One staple for the World Rally Championship’s virtual activities over the past seven years has been an official esports competition.
But, the last official game of the series, WRC Generations by KT Racing, was never to be used in competition, and now it seems, it will have a sabbatical. With the new EA SPORTS WRC game, developed by Codemasters, releasing so close to the end of the year (3rd November), there will not be a series for 2023.
The WRC Esports competition was first held in 2016, in person at that season’s Wales Rally GB using WRC 6. The inaugural champion was Niklas Krellenberg, aka aTTax Johnson. Since then, the most successful competitor has been Lohan Blanc, aka Nexl, with four title victories, including the most recent in 2022.
In fact, Jon Armstrong who is a real-world ERC3 championship this season and a Game Designer on EA SPORTS WRC won the virtual competition in 2018.
Using the upcoming new game, the competition will return in 2024. It will arrive via a free update for the game, adding the ability to compete after the game’s release, confirmed by the title’s Senior Game Designer, Ross Gowing, during a media briefing.
“We have an esports mode coming in 2024 where everyone will have the opportunity to compete to be the fastest driver fastest virtual driver in the world,” said Gowing.
Vehicles created using the ‘builder’ mode, where you can create a fictional vehicle to contemporary rules, will be omitted from the competition.
No details on dates, apart from the year, or formats, have been confirmed so far.
