Introducing the DiRT World Championships

Surprise: we’ve just announced that the inaugural DiRT World Championships will begin next week! The brand new eSports championship gives you the opportunity to win a test drive in a stunning RX2 rallycross car in front of a huge crowd at Silverstone. The DiRT World Championships will climax with a huge live final at Speedmachine, the awesome new motorsport festival taking place at Silverstone over the weekend of the British round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship, in May. It’ll also be streamed live on Motorsport.tv, our brilliant broadcast partners for the event.

Using the Community Events system in DiRT 4, you’ll have the opportunity to compete online in a mixture of rally and rallycross races to earn a place in the live streamed quarter-finals and semi-final to gain a place at Speedmachine. Details of the rounds, rules and how to take part can be found on the DiRT World Championships website: www.dirt4game.com/esports.

We’re working with pros to bring you the best championships possible, too. Remember how awesome the F1 Esports series was? Well, we’ve partnered with the same team at Gfinity again to bring you the same high-quality competitive experience for our DiRT championship.

This all sounds great, right? But we imagine you’d like to know little more about the structure and how it’s going to work – so let us fill you in. There will be six weekly qualifying rounds in total, with the first beginning on Monday, 12th February. Round One challenges you to set the best time in a two-stage rally in Australia using a Group A car. The top two times on each platform (PlayStation 4, Xbox and PC) will qualify for the quarter finals.

And because we love a quote, here’s one from Codemasters’ own eSports Manager Andy Gray: “We are delighted to announce the DiRT World Championships. DiRT has a vibrant, dedicated and highly engaged community so we believe that this is the perfect time to introduce an eSport element. Having the final at Speedmachine, in front of a live audience of motorsport fans, adds an incredible incentive. The fact that the winner will then be handed a chance to drive an RX2 car in front of a huge crowd on race day takes it to the next level.”

“We have enjoyed great success working with Gfinity on the F1 Esports Series so we look forward to continuing that relationship. We continue to work closely with our long-term partner, FIA World Rallycross Championship, and have also initiated an exciting new media partnership with Motorsport Network who will leverage its incredible reach to bring the tournament to a wider audience across Motorsport.com, Autosport.com, and Motorsport.tv.”

So, once more for those at the back: the DiRT World Championships qualifying rounds run from 12th February until 26th March! Successful racers will then go through to the quarter-finals , which will be streamed on 8th April, and the semi-finals on 22nd April. The final will take place live at Speedmachine and streamed online on Saturday 26th May. Players will require a RaceNet account (racenet.codemasters.com) to take part – so if by some miracle you don’t have one yet, make sure you’re all ready for Monday.

Good luck to those of you taking part – and remember: race clean, and stay DiRTy!