eSports in Sim Racing to take off

[David Mann]

Hi guys.

I hope you and your families are all staying safe.

It's not that we don't want to promote these events; they get a huge amount of publicity already, the kind RaceDepartment has dreamt of for years.

The truth is we're working on what our strategy should be with events like these at the moment. We are in agreement with you that the world is in a dark place right now and these playful events are a nice distraction from the daily grind. Having said that, we offered to help out in any capacity we could but didn't get a response. I'm not sure if these organisers see us as a threat. They shouldn't. RaceDepartment wants to focus on bringing the community together.

Before the global pandemic hit, we were at the start of making some changes to improve the platform for everyone. Please don't think that we're being spiteful not covering this stuff; we're just overwhelmed trying to do our own thing and slowly implementing those previously mentioned changes. Unlike the new emerging platforms, we don't have a piggy bank to smash for the millions of dollar it takes to launch large scale events. Our small team is putting in a ton of hours on behind the scenes stuff we can't share yet, hoping to bring forward something you, the most passionate community of simracers in the world, will enjoy!

All I ask is to bear with us.

Jenn Cutter
Creative Director, RaceDepartment

Thanks Jenn. Just wondering, do you need permission just to make a front page news post about the event? Just having something like you do for real races would be great, i.e., just make a news post before the event for people to chat and find out how to watch.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

I wish you good luck at advertising concrete block understeer simulator.

notice, I also advertised an ACC event further up in the thread in three different posts ... but maybe that understeers as well, how would I know?

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

interesting development at ACC, pity they do not do this together with the boys here at RD:

SRO E-Sport Championship launches multi-event 2020 programme

- Five-round championship and grand finale confirmed - Separate classes for real-world drivers, top sim racers and public qualifiers - Best of each to face off in grand finale at fan-selected circuit

www.gt-world-challenge-europe.com

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

so interesting, people are moving away from single events and switching to series, seems like everyone figures this is for the long run:

Subaru iRX All-Star Invitational presented by Yokohama to Launch Friday - iRacing.com

Six-race series to feature world-class racers battling for $10,000 purse for charity Starting on Friday, April 10, the world’s top rallycross drivers and a host of crossover all-stars from NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA, and more will do battle on iRacing in the Subaru iRX All-Star Invitational presented...

www.iracing.com

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

and another one, this time for Dirt Rally 2.0, sponsored by Petter Solberg's son Oliver:

DiRT Rally 2.0

www.dirtrally2.com

 

[Michael Stead]

V8 Supercars did their first E-Series race last week. Doing one event each week for 10 weeks on wednesday nights (for aussies)

First race starts at about the 27 minute mark.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

nice!

 

[ears]

Hi guys.

I hope you and your families are all staying safe.

It's not that we don't want to promote these events; they get a huge amount of publicity already, the kind RaceDepartment has dreamt of for years.

The truth is we're working on what our strategy should be with events like these at the moment. We are in agreement with you that the world is in a dark place right now and these playful events are a nice distraction from the daily grind. Having said that, we offered to help out in any capacity we could but didn't get a response. I'm not sure if these organisers see us as a threat. They shouldn't. RaceDepartment wants to focus on bringing the community together.

Before the global pandemic hit, we were at the start of making some changes to improve the platform for everyone. Please don't think that we're being spiteful not covering this stuff; we're just overwhelmed trying to do our own thing and slowly implementing those previously mentioned changes. Unlike the new emerging platforms, we don't have a piggy bank to smash for the millions of dollar it takes to launch large scale events. Our small team is putting in a ton of hours on behind the scenes stuff we can't share yet, hoping to bring forward something you, the most passionate community of simracers in the world, will enjoy!

All I ask is to bear with us.

Jenn Cutter
Creative Director, RaceDepartment

Thanks for taking the time to respond but I can't help feeling that this sidesteps the main issue.

Editorially, RD is still very active in publishing front page stories about - to be brutal - not very much at all. This race cancelled, that race cancelled. Small patch for this sim, some news about another one. And it's mostly second hand news, swept up from other websites and published long after it was breaking news elsehwere.

Surely the people with responsibility for writing this stuff would welcome the opportunity to write about these amazing events that are growing in stature, reputation and quality by the week? Are your editorial staff choosing not to write about these events, feature these events? Or are they prevented from doing so by some kind of policy?

RD's editorial has been justifiably criticised in the past for over-reporting on F1 and flooding the front page with stories about it, reports written by writers who only saw it on TV, same as the rest of us. Those events are not happening now, but something else has emerged in its place. That, in my opinion, is more relevant to RD's purpose than actual racing. Yet it's being completely ignored and, if anything, hidden, on this site.

Your technical staff may be busy working on new platforms, and that's great, but I'm not sure they're even intended to compete with what's happening elsewhere.

It was kind of RD to offer help to these series, and sad that no reply was received. But why should that stop RD helping? If threads were created promoting and reporting on races, pinned to the front page and encouraging comments, then maybe more RD readers would become aware of them, watch them, and discuss them here.

RD could contribute, albeit in a small way, to the wellbeing of its readers in making them aware of what's there to entertain them and giving them a central platform to discuss it. It could contribute to the emergence of these new events and their popularity and, hey, maybe even make their editorial staff more happy by giving them the opportunity to write about the stuff.

And it wouldn't cost millions of dollars.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

latest update on streamed races with real life drivers by iRacing:
Wednesday, 7PM ET, FS1: International Race of Champions (UMP Modifieds at Volusia, GTE at Lime Rock Park)
Thursday, 6PM ET, iRacing.com/live: IMSA iRacing Pro Series (WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca)
Friday, 6PM ET, iRacing.com/live: Subaru iRX All-Star Invitational presented by Yokohama (Daytona)
Saturday, 2:30PM ET, NBCSN: IndyCar iRacing Challenge (Twin Ring Motegi)
Saturday, 9PM ET, eNASCAR.com/live: eNASCAR Saturday Night Thunder (Richmond)
Sunday, 1PM ET, FOX/FS1: eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series (Richmond)

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

and ACC is really getting into the swing of things. Couple of announcements from official teams (Bentley, Aston, FFF) regarding their sim-racing teams:

R-Motorsport reveals Aston Martin livery for SRO E-Sport Championship assault

R-Motorsport has revealed the virtual livery that their Aston Martin Vantage GT3s will carry throughout the upcoming SRO E-Sport Championship.

www.gt-world-challenge-europe.com

https://www.gt-world-challenge-euro...orsport-enters-the-2020-sro-e-sport-gt-series there's a new Bentley 2020 skin announced here!

FFF Racing launches digital team to contest SRO E-Sport GT Series

FFF Racing has revealed a new digital team, FFF Esports, that will contest this year's SRO E-Sport GT Series.

www.gt-world-challenge-europe.com

all of this coming on the heels of the real life Paul Ricard and Spa24h events being postponed

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

public can join the fun at ACC official series now, too:

Registration now open for SRO E-Sport GT Series public qualifying

Registration is now open for drivers hoping to qualify for the 2020 SRO E-Sport GT Series through the public hot-lap competition.

www.gt-world-challenge-europe.com

 

[Terry Rock]

Unfortunate as the events surrounding Covid-19 are for the World, the lock-down offers the best opportunity for e-Sports racing to shine.
With major motor racing events all cancelled, this is the best opportunity for sim developers to organize races and push advertising.
Lots of folks are finding out all they can...going out and ordering equipment as a result of exposure to this virtual racing.
Watch what has been happening to the price of computer parts.
Everything is up in cost.

 

[Neilski]

Watch what has been happening to the price of computer parts.
Everything is up in cost.

True enough. I just realised yesterday that both the RAM and SSD that I bought just after Christmas are now up by nearly 25% in price - was a bit stunned!

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

yep, my son lucked out buying a new graphics card just as the storm broke. we had a good laugh when we looked at the current price.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

public can join the fun at ACC official series now, too:

Registration now open for SRO E-Sport GT Series public qualifying

Registration is now open for drivers hoping to qualify for the 2020 SRO E-Sport GT Series through the public hot-lap competition.

www.gt-world-challenge-europe.com

and on top, you can now win a drive with FFF racing: https://www.gt-world-challenge-euro...rs-in-the-sro-e-sports-gt-series-championship

 

[ears]

yep, my son lucked out buying a new graphics card just as the storm broke. we had a good laugh when we looked at the current price.

My wheel just broke.

Even if stuff was at a reasonable price there's nothing available at the moment. I'm probably need a tx base to replace my t300 but can't see anything anywhere.

I think I'll be watching not racing for a while now!

 

[Neilski]

My wheel just broke.

Even if stuff was at a reasonable price there's nothing available at the moment. I'm probably need a tx base to replace my t300 but can't see anything anywhere.

I think I'll be watching not racing for a while now!

Ouch. The downside of simracing getting more popular all of a sudden...

 

[ears]

Ouch. The downside of simracing getting more popular all of a sudden...

Ha I don't think I've seen a single pro in any of those streams with anything but a top end fanatec!

Add it happens after posting I went for another look on amazon and they're now saying in stock in a week or so for a very reasonable price.

It all went wrong a few days ago. Played acc and the virtual and real wheel weren't synced. Then next time I started up the shell wouldn't calibrate, just kept spinning and spinning.

Did find a tool to fix it but went in game and intermittently it was failing to pick up accelerator and brake. Would press down and nothing happened.

Hoping it's all linked and i haven't been really unlucky with pedals and wheel breaking at the same time...

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

wow, ACC really hitting a home run: Dig the Lineups of real world drivers and pro eSports players, amazing on both counts: Jenson Button! Andrea Caldarelli! Vitantonio Liuzzi (now, that name brings back memories …) Enzo Bonito! Nils Naujocks! Jack Keithley and David Greco (both of whom ran in the Sim Racing Team Challenge I co-hosted ages ago, now that brings back even better memories). Great job! You can still qualify for a spot in the Bronze series.

SRO E-Sport GT Series reveals all-star entry list for 2020 championship

The SRO E-Sport GT Series grid has taken shape ahead of this weekend’s opening contest at Silverstone (26 April), with a host of real-world competitors and leading sim racers set to chase victory in the multi-event championship.

www.gt-world-challenge-europe.com

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

finals in WRC9 Junior shootout tonight, nice format, plus organizers are beginning to realize how important it is we actually see the real life drivers sitting at the sim-wheel in person. Makes it so much more authentic.

Yates, Bulacia to meet in Final

Ten of thousands of fans once more tuned into WRC’s social media channels on Wednesday evening, as the eSports WRC Shootout continued to build towards an exciting finale on Thursday night.

www.wrc.com