The winners of the first season of Physical: Asia have been revealed. An international spin-off of Netflix's hit South Korean fitness reality show, Physical: 100, the gladiator-style competition launched on October 28 with teams from eight countries competing in several challenges that test strength, endurance, willpower and strategy.
What's Physical: Asia about?
Similar to Physical: 100, contestants – both women and men – go head-to-head in challenges. But instead of individual contestants, this one is a showdown of countries, selected for their sporting histories and distinct characteristics, according to Netflix. A total of 48 athletes feature in Physical: Asia, six each from eight countries: South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Mongolia, Turkey, Indonesia, Australia and the Philippines.
Star contestants included Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao, the only eight-division world champion in history, and Australian UFC middleweight champion Robert “The Reaper” Whittaker.
Fans of Physical: 100 will also be familiar with some of the members of the South Korean team: season two winner Amotti, UFC star Dong-hyun “Stun Gun” Kim from season two, and wrestler Jang Eun-sil and skeleton racer and Olympic gold medallist Yun Sung-bin from the first season.
What's at stake?
Besides national pride, the winning team walked away with a cash prize of 1 billion Korean won ($700,000), vastly upping the stakes from the 300 million Korean won prize in the first and second seasons of Physical: 100.
What were the challenges?
“We built the set across an area the size of five soccer fields, using 1,200 metric tonnes of sand and 40 metric tonnes of steel,” producer Jang Ho-gi said. “Our goal was to harmonise the diverse histories and cultures of Korea and Asia.”
In the first challenge, Territorial Conquest, all eight teams competed for four available platforms set atop a sand dune. Their goal was to get as many team members as possible on one platform while wrestling one another amid the shifting sands dunes.
Like musical chairs, the available platforms were then reduced to two and finally one, as teams with the least number of members on platforms were sent out of the game.
In the second challenge, Shipwreck Salvage, two teams competed to haul cargo from a shipwreck to a designated collection point within 20 minutes. The team that accumulated the greatest total weight of cargo within that time was named the winner. Four winning teams emerge from the eight countries, with the other four losing teams going into a Death Match to remain in the competition.
A slightly altered version from Physical: 100, Death Match required contestants to gain possession of a ball in an arena and then place the ball in their opponent's box. The challenge consisted of five rounds, with each round increasing the team size – from one member to five members per team for the final round. Two teams emerged as winners, with the two losing teams out of the competition.
The stakes were upped in the third challenge, Team Rep Match, where the six remaining teams were split into two groups of three. Each country then picked a representative to compete for four matches.
For the first match, two contestants from each team were required to race and jump over hurdles in the fastest time possible. In the second match, two members were made to hang on to two stone totems each, weighing 135kg per totem, with the team holding on to totems for the longest time earning the highest points. The third round was a hanging competition, where each contestant was required to hang from a rope for the longest time possible. And for the final match, each contestant had to toss a 14kg sack over a four-metre-high wall to their opponents' side within a time limit, with the sack's weight increasing as the match progresses.
Each match was assigned varying points, with the two teams with the lowest tally sent out of the competition without going into a Death Match.
In the fourth challenge, Battle Rope Replay, three representatives from each team were required to whip a long heavy rope up and down to strike a device attached to the end. Representatives had one minute each to register as many hits, with the hits only counted when the device was struck with the requisite force. The country that registered the highest number of hits in two rounds advanced to the fifth challenge, while the other three battled for survival in another Death Match.
In this Death Match, called the 1,200kg pillar push, three members from each team were shackled to a heavy pillar in a circular arena and were required to push it across 100 laps. The country with the lowest number of laps at the end of the time limit was eliminated, leaving just three teams to advance to the fifth challenge.
Before the fifth round, the three remaining teams competed in a pre-challenge competition, where two members had to run on treadmill – with the team covering the most distance named the winner. The winning team was then given a special privilege to view the map for the next game.
In the fifth challenge, Castle Conquest, the teams had to transport a wagon of cargo into a castle with a drawbridge at the gate. After lowering the drawbridge by scaling the castle's wall, gaps in the bridge had to be filled first by heavy wooden beams to allow for the wagon to roll through. The country that took the longest to reach the finish line with the wagon was eliminated.
Following Castle Conquest, the sixth and final challenge was a six-on-six team match that tested every member's endurance and teamwork. Split into three games, the first one was a wall-pushing game, where each team was required to push three wooden blocks, weighing 100kg, 200kg and 300kg, into their opponent's zone. The team who pushed the most wooden blocks farthest into their opponent's zone was named winner.
The loser of the first game was then given the chance to choose the second game, an iron ball dragging match. In this game, all six members were required to drag an iron ball harnessed to their bodies to the finish line. Made up of five rounds, with the weight of the ball increasing with every round, the team that won the most number of rounds was named winner.
With one team dominating the two games, the winner of the first season of Physical: Asia was finally revealed.
When to stream new episodes?
All 12 episodes of Physical: Asia have now been released.
Who won Physical: Asia? (Spoiler alert)
In the first challenge, Team Turkey emerged the winner after a hard-fought strategic game in Territorial Conquest, which tested both physical strength and endurance.
Following their win, Turkey was given the opportunity to pick the match-ups for the second challenge, Shipwreck Salvage. Turkey advanced to the next round, having chosen and beaten Team Indonesia. In the other match-ups set by Turkey, Australia beat Japan, Mongolia beat the Philippines and South Korea beat Thailand.
For the Death Match elimination, the highest scorers from the four losing teams – Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia – were given the chance to pick their opponents. The Philippines chose Thailand, while Japan chose Indonesia.
The Philippines and Thailand were the first to go head-to-head, with the Philippines dominating and knocking Thailand out of the competition after winning three rounds.
In the next round, Japan and Indonesia's fight for survival turned bloody in the first round as Japanese judoka Soichi Hashimoto accidentally cut Indonesian swimmer Glenn Victor Sutanto in the chin, heightening the tension. Hashimoto won the first round for Japan, which then continued to dominate the Death Match, eventually sending Indonesia home.
At the end of the fifth episode, it was revealed that Pacquiao is exiting the show and returning to the Philippines. “I wanted to take a moment and apologise to everyone. I have to leave the competition because of another obligation in my home country,” the boxing champ said. “Also, I want to apologise to my team. We came here with one goal. To show the capacity and capability of Team Philippines.”
Pacquiao was replaced by CrossFit athlete Justin Hernandez.
In the third challenge, Team Rep Match, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines made up Group A, while Mongolia, Turkey and Japan were in Group B.
Australia dominated Group A, easily winning the first three matches, leaving South Korea and the Philippines to battle it out for survival through the Sack Toss Match. Physical: 100 season two winner Amotti delivers a nail-biting triumph in a battle of wits with Hernandez, eventually sending Team Philippines home.
It was then the turn of Group B, with Japan winning the first hurdle game. Mongolia led this group, winning the totem hold as well as the hanging game that proved an easy challenge for circus performer Lkhagva-Ochir Erdene-Ochir – leaving Japan and Turkey to fight for survival in the final Sack Toss Match. Japanese baseball player Yoshio Itoi delivered a blistering show of strength for his country in this match, sending Turkey out of the competition.
In the eighth episode, remaining participants were asked which contestant they would most dread to go against in a one-on-one competition, and an overwhelming number chose Eddie Williams, a professional strongman and Australia's Strongest Man, who weighs 113kg and stands 1.9 metres tall.
Japan won the fourth challenge, Battle Rope Replay, earning the team a spot in the fifth challenge. Australia, Mongolia and South Korea then moved to the 1,200-kg pillar pull Death Match. But this challenge came with a twist – teams were not allowed to send representatives who had already taken part in Battle Rope Replay, leaving Team Australia's Williams hugely disappointed as he thought the challenge was best suited to him.
Australia scored lowest in the pillar push, sending them out of the competition.
Before the fifth challenge, the three remaining teams took part in the pre-challenge competition, which South Korea won, giving the team a chance to peek at the map for the next challenge.
Following the fifth Challenge, Castle Conquest, Japan's time on the show came to an end as the team scored the lowest, leaving Mongolia and host country South Korea to face off for one final showdown.
South Korea dominated the final challenge, winning two of the three games, and making history as winner of the first season of Physical: Asia.
“It's really hitting me now. It's unreal,” said an emotional Dong-hyun Kim, South Korea's team leader who took part in season two of Physical: 100 but was eliminated earlier in that show.
