MotoGP eSport Championship 2021 calendar and structure announced

The MotoGP eSport Championship returns in its fifth season for 2021 with new opportunities to qualify, the use of classic motorcycles from championship history and the chance to vote on which bikes are used.

It all starts now, as voting is open, 3rd February to select which classic bike and rider combination is going to be used in the first of the online qualifiers. Further votes taking place on 5th, 10th and 12th February 2021 in the form of polls via social media. The first track that will be used is Laguna Seca – daunting Corkscrew and all.

Utilising the MotoGP 20 video game, the first stage of this season’s esports championship is entitled ‘Pro Draft’ and will take place across four online challenges between 18th March and 11th April. It’s in these Pro Draft events where the legendary riders and machine will be used.

Should players qualify, they will then be placed into the ‘Global Series’. This consists of eight races against each other across four events. Held between 28th May and 12th November, the tracks will be held in person at the respective real-life MotoGP events – Coivd-19 restrictions depending, of course!

The event calendar is shown below, but it’s worth noting that even though the physical event location is announced for the Global Series, the in-game tracks for each race are still to be confirmed. 25 riders in total will make it into the Global Series, three from a separate Rising Stars Series for younger competitors and 22 from the Pro Draft.

According to the esports series coordinator, Dorna, the championship has accumulated 80 million views since 2017, 50 per cent of which are aged between 13 and 24 years old. The 2020 edition was broadcast online and across 16 TV broadcasters in multiple nations.

We’ll certainly be watching this year’s edition and keep it locked to Traxion as we’ll let you know what the final circuits used in the Global Series are, who qualifies and the eventual victor.