We’re only 2 episodes away from the final episode of Physical: Asia, and the competition has quickly ramped up. I’m not someone who appreciates a physical challenge. In fact, looking at them makes me feel lazier and like I want to give up on everything. But watching Physical: Asia puts a pump even on a lazy person like me. Watching this season has been the most exhilarating feeling, because it’s all about team spirit and how much difference that makes in how you work towards a goal. The end of episode 6 left us eager to see what happens when Amooti tosses his bag, but anyone who has seen this show before knows already that he’s a beast, so I was already sure he’d pull through. Plus, even in that cliffhanger, it was pretty clear the sack went over. After Group A, Group B also took up this challenge, and we finally have the 4 teams who’ve advanced to the next quests. As we draw nearer to the finale, it’s truly confusing which teams might end up there. With that said, let’s jump straight into this week’s episodes.
Which Teams Get Eliminated?
Physical: Asia episode 7 starts off with the intense sack-throwing game, with Amotti’s throw. He manages to do it, and for a bit after that, he’s a little off before he finds his groove and becomes an unstoppable force. Unfortunately, this dampens the Philippines team’s spirit a little bit, and though Justin Hernandez killed it with the sack, he eventually loses, leaving Amotti and Eddie as winners. So, ultimately, it’s the Philippines that get eliminated from Group A.
Then we move on to Group B with the same set of 4 games. Somehow, the competition with Group B for the vault race was way less intense. I feel like if any of these teams were in the other group, they may have lost immediately. But I guess it’s also about the challenge you’re presented with. Japan wins the vault race easily, leaving Türkiye and Mongolia to race again. Türkiye takes this one, leaving Mongolia in last place. In the totem game, Japan had to forfeit for the moment because there was a malfunction in the machine, so they had to do it again after the rest of the games were done. In this game, at first, it appeared that Türkiye would take it again with ease, but Mongolia proved everyone wrong by holding on for much longer. Also, Japan placed 3rd because the time they held on for was less than the other two teams. The next round is the hanging game, and Mongolia has a literal acrobat in their team (I was waiting for this), and for the most part, he looked like he was just relaxing on the ropes. But he also spoke about how this kind of hold can make you cramp, and it’s important to stretch your muscles. The other two teams copy his every move, but unfortunately, Japan loses, and then after a long time, Türkiye also gives up, leaving the acrobat the winner.
In the sack toss match, this group manages to go further than Group A. They last longer in the 15-second time limit stage of the game, despite the pressure, and then the weight is also increased to 20 kg. Yikes, imagine having to toss that so high over your head after doing 150 of them! Anyway, ultimately, Türkiye loses this one. And finally, the two teams that advance to Quest 4 are Japan and Mongolia. I feel like it was a closer game this round.
To make things a little fun, in the middle of Quests 3 and 4, there are a couple of little challenges that the 4 teams have to play. For one, it’s revealed that most people are afraid to fight Eddie one-on-one for obvious reasons. The first challenge is like arm wrestling, but hand wrestling, and Eddie easily wins this. The next challenge is one where everyone has to jump up really high. For this challenge, everyone is excited to see Yun Sung-Bin jump, and I’m not going to lie, it was a delight to watch. This man really floats, and I loved how excited the Australian players were to see him go, but he’s the shortest of the lot, and ultimately, Eloni Vunakece of Australia took the cake.
Who’s Going To Quest 5?
Episode 9 sees the teams battling it out in Quest 4, the most challenging of the quests the show has seen. Okay, so the battle rope is delightfully deceiving because it looks like you’re just flinging your arms around with some rope, but the weight of that rope at that speed can be terribly painful, and you can see that clearly in this challenge. Here, there are sensors at the bottom of the box from which the ropes come out; the teams have to make sure the sensors are hit. In this challenge, only 3 members of the team can participate, so Mongolia and Korea decide to strategize and put in their least strong members because they know that this means only 3 members will be allowed to participate in the death match. Everyone thinks Australia’s going to win this challenge, but Japan also puts up their strongest members, hoping to beat them. The round lasts 4 minutes, and each member has to do a minute each, with the first player having to do two rounds! As expected, Korea gets the least amount of points, followed by Mongolia, but Japan and Australia have to go again to determine who gets to go to Quest 5.
Australia’s got some massive players, namely Eloni Vunakece, Robert Whittaker, and Eddie Williams, all much larger than their opponents, so it does look like they’re going to take this round easily. But Japan’s got a team of agile athletes with tremendous stamina, proven outstandingly by Yoshio Itoi. This man is a beast, and yes, I was looking at his shoulders too. What do you mean, he’s 44? Anyway, you know where I’m going with this: Japan wins this round and becomes the team with the free pass (well, not exactly free, ya know?) to Quest 5, leaving Australia in the Death Match against Korea and Mongolia. Now, the team leaders are asked to open a box in which they find shackles, and the Death Match is revealed.
At the end of Physical: Asia episode 9, just as Korea and Mongolia anticipated, only the remaining 3 members from each team who didn’t participate in the previous challenge are allowed to do this round, leaving Australia on shaky ground. Of course, this means we have to wait a whole week to see who goes to the final, but hey, we’ll also know who wins, so that’s a plus, eh? Who do you think will win this challenge? And do you think Australia will make it to the finals? Let us know in the comments below.
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