When we talk about e-sports, especially in Malaysia, it is always about Dota 2, CS:GO, and FIFA. Various other genres of games are pushing for the lucrative e-sports label, and now we can add racing games into the mix. Former Director of Nissan Motorsports, Darren Cox, has established the first ever e-sports team focusing on motorsports named Esports+Cars.
Darren Cox is instrumental in establishing the GT Academy, a program where top Gran Turismo players can get proper training to prepare for a career in real-life motorsports. The program was run by both developers Polyphony Digital and in conjunction with Nissan Motorsports, where he was the director at the time. Several alumni of the programme have now established themselves as pro racers, like Lucas Ordóñez and Jann Mardenborough. Cox’s next venture however, is squarely planted on the gaming side of things instead of turning pro gamers into pro drivers.
Several e-sports teams are known to have teams for different games: Evil Geniuses have players for Dota 2 and Street Fighter V and Cloud 9 have teams for League of Legends and Overwatch, for example. But for Esports+Cars, they are focusing on building a roster for all the major racing games.
At the moment, Esports+Cars will focus on having entries on bug titles like Gran Turismo, Forza, and even Real Racing 3, a mobile racing game with a huge user base. With that, Cox directly mention in a Eurogamer interview that niche games like iRacing is not something they will invest in at the moment.
It will be interesting to see how racing games can foster an e-sports community. With Gran Tursimo Sport partnering up with the FIA for global recognition for online racing, and Forza Motorsport having a greater presence in the MLG, and now an e-sports team that can help develop and sponsor such talents, it’s a good sign that the racing scene will blow up soon, if everything goes accordingly of course.