Quarterfinals Set at Games of the Future Abu Dhabi 2025

Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, the Games of the Future 2025 is taking place inside ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi from 18-23 December, demonstrating how sport and technology is converging to create engrossing, elite competition.

On the third day of action, fans got the chance to watch Phygital Shooter.CS 2 for the first time. Featuring two matches of Counter Strike 2 in a plant-the-bomb format, followed by one first-to-six match of physical laser tag, each club was put through the ringer, demanding extreme focus, physical activity, and accuracy.

Mikhail “Dosia” Stolyarov of xGoat, whose club defeated LIGA PRO TEAM 2-1 in the opening contest, believes that while it is “still early days”, he and his teammates can be confident going into the next tie. “We have only played our first game, so we will see how things unfold,” he said. “But in terms of our approach, we are led by a strong captain, who motivated me and guided me throughout. It made a big difference. We play with discipline, and it’s exciting to be competing alongside such strong teams from around the world.”

Battle of Robots drew a full house, with hordes of rapt fans turning out to watch the explosive first semi-final of the evening, which saw Team Cobalt’s Cobalt edge a tight judges’ scorecard 16-17 against DS Robotics’ Godspeed. In the second semi of the night, Fierce Roc’s Deep-Sea Shark and Daddy Bot’s Daddy engaged in a tussle that saw the former lose a key part of its machinery and the latter burst into flames. With Daddy paralyzed and unable to continue, Deep-Sea Shark progressed to the final.

The much-awaited final provided the sparks everybody wanted with Deep-Sea Shark showcasing its destructive power, repeatedly driving Cobalt into the sidewalls and flipping it forcefully into the air. Taking the victory, Fierce Roc will return home with the stunning Games of the Future Abu Dhabi 2025 trophy and the largest share of the US$400,000 prize pool.

“The final went according to plan,” said Yuchen Luo, captain of Fierce Roc. “It was better than the semi-final and the quarterfinal when we had some incidents, but we came through all the difficulties and here we are now – champions. I knew we had to be very careful – my robot has energy to knock out the opponent, so I just needed to find the right time and deliver the biggest hit. With this prize money, we can now build an even better robot.”

At Phygital Basketball.3on3 FreeStyle brought to you by M42, PBC Astana progressed to the quaterfinal after defeating Derventa Esports Umbrella 39-26. Sardal “Lamska” Abashidze of PBC Astana, who triumphed in both the digital and physical stages, said: “We enjoyed every moment today – we won and are moving forward. Thank you to all the guys who support myself and my team always. Now we enjoy.”

PBC Astana will now face FlashBasket on 21 December, while LIGA PRO TEAM take on GREAT TEAM BRAZIL, who made light work of UzBig Team 37–21 with a dominant 17-3 physical victory on the venue’s eye-catching LED-lit court.

“Yesterday was a harder game and we didn’t expect to lose because it was a team we had beaten last year,” said LEO BRANQUINHO of GREAT TEAM BRAZIL, who will next face LIGA PRO TEAM. “So we used today’s game to put our heads in the right place. We know that tomorrow’s matchup is probably the most difficult one in the tournament. We know all their players from last year. We don’t know which tactics they will use yet of course, but we are preparing some strategies that can be applied.”

Elsewhere, G-UNIT beat TEAM GHANA 22-33 to set-up a last-eight clash with Adria All Stars, while Moscowsky will face Interstellars after the latter came out on top against THE WARRIORS 26-29.

In the MOBA Mobile.MLBB tournament, DianFengYaoGuai (DFYG) needed a little less than an hour to beat Team Vamos 2-1 and qualify for Sunday’s quarterfinals, where they will now face RRQ Hoshi. In a tightly contested best-of-three matchup, the two clubs split the opening rounds, before a prolonged third game ended with DFYG claiming the victory.

Kenneth “SuperKeNN” Marcello of DFYG said: “We thought we would win in two rounds, but our opponents were very strong, so it went to a third. That shows how competitive the Games of the Future are, and we’re proud to come out with the win.”

In the second matchup, Verso Time defeated Homebois in a straight 2–0 series, with each round lasting less than 20 minutes. The fast-paced games demonstrated sharp drafting, flexible strategizing, and coordinated teamwork.

Meikel “versoBoro” Busch of Verso Time, who now face Aurora Gaming in the last-eight, said: “We watched their latest matches and studied their draft. With our coach guiding us, we were confident going in. Everything is managed properly here, so we could focus fully on the game. We’ll prepare for the finals the same way and have some insights into our next opponents, which should be nice for us.”

In an entertaining first fixture of the day in the Phygital Football powered by ADNOC, RFSO Lokomotiv secured their place in the quarterfinals with a 5-3 victory over Granny Smith. After scoring in the 3-1 digital win, RFSO Lokomotiv’s Robert “Roberto” Fakhretdinov also scored in the 2-2 physical encounter, after just five seconds.

“It's been an amazing event,” Robert said. “It's very good to come back here for the Games of the Future in Abu Dhabi. I was here last year and the city is amazing. I'm enjoying every day here. But, you know, it’s the quarter-finals next, the elimination stage. You don't have time to walk, to enjoy and have fun. You are focusing on the game and you're focusing on how to get better in the digital and physical stage.”

Z10 proved their tenacity after losing 2-0 in the digital game against UEL TEAM as they completed another comeback on the pitch to win the match with a final score of 2-4 and qualify for the last eight. “It's an amazing feeling, because we did notdo well in the digital,” said Z10 goalkeeper Marko “ROKSIĆ” Roksić. “But in the game on the field, like always, we're showing everyone that we are the best.”

The quarterfinals of the Phygital Football powered by ADNOC on 21 December will be Troncos FC vs RFSO Lokomotiv, CM Jardim vs Z10, MÉXICO QUETZALES vs CM Stars, and Peñarol vs La Crema FC.

The Games of the Future Abu Dhabi 2025 runs until 23 December. More than 850 participants from 60 countries are competing across 11 disciplines, combining the excitement of live sport with the strategy, precision, and innovation of digital gameplay, for a multi-million-dollar prize pool.

The competition is organized by ASPIRE, the Local Delivery Authority for the Games of the Future Abu Dhabi 2025, in collaboration with Ethara, the Event Delivery Partner, and Phygital International, the Global Rights Holder. The event is supported by key partners, including ADNOC, EDGE, M42, Solutions+, The Galleria, Abu Dhabi Gaming, du Infra, InsuranceMarket.ae, Abu Dhabi Sports Council, Ministry of Sports, Advanced Technology Research Council, and ADNEC Group.

To attend the Games of the Future Abu Dhabi 2025, or to view broadcast streams and schedules, visit gotfabudhabi.com

Fans around the world can also catch all the action live via the central streaming platform: tv.gofuture.games

For more details about the GOTF 2025 timetable, plus all the results so far, go to our schedule page here results.gofuture.games