A countdown ceremony to mark 300 days before the start of the upcoming Games of the Future phygital tournament was held both in Moscow and the Russian city of Kazan on Saturday. The first ever international games of its kind are set to take place from February 23 to March 3, 2024.
The ceremony was attended by several high-profile officials, including Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, Rustam Minnikhanov, the head of Tatarstan, and others. Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the ceremony via a video message, calling the upcoming games a “unique event that has never been held before.”
“The Games of the Future will combine e-sports and conventional sports, video games, virtual and augmented reality tournaments, as well as traditional football, basketball, hockey and MMA matches, all on one platform,” Putin said.
The event is expected to bring together participants from more than 100 countries from all around the world, with over 50 of them already confirming their participation, Chernyshenko told Russian media earlier in the day.
“We still have a lot of work to do, but we already see a huge interest of the whole world,” he noted.