One of the most prominent mainstream esports organisations in the world is FaZe Clan, and they have now just partnered up with Porsche. Could this be a hint towards them joining sim racing esports?
Image credit: FaZe Clan / Porsche
If you asked anyone to name an esports team, a lot of people’s first answer would be FaZe Clan. The American esports giant fields players in a wide array of competitive games, with teams present in the likes of Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, Fortnite, and more.
For us sim racing fans, though, it appeared unlikely that they would ever compete in sim racing since the prize pools pale in comparison to mainstream esports. But, their newly forged partnership with Porsche may just signal something new on the horizon.
New Territory for Porsche
When it comes to teams that Porsche partner up with on an official basis, there really only is one so far. Coanda Esports ran Porsche’s official works team in the Le Mans Virtual Series, having their drivers solely focusing on that competition and the 24 hours of Le Mans Virtual finale. They did end up winning the championship, but fell short of winning the final round itself.
Porsche’s partnership with FaZe Clan is intriguing, as Porsche have never been involved in mainstream forms of esports before. Fellow German automotive manufacturing giant BMW, up until last year, had partnerships with the likes of Cloud 9, Fnatic and T1. None of them have been involved in sim racing.
FaZe used to be sponsored by Nissan, and that partnership didn’t result in an entrance into sim racing. But could this perhaps be different?
On 23 January, ESL are set to announce their new foray into the world of competitive sim racing with a series they’re calling ‘R1’. ESL are one of the biggest esports organisers in the world. Their partnership with the upcoming sim racing title Rennsport could potentially mean there will be esports-level prize pools.
Incidentally, this isn’t the first time FaZe have been rumoured to be making the move into sim racing. NASCAR held discussions with them to join their own sim racing series eNASCAR back in February 2020, but that didn’t yield any outcome.
With this potentially significant new sim racing championship on the horizon organised by ESL, maybe now is the time for us to get excited about FaZe Clan finally joining our niche little world of sim racing. With it, a huge new influx of viewers from the mainstream esports scene could tune in to see why sim racing is so interesting.
Do you think FaZe Clan are entering sim racing esports? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
