Future Tense

Support Your Team by Sending a Robot to Cheer on Your Behalf

Being a rabid fan doesn’t mean you can actually make it to all of your team’s games. But when you’re not there in the stadium, there’s still a way to make your presence known. Especially if you’re supporting South Korea’s Hanwha Eagles.

The Eagles are a baseball team with a less than stellar record, according to the BBC, so to keep morale high, their stadium is now equipped with robots that can be controlled remotely by fans. (You can make a picture of yourself show up as the “face” of the robot you’re controlling.) If erstwhile Eagles supporters can’t be bothered even that much, the machines can just start cheers and hold up programmable signs on their own. 

“It’s a pretty neat idea,” Andrew Albers, a former Minnesota Twins pitcher who now plays for the Hanwha Eagles, says in the video above. “It gets the crowd into it and really helps them get involved.”

The reality of a robot crowd is probably a lot more depressing than Albers is making it sound, but maybe the novelty will help draw human fans. At least it’s nice to see robots relaxing and enjoying a game given all of the competitions they’re being called to participate in.