The origins of HADO
HADO began in the mind of Hiroshi Fukuda, founder and CEO of meleap Inc. Hiroshi dreamed of throwing hadouken like in comics and on TV. This passion burned inside of him until HADO was realized as a sport in 2014.
HADO in the UK
In the UK, we currently have 2 providers; UK HADO - based in coventry and running out of the only HADO Arena in the UK - and us, HADO AR Sports, based in Brighton and Hove and running out of the HADO Brighton Centre.
We see plenty of tournaments in the UK competitive scene! Both providers host their own tournaments for anyone to enter (check out our upcoming events), and ESL UK have partenered with UK HADO to host the UK Premiership - a league hosting the best teams across the UK who compete against each other across the year. To earn promotion to the UK Premiership, you must compete through the UK Championship - a league tournament open to entry.
The best players in the UK Premiership are selected to represent their national side.
HADO across the world
HADO is currently played in 37 countries and counting. These countries go head to head in competition to try and become world champions!
European Championship
Once selected to represent their national teams, European teams battle against each other to qualify for the World Cup in Japan. HADO England has a reputation for being very strong, but with more and more time, we've seen a gulf of talent on the European scene which has correlated to stronger and stronger performances from multiple nations!
World Cup
16 teams compete at the World Cup, including the 5 best representative teams from Europe. Teams previously were put into 4 groups, with the best teams from each group progressing into the knockout rounds, but this may be different for upcoming world cups!
HADO used as an educational tool
At the Shibaura Institute of Technology Junior High School, Tokyo, HADO is being introduced into the curriculum
“In developing human resources in science and engineering, we think it’s significant to get students interested in the latest technologies such as AR or VR in the first place. But when it comes to an educational use, it’s not like any AR technologies will work. In that respect, HADO can be of great help for us to realize the vision of the school”