Physical: Asia ended up with Korea winning; however, many fans on the internet feel like they cheated in the competition. Some fans claimed that the show was “rigged” in favor of the host nation, while others pushed back.
They pointed to the behind behind the scenes videos and the careful selection process for teams like Mongolia. The debate quickly split the Netflix viewers into doubters and defenders.
Did Team Korea cheat to win Netflix’s Physical: Asia?
Accusations that Team Korea has been cheating on Physical: Asia started way before the finale even dropped. A user wrote on TikTok claiming, “Korea been cheating since they selected their teams,” while another echoed the sentiment saying, “This show is from Korea, of course they’ll make Korea in the final (or even winner).”
This led to the moderator on Physical: Asia’s subreddit to step in and remove any comments that said Korea was cheating. They targeted the word “rigged,” writing, “Your post has been removed, because of the influx of posts regarding ‘rigging.’ Discussions or accusations focused on this topic have created arguments, negativity, and misinformation without any verifiable, factual evidence.”
Some commentators noted, “It was kinda unfair because Korea cherry-picked their participants from the previous two shows’ best contestants. So it was so obvious that they’re gonna win. But congratulations to them.”
However, this claim was again refuted by fans claiming that Team Mongolia was also meticulously picked. Only the county’s best players were included during the match. They wrote, “A Mongol agency saw Physical: 100 Season 1 and wanted to propose a 50 Mongolians vs. 50 Koreans version of Physical: 100. But for three months, there was no response. They persisted and finally got to contact the staff of Physical: 100 while they were filming Physical: 100 Season and join Physical: Asia.”
Even producer Jang Ho-gi confirmed to Deadline that the production sought “traditional sports legends of each country.” Thus, Team Korea was not the only one that had their best competitors on Physical: Asia, and this refutes the cheating claims.
