The Russian team Winstrike wins the Phygital Games-3 in the discipline of Warface+laser tag. In an intense final, the team beat Repulse by extra scores only — 21:20 (10:10, 10:10).
The teams selected the “District” map to compete against each other in the digital part of the final which took them to the ruins of an abandoned city. Winstrike got a headstart and led 5:2, but Repulse was quick to win back to 5:5. Then the rivals spent quite a while fighting neck-to-neck through the rounds. Toward the end, Winstrike led with 9:7 but Repulse kept on pushing. The digital part was a draw of 10:10.
The physical part of the final unfolded on the lasertag range. Winstrike won the first two rounds which earned it a score of 16:12 but the Repulse players then had three wins and got a lead of 18:16 – for the first time during the match. Winstrike, however, won the next two rounds and got ahead to 20:18 – before the final fight. Repulse, throwing all caution to the wind, was able to even the score to 10:10 and 20:20 in the last round at the end of two stages.
The teams wrapped up the final not only with the same number of points, but also with an equal number of frags. The outcome of the match was determined by a third extra indicator. It turned out that Winstrike had activated devices more often than the opponent during both the digital and the physical competitions. The teams had been made aware of this extra condition for victory at a briefing on the eve of the match.
The winners received the trophy of the Phygital Games along with half of the prize money which was 500,000 rubles.
“It was a tough fight. It was an even game both with Warface and with lasertag. We’d done a lot of jogging and push-ups to prepare for the lasertag match. The experience was fascinating. The format of the “Phygital Games” itself is quite interesting. It has no analogues. It’s very cool. Organization-wise, it’s all perfect both in terms of the digital part and the physical one,” shared Artur Plushevoye Myaso Zhabinets from Repulse.
“The teams had the same number of points and frags so the winner was determined by who had set up the most phygital flames. We spent two hours competing and the game ended up even. Of course, the physical part was harder than the digital one. The lasertag map was pretty balanced for both sides hence the even score,” said Winstrike player Ruslan Framer Kulakhmetov.
The third place was taken by Awinaw which beat MementoMori (11:5, 12:8). Artyom PraVshaA Markelychev stole the game during the digital part by making twenty kills and greatly contributing to the victory of his team. Danila Daniel Abdurakhmanov assumed the role of Awinaw’s lead sniper on the laser tag range. MementoMori, however, showed their potential only toward the end of the match.
“The first day turned out badly for us. We were just getting used to things, to laser tag. In the evening, all of our players got together and we started training hoping to win the third place. Some of our guys were really worn out yesterday. Ultimately, all of our guys are very happy. Organization-wise, it’s all perfect” said Artyom PraVshaA Markelychev from Awinaw.
Background information:
The Games of Future is an international tournament organized in a new format. The games consist of competitions across sixteen hybrid disciplines. Each of the disciplines combines the phygital concept (a blending of physical and digital) thereby bringing together into one classical sports and e-sports or VR/AR technologies which is a test of both physical fitness and tech-savviness for athletes. Kazan will be hosting the Games in 2024.
Official channels of the “Games of the Future”:
The Phygital Games are a series of competitions in the phygital disciplines which precede the Games of Future. Kazan hosted the first Phygital Games on September 21 – 23, 2022. The Games were comprised of four disciplines: digital football (FIFA + futsal), digital basketball (NBA + streetball), Beat Saber and drone racing. In November and December of 2022, Kazan welcomed the Phygital Games in racing (Assetto Corsa + karting races), martial arts (Mortal Kombat 11 + MMA) and hockey (NHL 22 + 3×3 hockey).