UK-based racing team Alpine Esports have today announced a new Alpine Esports Content Studio, driver line-up and more, as part of their inaugural Sim Racing Expo.
Alpine Esports Content Studio opens at Enstone with £50,000 worth of equipment
The Alpine Esports Content Room “powered by QAN”, their Official Blockchain Partner, is built within the walls of their historical F1 factory at Enstone in the UK.
Alpine said in a press release that the Alpine Esports Content Studio is a ‘state-of-the-art facility is kitted with over £50,000 worth of equipment from Trak Racer, Elgato and BenQ, and will be used to support immersive content and livestreams from drivers and ambassadors’.
The Content Room will also contain Varjo Aero VR headsets – more on that partnership later in this article.
The studio is a result of a strategic partnership between Alpine Esports (a Group Renault brand, and inter alia in the Formula 1 Esports Series) and QANplatform, a blockchain platform.
From this, Alpine say they will be able to gamify and customise their content ‘and create new fan offerings instantly’.
The press release also stated: “For Alpine, the partnership will aid the team’s fan engagement strategy and allow them to create practical use cases that will support internal operations. For QANplatform the partnership aims to illustrate how blockchain technology can be used to develop applications for businesses beyond payments processing.”
Alpine Esports announce driver line-up for 2023
Alpine Esports have announced their new driver line-up for the F1 Esports Series 2023.
Fan favourite Patrik Sipos, rising star and 2022 F1 Esports Exhibition runner-up Luke Smith will return along with new driver Rubén Pedreño, who previously drove for Race Clutch (sim racing organisation and partner of Alpine Esports) as an academy driver.
Rubén will be supported by the team to get his F1 Esports Pro License through the Challenger Series.
Alpine Esports also announced the renewal of their endurance driver Collin Spork, who quickly rose to stardom in 2022 when he won the Formula SimRacing Championship by three points. Spork participated in the Le Mans Virtual Series where he managed to maintain a solid team standing during the world’s longest virtual endurance race.
Collin will be joined by Tom Lartilleux, who was also driving for Alpine Esports in 2022. Tom is a former Gran Turismo professional sim-racer as Vice-World Champion in 2018 FIA Gran Turismo World Championship.
Alongside a new roster, Alpine Esports drivers will don a new team kit provided by Kappa, the Official Kit Supplier. The kit will include Alpine Esports’ new logo alongside a snowflake design which symbolises the Alps, the DNA of the Alpine brand.
Trio of ambassadors to represent Alpine Esports
PattyPatt, an F1 content creator known for hosting online lobbies, providing race commentary, and racing in competitive leagues, joins Alpine Esports as their latest ambassador. PattyPat will join AnaonAir and Thomb who renew their contracts and, alongside developing fun content for fans, will expand their remit beyond esports to connect with the wider motorsport community.
Thomb also conducted a live broadcast at the launch of the BWT Alpine F1 Team 2023 F1 Championship Contender, the A523.
Alpine Esports Championship Series 2023 powered by Binance
The Alpine Esports Championship Series will also return for 2023, providing gamers and sim racers the opportunity to showcase their talent and attempt to take their virtual steps on the podium, driving Alpine A110 GT4 cars around three circuits.
Hosted on Assetto Corsa Competizione, the Alpine Esports Championship Series 2023 qualifiers are set to begin on March 27th to April 9th 2023. Anyone owning the game and GT4 expansion pack can participate.
The top 35 racers will qualify into the championship stage where they will compete in three rounds, on April 27th, May 11th and May 25th, for a chance to win a share of the $60,000 in Alpine Fan Tokens, a driving experience in an Alpine GT4, an Alpine Racing TRX simulator rig from Trak Racer, BenQ Mobiuz EX3410R curved monitor and exclusive Alpine Esports merchandise.
Alpine Esports will also offer more $40,000 fan token bundles and free NFTs for viewers at home.
Esports students produce Alpine Esports Community Cup as part of final year project
Aero Events, headed by a group of third year esports students from Staffordshire University, will be working with Alpine Esports to present the Alpine Esports Community Cup as part of their final year project.
It’s a 12-week long community-focused tournament with prizes provided by Mouseskins and Alpine Esports, including a custom mouse in the winners in-game livery, and esports experiences at the F1 factory.
Every Monday at 7pm GMT from February 27th til May 15th will see the action broadcast live on the Alpine Twitch channel.
The Alpine Esports Community Cup builds on already-established relationships, such as involvement in web3, using the relationship with Discordify and Crew.3. And the talent, production and admin teams working on this event are all students from Staffordshire University.
“Being given the opportunity to showcase our skills and abilities, by such an impressive company, means the world to our small team of students,” said Harvey Partridge, Social and Community Lead at Aero Events.
Participants can join the Alpine Community Cup by joining the Alpine Esports Discord.
Other Alpine Esports partners announced
Alpine Esports have signed Special Effect, a gaming charity that supports the physically disabled, as Official Charity Partner.
Alpine Esports will work together with Special Effect to raise funds and awareness of accessible gaming for the physically disabled through charity streams, raising questions about accessible gaming in industry conversations, and work to develop more accessible ways for gamers to access sim racing.
Alpine Esports also revealed a series of other new partners, VR/XR company Varjo, eye-tracking company Tobii, and The Tiny Digital Factory, whose technology will assist with driver training and performance, data tracking that will support engineering for real-world racing, and new fan engagement experiences.
Tobii will bring the Tobii Eye Tracker 5 to the Alpine Esports team, while the Varjo XR technology will be used for the wider Alpine Business Unit, plus the Varjo Aero headsets will offer immersive experiences to fans and drivers. Varjo will supply Alpine Esports with Varjo Aero VR headsets to be used at events and in the new Alpine Esports Content Room.
The Tiny Digital Factory joins Alpine Esports as Official Mobile Racing Game Partner. As experts in motorsport mobile games they joined the blockchain market in 2020 and developed new Web3 gaming experiences.
There’s also the partnerships with Kappa, Binance and QANplatform, as previously mentioned in this article.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
