HADO, the new sport of the Netherlands, is coming to the H20 Esports Campus in Purmerend. HADO is the first sport in the world that combines traditional sport with gaming through Augmented Reality (AR).
The sport is immensely popular in more than 35 countries worldwide and is already played by millions of people in Japan, the United States, Germany, France and Spain, among others. HADO now sets foot on Dutch soil and is ready to be the first AR sport to conquer the Dutch market. From early December 2021 HADO can be played, in combination with various activities, in the VR / AR centre of H20 that will be opened soon. Do you want to become one of the first HADO masters of the Netherlands? Then come and join us at H20, we are looking for talented players who want to start training right away!
Sport of the future
HADO was conceived in 2014 by Japanese-born Hiroshi Fukuda. As a child, he dreamed of throwing "hadoken" (powerful energy balls) like his favourite character Ryu from the game Street Fighter and defeating opponents. With HADO, Hiroshi realised his dream. In a short time HADO has become the international sport of the future. Professional competitions are organised worldwide, including an annual European Cup and the World Cup in Tokyo. The unique and accessible concept offers players a perfect mix of sport, game and strategy. HADO uses revolutionary technologies to combine movement with gaming elements. This makes HADO a pioneer in the field of recreational and professional sport.
H20 Virtual & Augmented Sports
Dirk Tuip, founder at H20: "Right at the start of H20 we wanted to do something with VR/AR gaming and esports. We set this in motion with the help of our partner HP/Omen. However, this often remained a piece of entertainment, whereas we give gaming and the technology that drives it more substance. We want to offer a physical experience that you can't have at home, preferably with several people at the same time. And we love competition. HADO has all these elements!"
Tuip continues: "HADO is truly the sport of the future. HADO has many characteristics of gaming, new technology and competition, which makes it a perfect fit for our campus. Besides that, we, as former handball players, found it extra cool that HADO is like a 3.0 version of handball. HADO will be incorporated into our gaming and esports activities as part of our 'explore esports' programmes. Also, real fanatics can train and even compete in events and tournaments."
Ecosystem
Michiel Verhage, co-founder of HADO Netherlands: "Michael Reibestein and I both have a passion for sports, gaming and technology. Our goal is to encourage a healthy lifestyle by combining sports and gaming with technology to stimulate the youth to keep moving. We want to realise this with HADO! After our first HADO game we were hooked and started a partnership with meleap inc., the creator of HADO, to make HADO big in the Benelux. We are doing this by building an ecosystem around this new sport by rolling out courses throughout the country with the help of licence holders, organising (inter)national competitions and hosting events."
Collaboration H20
The cooperation between HADO and H20 is the basis for the introduction of HADO as a sport in the Netherlands. Both parties have the intention to make H20 the HADO centre of the Netherlands where national tournaments and competitions will take place with the ultimate goal to organise the European Cup in the Netherlands. Besides that, H20 sees a lot of possibilities to exploit a HADO track successfully, but they also want to organise events in the Rabo Esports Stadium. This way HADO and H20 can show in a spectacular way what is possible with HADO.
Come and see for yourself! Game on!