What happens
You know the move. One leg up, arms raised, the whole living room holding still — you did it at eight years old, right after the film ended, and nobody ever told you whether you got it right.
The Crane is AirPunch's final move and the one thing the whole progression points at. Normally you earn your way to it. For this event, the gate is on a clock instead: it opens worldwide at the same instant, so nobody gets a head start. The neural network on your iPhone decides whether it counted.
Fast alone does not win it. The badge goes to the earliest verified submission that clears a quality bar — the model has to agree the Crane was landed cleanly, not merely triggered. Everyone is measured against the same bar, and the app shows it to you before you attempt the move. Among the entries that clear it, the earliest timestamp wins.
- Opens simultaneously in every region — 17 September, 10:00 JST
- Submission window closes 12 October, 15:00 CEST
- Requires iPhone + Apple Watch — the Watch measures, the iPhone recognises, nothing leaves your devices
How to enter
Landing the Crane is only half of it. To claim the World's First you have to prove it.
- Record it. Turn the camera on before you go for the move — AirPunch renders a five-second clip with your move, score and player name burned in.
- Send it — two ways, pick one.
By mail: send the clip to thecrane@konsole.games with your gamer tag in the subject. You get an automatic reply with the exact time it arrived.
By post: put the clip on Instagram, TikTok, X or YouTube with #AirPunchWorldsFirst and tag @playairpunch. The post timestamp counts.
Either way the clock that decides is ours, not your phone's. - Get verified. We check every entry by hand against the motion data from your watch — that the move is a Crane, that it cleared the quality bar, and that the clip matches the run.
The first verified Crane is enshrined in the Hall of Fame — video and player name, permanently — and unlocks a badge on that player's profile that nobody else will ever get.
Participation requires consent to publication and is limited to players aged 16 and over. Clips are stored privately until verified; unverified submissions are deleted.
Be there
Install AirPunch before the countdown ends and turn on notifications — the app pings you the second the gate opens.
Press
Covering the event? The press kit has assets, fact sheet and contact details: playairpunch.de/#press