#RoboCup2026 – humanoid league day 1

RoboCup 2026 opened in Incheon, South Korea, on 2 July, beginning league competitions scheduled to continue through 5 July. The event includes updates to league structures and competition formats, with soccer leagues placing their primary emphasis on humanoid robots.

The humanoid soccer league is organized into large, middle, and small robot-size divisions. Twenty-two teams are entered in the large division, while the middle division has 16 teams and the small division has 18. The opening two days are allocated to seeding rounds, in which teams use a Swiss-system ranking format to determine advancement to the knockout stages.

By the end of the first day, every small- and middle-division team had played two matches. Competition in the large division had progressed partway through its second round. Three small-division teams finished the day on the maximum six points from two games: GeoHBots, CAU Mountain&Sea, and Hamburg Bit-Bots. In the middle division, B-Human, RoboRoos, and HTWK Robots also secured six points.

The day included an opening ceremony as well as matches featuring the humanoid robots. Coverage included a short KBS News summary showing robots in action and a RoboCup video offering highlights from the day. Livestreams were available from the separate playing fields, and the event provided links to its homepage, the humanoid league’s YouTube channel, results page, and RoboCupSoccer homepage. Further daily updates were planned to report results, highlights, and observations on the competition’s progress.