WRC eSports tournament to race alongside 2016 rally season

The WRC Championship, a new eSports racing tournament co-organised by ESL, will run alongside the FIA World Rally Championship during its 2016 season.

After the worldwide launch of WRC 5 this October 9-16th, players will have three months to get up to speed with the game before the first stages of the tournament begin in January, along with the WRC 2016 season.

A great online experience is one of the most requested features expected by WRC fans," said Alain Jarniou, Game Director at Bigben Interactive. "We spent a lot of time thinking about something new and really exciting for them. Esports is growing really fast year after year, but there are only a few motorsport games which propose an exciting online competition."

The decision to run an eSports season alongside its physical counterpart is new territory for games, mostly owing to the completely fantastical nature of a lot of eSports, and the lack of any real-world equivalent of wizards fighting over blowing up a magic tree.

"New technology has brought an extra dimension to the way in which people can engage with WRC," said WRC Promoter managing director Oliver Ciesla. "Our partnership with Bigben Interactive for the 2016 eSports WRC Championship is the latest example of this, and we look forward to revealing more details to our gaming fans in the coming weeks."

The final of the tournament, which will run on Twitch every week throughout the WRC season, will go out live during the last round of the physical rally championship.