Breaking: F1 Esports May Postpone Second LAN Event; Find Out Why
The second LAN event for 2023 in the simulation racing series was apparently canceled by F1 Esports, the esports arm of the Formula 1 international automobile racing league.
The intended dates for the F1 sim racing event were December 15 and 16. The 2023 World Championship Round 1 in November is followed by this event.
The planned F1 Esports event has been canceled, according to a series of posts made by racing news organization League Racing News (LRN) on X, formerly Twitter, on December 13. The publication subsequently stated shortly after the first post that teams had reserved certain driver flights and that the event postponement was not within their control.
Furthermore, LRN claims that F1 has not announced any intentions to postpone the occasion or host more F1 Esports races in the future. F1 Esports has been contacted by Esports Insider in regards to the reports. At the time of writing, F1 had not responded to Esports Insider regarding the matter.
Numerous members of the F1 sim racing community have expressed their opinions over the state of the esports scene after LRN’s posts. German driver Marcel Kiefer criticized the lack of communication on this issue and said on Twitter that participants were unaware of the reason for the cancellation.
In addition, Nathan Tague, Head of Sim Racing at G2 Esports, answered queries from the public on his X page. Tague asserted that the current status of the esport was caused by F1’s inadequate communication and frequent deadline changes. He did, however, note that the tournament’s host, ESL, had made every effort to complete the arrangements.
“There are issues between the teams and [F1 management], but these aren’t down to the teams being difficult in any way,” he said in one response. They stem from [F1 management’s] persistent shifting of the goalposts, breaking of pledges, and absence of clear communication, accountability, and guidance.
Targue added, “There were LAN events scheduled for last year that also got silently canned behind the scenes. The North American Championship was not the first F1 Esports LAN event to be cancelled.” It’s a problem that has been evident for some time.
The announcement of the cancellation comes during a challenging year for F1 Esports. With about 385,000 peak viewers, the Oracle Red Bull Racing 2023 Launch Event in February 2023 ranked as the third most-watched event in F1 Esports history. However, the opening round of the 2023 World Championship in November drew significant criticism from the sim racing community.
Although the LAN tournament was held at Dreamhack Winter in Jönköping, Sweden, the series encountered difficulties in executing the event. This year, the F1 Esports industry saw a significant change in the event organization as well, with the series switching from Gfinity to ESL.
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