Esports

GT Academy 2012 seems to have captured the interest of PS3 gamers as the number of unique players participating passed the magic 1,000,000 mark earlier this week.

Information on the second European GT Academy wildcard event is now available!

GT Academy Event 8-5 is the Platform for This Week’s WRS!

In the European rounds of GT Academy last year, Sony hosted several “wildcard events”. These live competitions were hosted at various locations around Europe, and offered players a direct ticket to the final Boot Camp at Silverstone.

The weekend of 9th/10th June once again provided us with a GT Academy winner double-header, as 2011’s champions Bryan Heitkotter and Jann Mardenborough were in action on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

The final rounds of competition are now available in the GT Academy 2012 mini-game, including the all-important, final time trial challenge, which takes place at Polyphony Digital’s newly-remodeled Twin Ring Motegi circuit!

The final round of GT Academy 2012 – the one that really counts – is about to kick off in just a few days!

Thanks to an invite to the race day on behalf of Nissan and RJN Motorsport from Glen Gibson at Jardine International, daan and I were able to spend the day in and around the busy garage of the #35 Nissan Nismo GT-R GT3 – trying our hardest to stay out of the way. With the race over, Jann Mardenborough and RJN Motorsport team boss Bob Neville were kind enough to answer a few questions from us and Calvin de Freitas of Jardine:

Following yesterday‘s disappointing qualifying, with traffic issues leading to a 34th place start, the RJN Motorsport team were looking forward to a strong race in the familiar, wet conditions that play to the GT-R’s strengths.

Following up on their “Road to Dubai” series, which covered the development of all four GT Academy graduates as they worked towards this year’s Dubai 24 Hours, the Eurosport television network has now turned their attention to Lucas Ordoñez and Jordan Tresson’s preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Two new rounds of time trials have just been unlocked in the free GT Academy 2012 mini-game, just as participants log nearly 50 million miles driven in the simulator. Here’s a closer look at the new challenges:

After 24 hours of all-weather driving and some unbelievable twists and turns, Team GT Academy safely brought home their #123 Nissan GT-R first in their SP8T class and 30th overall.

As reported yesterday, the 40th Nürburgring 24 Hours gets underway at 16:00 CEST (14:00 GMT) today, with the Team GT Academy car 47th on the 171-car grid – and first in the SP8T class.

Jann Mardenborough, GT Academy Europe’s 2011 winner, has achieved his first pole position in international competition, less than a year after he first sat in a racing car. Even more impressively, he’s managed this feat at the Nürburgring and on his first visit to the track!

Last year’s U.S. GT Academy winner, Bryan Heitkotter, will be appearing in a special live-streamed event tonight on Twitch.tv.

UPDATE: This app has been removed from the App Store due to a complaint by Sony. More information on the circumstances are available here.

The third and fourth rounds of GT Academy 2012 have just been unlocked in the free downloadable mini-game which is hosting the international competition. As expected, the new rounds bring faster cars and more technical driving challenges:

Any questions about the authenticity of the Twin Ring Motegi screenshot that emerged yesterday can be quickly forgotten, as the image (along with another completely new shot) have been discovered on SCEA’s press site.

A very interesting new screenshot emerged today on German video game news site PlayFront, in an article they posted about GT Academy 2012. Included with a batch of various promotional images is one screenshot labeled “Round_8_Twin Ring Motegi East Short Course”, which you can see above.

GT Academy’s 2010 champion Jordan Tresson gets a second chance at an LMP2 debut this afternoon as the Signatech Nissan team take to the track for the WEC Spa 6 Hours.