Porsche and iRacing hosting $100,000 World Championship Series

eSports has grown so much that it’s actually found its way onto the cover of

ESPN the Magazine

cover and SportsCenter Top 10 highlights. It’s a growing wave and

Porsche

wants to catch it, establishing itself as a player in the industry throughout the past couple years. In 2017 it aligned itself with iRacing and for 2019, the two are hosting the

“Porsche iRacing World Championship Series.”

Since Porsche and iRacing began their partnership, they have put on multiple digital racing tournaments. The Porsche SimRacing Trophy was a 40-person event at the

Nurburgring

in September 2018, while a Porsche Sim Racing Summit had a smaller field of 32 drivers racing at Porsche’s Leipzig factory in December 2018.

The World Championship Series (WCS) will be the biggest and most significant effort yet. Rather than hosting an event in one place, the online-only WCS will be stretched out for an entire season, with races occurring for 10 weekends. Racers will be competing in the 911 GT3 Cup with $100,000 of total prize money at stake.

Many automakers and racing leagues have been integrating video game racing simulation into its current and future plans.

NASCAR

is working on its own championships.

Formula 1

is working on an eSports league. The “World’s Fastest Gamer”

landed a job at McLaren

, for Pete’s sake.

The idea and concept of eSports and simulation racing has been bubbling for more than a decade, but only in the past few years has it really started to gain real-life, here-to-stay traction. The new Porsche racing series will begin qualifying in January 2019 and can be watched on

iRacing eSports Network

.

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