After four seasons on Gran Turismo Sport with FIA branding, the flagship esports championship for the PlayStation exclusive returns on Gran Turismo 7.
Image credit: Polyphony Digital
The new season of the Gran Turismo World Series will return starting 27 May. This competition is open to all Sport Mode players on both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of Gran Turismo 7.
There will be online seasons serving as qualifications to compete in the main World Series rounds. Gran Turismo will broadcast both the Manufacturers Cup and Nations Cup competitions on their official YouTube channel.
Gran Turismo World Series 2022: How will it work?
The first online season of both the Manufacturers Cup and Nations Cup competitions will run until July. Both seasons will consist of six rounds and the top competitors will enter into the first World Series rounds.
The top 16 ranking players will compete in the first Nations Cup event on 17 July, which Gran Turismo will broadcast. The top 11 ranking manufacturers will compete in their first broadcasted event running on 24 July. New manufacturer Genesis will also have a spot in these events due to being an official partner of the series.
To round off the first online season and opening two broadcast events, there will be a World Series Showdown. This Showdown will offer more points than the regular broadcast rounds. This year it will have extra prestige as it will be the first onsite Gran Turismo event since February 2020.
The Return of the LAN
That’s right! After a lengthy absence, GTC is back LAN-style. The World Series Showdown event taking place 29-31 July will be held at the Red Bull Hangar-7 in Salzburg, which held onsite events in both 2018 and 2019.
Afterwards, through both August and October will be an eight round online season to serve as qualification for the next batch of broadcast events. Nations Cup Rounds 2 and 3 take place 25 September and 23 October respectively. Rounds 2 and 3 of the Manufacturers Cup will be 9 October and 30 October.
Then it’s the World Finals. The Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup will have its final on 24 November after qualifying rounds ran from May to August.
Following the Gazoo Racing GT Cup will be the Manufacturers Cup and Nations Cup finals. All competitors across both championships will have their points from all the broadcast rounds count alongside what they do in the World Finals.
With the Finals back in 2018 and 2019 taking place in Monaco, 2022 marks the return of the World Finals in Monaco after being held online in the previous two years.
Who to watch out for!
There’s plenty of GT regulars that can be expected to participate this season, although we don’t know exactly who will be taking part. There’s reigning Nations Cup champion Valerio Gallo along with all his predecessors Takuma Miyazono, Mikail Hizal and Igor Fraga.
But there’s also consistent frontrunners like Jose Serrano, Tomoaki Yamanaka, Coque Lopez, Baptiste Beauvois and so many more possible frontrunners. There’s also the likelihood we will see OverTake Dream Team Series competitor Emily Jones participate. The Aussie last competed in the Gran Turismo championships in the 2020 Asia-Oceania Regional Final and World Finals for the Manufacturers Series.
How to get involved
For all Gran Turismo 7 players, go to Sport Mode on the game and see how to get involved in the Nations Cup and Manufacturers Series. But even if their skill level isn’t high enough to qualify for the broadcast events, there are still plenty of similarly skilled players to keep them sharp.
A new league format will be adopted to provide for action no matter the skill level. The players who participate in the broadcast events will be in the GT1 League and are Driver Rating A or above. But there will also be GT2 League for players ranked Driver Rating B and C, and GT3 League for drivers ranked D or below.
Are you excited for Gran Turismo World Series? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
