Yes, yes the football World Cup. But also in Germany concurrently as if to cash in on the interest in football in that country we have the Robot Soccer World Cup. A great idea, and one which suffers slightly from Robot Wars syndrome. ie You say the name to me and I think of C-3PO kicking a ball around, not a souped up remote control car. I think it will be some time before we see Number Five playing at number 5, or any position.
Still they are an ambitious sort according to the BBC story. The hope is that a robot team will be able to beat the Human World Cup champions by 2050. One assumes just before subjugating us under robot control and then destroying all of mankind. Maybe football is all we have left.
Unfortunately I can’t find any UK teams. So instead I might be rooting for: RFC Cambridge: from Harvard / MIT, The Orient (Japan) or Austin Villa from the University of Texas.