More show than sport: First soccer tournament between humanoid robots

Beijing, June 28, 2025 – For the first time, humanoid robots competed in a fully autonomous soccer tournament on a compact artificial turf field at Beijing’s Smart E-Sports Center. Four university teams – Tsinghua University (THU Robotics), China Agricultural University (Mountain Sea), Beijing Information Science & Technology University (Blaze) and a second Tsinghua team (Power Lab) – each programmed identical T1 robots from Booster Robotics with their own AI algorithms and put them to the test in head-to-head matches.

This wasn’t an entirely new spectacle – humanoid robots have long competed in soccer matches at RoboCup events. What made this tournament unique, however, was the complete absence of human intervention. Matches followed a 3-on-3 format with two ten-minute halves and a five-minute halftime break. In the final, THU Robotics defeated Mountain Sea 5–3 to win the inaugural title.

The match leaned more toward entertainment than elite sport – the 45-kilogram (99-pound) players frequently stumbled, collided and occasionally had to be carried off the field when they couldn’t get back up on their own. Still, the crowd of around 300 cheered every successful move and save as a sign of real progress.

The metallic footballers still resemble penguins on ice more than challengers to Kylian Mbappé. Yet the fact that they can now complete full matches without a joystick marks a significant milestone: AI-driven machines are managing complex, dynamic tasks in real time. If progress continues at this pace, the next big leap – friendly matches between humans and robots – might not be far off.