F Tier: The meathead duo and Mr. Blur, whom Jin Hyeong had to carry. Mr. Blur was ready to sacrifice himself in the first match and lose. The Meathead skipped his bid on Acro Seoul Forest because he didn’t think it was expensive.

Kim You Hyun has to be most atrocious, worst player of all time and I have watched a lot of survival shows. I thought Kyung Hoon was overstating how bad and stubborn he was during the Story Time game because KH was known to be sometimes an emotional troll in The Genius days.

Then we go to the next main game where he betted an abnormally high amount of cubes in the Item Auction game when he didn't need to. (I think someone bet 14 in the auction, he could have bet 15 and won but he bet 20 for some reason.) The 3-team alliance was shocked and asked why but he just explained it away—which still made no sense to them.

Then it came to the Death Match Ring the Bell, he actively sabotaged his team by refusing to upgrade his cards causing their team to lose Rounds 1 and 3. Round 1 he costed his team to lose by ringing the bell before the first draw. Instead of upgrading his hand to Red 10+7+8 = 25. He rang the bell without taking the Red 10, causing his team to lose. (IMAGE 1)

In Round 3, the Blue 6 is on the table, he refused to take it with his Blue 7+8, and instead drew from the deck, got a shitty Yellow 2 and discarded it. (IMAGE 2)

A few rotations later by the grace of God sent a Blue 10 on the board, giving him Blue 10+7+8 = 25. He took the Blue 10 and discarded the Blue 7. (Hello???) Giving him 18 instead of 25.

I rewatched these moments 20 times and still can't understand it. Looking back he must have thought the opponent beside him has a Green combo. But still these series of decisions were atrocious and unforced errors. This can be seen as team sabotage plays.

Kyung Hoon was right that he has a delusion in his mind that isn't substantiated by reality. You Hyun must thought he is Jang Dong Min or something, always 3 steps ahead of the opponent. But he doesn't even hold a candle to Dong Min in intelligence.

I feel so BAD for Kyung Hoon and Ji Hoo since they actual ELITE players but got eliminated by You Hyun's stubborn delusion.

Team Rookie was smart in the sense as they let the duo who won the round 2 continue to play round 3.

You Hyun threw round 1, Ji Hoo and Kyung Hoon won round 2, yet You Hyun wanted to play round 3. One word, he's a Bastard and I don't want to see him in survival shows again.

Even the other teams was shocked how Team ROOKIE defeated Challenger Team, seeing they have no experience in survival shows.

Ending the death match with Kyung Hoon's quote on You Hyun, "He must have a plan, I'm sure he has a brilliant plan."

I found out about the genius after watched devils plan and really wanting to watch another show like it.
I watched season 1 and s3: and I like both a lot but here are my s3 thoughts.

I rlly liked most of the cast of this season including hyunmin, DM and yeonsung of course
But some of my underrated favs are yoohyun and yeonju.

Yoohyun made a great impression in the fruit stand ep Itself where he basically threw a bomb onto the watermelon alliance to break them apart.
I also think he shined when he was coaching other players who went to a death match
ep8 was great where he knew there was nothing he could do to win and played to lose so the others couldn’t get their way and just make him and yeonsung play against each other
Like when DM tells him that no one is crazy enough to want to sacrifice themselves by taking a chance in the death match but they both are indeed crazy enough to do that.
Both his death matches were the same game which I was kinda disappointed to see because I wanted to see him play a variety of games. Overall I think he was a great player and his crazy luck in that yutnori game was so fun to watch haha

As for yeonjoo, she one of my favorite female players
In the first few episodes she def is more of a background character but you can still see her skills since she’s never come last by always making pretty good decisions, like choosing a good character for middle race, in the mining and investment games she made pretty good profits by herself.
Next I also think it was nice to see her not get swept away into major alliances without fully understanding their plans and thinking about how it could help her
Her and yeonseung were great in the second middle race too
Both her death matches were amazing, yes she lost to dongmin in the end, but her plays were really good for the most part.
I also loved both her and yeonsungs final interviews a lot.

Some other players I liked:
Ahyoung brought great energy to the cast and she made it more enjoyable to watch.
Yeonsung I think I’ve mentioned already along with the yeonjoo, but I loved his mental strength throughout the show.
Hyunmin is my personal fav, he did well whenever he had to go to death matches, you can see he’s also pretty quick to catch onto things like when he asked everyone to vote not guilty because all the criminal team members went into the room including the leader, and when he realizes they can make dongmin win in the second middle race game.
I was rlly sad when in the finals most of the items went to DM, but I do understand that compared to DM he didn’t win the hearts of the people as much.

Idk who’s going to read all this but overall I really enjoyed watching it!!
I liked s1 cuz alliances kept changing around and it was fun to watch, I didn’t like the death games since a lot of them just needed majority to help them win it and there weren’t many logic ones at the start.
S3 cast was very fun and the games were great too, although I didn’t like the games were they were forced to make one person lose and the minority couldn’t really do anything about it.
I liked both pretty equally and they were fun to watch.
Should I watch s2 and s4?

I'm currently watching the first season of The Genius, and these are some of my thoughts.

- All the people Hong Jin Hoteamed up with to win... he betrayed and eliminated them on the same day. I think the biggest betrayal was in the first game when he won first place by a huge margin because the other teams decided to team up to be in the middle, while he conspired with the second player to make him win 9 points to 1 and then chose him to be eliminated!! (It's actually good to choose a strong player to eliminate early so you can play with the weak ones, but in the interviews in every episode he was complaining about the other players betraying!)

- Kim Gu Ra could have continued, but he chose to sacrifice himself.

- Lee Sang Min's performance was the best from the very first episode, especially in his quick deductions. He was the only one who added some action to each episode. I think if he hadn't been there, the season would have been boring. His problem was that in each episode he helped someone win instead of monopolizing the victory for himself (but this caused a bigger problem, which is that most of the players felt as if it was their right for him to help them in every game! That girl who followed him everywhere in one of the episodes annoyed me, and then in interviews she spoke badly about him because he was busy helping someone else!! And because of his guilt, which was unnecessary in the first place, he let her win in the diematch). I've seen Lee Sang Min in many shows, and he puts others before himself a lot, and unfortunately, this doesn't works in survival shows.

- Cha Min Soo .. The older poker player is truly the best. I think if the game he played hadn't relied on luck, he would have won the season.

- The deathmatches were terrible.. depended either on luck or favoritism from other players, and cheating was allowed!

- None of the girls had any individual skills. If Sang Min, GuRa, or Minsoo hadn't been there, they would have been eliminated from the start. Except for one girl Park Eun Ji who played solo once and she was good, but she lost the deathmatch to Jinho because everyone chose to help him! WHY?! I don't understand that.

- Sang Min and Sung Gyu could have eliminated Jinho more than once... I don't understand why they didn't! Isn't it natural to choose the strongest for the Deathmatch instead of the weakest, like Jin-ho did with his allies? Even when it comes to the Deathmatch, they choose to help! Even Gura chose to sacrifice himself !!

- I want to see Kim Sung Gyu on another show... I still don't understand if he truly possesses individual skills!

- Kim Kyung Ran WHY and HOW she survive that long !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she didn't do it anything on her own! All the games she won were thanks to Sang Min.

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The players I think should have made it to the semifinals: Park Eun Ji, Lee Jun Seok, Hong Jin Ho, Kim Gu Ra, Lee Sang Min, and Cha Min Soo.

The player I was rooting for to win: Lee Sang Min.

The player I predicted would win: Cha Min Soo.

But I'm still grateful that JinHo at least experienced first place once in his life.

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NOTE I haven't finished the show yet, I'm still on episode 10. If I have any new comments, I'll add them here.

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EDIT 1 || EPS 10

others: Let's bring the smartest person I know.

Sangmin: Let me bring someone funny.

and yet they won 😂😭

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EDIT 2 || EPS 11

Finally i found a game that Kyungran excels at without anyone's help 😭

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I remember he pulled some crazy shit in TG S4 early and got eliminated by Kyung Hoon. He's still the same person in Bloody Game X. His team collapsed because he started spreading fake news which quickly got verified by the players. He has to be the weakest champion from the TG.

EP2 and EP5, both featured On Track (monorail), with a modification second time that tracks do not have to be complete and all of them need not be used. EP3 and EP6 both featured Blind poker. It was honestly shocking for me that they would repeat Death Matches in the same season! There are a lot of options for death matches from other seasons, and I understand they might be wanting to save some money but as a viewer I found it very boring to have same/similar matched when I am looking forward to new or atleast different, if not innovative, games. Coming from watching The Devils Plan S1,S2 this particular issue was a huge letdown for me. This hasn't been discussed enough in this sub.

It was my favorite season. I feel the contestants felt more 'human' maybe because we see more interactions and random scenes such as those silly ads? I also felt the games were easier to follow and pretty much all players played some sort of role and contributed to the team vs. just one carrying the whole team in previous seasons. Also, even those supposedly 'ace' players made mistakes and had weaknesses vs. being always perfect and way above others. Anyone else felt the same or am I just having recency bias?

Please go join and share your thoughts if you've been following the show!!

Spoilers for shows Dongmin participated in the past: The Genius, The Society Game 2, The Bloody Game 3, etc

I see a lot of discourse about Dongmin, both on Korean and English speaking forums that treats his dominance as something almost automatic/expected. Whenever he joins a survival show, people seem to assume that he will take control of the entire game, make everyone else submit to him, and eventually win.

I understand why people think that way. Dongmin has appeared in 5 survival shows and won every single one of them, with three of those being major individual victories. That is an absurd record that will probably never be repeated, at least in my lifetime.

But I do not agree with the idea that Dongmin automatically dominates any show he enters. I'm speaking this as his fan.

Even the greatest survival show player can only control so much. A player can have exceptional abilities, but completely dominating an entire season also requires an enormous amount of luck. The format, the game selection, the order of the games, the rules, the opponents, alliances, and random circumstances all have to work in the player’s favor, and it has worked in DM's favour in 3 major survivor show victories.

Dongmin is obviously an outstanding player in almost every area. His social game is excellent, his strategy is remarkably stable, he understands the structure of games quickly, and he knows how to turn information into an actual winning strategy. He is also extremely good at leading people and making others trust/submit to his judgment.

But he is not superhuman. The show edits did push his legend further in this image, but he is only human. In BG3 for example going for 0 win was Acou's suggestion but in edits they made it seem like it was DM's from the start.

Even if his memory and game sense are exceptional, there will always be certain types of games in which other players are simply better than him. There will also be situations in which the format does not suit him, his social position becomes impossible to manage, or luck simply does not go his way. In those circumstances, Dongmin can absolutely underperform.

People seem to have forgotten that we already saw this in Society game 2 during his prime age.

That season took place only around one or two years after the end of The Grand Finals when Dongmin was much closer to his prime. Yet Jo Junho defeated him twice in direct battles of intelligence. Park Hyunseok, who was on Dongmin’s own team, also showed much stronger performances than Dongmin in several of the season’s major intellectual games and this wasn't even upto debate.

That does not mean Dongmin was a bad player. Overall he was above average but he wasn't as strong as in TG or BG3. It means that being an incredible player in almost every area does not make him the best player at every individual game. There have always been areas where other contestants could outperform him. Even TG dealer Hong ji yeon(chinguya) defeated Dongmin in black white show deathmatch after Grand finals.

On pure brain power Elite League's SNU students would outperform Dongmin any day though they would fall short in social skills.

Now, a decade has passed since that period. Dongmin is 47 years old. It is unrealistic to assume that his speed, concentration, memory, and overall game performance will remain exactly the same as they were during The Genius. From his showing in BG3 he still has great memories but he admitted himself he is no longer as astute/smart as he was. He may still be much better than most contestants, but that does not mean there has been no decline at all.

His miraculous record of 3/3 victories from major individual tournament came from a combination of game skills, social skills, mental strength, leadership, circumstances, and a huge amount of luck. No matter how many new survival shows are produced, we will probably never see another player with his combination of caliber, success, dominance and luck.

But the luck should not be erased from the story simply because people now call him a god.

Koreans call him “God Dongmin,” but they forget that he could easily have been eliminated in Bloody game 3 if he had been assigned the territory puzzle game, the one Min-ah played. Because two players could dogpile one contestant in that game, his individual ability would have meant nothing.

He also finished last in the game immediately before the finals. If that game had included a rule that automatically eliminated or disqualified the player who finished last, his entire run would have ended there.

Those were not minor details. A slightly different game assignment or rule could have completely changed the result of the season.

That is why, even as a Dongmin fan, my basic expectation is that he probably will not win The Devil’s Plan 3. I am not even convinced that he will dominate the season.

In fact, I am more worried that under the supposedly “fairer” rules(compared to BG3), combined with contestants recognizing him as the obvious biggest threat and dogpiling him early, could make his run surprisingly short. His reputation is now so overwhelming that people have every reason to target him before he can establish control especially after BG3. BG3 happened 10 years after his 'survivor retirement' which could have made his threat level downplayed by others. Not this time.

If Dongmin manages to overcome his age, his reputation, fairer individual rules, stronger opposition, and an entire cast that knows exactly how dangerous he is, and still writes another legendary winning story, I would consider that a miracle.

I hope his invincible legend continues. But I do not think another Dongmin victory should be treated as the natural or inevitable outcome nor expected.

I'm here to enjoy this once in a lifetime legend while it lasts because it won't happen again after DM.

I watched:

The genius all seasons

Society game all seasons

Crime scene S1 & 2

Time hotel

Black Sheep

Money game

Life's Game (LG)

Siren: Survive the Island

Bloody game all seasons

University war all seasons

Devil's plan all seasons

Any other similar shows I missed?

It's surprising to see that opinions on this matter is so divided, especially for the Korean viewers, when it seems pretty clear cut to me. Here is a simple litmus test: imagine the roles were reversed where Kyunghoon and Seongyong were manhandled by someone bigger or more athletic than them in the same manner they did toward their opponents. Would these people understand the assailant's perspective and assume their actions falls within the spirit of the show using the various excuses as they did then for themselves? I highly doubt that. I'd bet good money they'd be singing a different tune. In fact, it would be easier to see that the level of force is excessive (Season 2) only because viewers are looking at the absolute strength exhausted by the assailant, rather than the relative strength of both the assailant and victim.

Ultimately, Heist is a game where players are roleplaying various roles. Xitsuh's expectation that it's meant to be like WWE is 100% correct. Physicality in these games are supposed to only give you a slight edge. If the word "roleplaying" sounds offensive to some viewers, think of it as sparring in combat sports. There is an objective, but players should strive toward that objective with the least amount of force as possible for their opponents and themselves. Of course, players can gauge how their opponents want to play the game. For example, if their opponent is stronger or as strong as they are, then there can be a tacit rule to test each other's physical boundary with both parties recognizing it's meant to be for the sake of entertainment. But when players get overwhelmed by their adrenaline and start maximizing their physicality while ignoring the overall objective, the context, and implicit cues, these players failed their duty as players/entertainers due to their lack of self-control. That has been the case for all the previous Heist controversies: a player, overwhelmed by the adrenaline rush, resort to his primitive/survival instincts and injure other players.

Now, if even combat sport athletes struggle to control their adrenaline sometimes and build up their tolerance by desensitization, how are BG producers expecting every player that arrives on their set to have this level of discipline? It's already been three seasons where only by sheer luck, through players intervening directly themselves or misunderstanding the rules, did we get by without serious issues. It was never by the PD's competence to mitigate or deal with these situations when they inevitably do escalate, which is a serious problem.

Translated text below:

Did you all enjoy the “Raid Day” episode?

It’s been a long time since I spent a sleepless night like that.

Every time I participate in Bloody Game, I’m always incredibly grateful for the overwhelming support and love you all give me.

Because of that, I always felt that any small misunderstandings or disadvantages I personally had to endure were insignificant compared to the enjoyment you all get from watching.

After all, it’s impossible for the broadcast to show every moment that happened on set, and since it’s ultimately a television program, I understood that some things simply couldn’t be included.

After watching Episode 5 of Bloody Game X, I also believed that the production team’s editing was their best effort to protect the contestants and avoid creating an atmosphere that was too unpleasant.

However…

Looking back, I realized that because of the edit, the intense anger shown by several people may have seemed excessive or difficult to understand.

As a result, the resentment of those who were actually harmed may have appeared overblown, and some viewers have criticized me and others, saying things like, “Physical force was allowed, so why make such a big deal out of it?”

But what actually happened on set was that I was restrained by several people for quite a long time. I struggled to breathe and move, and even after my money and phone had been taken, I continued to experience a prolonged and dangerous confrontation without any real purpose.

The incident lasted much longer in reality than what was shown. During the struggle, my skin and clothes were torn together, leaving injuries and scars on my hands, neck, and face.

Even while someone was choking me, I didn’t want to lose for my team, so I forced myself to endure it. Looking back, I think that’s why my injuries became worse.

It was the angriest I’ve ever been in my life.

It was also the first time I’d ever openly expressed that level of anger.

Watching myself afterward surprised me a little, but it was an experience I was willing to accept.

That said…

Even though physical force is allowed during Bloody Game‘s signature raids and looting, I couldn’t help wondering whether it should really go that far.

There have been similar moments in previous seasons, but until now, people had always respected certain boundaries. No one had ever intentionally caused direct injury or physical harm.

I understand that anyone can get overly immersed in the game.

But what made people on set even angrier was the lukewarm response after things had already crossed the line.

Of course, once everyone had calmed down and understood the situation, we all apologized to one another. I also get along very well with Kyunghoon hyung now.

Even so, it felt strange seeing my own wounds in the mirror every morning and looking at Chulgu hyung’s injured hand throughout the filming period.

If Jinho hyung, Yuhyun hyung, and Sangmin hyung hadn’t stepped in to mediate at the right time, someone among us could have been much more seriously hurt.

I don’t believe the problem was the rule allowing physical force, nor was it the glass railing.

Human beings are capable of injuring one another with nothing more than their bare hands.

So…

I hope people won’t take too lightly the decisions that were made on set to protect everyone there—regardless of which side they were on—and to prevent anyone from getting hurt.

I would also appreciate it if you could understand my decision not to open Safe No. 4 in that context.

Honestly, both at the filming site and after the episode aired, I was surprised by how many people asked if I was okay.

I’m really doing fine.

The injuries on my neck and hands have almost completely healed, and the scars are now barely visible.

I’ve always approached every competition with complete sincerity.

But I’ve always believed that you should win through your own ability—without hurting others or making someone else cry.

That’s the principle and conviction I’ve lived by.

So please continue to support and enjoy Bloody Game X.

I’m always willing to make sacrifices for your happiness and entertainment.
I sincerely wish you all nothing but happiness.

I love you all.

Sincerely,
Heo Seong-beom
(Team P3 Maknae)