A special “Esports Team Competition” race will be broadcast on the official Gran Turismo 7 channels this weekend, marking the first time that the GT World Series has publicly embraced the wider esports fraternity.
The race, which took place during the Gran Turismo World Finals in Fukuoka in December but behind closed doors, pits 12 of the game’s best-known drivers against one another as usual. However rather than racing for their country or their chosen manufacturer, they’ll be racing for their esports teams.
That means a more colorful grid than the normal GTWS race, with the dozen cars decked out in their official team liveries, as well as a slightly different line-up as many of the teams have their own manufacturer affiliations that you’ll see in other large esports series.
In previous years we’ve seen very little recognition of esports teams from official Gran Turismo live events, which has resulted in some criticism particularly given the lack of an official prize money pot — the lifeblood of esports teams.
Compounding that was a lack of visibility for the teams. The first events saw the drivers wearing plain, mandated clothing on camera, comprising the red (and more recently blue) tops and sponsor-branded gloves and shoes, with only their name and national flag or car manufacturer logo.
This has been relaxed more recently, with some drivers having their esports team logos on their clothing too and, over the last couple of seasons, their car livery during the races where applicable.
A dedicated event just for esports teams, showing off their official liveries in full, is a pretty major step then even if it’s only really in an exhibition format. We’re sure that the participants will put on a decent show for this inaugural event.
It’s no lip-service line-up either, with all 12 being GTWS live event regulars. A couple of names should catch the eye, with reigning double-champion Jose Serrano representing Team Falcons (in his preferred Porsche 911 RSR) and quad-champ Coque Lopez racing the AMG GT3 for the team he manages, TC Esports.
A couple of big names in the racing esports field follow, with Romain Grosjean’s R8G squad represented by Kylian Drumont driving the Ferrari 296 GT3 and Williams putting up Noah Lanuza in its usual AMG. There’s actually five AMGs on the grid, with Galorys, QT DIG∞, and SCARZ making up the other three and represented by Adriano Carrazza, Kanata Kawakami, and Takuma Sasaki respectively. BMW partner squad BS+Competition will naturally be in the M6, with Thomas Labouteley at the wheel.
Serrano’s team mate on the victorious Porsche squad, Angel Inostroza, will be racing against him in the same car for the Mobil Esports Copec team. That leaves three unique entries, with the ARTA team fielding the Honda NSX and GTWS Finals brand representative Ryosuke Tsujimura, Mikolaj Sedziak taking the wheel of the Nissan GT-R again for Vanquish eSports, and one lone Supra from ZETA DIVISION’s Seiya Suzuki.
The broadcast will get underway at 1300 UTC on Sunday February 22, and supports selectable English, Japanese, and Spanish audio.
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