Bremen is the breeding ground for 400 robotic soccer teams

Paranoia and robots go hand-in-hand. For example, is it a leap in logic to assume that robots being made for this tournament aren't destined for military implementation? Running, identifying projectiles, physically outmanuevering masters of technique -- it's all there. Just drop a light machine gun on it (the robotics and weapons systems teams work independently anyways) and you're ready to campaign in the Middle East.

Another huge, freakish impediment to this whole thing is: how, in the name of God, will robots play men? Have these guys ever seen a game of football? It's humans tripping humans, humans slide-tackling humans, humans intentionally fouling humans. I'm sure these servo-heads can predicate-logic their way out of these limitations, but the general spirit is there -- it's vaguely unnatural. Even if the robots are impeccably well-behaved, padded to the max and physically unimposing, something will feel very wrong with these competitions. And regular players will have to change their technique so much to oppose their inhuman opponents that it will constitute a new style of play. So the question will be: can robots beat the [lower-funded and therefore worse] bracket of anti-robot players in 2050? Who cares?

And by the way, 2050? Earth will be a scarred, zombie-ranged firepit by then. And I'm not really interested in this game now. I am more optimistic, though, about Sango and Ami's careers.