The inaugural running of a unique racing esports event, the Virtual Competition Organisation Esports Racing World Cup, starts later today and runs across the weekend.
The ERWC is spread across three days, 28th – 30th January, and three sim racing platforms: Assetto Corsa Competizione, rFactor 2 and iRacing.
Each of the esports racing teams entered has nominated a roster of five drivers, with three of these squad members contesting each of the races on the respective platforms.
The entry list reads like a who’s-who’s of racing esports talent, with some of the most respected professional teams signing up. The full list is below, but highlights include BS+COMPETITION, Logitech G Altus Esports, Williams Esports, YAS Heat and Team Redline.
On Friday, the event kicks off with a series of races in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 on Assetto Corsa Competizione. This is then followed on Saturday with rounds in rFactor 2’s fictional V10 single-seater, the Formula Pro. To round out the weekend, the Supercars Holden ZB Commodore on iRacing.
Some of the teams entered have announced their drive lineups already. R8G Esports, for example, will be fielding sim racing experts Erhan Jajovski, Isaac Price, Maarten van Loozenoord, Marcell Csincsik and Dennis Schoeniger.
Williams Esports, meanwhile, will field Nikodem Wisniewski, Daniel Lafuente, Kuba Brzezinski, Michael Romanidis and Martin Štefanko.
The inimitable Team Redline has entered with Jeffrey Rietveld, Kevin Siggy, Enzo Bonito, Chris Lulham and Patrik Holzmann.
You can watch all three days live on the VCO Esports YouTube and Twitch channels.
This is just the beginning
The ERWC 1 is just the start of a fully-fledged esports series from VCO. In March teams will be invited to take part in the Esports Racing League (ERL) – made up of three seasonal cup series, each consisting of four race events – to qualify for ERWC II in 2023.
VCO Esports Racing World Cup event format
Across each day, and therefore each platform, there will be two heats, a second-chance race, a quarter-final and a semi-final.
Then, only two teams will progress into the final who will battle in a best-of-three format for that day’s victory.
It’s not just each day’s results that count, however, as an overall leaderboard will also be collated aggregating the results across each day and platform to crown an overall winning team.
This is very much a competition to see the best team, the most adaptable across each discipline likely to be the victor.
A $10,000 prize pool is up for grabs on each day, while a $20,000 pot is up for grabs based upon overall event standings at the end of Sunday’s action.
A Most Valuable Driver (MVD) award will also be handed out to the individual scoring the highest number of podiums across all races. Prize money for this is made up of contributions from the community via FundRazr.
VCO Esports Racing World Cup team entry list
- Apex Racing Team
- Arnage Competition
- Ballas Esports
- BS+COMPETITION
- Burst Esports
- Buttler-Pal Motorsport
- Carbon Simsport
- CoRe SimRacing
- Jean Alesi Esports Academy
- Logitech G Altus Esports
- M1RA Esports
- Patrick Long eSports
- R8G Esports
- Rocket Simsport
- Top Racing
- Team Fordzilla
- Team Redline
- TRITON Racing
- Unicorns of Love
- Veloce Esports
- Williams Esports
- YAS Heat
VCO Esports Racing World Cup schedule
- Friday 28th January 2022 – 7 pm CET, 6 pm GMT, 1 pm ET, 10 am PT – Mercedes AMG-GT3, Assetto Corsa Competizione
- Saturday 29th January 2022 – 7 pm CET, 6 pm GMT, 1 pm ET, 10 am PT – Formula Pro, rFactor 2
- Sunday 30th January 2022 – 7 pm CET, 6 pm GMT, 1 pm ET, 10 am PT – Supercars Holden ZB Commodore, iRacing
All races will be broadcast live on the VCO Esports YouTube and Twitch channels.
