Inside NZ's Viral Sport Trends

The Manly Sea Eagles have now issued warnings to their fans that they will not tolerate the latest viral sporting trend, happening on their home ground. 

Manly are the first to do what many are calling for, especially here in NZ, banning the run it straight challenge.

The viral trend is as simple as it sounds, two people run straight at each other from a set distance away, and try to beat their opponent by bumping them off. 

The challenge is not new, and has been done at schools, parties and trainings for a long time. 

However it has been thrown back into the spotlight with the new ‘RUNIT’ league that came to Auckland a couple of weeks ago. 

The $20,000 cash prize and the ability to ‘go viral’ is the draw card for the contestants.

It’s not the only trendy sport going round at the moment that offers some questionable activity and a huge cash prize. Kiwi UFC star Dan Hooker in collaboration with youtuber ‘TheMacLife’ has started his own kind of fight club. 

Hooker hosted the event in his backyard, offering a $50,000 prize to the overall winner, of the one minute fights.

The opportunity to go viral and win a whole bunch of money is very real, with these videos getting hundreds of thousands of views everytime they are posted and reposted, on platforms like YouTube and Instagram.

Both of these trends are also endorsed and promoted by influencers and athletes alike. Former NRL player and England International George Burgess is part of the RUNIT league, along with famous youtuber Destroying and NZ Warrior Chanel Harris-Tevita who attended the Auckland event. The Warriors as a team have distanced themselves from RUNIT.

Organiser of the backyard scraps, Dan Hooker, has help from another Kiwi UFC fighter Israel Adesanya, who attended the event. 

The main concern of these trends, is the safety of those participating, even though both organisers defend themselves. For both, there are medical professionals on scene, and protocol is followed. Hooker had a referee for the fights, and all gloves and wraps were checked before the competition started. 

He believes the fights are safe due to the shorter fight time, and their two knockdown limit. Still, social media users questioned Hooker, one saying, "Idk how this is legal."

In RUNIT, all participants are run through technique before the start. Their main problem is they are unable to control the collision with a ref, leaving people concerned about the level of contact and potential head injuries. They were banned from hosting the event in two Auckland locations over concerns of safety, and promoting something considered dangerous.

It’s just the amount of these contact or violent sport trends that are coming through. They are extremely popular, and it’s most likely the nature of the sport that it is getting all the clicks. 

These online trends never jut stay 'online' and people who have seen these videos have been taking to the challenges themselves. There has been one death, 19 year old Ryan Satterthwaite, who was playing the RUNIT game with friends. This furthered calls for the sport to be made illegal.

RUNIT organisers shared the condolences, and reiterated that it should only be done under strict conditions. 

All of the hype and money is important to the contestants of both sports, and a lot of them have said it’s an opportunity for them to get themselves and their family ahead. But there are other dangers when these trends are taken outside of the controlled environments.