ESL is teaming up with Rennsport for new competitive experience

The ESL is looking to firmly plant its flag in the sim-racing scene, as it has now unveiled ESL R1, which is a competitive racing experience that will be run alongside Rennsport. As the website states, this will look to fuse "racing culture and the digital age to give you a virtual racing experience unlike anything you have seen before."

As for what this will look like in practice, we're told that the 2023 calendar will be split into two seasons with each culminating in a live, final event and a total prize pool of €500,000. The first of which will be the ESL R1 2023 Spring Season, which will kick off at IEM Katowice on February 10, seeing all eight partner teams and all four wildcard teams in attendance.

As for how the teams will be structured, each team will support four drivers, who will each compete in eight rounds of regular season tournaments - with a round being seven total races (four quarterfinals, two semifinals, and a grand final). Each race will also feature a qualifying session beforehand to determine the starting grid. At the end of the season, the top 24 ranked drivers will head to the ESL R1 Major to fight to be the year's champion.

The teams are a range of esports organisations and professional motorsports organisations, and are as follows:

• FaZe Clan


• FURIA


• G2 Esports


• Heroic


• R8G Esports


• Mouz


• Team Redline


• Porsche Canada


• BMW M


• Mercedes-AMG


• Apex Racing Team


• Williams

When the action starts in a few weeks, you will be able to catch it live here.