Coach GAMST (Kim In-jik) and players who will participate in the “2025 King’s World Cup Nations,” a new soccer tournament under the new rules, held an opening ceremony.
At the Frick-Up Studio in southern Seoul on Thursday afternoon, Gamst coach Lee Bum-young and players Kim Hyun-sung, and Shoot For Love Babamba (Choi Jun-woo), who led the support team, held a ceremony to represent Korea. SOOP, which was in charge of domestic broadcasting of the competition, also broadcast the opening ceremony live.
The King’s World Cup is the national version of the King’s League. The King’s League is a seven-member soccer competition that was created by Gerard Pique, a former star defender of Spain and Barcelona, who turned himself into a businessman after retirement. By introducing rules that are completely different from the existing soccer rules, it gives the impression that he is actually playing a video game with various items. Originating in Spain, the game has become popular in many countries.
Many retired famous players participated in the first “King’s World Cup Clubs,” which was an international competition of clubs in 2024. The names of Belgium’s Eden Hazard, England’s Jermaine Pennant, France’s Jeremy Menes and Samir Nasri, Spain’s Pablo Hernandez and Italy’s Francesco Totti were listed. At that time, no Korean team was invited.
The new King’s World Cup Nations will be held with 16 national teams. The Swiss stage, which is usually used in board games and e-sports, will be played in the round of 16 teams, and the opponent team in the next match will be different depending on the results of each match. Korea will meet Brazil in its first match on January 3 (Korea time). Brazil has traditionally been a futsal powerhouse and is considered a strong enemy because it is better familiar with the new rules as it is set to launch the “King’s League Brazil.” In addition, Germany, Italy, France, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia and the United States will participate.
The rules of the King’s League are like a mixture of soccer and a video game. The duration of the game is 40 minutes, which is less than half of that of a typical soccer game, and there is no draw, and if each game is tied, a penalty shootout will take place. At the beginning of the game, only one field player is added every minute to fill seven players. In the 18th minute, the number of players on both teams changes according to the number of dice thrown by spectators. For the final two minutes, if the game is tied, the golden goal rule applies, and if it is not tied, two points per goal increases.
In addition, it is full of game-like elements, such as how the ball falls from the cage above the stadium during kickoff and special item cards that can be used during the game.
The Korean team’s coach is famous streamer Gamst (Kim In-jik) at the competition, which is comprised mainly of celebrities and streamers (internet broadcasters) from around the world. After recruiting a number of professional-turned-players to play in a soccer competition among Internet broadcasters, he will face off with streamers around the world as a coach. General manager Park Ji-sung, Lee Kang-in, Ambassador, and Team Shoot for Love will join the team.
Goalkeeper Lee Bum-young, a former member of the national team, and striker Kim Hyun-sung, a former member of the 2012 London Olympics, were present at the press conference. Goalkeeper Oh Ji-hoon, former national team defender Kang Min-soo, defender Shinsegae, defender Hwang Do-yeon, defender Kim Dong-cheol, midfielder Min Kyung-hyun, midfielder Lee Jung-geun, former national team striker Cho Young-cheol, striker Lee Ho, striker Park Eun-gang, and striker Lee Jung-jin made up the Korean team. Lee Bum-young and other members of the “London Generation” in the past, that is, players who were national team-level and in their mid-30s, will participate in the event. 온라인카지노
GAMST, who showed serious performance without smiling at the opening ceremony, said, “I’m taking this competition seriously. I hope it will be a happy moment even when I look back on it as I get older. I will make good grades and become happy.”
“My goal of this year’s championship is to stand at the home stadium of Juventus, which is the final stage,” Lee said. “I’ve always dreamed of a World Cup since I was young. I’ll achieve my dream at the King’s World Cup,” said Kim Hyun-sung, who played for the youth team when he was active but could not play for the national team. Babamba said, “I think it will be a really fun competition. I’ll do my best to show good performances as much as you look forward to it.”