China staged its first fully autonomous humanoid-robot soccer tournament in Beijing on 28 June, bringing together four university teams in a three-a-side contest that organisers billed as a breakthrough for embodied artificial intelligence. Each side fielded identical T1 robots supplied by Beijing-based Booster Robotics, but relied on proprietary algorithms for vision, balance and in-game strategy. The child-sized machines identified the ball, chose passing lanes and attempted to right themselves after falls without any human intervention; several toppled repeatedly and two had to be removed on stretchers. After two ten-minute halves, Tsinghua University’s THU Robotics defeated China Agricultural University’s Mountain Sea squad 5–3 to claim the inaugural title. The event served as a test for more complex matchups and highlighted how software, rather than hardware, now determines competitive edge in robot sports. Organisers said the exhibition previews the World Humanoid Robot Games, set for 15-17 August in Beijing, where 11 robot disciplines—including athletics and gymnastics—will be contested. Booster Robotics chief executive Cheng Hao added that sports provide a controlled yet demanding arena to improve safety protocols and refine locomotion before robots interact with humans on shared fields. The spectacle underscores Beijing’s broader push into humanoid automation. Morgan Stanley estimates China’s robotics market could expand to about $108 billion by 2028 as factories, logistics firms and elder-care providers adopt machines capable of increasingly sophisticated physical tasks. Engineers involved in the tournament expect rapid performance gains as the robots learn from every stumble on the pitch.