After running major esports racing events, VCO have entered into the world of car design. With this came many other announcements for their other plans in the future.
Image credit: VCARUS
During the final round of the Esports Racing League in 2022, the Virtual Competition Organisation announced their latest venture in the world of digital motorsport. VCARUS Racing is a joint collaborative project between VCO and Munich-based MUNIQ Design.
Together, they will build cars for usage in the virtual world, and more specifically in esports. Their first car will be unveiled officially at the ADAC SimRacing Expo in December. Their intention is to debut the car in next year’s onsite Esports Racing World Cup, which was confirmed to be held at Rcadia, Hamburg from 24-26 February.
VCARUS’ stated aim is to create unique and striking cars, unbound by constraints in the real world. The designs are intended to also pay homage to motorsport icons of the past, while keeping an eye towards the future.
Florian Haasper – CEO of VCO Esports – had this to say:
“VCARUS is perhaps the most exciting project we have embarked on with VCO. Esports racing provides the perfect stage for the development of a totally new brand, and bold and innovative race cars. The rooting in the world of real motorsports is one of the cornerstones of this Esports discipline.
However, we are convinced that there is still room for totally new concepts, which acknowledge real motorsport, whilst at the same time opening the door to a new generation of race cars in the virtual world, which can be driven by hundreds of thousands of sim racers all over the world.
Our close partnership with MUNIQ Design is vitally important here. Christoph Sieber’s design team came into this project with a great passion for Esports – and also with a vast wealth of experience and inspiration from the real automotive industry. The result is VCARUS, a genuine forge for innovations and creativity for virtual motorsport. Racing Vision.”
Announcements Aplenty
The final ERL round of 2022 was won by Apex Racing Team, becoming Fall Cup champions on iRacing in the process. They had to fight back from being bumped into the second chance race by BS+, only to defeat them in the Quarter Finals with a last corner move by Peter Berryman. They then defeated Redline in a Best-of-3 final in just two races.
In tandem with the broadcast of the final round, VCO dropped a bombshell in the form of a plethora of details regarding future plans.
Included was their upcoming championship which they will be hosting in collaboration with Low Fuel Motorsport, FLExTREME which will take place on Assetto Corsa Competizione. Teams will take part in six races between November and February. Two of those races will be 6 hours in spec cars, a Porsche 992 GT3 Cup and BMW M2 CS Racing.
The other four are 9 hours in length with various GT3 cars and all teams are able to selectively decide their own Balance of Performance. Each car is given its own ‘BoP budget’, based on the general performance of the car at the four circuits. The teams may then decide how they distribute the additional ballast across the four GT3 races.
VCO Infinity Returns
Next up is the announcement of another edition of VCO Infinity. This event consisted of 24 races in 24 hours, and was held in the beginning of May. It saw Team Redline just pip Urano eSports. However the spin on the upcoming edition of Infinity, which will be held from 9-10 December, is that it will be merged with ProSIM.
VCO ProSIM Infinity will mandate teams field at least one real-world racing pro who must complete a minimum of six races. Just like the first running, there will be five different types of cars and five circuits to compete on, with all races lasting 45 minutes. It’s not expected to retain the same five cars and tracks from the first edition.
ProSIM as a series had its first running from November 2020 to March 2021 and consisted of eight events which saw Coanda’s Ayhancan Güven and Josh Rogers take the Pro and Esports racers titles. It then had a shorter second season, running for four consecutive weeks in November 2021. That time, it was Redline’s Chris Lulham and Maximilian Benecke who came out on top.
VCO Simmy Awards
Last but by no means least, the latest edition of the VCO Simmy Awards has been announced. These awards, which acknowledges the best of the year in esports racing, is returning for a third year.
From 4-13 November, the community can send in suggestions for eleven categories and then from 15-28 November, the top five nominations are decided upon between the community and also by a jury.
Members of sim racing publications will all be on the adjudicating panel, with OverTake.gg represented by Luca Munro. Also represented on the jury are Traxion.gg, THE RACE, The Sim Grid, Sim Racing GP and Grid Finder. The winners will be announced on stream at 8pm European time on 26 December.
What do you make of VCO’s venture into automotive design? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
