A fun and inspiring “brain” battle.
University War or Elite League (대학 전쟁) is a South Korean reality show that aims to test skill, intelligence, creativity, and teamwork through games and challenges, with prizes of up to millions of won in educational scholarships.
The first season premiered on November 3, 2023 and the second season premiered on November 15, 2024 on Coupang Play. However, I only discovered this show a few months ago. From where I’m from Indonesia, there’s a similar program called Clash Of Champions (which is also inspiring, maybe I’ll review it another time)
But the concept of University War is more appealing to me. Because the contestants come in groups representing their university. This program features students from prestigious universities in South Korea. 5 universities that consistently appear from season 1 and season 2 are SNU (Seoul National University), KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), POSTECH (Pohang University of Science) and Technology), Yonsei University, and Korea University.
The contestants are selected through a rigorous pre-test, and there are 4 students representing each university. However, later in the episode, usually there are more students who join the show. From season 1, in the second round after a team got eliminated, Korean or American-Korean students from Harvard University appear on the show. And in season 2, they managed to recruit students from Oxford and MIT on the board.
This show tests participants' abilities in mathematics, deduction and memorization. All of the games are extremely difficult in my opinion. It includes mental arithmetic, reasoning and literally superhuman memorization. In the first season, one round usually consists of an ace selection match, an ace match, a main match, and a death match. But in season 2, the ace selection match and ace match was replaced with a benefit match.
An ace or benefit match usually will give a substantial benefit that can be used in the main match. According to Wikipedia, this reality show is nominated in Content Asia Awards 2024, with category Best Asian Original Game Show. Well-deserved because this program is considered successful in setting a new standard in intelligence-competition programming through its fresh format. Some articles also state that University War is produced by the same PD of the similar reality show called The Genius which aired in 2013.
One of the best parts of this program for me is because we can see how each group worked together to complete the challenges in their basecamp. It's so fascinating to see how each group literally has completely different strategies to solve the same game. It proves that contestants not always have to rely on their own brainpower, but also need to think creatively together to determine the best strategy to win.
I think this program also had several impacts for Indonesian citizens, as some people shared how they solved the challenge themselves. For example, on the first main match of University War season 1, the contestants had to solve 300 math questions and could only pass if they input all of the answers correctly. Some Indonesians made videos with a timer to see how many questions they could solve out of 300, which was very inspiring.
The season 2 of this program really caught attention because it featured more complex games and challenges designed with great details. For me personally, even though I could understand the rules and such, I would never be able to solve any of them🤣
However, season 2 is so interesting with many improvements they’ve made. Beside the game itself, the setting of the place and the basecamp have also been updated. And I think you you'll agree with me that Korean shows are always interesting to watch because they add the right background music, sound effects, and even animations that that enhance the viewer's experience.
I think University War contributes to spreading awareness on how important education is. Nowadays, among people who state “school is a scam” or things like that, I think this program helps us to see education in a different way. With the fact that they can turn complex brain quizzes into the most fun and engaging games is truly amazing. They show students' effort to earn scholarships not just for entertainment, but also motivate other students to emulate their perseverance and critical and creative thinking.
Personally, I really love watching the calm and relaxed contestants to learn from them on how to solve problems without rushing even though they are under pressure. I think it's worth watching even if you’re no longer a student anymore. The show is fun and inspiring, please give it a shot!
You can watch the show on coupangplay.com, but:
On Youtube they have additional contents like commentary and behind the scene, so maybe you want to check them out first. Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of this reality show :)