FIA Vegas eRace - Was it good for SimRacing?

Chris

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2017 is now well and truly underway, and for many months prior to this day, a select group of SimRacers have been practicing their rear end's off in order to have the best shot at winning the 200,000 dollar cash prize on offer from the inaugural Vegas eRace.

Whilst the chance to see the worlds best SimRacers going head-to-head with real life professional drivers is a tasty proposition, did the Vegas eRace really capitalise on SimRacing's very first mass-market production?

In some respects, yes it did. It gained far and away the largest viewership that SimRacing has ever had, and given the money that was thrown at it, that's not surprising. It had the backing from large corporate entities such as VISA, the FIA and the Formula E teams themselves, which meant that out of all the SimRacing events that have taken place over the decades, this one was far and away the heaviest hitter. Utilising the real life commentary team of Jack Nicholls and Dario Franchitti also helped boost the cause of the event and gave it more credibility. It really wasn't too distant from a real life Formula E race.

However, the driving standards were what the majority of those of us in this little niche were curious to see. In the past, Formula E has run similar events, albeit on a smaller scale, at race events with the fans. A couple of real Formula E drivers would go head-to-head with a fan (or several) at the Simulator-zone, which every single time, would result in a crash-fest so bad it made public lobby racing look cleaner than a vacuum-sealed laboratory, as the everyday fan had no clue what they were doing, and the drivers themselves simply didn't care as it was all a big joke.

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Given that 200,000 'Big Ones' were on the line, the drivers taking part no doubt had to take things a little more seriously, but would there be enough time for them to get up to speed with basic SimRacing skills in order to avoid taking someone out and potentially costing them a life-changing amount of money?

Well, the driving standards from the real life drivers had improved. The only massive incident coming when David Greco tried to go three wide through the fast chicane, causing a large pile-up and significant damage. This is no different to any pro-league race you'll find. Driving standards are never going to be perfect. But with so much money on the line, and more eyeballs on the race than SimRacing has ever had, every incident is magnified and scrutinised just that much more.

As for the presentation of the race, well I actually thought it was pretty impressive. The on-screen graphics were well done, the commentary was, as expected, good, and the replays all fed into a nice production that can definitely be learned from and improved upon in future events. However, since Formula E had chosen rFactor 2 as their simulator of choice, the graphics of the actual cars, the track and it's surrounding were simply not up to par with what e-Sports expects and demands from it's productions. rFactor 2 is not the worst looking game, but it's certainly not what you'd call 'Eye Candy'.

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Sure, the cars and the track they used were a massive step up from previous e-Races they've done (which, let's be honest, looked like they were straight out of a PlayStation 1 game), the images seen from the race were a far cry from the beautiful images you see coming from the likes of Forza and Gran Turismo.

But rFactor was chosen for one simple reason. It's pretty much the only simulator that can pull something like this off given that iRacing does not have a Formula E car lying around. Had iRacing actually had a Formula E car at it's disposal, then that would have unquestionably been the platform of choice for this event. But even so, the best was made with what they had available.

But already there is controversy brewing. With just a handful of laps until the end of the 20 lap race, Bono Huis and Felix Rosenqvist were running one-two and had amassed a fairly substantial lead over the rest of the pack. However, Formula E uses a thing called "Fan Boost", whereby the fans watching at home can vote for a driver to receive a horsepower boost for a limited period of time.

Enter third placed driver Olli Pahkala.

The average race pace for this event was a 1 minute 28 second lap. This is what the majority of the front runners were able to produce. When Olli received fan boost, it was supposed to only be for six seconds, instead, it appears he received fan boost for six laps. This meant he was able to lap in the 1 minute 26 range. This was not supposed to happen. Either that, or as Dario Franchitti said several times "He must've found a shortcut somewhere!".

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As Huis and Rosenqvist left their pitstops very late, they emerged behind Pahkala, who was still lapping at the abnormally quick pace. With only a couple of laps left, Pahkala had well and truly checked out and was on his way to winning the $200k. Why he received fan boost for such a long period of time, you ask? Well, that remains to be seen, but one thing was for certain: Bono Huis was not a happy camper.

The final podium ceremony was cringe-worthy to say the least as Felix Rosenqvist was the only driver to actually look happy. Huis and Pahkala both took hugely long periods of time before coming out on stage and at first I put this down to being shy, or something. But could there perhaps have been some more serious discussions going on behind the stage regarding Pahkala's miraculous pace?

Whether or not the details come out remains to be seen. There were some things that definitely need improvement for subsequent holdings of the event, like the unbelievably awkward post-race awards ceremony along with it's poor execution, but by and large, this was a positive boost for SimRacing to gain traction (pun intended) in the eSporting world, and to be taken more seriously. If real drivers are beginning to take it more seriously, then the rest of the motorsport community will sit up and take notice.

In terms of getting the sheer number of eyeballs on the event, yes it absolutely was a success, however the overall presentation of the race along with pre and post-race events, definitely needs more work. But it was a decent first go at it, and there is definitely the potential for a huge improvement in what is delivered at the next event.


Over to you!
What did you think of the Vegas eRace? Was it good for SimRacing, or are we destined for niche-ism?



***Update:
Olli Pahkala has taken a post-race penalty, demoting him to third place. This means Bono Huis takes first place for the Vegas eRace.
 
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I enjoyed watching it. I think it will be good for sim racing and expanding further e-sport type events, cash prize etc. Now I do think the event could have been better. Why dress up the drivers in racing suits for looks, but then have very poor graphics for the viewers? While the commentators did fairly well overall, they could have had better overlays and made it more clear knowing which car was which.

Unfortunately many aspects could have been much better imo, but in general I would imagine this will do more good than harm. Of course the biggest and more advertised sim race in history could have been more organized and professional.

If the sponsors decide this was a worthwhile investment and is still a viable option in the future, I would expect that it will only be that much better next year. After all it does seem like it has some room for improvement.
 
A total embarrassment for RF2, it can look so much better, mods/plug ins do work directly when thoroughly tested. But all that will come out of it is the casual viewer thinking that *is* all RF2 and they won't go near it, can't see this helping Studio397 one little bit.

Whilst it may throw sim racing into the spotlight it will surely mean they use a different game next time, be interesting to see whether it gains momentum or not.
 
As Formula E is trying to draw a crowd from young non-race fans, most of who are probably gamers, the idea makes a lot of sense so it's a real shame that the execution was so poor.

Something like this could have been a great sales tool for rF2 but I can't imagine many people seeing this and getting straight on Steam to make a purchase. No idea if ISI/Studio397 had any involvement at all but really if they are going to allow rF2 to be used like this they should have insisted on having some involvement at least to make sure everything was optimised properly.

And as for the guy who failed to test the fanboost plugin :poop:.
 
Haven't watched the race but I was curious about viewership so here are some numbers. They had a peak of 11,556 live viewers, and an average of 6,231. It's not as impressive as it sounds, as the channel(ELEAGUE TV) often goes in the 6 digits with their CS:GO streams. Interesting to note that they went for Twitch rather than YouTube this time(targetting a younger crowd? I'm sure having a few confused FPS addicts stopping by mid-race was all part of the plan)

Probably the most viewed simracing event of all times as expected. Whether it's worth the few millions Formula E and their sponsors throw at these events is another question. I'm really surprised they are single handedly trying to turn a struggling niche into a spectator sport. Especially when other series are having cold feet, and the iR World Championships get a few hundred viewers at best.
 
It was awful. The driving standards were really bad. And then they penalize Olli for something that was not his fault. If they don't catch a bug during development they can't just go and penalize a driver for that.

"Oh yeah we made a mistake and there is a bug so we have to penalize YOU for that." That is just really absurd and Olli should be really upset about that.
 
Real life racing has just as many controversial moments, what's the big deal? Most F1 discussions aren't actually about the racing. Anyone remember the godawful F1 qualifying early last season for example?

So, they can improve, and should improve, but it's not like it was a complete failure as some people are making out. We'll have to see if they learn from the mistakes and build on the successes.
 
Seemed too half-arsed for the amount of money involved.
I think that is the best description for what I am feeling. I know on what a tiny budget we were on with SimBin/Eurosport when we hosted the Virtual World Touring Car Championship back in 2008 and shown to a potential 180 million person massive audience on Eurosport TV that final was a thriller compared to what I witnessed tonight.

1 million dollars at stake and the only exciting part was the monster crash of @David Greco et al, @Greger Huttu nowhere to be seen as the best all time simracer and the only two highlights for me being the pace of @Bono Huis and the performance of Rosenquist in a field of simracers.

I think many sim race league organizers felt the same last night: "What kind of an awesome show can we make with such a budget". Heck for a million plus the organization costs for this event you can run an ENTIRE online season for years and years to come. Now the entire budget wasted on a 20 lap race with a horrible looking mod and track and hardly any racing action as the drivers seemed paralyzed by stress.

I won't even go too much into the simracer's presentation before and after the race as those guys didn't make a professional impression at all. Apart from Bono being rightfully pissed off I haven't seen any emotion. For the love of God you have all been given a MONSTER salary to perform your hobby. A hobby is something you enjoy right? Show it!
 
I think many sim race league organizers felt the same last night: "What kind of an awesome show can we make with such a budget". Heck for a million plus the organization costs for this event you can run an ENTIRE online season for years and years to come. Now the entire budget wasted on a 20 lap race with a horrible looking mod and track and hardly any racing action as the drivers seemed paralyzed by stress.

As a former league organizer I felt ashamed of such organization, I just can't count the hours I spent for free organizing and trying to improve simracing competition for the love of it and then some amateur guys give this image on what is supposed to be the greatest event of the simracing history.

After all this CloudSport people are just there because they are friends of someone, sadly they have been around for too many years and they are glued to their comfy hot seats on the front row.
 

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