- Kazan has seen the start of a digital hockey tournament which wraps up the 2022 phygital season;
- Tournament broadcast applies augmented reality technologies;
- Phygital Games in e-sports are scheduled to for February 2023.
On 9-10 December, the Tatneft Arena venue will be hosting a new hybrid discipline. It will see the phygital athletes first competing in NHL 22 in Threes Eliminator mode followed by a 3×3 hockey face-off on ice. Four teams are participating, to name: “Ak Bars”, Kazan, “Cosmos”, Moscow, “Barys Cyber Team”, Kazakhstan, and the “Naebski” team of bloggers. The winner of the phygital hockey tournament will receive a prize of 1.25 million rubles.
“The look and feel of it is nice,” noted Vladimir Leonov, Minister of Sport of the Republic of Tatarstan. “The handful of teams participating will first play two semifinals, and on 10 December they will be in for two finals. Both amateurs and professionals have been invited. We have even put together a team to represent Kazan under the leadership of the legendary Dmitry Obukhov. The main objective here is to gather feedback from the phygital athletes, viewers and media people.”
Igor Stolyarov, President of the Games of the Future project, told that the phygital hockey broadcast would involve AR technologies. “Vast amounts of superimposed VR elements are integrated in the broadcast. It means that online viewers will have a picture very much different from the one seen from the stands. A great deal of VR graphics and other technologies will be employed to make the picture look more “appealing”,” he added.
On 24 and 26 November, Kazan welcomed two new Phygital Games hybrid disciplines, i.e. racing (Assetto Corsa + karting races) and fighting (Mortal Kombat 11 + MMA). These competitions are held in the lead-up to the “Games of Future” international tournament Kazan will be hosting in 2024.
“I believe that together with our partners, we made all the activities planned a success and fulfilled the set tasks. We tested out the disciplines used in the competitions and worked out all the details so that we have lessons to build on and so we can pack it all together to deliver the Games of Future two years from now,” Vladimir Leonov said.
“And these test events are already a holistic product of their own. We will do our best to put all of these building blocks together well to make sure we have a great event in 2024,” Igor Stolyarov stressed.
The Games of Future team is holding another event early next year. The first Phygital Games of 2023 will feature competitions in three disciplines. “We will be returning in February to test e-sports disciplines with a focus on cyber. With the cyber element involved, it is a bit different because of the technical details. It means that we are facing quite a major challenge,” Stolyarov told.
Phygital Games will be streamed on the “Games of Future” channels along with the VK platforms — VK Play and VK. Follow the link https://gof.vkplay.ru/ to watch the competitions.
Information on the rules of the competitions and the lists of participants are available via the link: https://gamesofuture.com/project/fidzhital_igry_noyabr_dekabr_2022 /.
