World Online Racing is a major F1 league that houses some of the top esports level talent. But their first race showcases Codemasters and EA’s inability to resolve desynchronisation issues.
Image credit: World Online Racing
There are two F1 22 racing leagues which feature the top drivers from the F1 Esports Pro Championship. The first and most well known is Premier Sim Gaming Leagues, but the other is World Online Racing. The latter hold their top tier races on Sunday evenings.
The first round of the latest PC WOR season was held last Sunday, and it involved a bit of controversy. Towards the end of the race, McLaren Shadow driver Bari Boroumand and 2-time F1 Esports champion Jarno Opmeer seemed to be getting a bit aggressive, and there were multiple instances of Boroumand turning in on Opmeer as if wasn’t there.
As we later came to find out, that was literally the case. For Bari, at least.
What Happened?
Heading towards turn 3 at the Red Bull Ring, Boroumand veered over into Opmeer’s line on the outside. Then on the last lap at turn 6, it happened again, resulting in Opmeer spinning and not scoring. A lot of people in the chat were quick to assume the McLaren driver had just decided to drive without any respect for those around him on track.
But it came out afterwards that desynchronisation was to blame. Even Opmeer called it at the time. But what is desync? Basically, Opmeer wasn’t shown on Boroumand’s screen. This meant that the Iranian was just driving his normal lines, whilst Opmeer felt the full effect of Boroumand’s car driving into him.
This cast a dark shadow on what should have been an amazing season opener for WOR. Boroumand’s McLaren teammate Lucas Blakeley ended up on top ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Nicolas Longuet, after Boroumand had to recover from an early spin after taking pole.
Desync isn’t a new issue, though. It has happened continuously in the lower divisions across all competitive F1 game racing. Just last year, many leagues including PSGL had major desync issues not long after F1 2021 launched which caused uproar. Plus, even the official F1 Esports Pro Championship isn’t safe from it.
Back in 2020 during the F1 Esports round on the Canadian Grand Prix circuit, Opmeer had the same issue. Racing then for Alfa Romeo, Opmeer saw Ferrari’s David Tonizza disappear from his view right from the start and he spent the whole race never seeing Tonizza. It then culminated in the last few laps, where Tonizza was sandwiched against the wall and flipped upside down by Opmeer who never saw him.
What do you make of the desync issue on F1 22? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
