China Buzz: China holds first AI-powered robot football match

Robots from Tsinghua University's THU Robotics team and Beijing Information Science and Technology University's Blaze team compete in a match on June 28, 2025. (China Daily/Zou Hong)

On June 28, 2025, the final of the 2025 RoBoLeague Robot Football Tournament took place in Beijing. The event served as the first trial match for the upcoming 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games and marked China's first-ever fully autonomous 3-on-3 AI robot football competition.

The championship went to the THU Robotics team from Tsinghua University, with second place going to China Agricultural University's Mountain Sea team. The Blaze team from Beijing Information Science and Technology University and Power team from the Future Laboratory, Tsinghua University shared third place. 

The league has won over fans thanks to its unique combination of sports and AI technology. Many spectators at the venue are robotics enthusiasts coming for the charm of cutting-edge technologies.

According to Bian Yuansong, chairman of Shangyicheng Group, which operates the event, RoBoLeague serves as a testing ground for frontier technologies such as bipedal dynamic balancing and multi-agent collaborative decision-making. The event not only provides crucial technical validation for the football segment of future humanoid robot games, but also lays a solid foundation for enhancing the sensitivity of embodied robots.

"The technologies showcased during the competition will be rapidly translated into real-world applications, directly benefiting industrial production and everyday life," Bian noted. He added that the group plans to develop a series of robot competition IPs—including a robot half-marathon and RoBoLeague—to promote the real-world application and development of humanoid robotics across diverse scenarios.

Young spectators cheer for a goal on June 28, 2025. (China Daily/Zou Hong)

A robot from China Agricultural University's Mountain Sea Team is carried off the field after "getting injured" during a match on June 28, 2025. (China Daily/Zou Hong)

Competing robot players make their appearance on June 28, 2025. (China Daily/Zou Hong)

Intern Geng Yujie contributed to this story.