Going into the event I really wanted to do well as it’s my favourite game. Having previously competed in Esports WRC, travelling to the world finals in Germany and placing 5th, I knew I had the skills to go for the win.
From the moment the Rally NZ Esports event was announced I put in a lot of work aiming for the win. It was an unfamiliar position to be in, fancying myself as the favourite putting extra pressure on myself. As the qualifying event approached I found myself fighting for the top spots of the in game leaderboards across the New Zealand stages. But wouldn’t you know it it was my buddy Wtru I was trading times with (albeit on a seperate leaderboard as he was practicing on Playstation).
Congratulations Wtru 🎉🏁 Monkey Motorsport Club 1-2 finish 💪 I put everything into it and came so close but it wasn’t enough in the end. Second place in the Rally NZ Esports Series ain’t too bad though 🥈
I don’t much like to talk about the finals after coming 2nd but it was an amazing event. Qualifying and getting a trip to another sim racing final is always a huge exciting achievement and to do it on my favorite series WRC, in fact to even have a competition like this on WRC, made it all the sweeter.
I just wish I had done better than second.
The open qualifiers and semi finals took place at Auckland Armageddon and was very cool. There was a very big setup where anyone could wait there turn and have a go. Then before the semi finals there was a celebrity race where I leaned over and gave my hero Hayden Paddon some help with his rig. A very cool moment.
Watch the semi finals broadcast on twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/782769463?filter=highlights&sort=time
The finals were hosted at LetsPlay.Live studios in the sky tower.
Finals full stream on twitch:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/796358146?filter=highlights&sort=time
Update: Now that it’s been so long since the event I think I’m safe to share some secrets. After the successful semi finals LetsPlay.Live got access to a special LAN build of WRC 9 from the developers in order to run the finals without the broadcast difficulties (bugs) of the public game. That was pretty damn cool but did lead to a funny moment in practice where the game completely bugged out.