CyberHero global humanoid robot league launches in Riyadh

The first leg of CyberHero, a new global league for humanoid robot competitions, has kicked off in Riyadh, organized by Hero Esports. The event marks the start of an international season planned to span eight cities across four major regions worldwide.

Boulevard City hosted the 'CyberHero × Riyadh' event, offering a unique experience that blended robotic sports, technology, and live entertainment. The event featured the first-ever combat competition between humanoid robots, which are designed to mimic the human body in both form and function, leveraging rapid advances in artificial intelligence technologies.

The competitions used EngineAI T800 humanoid robots, each standing about 1.73 meters tall and weighing between 75 and 85 kilograms. The robots feature 29 movable joints, enabling them to perform a range of actions including walking, running, punching, kicking, spinning, and standing up after a fall.

Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, Chairman of the Saudi Esports Federation, welcomed the selection of Riyadh as the league's launch point, noting that the event introduces a new model that combines competition, technology, and audience engagement.

He said: "I warmly welcome Hero Esports’ choice of Riyadh to host the first CyberHero event. This reflects our audience’s passion and Saudi Arabia’s ongoing commitment to developing the esports sector as a thriving and growing entertainment option."

Dani Tang, co-founder and CEO of Hero Esports, stated that CyberHero was launched from an ambitious vision for the future of competition, focused on testing and developing robots by leveraging data generated during the contests.

She explained that the company is working to establish a global technology lab at its Shanghai headquarters, aiming to bring together technical expertise and talent from around the world, and to use the competitions to drive innovation and advance the robotics sector.

Tang emphasized that Saudi Arabia is a key market in the company’s future plans, noting that CyberHero’s presence in the Kingdom will expand to include talent development and building long-term relationships between youth, companies, and institutions in Saudi Arabia and China.

As the league expands, Hero Esports aims to build partnerships across education, universities, tourism, technology, sports, entertainment, business, and music sectors.

The expansion plan covers four main regions: the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, and Asia. The Middle East will host two of the eight planned events, as part of a vision to bring physical AI technologies from the lab to global competition arenas.

Each CyberHero team consists of three main roles: designers and engineers who build the robots, programmers who develop their intelligent systems, and operators who make real-time decisions during competitions.

Hero Esports plans to further expand the league to include additional disciplines and competitions as humanoid robot capabilities advance, aiming to establish a global platform for robotic competitions that keeps pace with rapid developments in physical AI technologies.