Meet the USC students who ‘WON’ the ‘Squid Dating Game’

Chloe Tran, a sophomore majoring in sociology, was on her way to the USC Village when a man in a red jumpsuit approached her with a recruitment card for the “Squid Dating Game,” a dating game founded by Monji Batmunkh to help create real connections between college students across SoCal.

This social experiment started Wednesday night at 9 p.m. Students had one hour to connect with others in hopes of potentially making a match. The students with the most matches took home the cash prize.

Tran — along with five other students — each won $425 after going through multiple rounds of blind audio dates.

“I was a little hesitant,” said Tran, who is in a committed relationship, “but my boyfriend said ‘Go get that bag, babe.’” Tran won with 16 matches.

Tran described the experience as “refreshing” and liked the idea of being able to meet people through their voice rather than their face, which is exactly what creator Batmunkh hoped for.

Batmunkh is a USC alumnus who went into the startup world in 2019. He started the app called, “Matter” because he felt like dating apps solely focus on outer appearances. The creator said the app has nothing to do with the show “Squid Game,” it was solely a marketing tactic that worked.

Dating game winner Tristan Slagle a senior majoring in electrical engineering, said, “My friend sent me the link, and I thought ‘Squid Game, cool’ and just signed up.”

Slagle, like all the other winners, had no idea he’d win the grand prize. He said that he is active on multiple dating apps and thought this game went beyond the typical swiping left or right. He was also a winner with 16 matches.

“Normal dating apps don’t make people feel good,” Batmunkh said when comparing his app to other popular ones, “People are craving for something more meaningful.”

There were a total of 900 people on the app, 821 of them being USC students and the others from UCLA.

For every player who joined the game, $5 was added to the jackpot. Half of the total amount was donated to Colleges Against Cancer. The rest was divided among the five winners.

Another big winner was Briana Connors, a freshman majoring in sociology. Connors had no intention of winning and participated because she heard the money would be donated to CAC.

“It was cool having the most random [conversations], I would definitely do it again, just to talk to people,” Connors said. She was another winner with 15 matches.

Batmunkh also mentioned that students use it as a way to take breaks from school work.

The winners shared that a lot of the conversations were about school-related topics. “Everyone has their routine with their friends and it’s cool that people are connecting with other groups,” Tran said.

Ana Gutierrez Covarrubias, a sophomore majoring in communication and cognitive science, said she only signed up for the game because money was involved.

“I’ve never joined a dating app so I was hesitant,” Covarrubias said.

Covarrubias does not think she would do it again but liked that every conversation was different, making the dating game a great experience for her. She also won with 15 matches.

Batmunkh plans to continue the Squid Dating game throughout colleges in SoCal. The next college in line is Cal State Fullerton.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Monji Batmunkh. Annenberg Media apologizes for this error.