With more and more teams from mainstream esports seeing the appeal of sim racing, which ones should get involved next?
G2 Esports, Unicorns of Love and Team SoloMid are some of the biggest names from traditional esports that have come into our world of virtual racing. But which other big mainstream esports orgs would we like to see join them?
In an interview we conducted with Unicorns of Love’s general manager Vivien Mallant, she stated that there is genuine interest to compete in top level esports racing for teams that come from a competitive gaming background.
So who are some we’d like to see involved in racing? Here are the five we selected.
100 Thieves
Possibly the second most well known North American esports team outside of FaZe Clan, 100 Thieves was founded by former OpTic Gaming Call of Duty captain Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag. They compete in esports such as Apex Legends, Call of Duty/Warzone, Fortnite Battle Royale, League of Legends and Valorant.
It’s also co-owned by Jack ‘CouRageJD’ Dunlop who has appeared in a lot of videos on the Quadrant YouTube channel doing races on the F1 game with Lando Norris, so the interest for racing is there.
Big thanks to @LandoNorris for coming on The CouRage & Nadeshot Show to talk F1 and @Team_QUADRANT!@Nadeshot wasted no time in getting to the tough questions π pic.twitter.com/LdzS9nLJKw
β 100 Thieves (@100Thieves) December 23, 2020
With strong parallels to FaZe Clan in terms of being a brand built off of competitive gaming, online entertainment and apparel, maybe a natural fit for 100 Thieves would be to compete in the eNASCAR championship on iRacing. This series already features , Team SoloMid and formerly .
Evil Geniuses
Founded in 1999, Evil Geniuses have been a constantly successful team in many forms of esports, perhaps being mostly known from the world of DOTA 2. Though they have also competed in the likes of League of Legends and Rocket League.
We take the series 2-0, securing our spot in the final day of the DreamLeague Leipzig Dota Major!
β Evil Geniuses (@EvilGeniuses) January 25, 2020
Our Dota squad has battled all the way to the Lower Bracket Final, where we’ll have a rematch against @VICI tomorrow morning!#LIVEEVIL #DHDL13 pic.twitter.com/dcSLruWwy0
Evil Geniuses already have a connection to a team in esports racing. Their affiliation with football team Wolverhampton Wanderers means that they operate Wolves Esports, which have competed in Formula Pro and the Le Mans Virtual Series on rFactor 2. Whether this rules out the possibility of Evil Geniuses entering into esports racing themselves, we don’t know but it would be great to see.
Fnatic
Seven LEC titles, three CS:GO Major victories and two Rainbow 6 Masters championships, Fnatic are one of the leading teams in all of esports so it’s a surprise to have not seen them in racing before. Along with the likes of G2 and two other teams on our list, they are partnered up with BMW so it would be great to potentially see them join the world of esports racing.
EU Rising: @FNATIC #LEC pic.twitter.com/Vw8rFRG2xf
β LoL Esports (@lolesports) July 10, 2019
Former Mercedes F1 CEO Nick Fry joined Fnatic as their head of commercial strategy so there is another connection to racing in there, albeit a bit loose. Who knows if that points to racing being on Fnatic’s radar.
One thing is for sure though, it would be very funny if Fnatic’s first venture into racing happened with a certain sim racing hardware brand sponsoring them. That of course being.. Thrustmaster! No of course it’s Fanatec. Imagine the team entering a championship under the name ‘Fanatec Fnatic’, that would be confusing.
Cloud9
This American organisation have competed in a vast array of championships, and have been hugely successful across the entire scene. In fact in 2018, Cloud9 won championships on Rocket League, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch so they certainly have the pedigree for success.
They’ve done it!
β Rocket League Esports (@RLEsports) October 15, 2017
In their debut season, @Cloud9 have skyrocketed to become the Champions of the North American #RLCS! βοΈππ pic.twitter.com/CBalM96Frc
They currently compete on the likes of League of Legends, Hearthstone, Fortnite and Super Smah Bros. A team as renowned and successful as Cloud9 entering into esports racing would be a huge endorsement for the scene. Where they could start? Who knows?
T1
Last on this list is T1, a team from South Korea. They’re three-times champions in League of Legends which is probably what they’re known most for but they also compete in the likes of PokΓ©mon, Dota 2, Overwatch and more.
It’s Cuzz vs @RoachLoL in a 1v1 to end all 1v1’s. π€
β T1 (@T1) March 11, 2020
New League of Legends highlights are live!
Watch: https://t.co/NCbYbpQgXa pic.twitter.com/EBcyl5KRex
When it comes to esports, Korea has a great track record. However, the nation’s presence has yet to be felt in the world of esports racing. Maybe T1 getting into esports racing is the push that the Asian esports racing scene needs, which would in turn help simracing to become a more global phenomenon.
Which esports organisations would you like to see in sim racing? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
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