The 2023 ESL R1 calendar consists of two seasons, Spring and Fall, with each comprising of eight rounds that decide the Team Championship winner. Each of the eight rounds entails four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and one final, with each preceded by a qualifying round that sets the race’s starting positions. Following these eight rounds is a climactic ‘Major’ event, where only the best twenty-four drivers from the previous eight rounds compete for the prestigious Driver Championship crown.

To build on its already highly competitive nature, ESL R1 has seen team entries from not only real-world automotive juggernauts in the form of factory teams, but also from those already well established in the Esports and Sim Racing circuits. Representing Porsche in the 911 GT3 R across all ESL R1 races is the Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team , a formidable quartet formed by Mack Bakkum, Dayne Warren, Joshua Rogers and Mitchell deJong.

The ESL R1 Spring season kicked off with a sensational in-person LAN event at the iconic Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice, Poland, where Round 1 and 2 took place; the remaining six online rounds, held at some of the world's greatest virtual tracks, were then staged remotely. After eight spellbinding rounds that saw some of the greatest battles in Sim Racing history, the Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team clinched an impressive third place overall in the Team Championship. The Driver Championship, however, was still to be decided at the Spring Major at Rennsport Summit in Munich, Germany.

 

Taking place at Motorworld Munich, the Spring Major marked a thrilling conclusion to the first ESL R1 Spring Season. After a weekend of arduous races throughout which the Porsche factory drivers raced impressively, Marcell Csincsik from R8G Esports took home the Driver Championship crown. Joshua Rogers provided stiff opposition to Csincsik over the course of the weekend, finishing just behind him in P2 in the final race to secure fourth in the Driver Championship; Mitchell deJong finished in P17, with teammates Mack Bakkum and Dayne Warren in P24 and P29 respectively.

 

A promising start to life in ESL R1 for the Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team, who finished the Spring Season determined for even more success in the Fall edition.

Before the ESL R1 Fall Season, however, was the Gamers8 ESL R1 event, an impressive mid-season tournament held in Riyadh where the team would spend four days competing with the world’s best Sim Racers.

 

After two days of intense battling for the Gamers8 Driver Championship, Joshua Rogers earned a hard-fought second place. Determined to carry his successes over into the Team Championship, Rogers also played a leading role in the team’s achievement of the season so far; taking their duel with Team Redline right into the event’s latter stages, it was the Porsche Coanda quartet that raced away on top, proud winners of the Gamers8 ESL R1 Team Championship.

With the dust barely having settled on the Spring Season, now it’s time for the Porsche Coanda drivers to gear up for the ESL R1 Fall Season. Sticking with the same talented driver lineup, the team will now be managed by Jörn Jens, winner of both the Motorvision eSports Xtreme Series 2019 and the iRacing Blancplain GT Series 2016.

Identical in format to its Spring predecessor and featuring the same competitive teams, the Fall Season will only see minimal changes ahead of its start. In this instalment, the Fall Major will take place at DreamHack Winter in Jönköping Sweden, a top-draw Esports festival. Moreover, the season will see scheduling changes, with all action taking place entirely on Thursdays and Fridays, as opposed to the Friday and Monday racing seen previously. Organisers have also tweaked the points system for the Fall season, as seen below.

The confirmed tracks for Round 1-5 are as follows:

 

Round 1: Monza

Round 2: Spa

Round 3: Hockenheim

Round 4: Nürburgring

Round 5: Monza

 

You can catch the semi-finals and finals every Friday on the official broadcast at twitch.tv/eslr1. Also keep an eye out and follow the Porsche Twitch account for Community and Live Streams from the drivers throughout the season.

 

Keep up to date with all the latest Porsche Coanda content as it’s posted – simply subscribe to the Porsche Twitch account at https://www.twitch.tv/porsche and check out our X and Instagram accounts:

 

X: https://twitter.com/PorscheRaces

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/porsche.motorsport

 

With the new ESL R1 season just weeks away, the Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team is ready to compete once more at the very pinnacle of Esports Sim Racing.