Esports

Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team can now focus on the playoffs and battle for the title after ending the regular season with a match against Team Redline. The two teams went head-to-head in the round selector and combined to select Monza as our favoured track while Team Redline opted for Spa-Francorchamps. Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team has competed at both venues already this season, meaning it was a return to familiar territory. The round kicked off with the Relay Race at Spa as Daniele Haddad began the event from pole against Redline and F1 Esports Pro Series racer Enzo Bonito. Daniele put in the legwork for the race, and defended superbly from his rival at the first corner, despite some wheel-banging, to pull clear after Blanchimont before handing over the V10-powered car to team-mate Lucas Blakeley. Lucas took the joker lap for the team and finished with a sizeable buffer before Shanaka Clay jumped in and sealed victory in the opener after crucially breaking the tow on the Kemmel Straight. The Team Race at Spa followed the usual pattern, as wheel-to-wheel and on-the-limit racing took place at the opening corner, where the sprints can often be decided. Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team’s chances of victory took a sizeable hit when Lucas was bumped from second to fifth at the start due to contact caused by Jeffrey Rietveld. While Rietveld was penalised, the damage had already been done. Daniele would finish third, and Lucas took fifth, following a three-second time penalty, as Shanaka rounded off the team’s efforts in sixth. With the scores now level, the round was decided at Monza, beginning with the Relay Race. Lucas made a stunning start from second on the grid to fight Bonito into the opening corner, going around the outside as the Redline driver outbraked himself and forced the former wide and onto the grass. Lucas would re-join ahead of his rival, and continued onto his joker lap but later incurred a five-second penalty for gaining an advantage at Turn One. He would then hand the car over to Daniele with a decent margin, although a minor error in the pitlane meant the gap to Redline was reduced. At the second chicane, Michal Šmídl collided with Daniele at entry and went straight across the run-off, earning the Redline driver a five-second time penalty of his own after illegally gaining several seconds. Shanaka would fight hard in the final stint to reduce the gap, but Redline held on to take a 2-1 lead into the deciding Team Race. The final head-to-head would end in a draw after a large coming together at the first corner. Shanaka made contact with a Redline machine, and the domino effect caught out the field. Lucas emerged from the chaos to lead and take the victory, but both Shanaka and Daniele, who had a clash with Bonito on the opening lap, were penalised. The pair ended up fifth and sixth, meaning the decider was a draw, and neither team scored points, giving Redline the 2-1 win. Having already secured a playoff place due to results elsewhere, the Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team is gearing up for the next phase, taking place the week commencing May 17. Like the Aston Martin Cognizant Esports Team’s V10-R League machine? You can win one of 20 copies of our car. Head to our official Esports channels on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to find out how.

McLaren’s Lando Norris has announced a charity $25,000 Minecraft Twitch Rivals tournament, set to take place on March 3. The competition will feature some of the top gamers from around the world, while Formula 1 is also well represented. Of the names confirmed so far, Norris is joined by Red Bull reserve and test driver Alex Albon, as well as former Renault junior Max Fewtrell. With a $25,000 prize pool on the line for charity, the competition will start at 6pm GMT on Wednesday March 3, lasting for the remainder of the day. There will be four teams, one of which captained by Norris, and they will compete across four stages designed in Minecraft for the event. Game 1 will be called ‘The Walls’, followed by ‘Boat Racing’, ‘Bow Wash’ and then the Finals. All stages will be a mix of racing and PVP [player versus player] modes. Norris recently started his own Esports organisation, named Quadrant, and the Briton was one of the key Formula 1 figures who helped boost the popularity of Esports, especially during the lockdown period before the 2020 Formula 1 season got underway. This off-season though he has been cutting down his sim-racing activities in order to spend more time with his family. “I asked Max Verstappen during the briefing of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix if he expects to race a lot on the sim this winter. For me, that is not the case, as I will be spending a lot of time with my family,” he told RacingNews365. “I don’t have a sim with my parents and therefore I don’t expect that I will do much sim racing with Max this winter. I expect Bell (his helmet manufacturer) to send me a few more helmets. I like to make helmet designs, so it’s nice that Bell sends me some helmets.” Norris is preparing for his third season in Formula 1 with the McLaren team, and after making a strong impression in his first two campaigns, scoring a combined 146 points and claiming a podium finish, Norris’ next challenge is to step up as a team leader and lose the young driver feel. For 2021 he will have a very strong benchmark at the other side of the garage, that being seven-time race winner Daniel Ricciardo.

Electronic Arts have completed their takeover of developer Codemasters. The deal represents the biggest shakeup yet to the F1 game series, which has been produced by Codemasters since 2009. The F1 game’s recent success hadn’t gone unnoticed as at the end of 2020, rumours began to emerge of EA’s interest in potentially acquiring Codemasters outright. EA have enjoyed huge success in the gaming world, most notably of all with another sport-based title – FIFA. Takeover plans were approved by the Codemasters board at the beginning of February, and were not derailed by supposed interest from 2K Sports franchise owner Take Two. “This is the beginning of an exciting new era for racing games and content as we bring together the talented teams of Electronic Arts and Codemasters”, EA CEO Andrew Wilson announced in a statement. “Racing fandom continues to grow worldwide, and the franchises in our combined portfolio will enable us to create innovative new experiences and bring more players into the excitement of cars and motorsport”. While the F1 game was most likely the main driving force behind EA’s decision to acquire Codemasters, that isn’t the only title that the developer brings to the table. Other notable games that they are responsible for include DiRT, GRID and Project Cars. Frank Sagnier, CEO of Codemasters, was similarly enthusiastic about the partnership’s potential moving forwards. “The partnership with EA will enable our teams to take our highly-acclaimed franchises to new heights and reach a huge global audience through their network,” Sagnier added. “Together we can redefine the landscape of racing games to create even more compelling experiences for racing fans around the world.” EA does have a good track record when it comes to developing games with an automotive theme, as they are the driving force behind the successful Need for Speed game franchise.

Exactly as expected, Milestone have announced MotoGP 21 and confirmed that the game will be coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, in addition to the usual PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC versions, MotoGP 21 will launch on 22nd April 2021. As with the previously released and updated games MXGP 20 and Ride 4, MotoGP 21 will run with a dynamic resolution up to 4K and a 60fps frame rate. The game visuals have also been improved with enhanced lighting, there’s faster loading time, online races now have up to 22 races, and the game takes advantage of the DualSense haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. MotoGP 21 also promises to make the racing more realistic than before. If you crash or fall you will no longer automatically respawn, but will have to run over to your bike and get back on, just like in real life. Brake temperature will now be a factor, the bike suspension system has been revised, and the game now features long lap penalties as a way of punishing transgressions. Introduced in the 2019 season, the game has caught up to the real sport in that regard. The game will build on the existing features of the series, with the latest iteration of ANNA, the neural network AI for drivers and an overhauled Managerial Career. Amongst the staff hires, you now have a personal manager to lead the staff, chief engineer to increase research points earned, and a data analyst to try and balance bike development – R&D and customisation are as important as ever. If you wish you can start your career with a junior team in lower Moto categories. MotoGP 21 will feature the 2021 season, which is not expected to be anywhere near as heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic as the 2020 season was, though Dorna has made provisions that could affect the game. They chose to postpone the Argentine and American Grand Prix until the situation is deemed safe in those countries, the season will start with a double-header in Qatar before heading to Portugal for the third round, and there is a single Reserve Grand Prix event in Indonesia, after the Russian Grand Prix was removed from the reserve list. It’s not clear what tracks will appear in MotoGP 2021 or if Milestone will adapt the game before April.

Formula One driver Lando Norris said in a recent interview that he wants his new esports organization Quandrant to include teams for individual games, including one for Call of Duty in the CDL, sometime in the near future. After officially getting fully invested in the esports industry with the launch of his organization Quadrant a few months back, it now seems like F1 superstar Lando Norris is looking to go a bit deeper with the company. In a recent Q&A video uploaded to the Quadrant YouTube channel, Norris was asked by a fan what his “ultimate goal” is for his esports organization. The founder responded by saying he wants to expand Quadrant, including the addition of teams for games like CoD and Rocket League. “My ultimate dream with Quadrant is to grow it a lot and become a much bigger esports team” he said. “And grow it from where we are now, not just to have content creators, but to have teams in CDL, so Call of Duty, in Rocket League, in different games.” Norris’ proclamation of wanting a Call of Duty League franchise is a bold one, considering that it would most assuredly cost him tens of millions of dollars on top of how difficult it can be to secure a spot. He did not discuss any other specifics about his plan, so this could be something for way later down the line. In addition to securing the funds, he’d obviously also have to wait until the CDL is looking to expand from its current field of 12 franchises. Norris’ interest in CoD isn’t a big surprise. He has ties to one of the esport’s biggest stars, Dallas Empire’s Ian ‘Crimsix’ Porter, not to mention that a member of his Quadrant staff, ‘Riabish,’ is a self-proclaimed “Call of Duty Queen.” As an avid gamer and streamer on Twitch, he’s probably seen and understands the presence that CoD has in the gaming world, and with the CDL on the up and up, it makes sense for him to want to expand in that direction.

George Russell celebrated his return to F1’s Virtual GP series on Sunday, the Williams driver edging Alex Albon at Silverstone after the Red Bull driver was hit with a time penalty. Russell, who won last year’s Virtual GP series winner but was unavailable to take part in last week’s opening round in Austria, launched his race from fifth on a grid where positions were once again determined by a sprint race involving pro Esport racers. Brendon Leigh’s victory for Ferrari in the 5-lap event handed pole position for the British GP to Callum Ilott, with Albon sharing the front ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Thibaut Courtois and McLaren’s Jimmy Broadbent. Ilott held his own in the opening laps while an incisive Courtois quickly put one over Albon, with Russell moving up to P4. The Williams driver took advantage of a close wheel-to-wheel battle between Courtois and Albon to pass both drivers and set off in pursuit of leader Ilott. The Ferrari driver swapped his soft tyres for a set of mediums on lap 10 just as Albon overtook Russell and took command of proceedings. But the Red Bull charger was then handed a 3-second time penalty for repeatedly exceeding track limits. Albon and Russell remained on their own up ahead until the pair pitted for softs. Ilott found himself once again in the lead but could do nothing to contain the dueling Albon-Russell duo. Russell appeared to remain just close enough to his rival to finish second on the track and win on time, but the Williams driver’s killer instinct kicked in and the pair enjoyed a battle royal on the final lap. Albon edged Russell on the track but the latter took top spoils when the Red Bull drivers’ time penalty was applied. Ilott completed the podium, despite also receiving a time penalty, while Pietro and Enzo Fittipaldi finished P4 and P5 for Haas, with Liam Lawson rounding off the top six for Red Bull.

One of the few positive developments due to the coronavirus pandemic was F1 drivers competing with each other virtually in front of a big audience and this alone led to F1, through their official channels deciding to continue with virtual racing up to date. This Sunday, the second virtual Grand Prix of 2021 is already scheduled. In the first virtual Grand Prix which was held last week was won by Enzo Fittipaldi who is the grandson to legendary F1 driver Emerson Fittipaldi. He won under the Haas F1 team in which his brother Pietro Fittipaldi made some real stints with the team in the 2020 F1 season. The brothers will be driving with the Haas team in the virtual British Grand Prix. There are also other Formula 1 drivers who we normally see on the real F1 grid that will be racing in the virtual Grand Prix. They include Alexander Albon and Liam Lawson who will be racing under Red Bull, Robert Shwartzman and Callum Ilott with be racing with Ferrari as George Russel and Nicholas Latifi with be racing with Williams. Mercedes and Aston Martin will however not participate in the online event. The two teams did not bother to call up a few drivers to participate in the event not even their sim drivers. The virtual Grand Prix will be kicking off on Sunday at 1900 hrs and the event can be followed on the youtube channel of F1

Formula 1’s official video game developer Codemasters is set to be bought by Electronic Arts in a deal worth $1.2 billion.The British-based Codemasters company, which uses Motorsport Games for its Esports activities around the DiRT Rally franchise, had recently been linked with a takeover deal by American video game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. But in a change of direction, Electronic Arts announced on Monday that it had reached an agreement with Codemasters’ board for the recommended acquisition of the company. If the transaction gets the formal go ahead, Codemasters shareholders will be entitled to £6.04 (USD $7.98) in cash for each share. The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year. Gerhard Florin, the Chairman of Codemasters, said: “Electronic Arts and Codemasters have a shared ambition to lead the video game racing category. “The Board of Codemasters firmly believes the company would benefit from EA’s knowledge, resources and extensive global scale both overall and specifically within the racing sector. “We feel this union would provide an exciting and prosperous future for Codemasters, allowing our teams to create, launch and service bigger and better games to an extremely passionate audience.” Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts, felt that an alliance between his company and Codemasters would help lead them forge a strong alliance to capitalise on a boom in Esports and sim racing. “We believe there is a deeply compelling opportunity in bringing together Codemasters and Electronic Arts to create amazing and innovative new racing games for fans,” he said. “Our industry is growing, the racing category is growing, and together we will be positioned to lead in a new era of racing entertainment.” As well as producing the official F1 video game, Codemasters also develops DiRT, DiRT Rally, Grid and Project Cars. EA has the Need for Speed franchise and the Real Racing mobile game. As well as working with Codemasters on its esports activities, Motorsport Games this year also organized the Le Mans 24 Hours Virtual, the biggest motorsports esports event in history with a cumulative audience of over 14.2 million viewers. It also publishes the NASCAR HEAT video game franchise.

Codemasters, the official Formula 1 video game developer, is the subject of a $973 million buyout offer from American videogame publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.British-based Codemasters uses Motorsport Games for its esports activities around the DiRT Rally franchise, currently hosting the 2.0 World Series and following on from the World RX Esports Series, which attracted 1.24 million live views. Motorsport Games also organized the Le Mans 24 Hours Virtual, the biggest motorsports esports event in history with a cumulative audience of over 14.2 million viewers, along with publishing the NASCAR HEAT video game franchise. Take Two which owns the brands 2K and Rockstar Games – would thus add F1 to its roster of other mainstream sports, including NBA basketball and PGA golf. Founded in 1986, Codemasters is one of the UK’s oldest video game studios and motorsport has played a key role in its evolution into one of the best-regarded names in the business. It received the offer for 485 pence per share on Friday, and it is understood that Codemasters’ board will recommend to shareholders that the offer should be accepted. Following the advent of the PlayStation games console, Codemasters released the highly-acclaimed TOCA touring cars – originally based on the British Touring Car Championship – and Colin McRae Rally series, which has since morphed into DiRT, before going on to produce the official F1 game from 2009. Codemasters halted the touring car-based series following the 2006 release of TOCA Race Driver 3, although Motorsport Games won the long-term license to create an official British Touring Car Championship game starting 2022. Codemasters has developed and published 13 F1 video games, with its latest iteration – F1 2020 – available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Google Stadia. In a statement from the New York-based company, it said: “Take-Two believes that the combination of Take-Two and Codemasters would bring together two world-class interactive entertainment portfolios, with a highly complementary fit between Take-Two’s 2K publishing label and Codemasters in the racing genre. “In addition, Take-Two believes that it can bring benefits to Codemasters’ performance by leveraging Take-Two’s global distribution network and 2K’s core operating expertise in publishing, including live operations, analytics, product development, and brand and performance marketing.” As details of the $973 million proposed deal emerged, Codemasters’ shares rose 8.6% to 470 pence on Friday afternoon. Take-Two’s own shares were up almost 3% at the same period. A decision on the acquisition would be required by December 4 for it to progress, as per the UK City Code on Takeovers and Mergers. Codemasters also recently concluded a deal to produce the official World Rally Championship video game from 2023.