After a season of intense team challenges, the international spin-off of the hit Korean competition show has its champion. Team Korea claimed victory in Physical: Asia, overcoming Team Mongolia in a grand finale that tested the limits of their strength and teamwork. The winning team secured the championship title and the grand prize of one billion Korean won, approximately $700,000.
The finale, released on November 18, 2025, concluded a 12-episode season that started with eight national teams. The show pitted 48 elite athletes from South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Mongolia, Turkey, Indonesia, Australia, and the Philippines against each other in a series of brutal physical contests.
The Final Quest Breakdown
The last stage of the competition was an All-Out Battle, a six-on-six team match featuring three grueling games. The first team to win two games would be crowned the champion.
The first game was the Wall Pushing Match. This contest involved three lanes, each with a moving wall weighing 100kg, 200kg, and 300kg. The goal was to push these walls into the opponent’s territory. The match was played in three rounds, with Team Korea winning two rounds to claim the first victory. Team Mongolia had initially taken the lead by winning the first round, but Korea adapted its strategy, with Yun Sung-bin making crucial moves to secure the next two rounds.
After losing the first game, Team Mongolia chose the next challenge: the Iron Ball Dragging Match. In this game, all six members of each team were tethered to a massive iron ball. Their objective was to work together to drag the ball to their team’s flag within a three-minute time limit. The challenge had five rounds, with the weight of the iron ball increasing in each round based on the team’s combined weight.
Both teams successfully completed the first five rounds, leading to a tie-breaker. In the final simultaneous round, both teams pulled the highest weight—410kg for Mongolia and 430kg for Korea—in a race to the flag. Team Korea grabbed their flag first, winning the second game and the championship without needing to proceed to the third planned game, the Infinite Tail Tag Match.
Meet the Winning Team
Team Korea was a mix of returning favorites from previous seasons of Physical: 100 and new athletic stars.
The team was led by Kim Dong-hyun, a former MMA fighter and popular TV personality. He served as the team captain and brought decades of combat sports experience to the competition. Amotti, a star CrossFitter and YouTuber, was another key member. His victory in Physical: Asia marks his second win in the franchise, having previously won Physical: 100 Season 2 as an individual.
The team also included Jang Eun-sil, a former national team wrestler who became a fan-favorite underdog in the first season of Physical: 100. Yun Sung-bin, an Olympic gold medalist in skeleton racing, contributed his exceptional speed and power. Rounding out the team were two newcomers: Choi Seung-yeon, Korea’s top female CrossFit athlete, and Kim Min-jae, a 23-year-old champion in the traditional Korean sport of ssireum wrestling.
Emotional Victory for the Champions
For team captain Kim Dong-hyun, the win held a special significance after a long career in individual sports. He shared his feelings after the victory.
“I was an MMA fighter for about 20 years, and throughout all those years, the championship belts, all those gold medals, they were always out of reach,” Kim Dong-hyun explained. “Winning Physical: Asia on behalf of Korea with this team means more than any medal or belt I could’ve won on my own. It is truly the honor of my career.”
Amotti also reflected on the difference between his two victories in the franchise.
“At the end of Season 2, this joy of victory was something I experienced just by myself,” Amotti said. “Today, I get to share that joy with my incredible teammates here, and that feels special.”
The Road to the Finals
The finale featured the last three teams standing: Korea, Mongolia, and Japan. They began the final episodes with a preliminary game, a two-person relay race on manual treadmills, which Korea won.
The fifth quest, Castle Conquest, then eliminated one team. The challenge required teams to tug a 2.2-ton cart across a sandy arena and overcome obstacles like a castle gate and a drawbridge. Korea finished first with a time of 17 minutes and 53 seconds, and Mongolia came in second. Team Japan was eliminated after struggling with the castle gate mechanism and failing to complete the challenge within the one-hour time limit.
Team Australia had been eliminated in the previous quest after a tough Pillar Push Death Match against Korea and Mongolia.
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Fan Reactions and Controversy
The finale sparked mixed reactions online, with some viewers expressing skepticism about the fairness of the competition. On social media, some fans suggested the outcome was predictable, with one viewer commenting on the coincidence of a “Korean-produced show filmed in Korea ending predictably with the host nation as champions.”
Specific eliminations throughout the season were also points of contention. Some fans questioned the sensor technology during Australia’s elimination in the Battle Rope Relay. Others pointed to technical difficulties with the drawbridge gate during Japan’s final challenge as appearing “fishy.”
Despite the controversy, the show saw significant global viewership. For the week of November 3-9, Physical: Asia logged 3.6 million viewing figures and ranked third in Netflix’s global Top 10 non-English TV shows.
Final Season Rankings
The final ranking of the eight competing countries in Physical: Asia is:
- South Korea – Winner
- Mongolia – Runner-up
- Japan
- Australia
- Turkey
- The Philippines
- Indonesia
- Thailand
The entire season of Physical: Asia, including the finale, is available to stream globally on Netflix.
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