With their stadium devoid of fans due to coronavirus restrictions, Japanese baseball team Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks have come up with an imaginative, if a little creepy, replacement: dancing robots.
Before their most recent Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) game against Rakuten Eagles, some 40 robots danced to the team’s anthem on a podium in the otherwise empty stand.
Two different robots, some resembling humans and others on four legs like a dog, stamped and shimmied in a choreographed dance that is usually performed by the Hawks’ fans before games in the 40,000 capacity Fukuoka Dome.
Some of the robots wore Hawks caps and waved flags supporting the team.
Boosted by the supportive robots, the Hawks won 4-3 as they look to defend their 2019 NPB title.
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