Rally Like a Virtual Pro: Behind the Scenes of FIA World Rally Championship's Esports Strategy

Rally like a virtual pro: Behind the scenes of FIA World Rally Championship's eSports strategy By Heather McLean, Editor

Thursday, April 25, 2019 - 10:16

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eSports has long been part of FIA World Rally Championship's (WRC) global strategy, yet it has had to wait for technology to move forward to enable it to really go to town on the gamers.

Driving rally cars like a pro in the eSports WRC series

WRC has been in the gaming business significantly longer than many motorsports, comments Marc de Jong, director of business development at WRC Promoter, and team project leader on interactive gaming. Speaking to SVG Europe, he states: We published our first dedicated WRC video game in 2001, and since then we've licensed 18 games. We've been in eSports long before it was called eSports!

Long time in the making

Early on in the game 17 years ago in fact WRC ran a one-off eSports competition. De Jong says: In 2002 we did a global WRC Challenge with Sony Playstation. We invited the 18 national winners to come and play in the final at the Rally de France that year, and the ultimate winner took home a car. It was at that point we realised it was great to watch gamers in real time, competing at actual events, so we're very experienced in this field.

However, due to a general lack of suitable connectivity globally, WRC has had to wait for technology to catch up to its eSports aspirations. 2016 was the year things finally came together and WRC was able to run its first virtual competition under the banner of eSports WRC.

WRC chose to work with French game development studio, Kylotonn, for the second time, and game publisher BigBen Interactive for the first time, to create the 2016 version of its game, WRC 5. Notes de Jong: In 2016 we launched the then latest official iteration of the WRC game, WRC 5, and the stars aligned. Alongside the game launch, we launched eSports WRC on WRC 5 with the support of WRC competitor, Hyundai.

Realistic visuals from the upcoming WRC 8, out this autumn

From 2016 the WRC has evolved its approach to its eSports series. Notes de Jong: The first year we held a qualifying round in parallel with the real world WRC. We held eSports rounds online and after 10 online rounds and two online semi finals, we invited the 18 top players to come to a live rally event, which was the final round of the real world WRC Wales Rally GB, so the two finals - real world and eSports - were held together.

De Jong adds: In the first two seasons over 2016 and 2017, we were focused on building a foundation. The technology was our biggest challenge. When it comes to our eSports strategy, the focus is all about getting the basics right. There are a lot of technology challenges with [eSports]; you have to make sure everyone is able to compete on equal footing and that we are able to hold the final with no glitches. We wanted to get a fair, entertaining experience in place, which was definitely a challenge, so that was our focus for the first two seasons.

Evolving the model

Going on, de Jong notes: We've repeated that effectively every year, with two changes. The third season was about enhancing and enriching what we had, evolving it to be a more attractive competition, so from that perspective in 2018 we shortened the season and created the Team Competition. Our real world season lasts 11 months, but in 2018 we shortened the eSports season to nine months; in reality we found it was difficult to keep gamers engaged for 11 months, so it felt a little better to make it more compact.

In 2018 eSports WRC also included a national competition for the first time. The host country of the series final was to be Germany, so a national competition allowed one German gamer who won the national competition there to get a wild card' straight through to the world final. Coverage of the German finals and the world finals of eSports WRC were integrated into the WRC TV feed.

Racing to the finish line at the 2018 World Finale

It is key to give the players direct feedback into bettering the game itself, and therefore to motivate them to keep playing, states de Jong. In eSports your gamers and viewers are everything. It's easy to say they'll play the game as it is, but in reality there are so many details that make the game more attractive. At Kylotonn last month we had an open day where we invited leading eSports players to give their feedback on the game for 2020 already.

De Jong states that the live finals attracted around two million views on various social media outlets and WRC TV. In addition, there were 13 million views of videos that BigBen Interactive and players uploaded during the qualifying sessions for the last year's eSports WRC season.

eSports is a tool for the WRC to further engage with its audience, says de Jong. Its viewership for the real world WRC is already in the same general age group as eSport gamers, so the WRC does not need to use eSports to bring in more punters, as other motorsports are aiming to do with their eSports strategies. Instead, it uses it to enhance the experience of being a WRC fan, both for real world and eSports, together.

Strategy for success

Explains de Jong: Our strategy is based on three pillars; we want to educate, engage, and entertain. It just so happens that video games as a channel attract a younger audience, but as a demographic, WRC attracts that group anyway - 16 to 35 year old males - which is a younger demographic than most motorsports. That stands testament as the amount of games we've published; we've had a new game out nearly every season since 2001.

eSports is a communication channel; it enables us to talk to younger audiences, but that's not all it's about. We want them to engage with the cars, learn more about the drivers and about how our sport works. It

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