eSports in Sim Racing to take off

Promoting these events, making as many people aware of them as possible, so that they know there is a choice there, some live competitive racing featuring familiar names and personalities would, in my opinion, be a positive contribution to the sim racing community.

But they choose not to. Probably because it's against 'policy'.

Whereas TheRace, despite having their own series, have gone out to promote other series and events, despite the fact that some may see them as competition.

Good on you, the race.

 
Probably more to do with the fact that they are competing events, why report on what competitors are doing when you are in the same business of hosting events.
If thats the case, my respect for RD went down a lot. As bad as Covid19 is for everyone, simracing is getting millions of views on primetime TV al over the world!!!
Nothing been mentioned about that here.
rF2, f1 2019 and iRacing are all hosting big events with professional media coverage on TV, featuring real big name racing drivers against the best simracers.
On the frontpage there is almost only mentioning of the endless game updates and real world event cancelations.
 
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The thread I linked to above got moved to an obselete forum, then got merged with another thread.

Anyone would think that RD are in denial of the fact that Esports are emerging in a big way and that they're not a part of it.

Anyway the moved / merged thread is now here. I'll keep updating it gets moved around.

 
Team Redline Real Racers Never Quit round 2 happened last night.

Featuring Max Verstappen, Lando Norris (sadly without LandoBOT), Daniel Juncadella, well I could go on forever - around 40 real life race winners.

This time racing GTE cars around Barcelona.

Maybe iRacing will become the defacto esports platform, as it seems to be preferred by the drivers.

Redline are holding 3 of these events a week for 2 weeks.

It's amazing to see how quickly the drivers - most of whom are not, I think, familiar with sim racing, are improving.

In 3 months time - and let's face it, we have 3 months to spare, I think these online sim racing events are going to become real events with exciting, competitive, meaningful, entertaining racing.

In the meantime it's just interesting to see it grow.


Round 1, featuring F3 cars around Spa, happened earlier in the week.

 
Real Racers Never Quit round 2 happened last night.
Yeah I saw another race where Nicki Thiim got damaged (by some idiot :mad: ) but struggled on - eventhough he dropped from a rather reasonable position to absolutely last.
Then he pitted to (probably) get the wrecked car repaired
But OK then I didnt watch the race anymore - hehe because basicly I consider sim races pretty boring to watch if I dont know one or more of the drivers.
So taking the headline "Real Racers Never Quit" quite literally then most sim racing nerds could learn something here. :sneaky:

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Nicki Thiim is just as entertaining to watch in virtual races as he is in his videos:thumbsup:
 
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And a great guy to meet on iRacing servers (unless of course it's his cat logging in under his name …), I used to have a GT3 setup he once sent me on the server. The set was actually far less "on edge" than I would have supposed it to be, used it all season with minor adaptions for each track.
However, the best Nicki is the Nicki on a real track in a real car. here's hoping we'll see him in 2021 in the GT challenge.
 
and another one going live on iRacing: the new aeroscreen on the IndyCar has never been raced in real life, it gets its debut here: https://www.iracing.com/race-preview-indycar-iracing-challenge-american-red-cross-grand-prix/

great lineup, many real life IndyCar drivers, also it's sponsored by the red cross asking for blood donations!

live channel: https://www.iracing.com/live/?watch=242

This is a six week official series, next stop Barber, there will be a driver's choice track, COTA will be in and the last track will be a non-IndyCar track, commentators are speculating it might be Nords, would be cool.
 
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very impressive Lineup for the SRO ACC charity event this afternoon. Going to watch some of it, as John Watson will be one of the four commentators and I do miss his commentary a lot. Lineup is impressive, including ten chaps who qualifies online, one of them Nils Naujocks: https://www.gt-world-challenge-europe.com/images/News_2020/2903 SRO Charity Challenge - Closed Final entry list (1).pdf
Broadcast can followed on the usual YouTube channel. Schedule:
Sunday 29 March Provisional Timetable
13:30 CET - Qualifying Recap
14:00 CET - Race 1 - Semi Final 1
15:15 CET - Race 2 - Semi Final 2
16:30 CET - Grid qualification for Final
16:50 CET – Grand Final [40 starters / Monza]


watched some of it, so cool to listen to John Watson commentating on people playing the same game you do, though, of course, on a very different level. The event made three things clear:
a) their commentators need better mikes;
b) they need to allow skinning for these events, the pre-fab skins from the car-paintshop look just real dreadful in a "real" race;
c) they need to quickly implement replays during gameplay, was sorely missing, because the "camera" missed a lot of the most interesting points.

Still: great entertainment!

official race report: https://www.gt-world-challenge-euro...-e-sport-gt-series-charity-challenge-at-monza
 
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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
 
and NACAR is putting on the next oval event with a full real life driver grid:
https://www.iracing.com/race-preview-enascar-iracing-pro-invitational-series-oreilly-auto-parts-125/
https://www.iracing.com/how-to-watch-enascar-iracing-pro-invitational-series/

there are in fact so many drivers from the lower NASCAR series who want to join, there is a shootout race held before the real event. Dumbfounding! In Yesterday's IndyCar event, commentators said, iRacing are now actively supplying real life racers with equipment and training, so that seems to pay off.
 
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
Hey Jenn, Thank you very much for a detailed and transparent answer, it is really appreciated, and sorry if we sounded a tad arrogant. Of course we'll bear with you. What you write about the organisers failing to respond to your offer highlights a possible darker side of an otherwise positive development, namely that these organised simracing events involve heavy money, and that kind of removes them from us, everyday simracers, while the community is so fascinating in particular for its openness (the best example of which is RD). So, we are very much looking forward to what you have in stock. Best of luck for your future work!
 
Great race again in the iRacing IndyCar series. Emotional touchpoint: Robert Wickens joined with a special wheel so he doesn't need pedals, legs still paralyzed after his horrific crash. Fantastic to see him race with the other IndyCar greats! Came home on the lead lap. Also good to see what great racing Barber can produce, a track not faring well in most iRacing series. https://www.iracing.com/scott-mclaughlin-scores-first-indycar-iracing-challenge-win-at-barber/
 

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