The first international spin-off of Netflix's hit South Korean fitness reality show, Physical: 100, debuted on October 28, with eight countries facing off for the ultimate showdown. 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. The countries were selected for their sporting histories and distinct characteristics, Netflix said, and, already, some of them are asserting dominance.
Star contestants include 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, which includes 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 first season.
What's at stake in Physical: Asia?
Besides national pride, the winning team will walk 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 are the challenges?
Similar to Physical: 100, contestants on Physical: Asia – both women and men – go head-to-head in challenges that test their strength, endurance, willpower and strategy.
“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, in the Death Match, contestants compete to gain possession of a ball in an arena and then aim to 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.
When to stream new episodes?
Six episodes of Physical: Asia have been released so far, with two countries now out of the competition.
New episodes will be released every Tuesday, with three episodes on November 11 and the final three on November 18.
Who's winning so far? (Spoiler alert)
Team Turkey emerged the winner after a hard-fought strategic game in the first challenge, 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 then 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 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 in a recorded clip. "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.
The week ended in another cliff-hanger during the Sack Toss Match as Australia led Group A with eight points and South Korea and the Philippines tied with five points after three matches. The sack toss will determine which team will be eliminated next from Physical: Asia.
