Virtual world reality: Chasing the sustainability dream with the RCCO World eX Championship Esports, innovation and fighting climate change By Heather McLean, Editor Tuesday, April 13, 2021 - 09:52
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The World eX Championship combines motorsport, entertainment, innovation and sustainability
The RCCO World eX Championship, a new sustainability-led esports racing series, is gearing up for the third race of its inaugural season which is bringing together a trifecta of esports, sustainability and real-world innovation.
The series is a blend of esports, hybrid real world and virtual world action, including climate change awareness and education, underpinned by a lot of cool technology.
Organised by Racing Concept Cars Organisation (RCCO) E-Sport, a Swiss start up, the World eX Championship combines motorsport, entertainment, innovation and sustainability, led by its founders and chief executives, racing driver Mike Rockenfeller, and Thomas Voigt, a communications expert.
Electric experimentation
eX stands for electric experimental, and that is exactly what this new racing series is about. Voight tells SVG Europe: We are not only doing the racing, but we are also talking about innovations, collecting money for climate projects and then the world champion at the end of the year will give money to one climate project.
Voight continues: We would like to push for a cleaner world with mobility, and we are doing this in the world of esports because until now there has not been much electric racing in esports; maybe a little bit from Formula E who are doing what they are doing. But we said, let's do it from scratch, build our own cars so manufacturers can develop their own cars [within our specifications], and place it in this big world of esports and SIM racing.
Voight says that World eX has faced the same popularity issues that Formula E had initially, where detractors failed to see the appeal over existing motorsports. He notes: Of course we are facing the same problems like Formula E had at the beginning, that people didn't like it because they said, ah, we need petrol engines, but we are so new and already people are starting to say, that's cool .
Voight says that World eX has faced the same popularity issues that Formula E had initially, where detractors failed to see the appeal over existing motorsport
Virtual world reality
To kick off the series in 2021, the RCCO has developed its very own car in cooperation with video game manufacturer, Studio 397. The car has been created with engineers that have ensured the vehicle could be built in the real world.
With all the weight, the dimensions, the power; this is all like it could be real, enthuses Voight. We started working closer together with folks in motorsport a year ago so this car could be built. This is not our aim at the moment; right now we want to stay in the virtual world. But it was important to us.
If you would have unlimited budget, then you would do [the production] completely differently, with satellite and everything, but this we couldn't afford. So I had to find ways [within] a reasonable budget to do a very good production. That's important
Voight adds that with co-founder Rockenfeller being a real racing driver, it was important to him that we are not building a complete fantasy car . Voight goes on: It has to be a realistic. What we want to do over the next couple of years as real technology progresses [in the real world], we want to [integrate] this into our car as well. We can also be a little bit in advance because of course in the virtual world, you can [make changes to designs] quite quickly.
Using the RCCO's platform, manufacturers can sign up to the series and tweak the designs. With both battery electric vehicles (BEV) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) allowed, car brands can design unique bodywork, individual dashboard designs, engine sounds and more, using their designs as proof of concepts to see what esports fans prefer for potential cross-over into the real' world.
Adds Voight: All manufacturers are working with simulations so we can get their data from simulations very early and put it in our cars, like a smaller battery, a lighter battery, more range. Also for the manufacturers we are now talking to, they can test the things which are important to their customers in the future, like how does the car sound, and inside the noise of the electric engines because now all the car manufacturers now have sound designers to create new fascinating sounds. That's why we created more realistic looking cars no fantasy cars more going the DTM or GT3 way from real racing, though the car manufacturers can put their own design language on the cars.
Aurora Media Worldwide is World eX's production partner for #RacingForTheClimate
High production values
Aurora Media Worldwide is working to raise production quality overall as well as taking the lead in producing the series' new show, named #RacingForTheClimate. This show is set to attract car manufacturers, which the series is already in talks with, as well as new fans.
The RCCO World eX Championship will reach over 107 million viewers worldwide with a media equivalence of over Euro 22.5 million.
Aurora has created a green screen area in its London studios where the presenter is based. Comments Voight: It's a quite complicated set up, which caused some troubles in the first show, but they've worked heavily to improve and use different technology for the second one. We have 22 drivers, so 22 drivers sitting all around the world, and their pictures are coming in digitally so it's quite complicated to get all these pictures from all around the world, popping into the system at Aurora.
Then we are working with Studio 397, the game specialists who make the game
