Abu Dhabi – The first-ever Formula 1® Esports Series Finals will take place Friday 24^th and Saturday 25^th November in the F1 paddock, forming part of the the 2017 FORMULA 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The final event will consist of three races, held on the Montreal, Spa-Francorchamps and Yas Marina virtual circuit layouts. Twenty esports drivers qualified for the Finals and the one who earns the most points across the three races will be crowned the first Formula 1 Esports Series World Champion.

This is the schedule of the event:

Friday

11h00–12h00 Practice 1

15h40–16h40 Qualifying 1 19h00–20h00 Race 1 (Montreal)

Saturday

10h15–11h00 Practice 2

11h00–12h00 Qualifying 2

15h00–16h00 Practice 3

16h00–17h00 Qualifying 3

20h00–23h00 Race 2 (Spa-Francorchamps) and Race 3 (Yas Marina)

 

The twenty esports drivers have qualified for the event in Abu Dhabi through a preliminary phase which started in August and culminated in the semi-finals held at the Gfinity Esports Arena in London on October 10^th. A total of 63,827 players took part in the qualifying stages, completing 976,870 laps. Over 195,000 race times were posted on the official leaderboards (f1esports.com.)

The semi-finals had an impressive digital audience: fans clocked up 2.3m minutes watched and 1.3m video views on Facebook, 3.1m views on Instagram Stories and 1.5m Instagram impressions, 3.25m Twitter impressions, and the live Twitch stream was enjoyed by over 137,000 viewers.

The twenty finalists come from 11 countries, with Germany, Great Britain and Italy leading each with four representatives.

The twenty finalists, listed by country, are:

Name                                                                 Country

Igor Fraga                                                           Brazil

Fabrizio Donoso Delgado                                   Chile

Fredrik Rasmussen                                             Denmark

Mads Soerensen                                                Denmark

Joni Törmälä                                                       Finland

Patrik Holzmann                                                Germany

Sven Zürner                                                        Germany

Cedric Thome                                                     Germany

Maximilian Benecke                                           Germany

Brendon Leigh                                                    Great Britain

Sonuc Saltunc                                                     Great Britain

Harrison Jacks                                                    Great Britain

Salih Saltunc                                                       Great Britain

Nicolò Fioroni                                                     Italy

Tiziano Brioni                                                     Italy

Alberto Foltran                                                   Italy

Gianfranco Giglioli                                             Italy/Venezuela

Allert Vanderwal                                                Netherlands

Patryk Krutyj                                                      Poland

Cem Bölükbasi                                                   Turkey

 

Race 2 and Race 3 will be shown live on the official F1 Esports Twitch channel (www.twitch.tv/f1esports/), on the F1 Facebook page and by the following broadcasters: Fox Sports Asia, Fox Sports Australia, Rede Globo (Brazil), Cytavision (Cyprus), MTV (Finland), 5 Plus (Israel), Sky Italy, Canal F1 Latin America, Sky New Zealand, Sport TV (Portugal), Movistar eSports/Movistar F1 (Spain, delayed), SRG (Srf, RTS &RSI: Switzerland) and Sky Sports (UK).

The F1 Esports Series is a partnership between Formula 1, the world’s premier motor sport; Codemasters, the leading racing game developer and publisher; and Gfinity, the global leader in esports events and competitions.

The 2017 F1 Esport Series is the first year of an annual competition, highlighting the sport’s long-term investment in esports and gaming as well as its continued ambition to build a greater connection with wider audiences, especially younger fans

The launch of the competition coincided with the release of the official F1™ 2017 game which allowed gamers to get closer to Formula 1 than ever before. Released worldwide on PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One and Windows PC (DVD and via Steam) on August 25th, F1 2017 is the most feature rich game in the franchise’s history and the new F1 Esport Series was open to players on all three platforms.

 

-ENDS-

 

 

 

Notes to editors:

Norman Howell, Director of Communications, Formula 1 E: [email protected]

M: +44 (0)7920 181 929

 

Formula 1 Press Office E: [email protected]

 

 

Edelman Press Office

E: [email protected]

About Formula 1®

Formula 1^® racing began in 1950 and is the world’s most prestigious motor racing competition, as well as the world’s most popular annual sporting series. In 2016 it was watched by 400 million unique television viewers from over 200 territories. The 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship™ runs from March to November and spans 20 races in 20 countries across five continents. Formula One World Championship Limited is part of Formula 1, and holds the exclusive commercial rights to the FIA Formula One World Championship™.

Formula 1 is a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation (NASDAQ: LSXMA, LSXMB, LSXMK, BATRA, BATRK, FWONA, FWONK) attributed to the Formula One Group tracking stock.

The F1 FORMULA 1 logo, FORMULA 1, F1, FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP,

GRAND PRIX and related marks are trade marks of Formula One Licensing BV, a Formula 1 company. All rights reserved.

 

About Codemasters

Codemasters, the award winning videogame developer and publisher, has a 30 year heritage. With titles distributed globally, Codemasters is a leading developer and publisher of driving and racing entertainment games including DiRT, GRID and the official BAFTA award-winning FORMULA 1™ series of videogames. The company is fully controlled by Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd. (RBEL). For more information on Codemasters’ product portfolio, please visit www.Codemasters.com. Join in the conversation with @Codemasters on Twitter or Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Codemasters.

About Gfinity

Founded in 2012, Gfinity has quickly established itself as one of the world’s leading esports companies. The London-based business enjoys strong relationships with game publishers, players and the wider esports community and has already built a solid reputation for delivering high quality competitions, both on-line at www.gfinityesports.com and off-line, in addition to producing industry leading esports broadcasts.

The Gfinity Esports Arena at Fulham Broadway, London is the home of UK esports showcasing regular tournaments across the full range of competitive games. Beyond its own tournaments Gfinity provides a full turnkey solution for any brand wanting to create their own esports tournaments and has staged premium esports events around the globe for leading publishers and brands including Microsoft, Activision, EA, Xbox, Gillette and HP.

About esports

Esports (electronic sports) is watching or playing competitive video gaming. Leading titles include League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Defence of the Ancients 2 (DotA 2), Call of Duty and Rocket League. The industry is growing rapidly, with new

communities developing around more and more titles. The global esports market generated US$493 million of revenue in 2016 and is expected to make $1.5 billion by 2020. The global esports audience in 2017 was 191 million people, 80% under the age of 35 and 70% male (source: Newzoo). Online streaming channels Twitch and YouTube command the biggest audiences, although esports events are also now being broadcast on conventional TV. The 2015 League of Legends Championships finals in Berlin were watched by 36 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14 million viewers, while at DotA 2’s flagship annual championship ‘The International 2016’ competitors from around the world competed for a prize pot of over $20 million.