With less than 100 days to go until UEFA Women’s EURO kicks off at Old Trafford, UEFA has unveiled the tournament’s first Hat Trick heroes before a ball has been kicked: a trio of fun mascots who are making their debut in the metaverse.
Kai, Robyn and Ashley appear as interactive characters in ‘The Road to UEFA Women’s EURO’ game on Roblox and star in a skills challenge and edu-tainment series on YouTube alongside Europe’s top players, which will also be distributed via the UEFA Football in Schools programme. The game has been created by metaverse games studio, Dubit.
This groundbreaking campaign aims to appeal directly and authentically to young girls and boys on platforms they consume daily. UEFA are joining other global companies including Nike and Nickelodeon by hosting the game on Roblox, a platform that has over 50 million daily active users – of which over 50% are children under-12.
In the game, players can dress their avatar in their favorite participating team’s colors and train with Kai, Robyn, and Ashley to earn their game powers before taking on a series of Obbys (obstacle courses.) Playing against the clock, players must complete each obstacle course as quickly as possible by scoring goals and collecting golden tournament tickets along the way, with encouragement at each checkpoint by the mascots. A stadium Obby will be unlocked in June.
UEFA Marketing Director Guy-Laurent Epstein gave the following words in his speech;
“The UEFA Women’s EURO promises to be a record-breaking tournament. It has the potential to inspire millions of girls and boys to play football, so it is important for us to take the tournament to the platforms and spaces they occupy. We hope our new gaming experience will capture the imagination of children and get them to interact with football and UEFA Women’s EURO in a way that we have never explored before.
But of course, we want them playing football in real life as well as engaging online. We hope by that by also putting Europe’s best players at the heart of this campaign alongside our Hat Trick mascots, that we will give girls and boys across Europe new heroes to emulate.”
Aiming to inspire children between eight and eleven to both play and engage in football, the mascots call on the help of international players to help them ‘level up’ their skills, understand better the key skills needed to play goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or forward, and to teach them more about how to best fuel their body and to have a good mindset for football and life.
Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas added;
“Europe’s next top players are out there right now, and the UEFA’s Women’s EURO mascot campaign could be the initiative that inspires them to fall in love with the game. It’s been brilliant to play a role in encouraging children to be active. We want to ensure that everybody, everywhere has the opportunity to play football, so it’s exciting that this initiative is being rolled out in schools across Europe.”
