Source Medium
The drone technology is expanding drastically in the past few years. It’s starting to take part in every part of our everyday lives. Everyday more and more investments are taking place in the world of drones. Big companies such as Walmart, Amazon, BMW are helping in improving different branches in the use of drones. The drones are starting to revolutionize the world of eSports and VR (Virtual Reality) technology.
Drone Racing is a considered a new and fast-growing branch in the world of eSports. More and more people worldwide are starting to take interest in the use of drones as a fun way of competing amongst each other. This is where the Drone Racing League (DRL) comes into place.
The Early Beginnings of Drone Racing League
The Drone Racing League was founded in January 2015. It’s based in the United States. While the drone racing “trend” has a long history, it’s establishment as a promising eSport comes along with the creation of the league. Nicholas Horbaczewski (the founder of DRL) received 12M$ of fundings at the start. Along with Ryan Gury, they designed the league’s racing drones which race at speeds above 80MPH. Catching the eye of many new huge companies, it’s worth grew up to 20M$ by 2017. The first season was an astounding success which was followed by an audience of 28 million. In the 3 years since it’s founding, the league has seen a major leap and evergrowing potential, as more and more gigants start to see the potential in it’s growth.
Past and upcoming events
Season 3 was marked with great success and remembered by glorious highlights. The Drone Racing League events took place in 6 different places around the world. The whole event was separated into 6 levels which were held in different cities across the US and Europe. The events took place in the greatest arenas the cities had to offer. Level 1(Miami Nights) was held in Miami in the stadium of the Dolphins. Level 2(Atlanta Aftermath) took a different path as it took place at a disaster training center. The 3rd level took place in New Orleans, during the Mardi Gras parade. The 4th level (Boston Foundry) was the last event of the regular season. The event was extremely challenging, as the pilots had to face dark corridors filled with heavy machinery objects.
For the 5th level (Munich Playoffs) the last 12 pilots came all the way to Western Europe. They faced their drones in a fierce battle at a former motorcycle factory. The Finale (London Championship) took place at the Alexandra Palace where after a fierce battle between the last 6 pilots, Jordan ‘Jet’ Temkin emerged as the victor of the Championship.
The 2018 Season will have its finale held in the BMW Welt in Munich on the 28th of July. The official ticket’s price varies from 11.83 to 22.49 euros depending on the view of the terrain(Zone 1 and Zone 2).
The last race for the season will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. According to GearBrain, this will be the first professional drone racing championship held in Saudi Arabia. This will mark the international spreading of the drone racing and make this sport even bigger.
DRL Pilots
The stars in the drones world are the pilots. They compete with each other by racing their drones through different terrains with different obstacles. Just like in tennis, the pilots are not equally good at all terrains. Some pilots fly better on flat terrains such as big grass landfields, others fly better in closed spaces filled with lots of obstacles.
Many of the pilots have a gaming background. Starting with a variety of video games and then moving on to the VR part of eSports – Drone Racing. Some of the most famous pilots come from Canada, USA, Germany, and England. The list of the best pilots is topping: Gab707 (Canada), Nubb (USA), Wild Willy (USA), A_nubb (USA), as well as the Europeans: Add1 (England), McStralle (Germany), ShaggyFPV (Netherlands).
Sponsors and broadcasters
Source DroneFlit
Since it’s establishment in 2015, the drone racing league promised high success. Many big-time investors saw the potential in the new uprising eSport and immediately started throwing big money in the league. One of the earliest investors is the owner of the famous Miami Dolphins, Stephen Ross. Since then many other multibillionaire companies joined this group. MGM Television didn’t miss the chance and soon joined in. CAA Ventures was next on the list. WWE, Liberty Media, Allianz, and Sky bought big stakeholders in the League.
ESPN also has a million dollar contract with the league. At the end of 2017 and the start of 2018 Allianz expanded their stakes becoming a big-time owner of the league. One of the new and highly influential sponsors of the league is the famous German Automotive company BMW. The company is investing heavily into building the worlds fastest drone. This can make a significant leap in the world of drone racing, as it will raise the bars and make the sport more challenging for the competitors, and more еxciting for the fans.
What do we at The Drones World believe?
Besides the big audience and the number of players involved in the race, the drone racing has a lot more time until it becomes a worldwide sport. The big support of the media helps in spreading the idea of the sport and attract more users. There will be few more years until it becomes the big thing, and a fewer more until we watch it on our Tv’s as normal sport. We at The Drones World are very optimistic about the future development of this sport. We believe that this sport will become even bigger than Formula 1 or MotoGP racing.
This sport can help millions of people to engage and have fun. Drone Racing, represented by DRL will be the next big sport where technology will hold the competing guidelines.