Watch Humanoid Robots Play Soccer and and It’s Magnificently Awkward
Beijing just gave us a taste of the robot apocalypse, but instead of war, it's soccer, and it's delightfully clumsy. All of a sudden, I’m not so worried about a robot uprising.
On June 28th, the city hosted its first Robotic Soccer Tournament, and it delivered everything you didn’t know you needed: awkward sprints, theatrical wipeouts, and robots trying their digital hearts out.
The semi-finals saw Team Vulcan from Tsinghua University go toe-to-metal-toe with Team Blaze Light from Beijing Info & Sci-Tech U, featuring six humanoid robots that moved like toddlers in Halloween costumes trying to play FIFA.
Legs flailed, balance algorithms glitched, and somewhere deep inside their code, you could feel them really trying. It’s a hilarious and weird to watch.