Here's Why You Should Watch the $25,000 VCO ProSIM

Here’s Why You Should Watch the $25,000 VCO ProSIM

Nov 1, 2021 6 Min Read Posted by Luca

VCO’s ProSIM Series is making a long awaited return. Here are all the details you need to know about this championship, which features some of the best in both the real and virtual racing worlds.

Image credit: VCO Esports

Returning on 2 November is the VCO ProSIM Series for its second season, an esports championship that takes place on iRacing in which real world pros share driving duties with esports racers. The series ran its first season from November of 2020 until March 2021 across eight rounds where drivers shared a Dallara F317. The series also featured some fun races in a variety of cars.

In that first edition, both the championships for esports racers and real world pros were won by the Coanda Simsport pair of two-time Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup champion Joshua K Rogers and fellow Porsche Supercup competitor Ayhancan Güven. This time round, the drivers will share a Dallara LMP2 car and each event will consist of two 30-minute long races with a scheduled driverswap in the middle of each.

The first race will have a qualifying session preceding it, and every entry will have their real-world pro and esports racer take it in turns to compete in qualifying for each event. For the second race there will be a reverse grid format. There is also a unique twist, wherein the number of drivers whose positions are reversed for the second race’s grid will be dependent upon the community. So, those watching the broadcast, will be able to exercise a degree of influence over the outcome of the race.

UPDATE: Due to the influx of competitors, the schedule instead featured two 20-minute long heat races featuring upwards of 30 cars and the top 15 in each of those races competed in a 30-minute final race.

You can also help decide the track that the drivers will be racing on. By going over to VCO’s official Twitter, you can see the three tracks you can choose from at 3pm CEST on the day of each event. The votes will be counted up until 6:30pm, just an hour and a half before the start of the broadcast!

Who will be competing?

In the first season, F1 drivers Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean competed in some of the rounds. Verstappen is too busy now though battling Lewis Hamilton for the F1 world championship so it is quite unlikely that he will end up competing in any of the rounds. However, Grosjean is more likely, since his November schedule isn’t that busy, but nothing has been confirmed yet on him as of now. So let’s tell you who we know are actually competing.

Reigning champions Rogers and Güven are returning to attempt a defense of their crown, as are their Conada stablemates Mack Bakkum and part-time IndyCar racer Sage Karam. Bakkum and Karam were runner-up to Rogers and Güven in the first season.

Well known esports racers like James Baldwin, Enzo Bonito and Mitchell deJong are all competing as well but are designated as real-world pros on account of their real world racing experience. This points to the likelihood of them being at the sharp end with their co-drivers at YAS HEAT, Team Redline and Conada.

Some well known real world drivers include former IndyCar racer Robert Wickens and Blancpain GT champion Raffaele Marciello. Then you have big esports racers such as Maximilian Benecke, Martin Krönke and last but not least Jimmy Broadbent who will be driving for R8G Esports alongside his real-world racing Praga BritCar teammate Gordon Mutch.

How can we watch?

From 2 November all the way through to 23 November, you can watch every Tuesday from 8pm CEST on VCO’s official YouTube and Twitch channels. Commentary comes from Ben Constanduros, Arjuna Kankipati, Lewis McGlade and also – making his first appearance in an event of this scale – our Hero of the Month for September 2021, George Morgan.

Be sure to tune in to see 60 real-world pro drivers and 60 esports racers do battle over the next four weeks for $25,000 in prize money in the second season of the VCO ProSIM Series.

Will you be tuning in to VCO ProSIM? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!

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