Cyberphysical romance, flying scenes and performances of leading Russian pop stars: highlights of the closing ceremony of “Games of the Future”

“We live the future here and now,” said presenter Igor Lantratov at the closing ceremony of the international tournament. And perhaps this phrase best describes the “Future Games”, which ended today in Kazan. Since February 21, athletes from all over the world (107 countries) have competed in 21 disciplines, showing their sports skills and the impact of digitalization on our lives. And now, when the tournament is over, we can conclude: Fidgetal has become universally recognized, as evidenced by the views of “Games of the Future”, the number of days before the end of which exceeded 2.3 billion.

“For two weeks our capital attracted the attention of the entire world community, thanks to the Future Games people all over the world learned what it is,” said Rustam Minnikhanov, president of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Then, the closing ceremony officially started with the tournament anthem specially prepared for the event by DJ SMASH and Vanya Dmitrienko.

So, Klava Koka, with her robot dog Fidzhik dancing, opened the fidget party. His place on stage was then taken by Lyriq, who first literally flew around the Kazan Expo area like an astronaut, then “played love” with a digital girl. The first “cyberphysical love”, as the presenters said, happened in front of us. The group “My Michelle” also flew in space. True, they were luckier – their flying ship turned out to be a stage moving in space during the flight (we still do not understand how the organizers achieved this). The final of the event was the performance of Niletto, who did not even need special effects because he looked like an e-sports hero.

Artists are great, of course. But the main heroes of the event are, after all, players from all over the world who came together not only to compete in the first physical tournament, but also to find similar fans of their art from other countries. The winners and prize winners of the first “Games of the Future” were 236 athletes from Russia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Spain, South Korea, Philippines, Uruguay, Ecuador, Argentina and Colombia. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have already expressed their desire to host the competition, but many other countries are also interested in hosting the tournament, according to project leaders. The decision on the location of the next matches will be made by the International Federation of Physical Sports, headquartered in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, we know for sure that the next “Games of the Future” will take place in 2025.

“Kazan bids farewell to the tournament, but everything is just beginning for the Games of the Future. We are passing the flag on to other countries. Move forward into the future!” – said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko at the closing ceremony of the Kazan tournament.

By the way, we almost forgot to mention “Future Games” Ambassador Yegor Creed, whose love for phygital we know firsthand. The artist, who also attended the Kazan Expo on the day the tournament ended, spoke to journalists in which he admitted that he wanted to play FIFA with the Moscow football club Lokomotiv Artem Dzyuba: “We have wanted to play with FIFA for a long time. he. He keeps saying he’ll beat me before I even have a chance. But we’ll see.”

However, we did not get to see the rapper’s gameplay or performance. Although, as is known, Egor was still conducting online broadcasts in certain disciplines of the physical tournament in the city.

Let us also remind you that the Games of the Future, the first international multi-sport tournament, started on February 21 and 2 thousand athletes competed for a total prize fund of 10 million dollars.