Kevin Siggy became Team Redline’s first individual Drivers’ Champion at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, despite Sebastian Job winning a record-breaking four races in a row earlier in the day.
The British driver took pole position and won races two through five as he secured Finalist Mode first, the point at which a win would secure the championship. However, he couldn’t get that last win in the remaining four races of the night.
Siggy was teetering on the points total of Finalist Mode from Race 5, but suddenly couldn’t string a lap together in Qualifying, something which caused him on one occasion to bizarrely smash his head on the steering wheel in a rage. Despite bleeding from the forehead, his pole lap in Race 9 was extraordinary, and in hindsight was enough there and then for the $25,000 top prize.
ESL R1 Finals, Esports World Cup 2024, Riyadh
The day started by deciding the lineup for the final in what turned out to be the most exciting race, the Last Chance Race from Monza. Tuomas Tahtela and Caique Oliveira qualified half a tenth apart in first and second, leaving the rest to fight for third, the last transfer spot.
Jeffrey Rietveld went off after contact at Ascari with a few laps to go, but the biggest incident would involve Jamie Fluke, Mitchell DeJong and Erhan Jajovski, as they all ended up in the gravel at the first chicane. Coming out of the dust first was Yohann Harth who passed Charlie Collins, then held on at the final turn to make the Drivers Championship final, joining his teammate Kevin Ellis Jr.
Josh Rogers was the favourite on paper given his points advantage, but would struggle all day long. After Kevin Siggy’s pole and win in Race 1, despite a huge challenge from Kevin Ellis Jr throughout the race, Siggy was the championship leader and didn’t give it up for some time.
Although the story wouldn’t be about him early on, it was all about Sebastian Job’s pure driving exhibition.
Over the next four races, including the new Jeddah Corniche Circuit he’d told media he was struggling with, he took pole position and the win with very little challenge. With his final victory in Race 5 at Hockenheim, he overtook Siggy in the standings and locked in Finalist Mode for the first time.
However, Qualifying became a bigger struggle for Job in Finalist Mode, and Daire McCormack was the first to break the streak at Monza. This could have been a concern, but Kevin Siggy and Josh Rogers were also struggling to get near Finalist Mode.
The pair scored just 27 points between them in three races, an unusually small total for two drivers at the top considering one race win is worth 25 points. Because of this, frustration boiled over for Siggy in Race 7, and he smashed his head on the steering wheel in rage after a second failed Qualifying lap in two races.
He required brief medical attention and was still bleeding from the head for some time, but it almost seemed to spark him back into life.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Job never got closer to winning than in Monza’s second race, where help from Luke Bennett got him into second but didn’t quite leave enough time to catch Max Benecke, who forced an eighth race. These extra races allowed the German to get into Finalist Mode too, alongside Job and Siggy, for a grandstand finale.
The three set their laps in Qualifying almost one after the other. Benecke first set the pace, Job responded with a time just a couple of tenths down, but it was Kevin Siggy whose lap was sublime. A 1:35.3 at Hockenheim hadn’t been seen before throughout this week until he managed it at a crucial moment, and in hindsight, this was the winning move.
After a clean start, and after weathering the storm of Max Benecke closing in from second, he didn’t have to battle for the lead throughout the 10-lap race, and so was able to cross the line to become the Esports World Cup Drivers Champion.
For someone who had never been in Finalist Mode before, this was a huge step. At the event, Siggy seemed surprised and almost overwhelmed by the feeling of victory in ESL R1.
And with Team Redline’s strong performance across the board, with three of the top four finishers, this surely makes them favourites for the Teams Championship, contested over the three remaining days of the Esports World Cup.
Featured image courtesy of ESL R1
All other images courtesy of Ewan O’Leary
