Kirill Petrushin has been practicing football since that very memorable for the Russian history EURO-2008 when our national team won the bronze medals. He is a student of the chair of football at RSUPCSYT and won with his team the First student games in the Games of the Future format.
— As a sportsman what is your relations with computer games?
— I am just an amateur. I watch, I play with friends to distract from the daily routine, from the training process.
— It is also related to the FIFA?
— Of course, football is my life, no ifs and buts about it.
— Is it hard to switch during competitions from the virtual world to the real one? And do you use your knowledge from the real world when you play the FIFA game and vice versa?
— Of course, I am using what I’ve been learning for so many years playing football in the computer game FIFA where all these mechanisms work. He who understands does know that (in virtual football just like in the real one) players use one-two combinations, they also run ahead and open up getting past defenders. All the same, if you don’t understand football it will be very tough to play sitting in front of a football simulator. It is logical.
— In the FIFA game one person plays for the whole team, there is no team interaction, nor game dynamics. Do you prefer classic football, and is it cooler?
— On the one hand – yes, but on the other I am not so gifted physically as the stars of the French national team and so on, for whom you can play (virtually). Sometimes it is nice to a see a crazy 50-meter dash or some fantastic dribbling – something I can’t execute in real life. But then on the other hand when I was playing football professionally, I was a central defender who in principle is cut off from the game. In principle he is watching the attacking action. So, the FIFA game somehow helps to make these child’s dreams come true.
— How do computer games help a young athlete? Maybe it’s a good opportunity to take a break or spend time with the team also in virtual reality?
— Of course, here is a recent example. We had a debriefing of the tactical game, after the coach left, we calmly organized a mini-tournament in FIFA game just to relax from serious tactical charges and thoughts. Just to play for one’s pleasure.
— Will the sport remain classic 50 years from now or it will become hybrid like at these students games?
— I think, classic sports will never die because after all it brings your life emotions from top level competitions, the same world championships and Olympic games will always take priority in terms of emotions they give to the spectator and to the participant as well. As far as the future of hybrid sport discipline goes… The future belongs to IT-technologies anyway. We all understand it pretty well, everything becomes virtual and IT-related in our life. Therefore, it will keep developing and will only go uphill.
— So, you wouldn’t mind participating in the Games of the Future in 2024?
— For sure, that would be a great experience for me. Why not give it a shot.
