LONDON: The McLaren F1 team has introduced a new competition, ‘McLaren Shadow Project’ in extension of last year’s ‘World’s Fastest Gamer’ event, in which the winner will earn a spot in the new McLaren eSports team and go on to race online against the best teams in the world.
He or she will also gain access to the F1 team’s eSports development programme.
The competition will have 4 rounds. Firstly, the console and mobile qualification heats will kick off in August. Out of these, the semi-finalists will be selected and invited to the company’s headquarters in England to compete for places in the finals in January 2019. Selected qualifiers, semi-finals and finals will be live streamed by McLaren.
McLaren Shadow Project will be sponsored by Logitech G, HTC Vive, Sparco Gaming and Alienware.
Ben Payne, McLaren Director of esports, said: “Last year’s competition proved that the skills learned as a racing gamer are transferable to the real world. This is unique to the racing genre. We believe that esports and real world racing have much to learn and give to each other and last year’s competition was just the start.”
“McLaren Shadow Project will be the most open and inclusive racing esports competition on the planet. We are looking for the most talented virtual racers from all countries and backgrounds. To make this possible we have partnered with the biggest racing game brands in the world – Real Racing™ 3 on mobile, Forza Motorsport on Xbox, PC racing sims iRacing and rFactor 2,” Payne said.
Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing commented on the launch on the competition as well.
“Season one proved that esports are a new talent frontier for motorsport and after pioneering the programme in 2017, McLaren plans to develop the concept to generate greater global reach and engagement in season two.
“A strong, diverse esports programme has a direct benefit to McLaren’s innovative ambitions, bringing in new audiences, partners and talent to motorsport. By ramping up over multiple platforms across the online world, it will establish McLaren as an important brand in the motorsport esports community.”
