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The pinnacle of Rennsport’s competitive ladder has undergone a rebranding and presumed restructuring, as ESL R1 becomes Rennsport R1.
An embryonic sim racing game by Competition Company GmbH, it took the bold move to use esports as a platform to learn and develop, kicking off with a test event in Munich, 2022.
From there, global esports event organiser ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) ran the ESL R1 competition, which used the Rennsport simulation before public release.
The Cologne-headquartered outfit runs popular events using games such as Counter-Strike 2, with the ESL Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) touring the globe.
A slew of well-known teams and drivers used to competing on different racing platforms flocked to the inaugural 2023 ESL R1 season, where a €500,000 prize pool was spread across two seasons, spring and fall. Each had a live, in-person finale.
The first drivers’ title was won by Marcell Csincsik, the second by Maximilian Benecke at the Gamers8 event in Saudi Arabia.
The competition returned in a scaled-down form in 2024, with a single season culminating in the Esports World Cup, where a $500,000 prize pool was divided. Kevin Siggy won the drivers’ crown.
Traxion understands that ESL is not part of the competition for 2025, resulting in a rebrand to ‘Rennsport R1’ as opposed to ‘ESL R1’.
ESL remains involved in sim racing, working on the official Formula 1 Sim Racing championship, which wraps up later this month.
Rennsport R1’s first race is planned for tomorrow, 20th March 2025, with live coverage expected on Rennsport’s own Twitch channel, as opposed to the now dormant ESL R1 channels.
“The Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team is ready to hit the track for Seeding Round 1 at Spa as the Team Championship of Rennsport R1 gets underway – March 21, 18:00CET,” shared the Porsche Motorsport social media accounts earlier today, 20th March.
A ‘seeding round’ could suggest some form of knockout format for the series.
Other outfits sharing on their socials about entry include Williams Esports, Team Vitality, Team Redline, Mercedes-AMG and even Real Madrid’s goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, with his TC Esports squad.
Among that team’s roster is multiple Gran Turismo World Series champion and current Racing Unleashed Racer League competitor Coque López.
As previously announced, Rennsport will once again be used as the racing simulation at the EWC. It will run between 3rd July and 25th August 2025, with the specific dates for the Rennsport element (and prize pools) to be confirmed.
“Racing towards #EWC 2025,” reads the bio of new ‘Rennsport Esports’ social media accounts, set up earlier this month.
Rennsport was unable to provide Traxion with a full season calendar for the new competition, beyond Friday’s proposed first round and the EWC, but it’s believed there will be several rounds.
“At this time, we don’t have a comment on the matter,” said Rennsport to Traxion when asked about the ESL relationship and this season’s makeup.
“But we’re excited to be back at EWC for 2025 and are looking forward to Riyadh!”
Traxion has approached ESL for comment, but a response was not forthcoming at the time of publication.
Update: Rennsport has confirmed that the first race has now changed from 21st March to 28th March.
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