Lessons learned from Rugged Rugby

In Korea, Rugby is considered a minor sport, it’s popularity nowhere close the ranks of soccer, baseball or basketball. While Korea’s national rugby team have made an appearance in the Tokyo Olympics, they have yet to debut at the World Rugby Cup. But even without a committed fanbase, Korean-produced Netflix reality show “Rugged Rugby” has gained significant traction since the release of its first season in 2024. 

Rugged Rugby breaks all norms when it comes to broadcasting rugby, and yet is a more engaging watch than most docuseries. That’s because the show doesn’t assume its viewers know a thing about the sport, but uses every tactic in reality TV to get them emotionally invested. 

A huge investment in filming equipment, gruelling challenges, and dramatic editing all help maintain tension and excitement. But there’s a lot of more thought in the show’s storytelling. Ongoing commentary and text overlays explains the sport to the uninitiated, build context, and makes it more accessible to people who’ve never watched a minute of rugby in their life. 

What can sports live streamers learn from a Korean reality show?

Naturally, most people streaming an unknown or minor sport usually won’t have the same budget as Rugged Rugby’s producer Chang Si-won. (In addition to the cost of elaborate sets and prize money, Chang also invested in customized microphones for 200 players and 140 cameras.) 

However, with effort, good planning, and some cooperation from teams and players, you can apply some of the show’s storytelling tricks. Here are three key lessons learned from Rugged Rugby, and how you can implement them in your next live stream: 

1. Help viewers get to know teams

To help establish the stakes before each competition, Rugged Rugby goes out of its way to highlight existing rivalries between teams, and how each team views each other. Titlecards appear as teams walk on set, sharing whether a team holds rank as undefeated title holders – allowing viewers to make their own conclusions about each team’s strength. There is also always time to discuss longstanding rivalries between different teams.

A team’s history and context is usually exclusive knowledge that only fans of a particular championship or league know, and isn’t necessarily common knowledge to someone who follows the sport locally. Flashing a few words onscreen can completely shift that balance, and help a casual viewer understand why they should care about the game’s outcome. 

Here’s how to apply that to your live stream:  

• Share a team’s win or lose streak. Are they defending champions, or are they the underdogs looking for a big break? 
• Talk about important rivalries. Some colleges and universities have decades of rivalry that carry across to all events, including less popular sports. 
• Coordinate with competing teams, so you can catch them on camera before gameplay. This buys you and your viewers time to familiarize themselves with each team.
• Add each team’s logo next to facts about their team, so your viewers learn to associate the right logo, uniforms, and colors with the right team. 

2. Give players more character

In Episode 1 of Rugged Rugby, every time the camera focuses on an individual player, a quick text overlay flashes on screen next to their face. This introduces us to the player’s name, their position, sometimes their height and weight, and a fun fact that sometimes has nothing to do with their career. For example, Kang Soon-Hyuck’s fun fact is “Has cauliflower ears”. 

In a team sport, this helps differentiate each player and humanizes them beyond their athleticism. People love rooting for characters, so introducing each individual means audiences are more likely to stay engaged. It’s also funny, and builds layers of context in each episode. 

Here’s how to apply that to your live stream:  

• Invest in a close-up camera, so you can zoom in on individual players. 
• Add an overlay with the player’s name, position, whether they’re captain or vice-captain, and a fun fact that makes them stand out from other members of the team. This can be as simple as “Plays in the national team” or more humorous, like “The last to get on the team bus”. 
• Do your research on players and teams before hand, so you can create 
• Set everything up hassle-free with uno’s Standard-themed Player Lower Third. This free, fully online overlay links up to a Google Sheet template that you can fill in easily with player names, numbers, and a short fun fact.

3. Break down the basics of the sport

Another thing Rugged Rugby does really well is explain the very basics of the game in quick, easily digestible snippets. In the very first episode, the show explains the basics of a scrum, which is a key part of every rugby game.

In addition to the commentator’s narration, messages flash onscreen to highlight the important key points, like the 3-4-1 person formation of a scrum, and that the combined weight ranges from 800-900 kgs. 

Here’s how to apply that to your live stream:  

• Add short sentences explaining key moments that are the cornerstones of the sport, including defense tactics, plays, and how you can score points. If a foul has been called, it can be good to explain the rules behind it. 
• Keep it short and snappy. You can always break an explanation up into multiple overlays if you need to. 
• If your goal is to lift a sport from obscurity to national fame, you need to start by making things as simple as possible. Don’t be afraid to explain the obvious. 
• Prepare basic text ahead of time for things that will definitely happen in each game, like goals, penalties, and fouls. 

Tell compelling stories with uno overlays

You don’t need the budget of Rugged Rugby producers to create a visually appealing and impactful broadcast. Explore our library of animated overlays and use as many as you want for free, just by signing up with your email. You don’t ever need to download pesky ZIP files, because all of our sports overlays can be edited and controlled completely online! If you can’t find the overlays you’re looking for, or just need additional support, hop onto our official Discord.