8 teams and 16 drivers reached the grand final in person at the Motor & Sport Institute in Madrid. EDGE eSports won the title of winner and € 6.000 in prize money.
The Motor & Sport Institute of Madrid (MSi) recently hosted the grand final of the first edition of the MAPFRE ESL Racing Series international championship, where 16 drivers from 11 nationalities faced each other in three exciting races broadcast through the Movistar + sports channels , Twitch, the digital platforms of Movistar eSports and Facebook of ESL Spain.
EDGE eSports became the winning team of the first season of ESL Racing Series MAPFRE thanks to the outstanding role of its drivers Kevin Siggy Rebernak and Jim Parisis. ACR Zakspeed stayed at the gates of the title and had to settle for second place, despite the great performance of their drivers, Risto Kappet and Adam Pinczes. The third position on the podium was occupied by Williams eSports, a team made up of Polish drivers Kuba Brzezunksi and Nikkodem Wisniewski.
ESL Racing Series MAPFRE is the first SimRacing championship organized in Spain by ESL and in which more than 900 players from different countries competed to qualify. The first phase of the championship was divided into a qualifying day and a Regular Phase in which 18 teams participated, of which only the best 8 managed to go to the Grand Final, held on March 16. These teams chose the 16 SimDrivers (2 per team) that faced each other last Saturday in the championship held at the Motor & Sport Institute in Madrid (MSi).
Alberto Martín, Sales Director of ESL Spain, LatAm and Portugal:
We are very satisfied with the reception that the first season of ESL Racing Series MAPFRE has had. It has been an honor to be able to count on these 16 professional drivers who have shown great talent and who have made it possible for SimRacing to have more and more visibility within esports The level we have had in the Grand Final has been incredible, the concentration and the professionalism of the pilots who have made us enjoy a very exciting competitive environment.
In the final, the drivers ran 3 impressive races where they had to show their skills in the world of SimRacing. The first race took place at the Suzuka circuit, with the Formula Renault 3.5. In the second race, the drivers had to pass a test at Interlagos with the BMW M6 GT3. Finally, the third race was held at the Malaysian circuit aboard the Marussia MR01 car.
ESL Racing Series MAPFRE, sponsored by MAPFRE, Movistar eSports and Logitech, distributed € 18.000 in prizes among the 8 finalist teams. The first classified team obtained € 6.000, the second classified € 4.000 and € 2.600 for the third. The pilots who finished in fourth and fifth place shared € 1.800 and € 1.400, respectively. The last classified in the championship also received a financial prize of € 1.000 for the pilots who finished in sixth place, € 700 for the seventh and € 500 for the last classified team.
Raúl Costilla, commercial general manager of MAPFRE ESPAÑA:
ESL Racing Series MAPFRE is the beginning of something much bigger and we are sure that this championship will encourage many people to take an interest in SimRacing, which is an exciting competition. At MAPFRE we want to promote disciplines like this in esports, where values such as perseverance, teamwork and effort triumph, values that are part of our company's DNA.
In this championship, the effort and perseverance were also recognized. On behalf of Team Vires, Erhan Jajovski collected the trophy for “Best Team of the Regular Phase”, sponsored by Movistar. Thanks to the company's support as a sponsoring partner and media partner, ESL Racing Series MAPFRE has become one of the most important professional SimRacing competitions in Spain, being broadcast through Movistar + and Movistar eSports digital channels. The broadcast of the competition could be seen on Movistar +, on Movistar eSports and on the ESL Twitch channel and ESL Spain's Facebook profile, achieving a cumulative total of views of 355.413 viewers.
