HADO successfully delivers new excitement to France at Japan Expo Sud 2020
A soon-to-be professional sport, HADO, has accelerated its growth in Europe to look for the next biggest market. The Japan Expo Sud 2020 held in France introduced HADO for the first time to generate a buzz with excitement throughout the three-day event.
・Japan-savvy French all love HADO!
Japan-related events are held all year round in France, where you can see a number of Japan lovers. This time, it’s the turn of the southern gulf coast city in France to host one.
The 11th edition of the Japan Expo Sud was taken place as a three-day weekend event starting on Feb 28th in Marseille, attracting great number of visitors, more than 40,000.
The event features from the most traditional Japanese cultures such as martial arts, origami, and tea ceremony to the most recent pop cultures including Manga, Anime, and Cosplay.
Among them, the most advanced combination of technology and sport, HADO, caught the eye of the curious visitors. We saw people lining up to try HADO for the first time the whole days of the event to attract approximately 2,000 players until the event ends. Beginners from schoolchildren to the elderly all seemed comfortable with their new challenge to begin since they were able to quickly understand how to play it with the instruction. They put on a head mounted display and a wrist motion sensor to enjoy playing a 3on3 match as using their skills such as firing an energy ball or placing a shield.
・“The video game, it’s me!”
For La Provence, one of the French news media, there seems no way to hide their surprise at the leading-edge techno sport. In their article, they expressed how much the players new to the sport became immersed in a world of Augmented Reality created by HADO after they misunderstood that they were going to play some kind of video game from Japan: “It is as if players were actually in the game, not watching a screen to play! The video game is me!”
In fact, it is one of the HADO’s advantages which differentiate itself from video games or eSports that the players actually can move freely on the real-world courts while using their physical skill to take the match.
The tremendous success of HADO at the Japan Expo Sud 2020 surely helps to bring the sport to more people not only in France but throughout Europe. We can’t wait for more chances to see the soaring enthusiasm for the one-of-a-kind techno sport, HADO!
