On Friday, February 23, new champions of Games of the Future were determined: competitions in the disciplines of the Liga Stavok Phygital Hockey, the Liga Stavok Phygital Fighting and the SIBUR Cybathletics ended.
At the Ice Arena, Cosmos X17 and Liga Pro Team hockey players fought for the title of the winner of Games of the Future. The match kept the spectators in suspense until the last seconds and turned out very dramatically. Cosmos X17 lost in the digital part with a score of 0:3, but at the end of the physical stage they were able to win back – 3:3. Nevertheless, in a shootout, the hockey players of Liga Pro Team took the championship of Games, thanks to an accurate throw by Dmitry Myachev. In the match for the third place, Ak Bars beat Baltic Select with a score of 20:4.
“Emotions are overwhelming, we took the gold, we are the champions! I am very happy to become a participant and winner of this tournament, because the level here is incredibly high, both on virtual ice and on real ice. It feels like it’s even higher than the World Championship. The Opening Ceremony alone can be compared to the Olympics. If the phygital sport continues to develop, it will be very cool! Especially for our younger generation!” Dmitry Myachev, a player of Liga Pro Team, shared his emotions.
The winners of the Liga Stavok Phygital Fighting tournament were determined at the Ak Bars Martial Arts Palace. The athletes competed against each other in a console game, and then had three-round fights in the octagon. The title of champions of Games of the Future was won by the Russian team KUZNYA, for which Vladislav Sukalenko, Vladlena Petrova, Vadim Ogar and Denis Zhukov competed. They scored a total of 32 points.
“Six months ago, the first time I was invited here, they said: “There will be a game, and then a fight in the ring.” I didn’t immediately understand what it was, but I won then and now. And in six months, the level of organization has increased tremendously. In general, the level is the highest, because I was at the MMA World Championships in Abu Dhabi. There was also a serious level there, but here it’s just space,” Vladislav Sukalenko, a member of the KUZNYA champion team, shared his impressions.
The second place was taken by the GOR Union team, which included athletes from Brazil, Belarus and Russia (Lucas Nascimento, Alexander Kovalev, Nikita Solonin, Irina Chernyshova). The third place was won by MMA Fighters (Eric Allahverdyan, Nver Khudikyan, Eduard Martirosyan, Maria Artyukhina), who scored 27 points.
The final of the SIBUR Cybathletics discipline was held in Innopolis. Athletes with disabilities faced the task of passing the challenges without mistakes and within a certain time using rehabilitation tools.
The winner was the Russian Cyborgs team, which won the Trophy of Games of the Future. Yuri Larin, Konstantin Karsakbayev, Dmitry Sukhov and Alexey Komlev performed the elements on the track the best of all and with a margin of points (60:45) ahead of their opponents from the Falcon Verts team (Mutab Shoye H Abu Ardhain, Saleh Abdulrahman S Altuvailie, Youssef Ali J Hassan Yosef Jami and Essam Yahya H Buaiti).
“We were worried about our passage, but now everything is over, we can calm down and enjoy. We prepared mentally for the final and set ourselves up to be winners. The support of the fans was very cool — they supported just every minute. We hope that Games of the Future will continue to develop cybathletics as a discipline in which we will be happy to participate and win,” said Alexey Komlev, a member of the Russian Cyborgs team.
The third place was taken by the Pharaohs team (Abuelela Omar, Salman Sherif Ashraf Ahmed, Kamel Tarek Sami Naguib and Bayoumi Raafat Salah Helmi). It was ahead of the participants from Water Buffalos (Nguyen Ti Ngoc Dung, Nguyen Hai Yen, Nguyen Tien Tung and Nguyen Duc Le) by a difference of 5 points (45:40).
In YOTA Phygital MOBA. Dota 2 finalists of the tournament with a prize fund of $1 million have been determined. The prize-winners of The International 2023 LGD Gaming from China met with another Chinese Invictus Gaming team and won a difficult match with a score of 2:0.
“I think Invictus Gaming is a very good and strong team, but we had a great match with them, and we are very happy with it. We don’t have any special preferences about who to play in the finals, but it would be more interesting for us to play with Xtreme Gaming,” said LGD Gaming fourth position player Xiong Pyw Jiahan.
Xtreme Gaming (China) did not disappoint expectations and also beat BOOM Esports with a score (2:0). The final with the tribunes filled will be held at Kazan Expo on February 24.
The Russian teams HLS and YOUNG, who reached the finals, will compete for the Trophy of Games of the Future in the VK PLAY: Warface + Laser Tag discipline. The first finalist was the YOUNG team, which left no chance for Winstrike to win (2:0). In the second game, the intrigue lasted until the last map. HLS defeated ANTAYD in Laser Tag after the opponents exchanged victories in the digital stage.
“I worked towards this for two and a half years just to get to the finals. I’m incredibly happy, my voice is broken, I can’t even scream anymore. Thanks to the fans for supporting us,” Nikita Zadoinov from the HLS team said after reaching the final.
Pairs of semi-finalists in the Battle tank simulator + Super Final tournament were determined in the Kazan IT Park on Friday. The day before, the athletes who had two victories each – Beyond and ENEMY, got into the top 4 directly, and on Friday they were accompanied by two more teams. The games for reaching the finals will be held today: ENEMY – Solnce and WhoCares? – Beyond.
“Games of the Future has an interesting format and a cool organization. The physical stage after the simulator requires special skills from athletes. But we still have to get to this challenge,” said the WhoCares? player Artyom Solokhin.
The CS2 + Laser Tag tournament started at the Kazan Tennis Academy with a meeting of the Russian Looking For Org team and the Zero Tenacity team from Serbia. The rivals fought both in the CS2 digital universe and in the Laser Tag arena. The Looking for ORG team won with a score of 2:1. In the second game of the day, HOTU (Russia) beat RAMBOOT R10 from Spain (3:0).
In the Phygital Basketball with SBER discipline, teams from groups A and B played the second matches of the group stage on the court. Kazan UNICS, led by VTB United League champion Ivan Lazarev, beat Azerbaijan’s Phoenix AZE, losing after the digital part of the match – 28:25. An exciting game was shown by the American team I’m Possible and Les Guepards from Benin (35:36). In group B, the R10 Team USA was stronger than the Partizan Esports team from Serbia (31:18), and the day ended with the match of URAL BASKET against DANGEROUS from Montenegro – 36:32 in favor of the Russian athletes.
On Saturday, February 24, the finals in two disciplines will be held at Games of the Future. At the Kazan Tennis Academy, the champion in VK Play: Warface + Laser Tag will be determined. One of the most long-awaited final matches of Games – YOTA Phygital MOBA. Dota 2 + Super Final – will take place on the big stage of Kazan Expo.
Gazprom Phygital Football discipline competitions will also begin at Kazan Expo, which will be attended by former Russian national football team players Roman Shishkin and Alexander Sheshukov, players of the national teams of Mexico, Guatemala and Cameroon, trainees of famous football clubs. The Phygital Basketball with SBER tournament will also continue, where the games of groups C and D will take place.
Several more CS2 + Laser Tag tournament teams will join the battle at the Kazan Tennis Academy. The semi-final of the Battle tanks simulator + Super Final discipline will take place in the IT park, and one of the most spectacular disciplines of Games of the Future, Battle of robots, will start within the walls of the Kazan Circus.
Information
Games of the Future is an international multisport tournament in the phygital concept, a sports show of a new format combining competitions in physical and digital dimensions. The technology partner is VK Play. More than 270 teams and more than 2,000 athletes from 107 countries are taking part in 21 innovative disciplines in the first Games of the Future. The competitions are divided into five categories, or challenges: sports, tactical, battle, technically assisted, speedrun.
Title Sponsor is PAO Gazprom
General Sponsors:
PAO Gazprom Neft G-Drive
PAO Sibur Holding Sibur
OAO Russian Railways
OOO VK Company VK Play
PAO Sberbank SBER
OOO PMBK (Liga Stavok)
OOO INTERROS Holding Company Interros
PAO Megafon Yota
Official sponsors:
OOO PBO System – Vkusno – i Tochka
PAO Sollers / UAZ
PAO Aeroflot
OOO Wildberries
OOO NTS Gradient – Influence
Roscosmos State Corporation
AO Positive Technologies
AO Russian Post
OOO Nanobarrier – HyDrop
AO Kaspersky Laboratory – Kaspersky
More information about the tournament can be found on the official channels of Games of the Future: