World’s Fastest Gamer pits the best gamers in the world against amateur virtual drivers, across multiple racing platforms, as they battle it out to become the ultimate ‘champion of champions’.

World’s Fastest Gamer is a partnership between global sports and technology brand McLaren and Millennial Esports – through the founder of virtual motorsport’s GT Academy, Millennial’s Chief Marketing Officer, Darren Cox.

The competition has been put together in collaboration with founding partner Logitech G, a global leader in gaming gear and two further partners – sports media platform GIVEMESPORT and Esport racing innovator Sparco.

From short films to hours of live streaming, World’s Fastest Gamer has redefined how racing esports is broadcast to fans. The competition has already seen over 10 million views and unprecedented levels of engagement. With non-stop coverage, the Finals Week is expected to beat all industry records to become one of the most watched esport racing events ever. Fans can follow all the WFG Finals Week action on WFG Twitter, McLaren’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube channels and website and via media partner GIVEMESPORT’s Facebook page.

Over 30,000 players entered the WFG competition, and after rounds of heats, the 12 finalists will meet for the first time on 11 November and go head-to-head in Finals Week – a series of physical, mental, track and virtual challenges to find out who has the skills to claim the ultimate prize. They will need to demonstrate their engineering know-how, ability to work as part of a team and display the mental and physical strengths required for the position.

The winner will be offered a one-year contract with McLaren as a simulator driver, working with engineers at the McLaren Technology Centre in the UK, feeding into the technology used in the real world by the team’s drivers, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, at grand prix circuits across the globe.

The Finalists are:

• David Hoch (USA), 23, qualified
• Rudy Van Buren (The Netherlands), 25, qualified
• Yordi Maldonado (Mexico), 20, qualified
• Henrik Drue (Denmark), 34, qualified
• Isaac Price (UK), 22, qualified
• Freek Schothorst (The Netherlands), 20, qualified
• Aurélien Mohammedi-Mallet (France), 23, panel selection
• Bono Huis (The Netherlands), 23, panel selection
• David Le Garff (France), 40, panel selection
• Greger Huttu (Finland), 37 panel selection
• Harry Jacks (UK), 22, panel selection
• Ryan Moore (USA), 22, panel selection

Click here to download images of finalists

The Qualifying Events:                                   

Six of the finalists were selected in qualifying events across a number of platforms including:

• PC racing sim, rFactor 2: the Silverstone qualifying race clocked up 2,540 individual lap times over 10,600 hours with the coverage reach exceeding 30 million.
• Free-to-play mobile game Gear.Club: McLaren increased the gaming audience by including free-to-play mobile game Gear.Club, making it possible to enter without a games console or computer. 26,166 entrants, out of which 24,075 competed, drove over 1,355,425,792 metres.
• Forza Motorsport 6: CJ Wilson Racing, a sportscar team based in Texas, organised this qualifying event. From hundreds of entrants, 32 drivers qualified and drove a total of 13,190 miles over 169 hours.
• Forza Motorsport 6: partner Logitech G held the only live qualifying events of the competition. The qualifying events comprised of four rounds held across the world at events such as Dreamhack in Sweden, Insomnia in the UK and IFA in Berlin. Over 1,000 gamers competed at the Insomnia and IFA events.

• Online PC racing sim, iRacing: qualification ran using the McLaren Honda MP4-30 car at iconic circuits such as Monza, Interlagos and the Circuit Of The Americas. A total of 803 drivers entered across 46 countries, driving a total distance of 83,170 miles or 24,392 laps.

A panel of experts pre-selected six additional finalists based on their careers so far in virtual racing. The panel included: Dom Duhan, Head of Team Redline esports Racing Team; Davide Brivio, Head of esports, Sparco; Andreas Schicker, Head of esports Business Development, Logitech; and Wolfgang Reip, GT Academy Winner/Simulator Coach.

For more information and to follow all the Finals Week action visit mclaren.com/wfg or via social media at WFG Twitter, McLaren Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or search using #WFGFinals.

Zak Brown
McLaren Technology Group Executive Director:

“We are proud that McLaren is the first F1 team to launch in esports. World’s Fastest Gamer is an exciting platform for us to bring motorsport and the sport of Formula 1 to a whole new audience, as well as traditional fans.

“The results have shown our instincts were right. Furthermore, with simulation now a well-established feature of modern racing operations, it is an interesting exercise in understanding the potential for esports to unearth future motorsport talent.”

Darren Cox
Founder of IDEAS+CARS
and CMO Millennial Esports:

“World’s Fastest Gamer has already massively exceeded expectations, both in terms of the interest we’ve had from the Industry and the level of views and engagement of our content.

“Millennial Esports is committed to creating quality, breakthrough content for esports – Worlds Fastest Gamer is one of the first solid examples of this strategy.

“By the end of season one, the content we have produced will have included short form, long form and live streaming allowing us to reach new, difficult to target audiences for McLaren and its partners. ”

Check out what they are saying about the amazing Silverstone finale….

It was an odd weekend for Silverstone. Thousands were there, yet no one showed up… Inside @McLaren's #WFG search: https://t.co/y1mIDewM7Q pic.twitter.com/l0K5beMwGt

— Motor Sport Magazine (@Motor_Sport) September 4, 2017

The World's Fastest Gamer hopes to find @McLarenF1's new simulator driver #F1 #WFG pic.twitter.com/J29W0gVnDY

— WTF1 (@wtf1official) September 4, 2017

Congratulations to all drivers for a super close and fair race. Awesome drive @RvBuren and good luck at @McLarenF1 in the finals!

— rFactor 2 (@rFactor2) September 3, 2017

Winner of the @TheWFGamer. Im out of words. Thanks to @McLarenF1 and @rFactor2 for hosting such a event. Can't wait for november.

— Rudy van Buren (@RvBuren) September 3, 2017

Congratulations @RvBuren. We'll see you at the MTC final! #WFG pic.twitter.com/NwKgvyo9dK

— Worlds Fastest Gamer (@TheWFGamer) September 3, 2017

LONDON, UK (Wednesday, November 2, 2016): IDEAS+CARS has joined forces with AerNow to take the next step in bridging the gap between virtual and reality using new innovative broadcast and streaming technologies.

Launched earlier this year by founder Darren Cox, IDEAS+CARS is an un-agency – a group of passionate and professional collaborators that have extensive experience in delivering exceptional IDEAS in the CAR world.

IDEAS+CARS specialise in connecting brands with the rapidly expanding eSports industry and will use AerNow’s new immersive video technologies to further grow the genre.

“As demand in the market continues to grow, the AerNow platform is ideally suited to bring together content into a consistent, next-generation, entertainment-focused eSports experience,” said Darren Cox, Chief Maverick Officer of IDEAS+CARS.

“This goes way beyond just simple live streaming. It is combining, video, data and information together into a format that can be consumed on a wide variety of platforms.

“We are very excited about the technologies being developed by AerNow as they represent a new era of publishing – it is not just video, not just information – the platform brings the entire package together in a unique digital experience.”

While many brands look at television, print and mobile as separate publishing outlets, the new partnership with AerNow provides an immersive rich media experience not seen before.

“Brands are able to take advantage of AerNow’s content ingest, video servers, network access points and real-time operating system CLOE to provide frame-by-frame synchronization and customized data visualization,” said Erik Davis, AerNow Executive Chairman.

“And we have only just begun.”

Providing this turnkey solution as a service enables IDEAS+CARS to focus on its core business: creating innovative, lean-forward experiences that meet the growing demands of sponsors and brands hungry for the engagement of their growing audience.

“AerNow has developed automated workflow solutions for the presentation of data, scoring, ranking, live and video-on-demand eSports experiences,” said Darcy Lorincz, AerNow Chief Technology Officer.

“There is a movement to better organize and regulate the eSports industry, but these efforts are at an early stage with no authority or standards yet established.

“Our eSports platform is a path toward setting those standards, solving issues related to quality of service and engagement for real-time, on-demand contests while integrating sponsorship and branding to provide monetization capabilities to all stakeholders.”

A new online research survey conducted by GMR Marketing recently shed new light on eSports players and fans, revealing they are receptive to brand presence in their sport, even agreeing that it could positively impact purchasing decisions.

A substantial majority (85%) of all surveyed eSports enthusiasts were “brand-positive” – stating they were always or usually appreciative when brands tied to reach out to me through the gaming world.

Both AerNow and Darren Cox have been first-hand witnesses to the impact eSports has had on motorsports. While at Nissan, Darren Cox founded “Nissan PlayStationGT Academy,” a global video game contest that pitted gamers against each other to compete to become real-world race drivers.

AerNow, partnered with Always Evolving Motorsports, owns the race team supporting US racer Bryan Heitkotter, the first American winner of the GT Academy.

Heitkotter has become a respected world-class driver, placing fifth in the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge season in the US in a season which included a dominant back-to-back double victory weekend in Utah.
IDEAS+CARS has also recently launched the eSPORTS+CARS virtual racing team. These two companies will continue to collaborate to innovate and push the boundaries of eSports.

If you keep your eyes open in business, the first day of #Leaders15 was not a surprise. My summary of day 1 on twitter was the following

1. Content is still king

2. Collaboration is the only mindset

3. Access for fans is expected

4. Interaction through technology is everything #notasurprise

5. Digital content approach is the new school for broadcast OR roadcast has to borrow from digital or die

6. Grow the audience then monitize (obvs)

7. Use free social content to drive views for live sport (obvs)

Pretty obvious stuff really. For those with their eyes open anyway. But here were self proclaimed ‘Leaders’ studiously taking lots of notes – yes in paper based books – by clearly wealthy over 50 year olds. They looked surprised at these insights and wrote notes like they were hearing the words for the first time

Many of the ‘digital’ guys on stage talked about hiring a millennial to teach the ‘Leaders’ about digital – most of the over 50 set could not refer to spell checks in their Hilton Hotels stolen note pads (free stationary but HUGE watches) they would have to ask someone under 40 what a Millennial was / is / did when they were back to their Oak panelled office.

The 30 – 42* year olds, who seemed to be there to sell to the ‘leaders’, wore the uniform of the hip and trendy ‘I’m a creative, not a salesman’ – very blue suits, very brown shoes, facial hair, no tie. They nodded in agreement with the insights provided. “I’m all over that boss, that’s what I have been saying for years, digital, yeah, engagement, monetize yeah.”

* I’m 41 so I extended the range

On day two the big watches and the Brown shoes reconvened with a Dirty Martini / Peroni hangover and theirs and my brains were blown.

The two subjects were gaming and e-sports. There were stats that blew the mind

• Twitch bought by Amazon for $1bn

• Biggest event prize fund in 2015 was $18m (double that of ICC Cricket World Cup)

• Esport revenue will triple in 3 years

• Naming rights for a premier event independently at $20m

• 104 mins average time on platform per day

But it was the insight, the speed of change, the professionalism and the clarity of thought of the speakers that blew the hangovers away. EA CEO Andrew Wilson was eloquent when he compared the shift in gaming to music purchasing. Gaming was the same as buying a music tape from a shop – it is now like the Spotify model – to use his words “it permeates out of every part of our lives”. With ink running out of American Airline pens he went on to say that gaming was an experience industry that had to deliver $2 of perceived value for every $ spent (quoting the founder of DEF JAM – “Deaf who?” Called the Dirty Martini brigade).

I have been involved in gaming for 10 years – but even with my eyes open I had been missing some serious shifts in consumer behaviour. Well I hadn’t – it just hadn’t registered how big it was. When you hear the impressive Wilson saying “we are facilitating human connections …in games and in real sports …” and saying one of his focuses is on “how we connect when they aren’t playing the game”. How is he? He did not mention a channel or site or stream or platform he used one word – “Content”.

I will write a blog on content soon. It shall include a Yo Sushi analogy which explains my theory of the relationship between content and platforms.

E-Gaming deserves pages of comment – which they will get soon. I’ll just leave you with one quote;

“we don’t need old school broadcasters – we are mainstream already – our last tournament had 28 million viewers”.

Yes indeed – the future is now. And it really doesn’t need the past.