Event August 22, 2026 · Peking, China (National Speed Skating Oval)
Events & competitions
Humanoid robots increasingly compete — in football (RoboCup), the half-marathon, the boxing ring and the first "robot olympics". Such events are a vivid gauge of real-world maturity. With videos and sources.
Event July 17, 2026 · Shanghai, China (Xworld Expo Centre)
WAIC 2026 — World Artificial Intelligence Conference Shanghai
Event July 16, 2026 · Nanshan Cultural and Sports Center, Shenzhen, China
URKL-Auftaktkampf 2026: Matador gegen White Eagle
Event July 6, 2026 · Incheon, Südkorea
RoboCup 2026 – Humanoid League
Combat sport February 9, 2026 · Shenzhen, China
URKL — humanoid free-combat league
Kicking off 9 Feb 2026 in Shenzhen, reportedly the first "free-combat" league with full-size humanoids. Teams field EngineAI T800 robots; the season champion wins a belt worth ~10 million yuan (~$1.44M). The 2026 season runs in stages across the year.
Multi-sport August 14, 2025 · Peking, China
World Humanoid Robot Games 2025
The world’s first games exclusively for humanoid robots (Beijing, 14–17 Aug 2025). 280 teams from 16 countries competed in athletics (100–1500 m, hurdles, relay, long jump), football, combat/kickboxing, dance, obstacle course and industrial tasks. Unitree dominated with 11 medals (4 gold); X-Humanoid’s Tiangong Ultra won the 100 m. Falls and glitches were common — a realistic gauge of today’s maturity.
Expo July 26, 2025 · Shanghai, China
WAIC 2025 — humanoid demos
At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (Shanghai, 26–29 Jul 2025), ~80 embodied-AI firms showed 150+ humanoids and 60 new models. A crowd magnet was a "fight club" boxing ring with remote-controlled Unitree G1, plus a "robotics street" demonstrating everyday tasks.
Tournament July 20, 2025 · Salvador, Brasilien
RoboCup 2025 – Humanoid League
The central football league of RoboCup: fully autonomous robots play without remote control (KidSize to AdultSize). In 2025 (final 20 Jul, Salvador, Brazil) a Chinese team won AdultSize for the first time in 28 years — Tsinghua University ("Hephaestus", on the Booster T1) beat China Agricultural University 5:3.
Combat sport May 25, 2025 · Hangzhou, China
CMG Mecha Fighting Series / "Unitree Iron Fist"
The first combat-sport tournament with humanoid robots (Hangzhou, 25 May 2025), hosted by China Media Group and Unitree. Four kid-size Unitree G1 (1.32 m, ~35 kg) boxed over three 2-minute rounds. Remote-controlled by human teams, but with human-like strike sequences trained via motion-capture and reinforcement learning.
Race April 19, 2025 · Yizhuang / E-Town, Peking
Beijing Humanoid Half-Marathon (Yizhuang)
The first half-marathon (21 km) where humanoid robots ran on a separate lane alongside ~12,000 human runners (19 Apr 2025). Of 21 robots, only 6 finished; Tiangong Ultra (Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center) won in 2:40:42. Robots needed human assistance (control, battery swaps, cooling). Note: the human record (~57–58 min) was NOT beaten — contrary headlines are misleading.
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