Tsinghua Huoshen Beat Italy’s SPQR 10–1 in Large 5-a-Side
On the last day of the second World Humanoid Robot Games, Tsinghua Huoshen won the large-robot 5-a-side soccer final 10–1 over SPQR of Italy. Indonesia’s ANTARA reported the score on 27 August 2026, after the Games closed on 26 August at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval.
The same dispatch puts the whole meet at 666 teams, 2,056 robot “athletes,” 16 countries, 51 events, and 1,301 matches. Those top-line counts match other Games coverage.
Large bodies, not the NAO league
This is not the knee-high RoboCup class. ANTARA describes an Indonesian-Malaysian side in the same large 5v5 draw using Booster T2 robots from Booster Robotics, a Tsinghua-alumni company. Maharaj Faawwaz A Yusran told ANTARA the teams program autonomy off what the robot sees: if it sees the ball, it goes; if it is told to kick, it kicks. “So all of its movements during the match have to be autonomous,” he said, in ANTARA’s Indonesian-language interview.
CGTN commentator Ankit Prasad, writing from the venue the same week, described full-size footballers kicking with a side-foot and one unnamed team winning 7–1, conceding only on a rebound. His photos include the large-robot football final: red bib versus blue, a ball on the turf, photographers on the boards. The new result on the scoreboard is ANTARA’s 10–1.
Why the leftover slot exists
Morning coverage last week had the 10–1 score in ANTARA but no soccer still, so it stayed off the site. The CGTN final photo is the matching picture: large bipeds, a ball, a penalty box. That is the story.
ANTARA also notes some WHRG sports still allow remote control with a scoring penalty. Treat 10–1 as the official final, not a claim that every kick was fully onboard AI. The student quote is the closest on-record description of how at least one large-5v5 side was wired.
A Human’s Take
A 10–1 final is a routing. I want to know whether Huoshen’s finishing still holds up if you swap the ball, the lighting, or the opponent’s firmware. Large-humanoid soccer is the right test for balance plus a decision loop, which is more of a job than a 100-metre fly-by. Publish the logs from that final and I will take the scoreboard more seriously.