Il 10 ottobre si accendono i motori virtuali della F1 Esports Pro Series 2018, che eleggerà il team ed il simdriver campioni del mondo virtuali della Formula 1. Da aprile a giugno scorso, sono stati oltre 66mila i giocatori che hanno cercato di guadagnarsi un posto nel Pro Draft svoltosi a luglio, che poi ha eletto i piloti scelti dai 9 teams F1 virtuali partecipanti al torneo (la Ferrari è assente). Le date per le sfide che porteranno al titolo sono tre, tutte dal vivo a Londra e trasmesse in diretta streaming. Qui di seguito tutti i dettagli ed i tracciati selezionati dagli organizzatori.
The wait is almost over and the excitement is reaching fever pitch. On 10 October, the F1 New Balance Esports Pro Series 2018 will get under way at the Gfinity Esports Arena in London, with, for the first time ever, official F1 Esports teams at the centre of it. In the eleven months since the inaugural F1 Esports Series champion was crowned in Abu Dhabi in November 2017, work has been going on behind the scenes to develop and enhance the format. So what has changed? And how does the Pro Series Championship work?
THE STORY SO FAR
Between 13 April and 6 June, more than 66,000 gamers took part in the initial qualifying phase, registering an astonishing 1.1 million laps on F1 2017, the official game of the FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP™, using the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, the Xbox One family of devices including the Xbox One X and PC to post their qualifying times. The prize for the fastest 40 drivers was a place at the inaugural F1 Esports Series Pro Draft in July. After going through a series of assessments at Silverstone during the week of the British Grand Prix, they headed to London, where 16 of them were chosen to represent the nine official F1 Esports teams. The drafted drivers will be joined by nine other elite level sim racers, including F1 Esports Series 2017 Champion Brendon Leigh, rounding off the 25-man group poised to compete in the ground-breaking Pro Series this autumn, which will decide the team and driver championships for 2018. Up to speed?
F1 NEW BALANCE ESPORTS PRO SERIES 2018 – HOW IT WORKS
Nine official F1 Esports teams competing over three live events at the Gfinity Esports Arena in London
Prize pool of $200,000 and the driver and team championships on the line
Drivers will compete for points in ten races across the three live events
They will race each other on custom-built F1 Esports Racing Stations using F1 2018 – the latest release of the official F1 video game, published by Codemasters
Racing on a total of ten virtual F1 circuits – all taken from the 2018 F1 race calendar
DATES: 10 October, 31 October and 17 November
All Pro Series events will be streamed live on Facebook and broadcast globally on selected TV networks
10 October, Gfinity Esports Arena, London
Round 1: Albert Park, Australia
Round 2: Shanghai International Circuit, China
Round 3: Baku City Circuit, Azerbaijan
31 October, Gfinity Esports Arena, London
Round 4: Circuit Paul Ricard, France
Round 5: Silverstone, Great Britain
Round 6: Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
16/17 November, Gfinity Esports Arena, London
Round 7: Hockenheimring, Germany
Round 8: Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore
Round 9: Circuit Of The Americas, USA
Round 10: Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi
