Humanoid robots powered by AI engaged in a football match for the first time in Beijing, China, on June 28, 2025. Reports say that the robots dressed in black and purple jerseys took on each other in a 3 vs 3 match that was played in two 10-minute halves. The event featured four teams from three Chinese universities: Tsinghua University (THU Robotics), Beijing Information Science and Technology University, and China Agricultural University (Mountain Sea team).
The robots that participated had to operate autonomously without humans controlling them or intervening. AI-driven strategies and built-in algorithms to make decisions made this possible. The robots carried advanced visual sensors to detect the ball and navigate the field. They could even stand up on their own if they fell down, though some needed human assistance and were carried off on stretchers. The THU Robotics team from Tsinghua University emerged as the champions after beating the Mountain Sea team from China Agricultural University with a score of 5-3.
The event was held to demonstrate balance, agility, decision-making, and machine autonomy, rather than athletic speed. The event might just be a preview for the upcoming 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games, scheduled for August 15–17 in Beijing. China is heavily investing in AI and robotics, with projections of having 302.3 million robots in use by 2050. A Chinese company named Booster Robotics supplied the robots. Its CEO, Cheng Hao, emphasized the role of sports competitions for testing and improving hardware-software integration and the algorithms that the robots run on.
