FIA-Certified Gran Turismo Championships

The FIA-Certified Gran Turismo Championships (also referred to as the FIA GTC) is a series of professional Gran Turismo Sport world championship esports tournaments, managed directly by Japanese game development studio Polyphony Digital and the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile.[1] The series uses Polyphony Digital's latest racing video game Gran Turismo Sport, and the championship contains two series that are held concurrently throughout the year: the Nations Cup (entrants from their respective countries will represent them), the Manufacturer Series (entrants will race for and represent their chosen manufacturer), and the Toyota GR GT Cup (entrants compete in Toyota road cars and race cars).

FIA-Certified Gran Turismo Championships
Tournament information
GameGran Turismo Sport
LocationSpecified locations
Established2018
Administrator(s)Polyphony Digital
WebsiteOfficial website
Current champion
Valerio Gallo (Nations Cup)
Tomoaki Yamanaka (Toyota GR GT Cup and Manufacturer Series)
Igor Fraga (Manufacturer Series)
Coque Lopez (Manufacturer Series)

All virtual races in the tournament take place in specified locations all around the globe. In addition to the live studio audiences at the specified locations, the tournaments are streamed live in YouTube through several languages. The Nations Cup and Manufacturer Series are currently sponsored by Toyota, Michelin, Mazda, BBS, and Sony Alpha, and the GR GT Cup is supported by mobility service firm Kinto.[2][3][4][5] The series is provided with clothing by Puma and peripherals by Thrustmaster.

The winners of each series are given a glass plaque and are also honoured at the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony. Drivers were formerly given a TAG Heuer watch, but this has no longer become a prize since their partnership with Polyphony Digital ended in 2020; a set of Sony Alpha photography equipment were given out that year, followed by a set of BBS wheels for 2021.

The series has since made an impact in real-world motorsport, serving as a basis for virtual players in terms of possibly starting a career in esports before jumping into real-world motorsport.[6]

Format

Before the "Online Series" is started, every season begins with a "World Tour" event, containing the top drivers from the season prior. The winner from the World Tour event gains direct access to the "World Final" event.[7]

A phase dubbed as the "Online Series", which is essentially a qualification phase to decide the participants that will race in the live events of the championship tournament, kicks off every season. The Online Series is divided into four stages, with each stage hosting ten rounds.[8] By the end of each stage, another World Tour event is hosted, which includes the top players from that stage instead of the top drivers from the previous season.[8] The top players who are selected after the series must sign an application form in order to be able to participate for the World Tour events, and they must also be over 18.[8][9] The Online Series goes on for five to seven months.[8]

The "Live Events" begin after the Online Series. The Nations Cup category includes the top 90 players (30 per region) with the highest points across all four stages. Three different live events occur, with each live event carrying a specific world region. The top 10 players from those regions enter the "World Final" event, a championship stage to decide the number one player. The Manufacturer Series category includes the top 48 players (three players per region) and 16 manufacturers with the highest points across all four stages. The top players and manufacturers participate in the "World Final" event, to decide the top three players and the number one manufacturer.[10] The winners of their respective series at the "World Final" are crowned either Nations Cup champion or Manufacturer Series champion.

Format changes during COVID-19 pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was announced that the 2020 World Finals would be held as an online-based event.[11]

Further format changes were made for 2021, where the online season (named World Series) was divided into six online races (replacing the physical World Tours), four of them containing one race for Nations Cup and Manufacturer Series, plus the mid-season "Showdown" playoff races and the grand finals, which were aired as tape delayed streams. The first two World Series races featured top competitors from the previous season (16 Nations Cup drivers and 12 Manufacturer Series players that chose the same manufacturer as with the previous season, with limit of one player per brand), after which they would race together against top players from the first half of the online qualifiers (the in-game races accessible to the general public) in the Showdown to determine who would advance to the next two stages. Players that advanced to the third and fourth round would then face opponents that qualified in the second half of the online qualifiers through the same criteria in the grand finals.[12]

Media coverage

The FIA GTC races are usually streamed live in YouTube under the official Gran Turismo channel, and is available to watch through several languages. The presenters for the livestreams include Jimmy Broadbent, Tom Brooks and Julia Hardy (English coverage), Rene Buttler and Florian Strauss (German coverage), Donald Reignoux and Pierre-Oliver Valette (French coverage), Emilio Cozzi and Andrea Facchinetti (Italian coverage), Alberto Perez and Lucas Ordóñez (Spanish coverage), and Duarte Félix da Costa and Filipe Albuquerque (Portuguese coverage).

Event winners

There have been several event winners since the start of the FIA GTC at the "GT World Tour" event at the Nürburgring. Giorgio Mangano was the first Nations Cup event winner, while Philippe Nicolay, Matthew Thomas, and Anthony Duval, representing BMW, were the first Manufacturers Cup event winners.[13][14] Formula Regional driver and former USF2000 driver Igor Fraga became the first ever FIA Certified Nations Cup World Champion, and Kanata Kawakami, Vincent Rigaud, and Tyrell Meadows became the first ever FIA Certified Manufacturer Series World Champions for Lexus at the "World Final" event in Monaco 2018.[15][16][17]

Fraga, Hizal, and Miyazono are the only FIA GTC event winners who have won both the Nations Cup and Manufacturer Series championships. Fraga is also the only event winner to have won a championship in both the FIA GTC and real-world motorsport.[18]

Season Title Location Date Toyota GR GT Cup Nations Cup Manufacturer Series Ref
2018 World Tour 2018 - Nürburgring Nürburg 10-13 May Not held Giorgio Mangano Philippe Nicolay
Matthew Thomas
Anthony Duval
BMW [13][14]
World Tour 2018 - Red Bull Hangar-7 Salzburg 22 September Benjámin Báder
Patrik Blazsán
Ádám Tápai
Mikail Hizal
Andrew McCabe
Nissan [19]
Nations Cup Asia/Oceania Final 2018 Odaiba 6-7 October Ryota Kokubun Not held [20]
Nations Cup European Final 2018 Madrid 19-20 October Mikail Hizal [21]
Nations Cup Americas Final 2018 Las Vegas 31 October Igor Fraga [22]
World Finals 2018 Monaco 16-18 November Igor Fraga Kanata Kawakami
Vincent Rigaud
Tyrell Meadows
Lexus [15][23]
2019 World Tour 2019 - Paris Paris 16-17 March Nicolas Rubilar Yoshiharu Imai
Thomas Compton-McPherson
Christopher Marcell
Aston Martin [24]
World Tour 2019 - Nürburgring Nürburg 21-22 June Igor Fraga Tomoaki Yamanaka
Rick Kevelham
Simon Bishop
Toyota [25]
World Tour 2019 - New York New York 24-25 August Igor Fraga Cody Nikola Latkovski
Bernal Valverde
Anthony Felix
Mercedes-Benz [26]
World Tour 2019 - Red Bull Hangar-7 Salzburg 14-15 September Mikail Hizal Cody Nikola Latkovski
Tom Lartilleux
Anthony Felix
Mercedes-Benz [27]
World Tour 2019 - Tokyo Tokyo 26-27 October Mikail Hizal Ryota Kokubun Angel Inostroza
Tristan Bayless
Matt Simmons
Porsche [28]
World Finals 2019 Monaco 23-24 November Not held Mikail Hizal Tomoaki Yamanaka
Rayan Derrouiche
Igor Fraga
Toyota [29][30]
2020 World Tour 2020 - Sydney Sydney 15-16 February Takuma Miyazono Coque López
Nicolas Rubilar
Randall Haywood
BMW [31]
World Tour 2020 - Nürburgring Nürburg 22-23 May Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the postponement of 2020 24 Hours of Nürburgring [32]
Nations Cup EMEA Regional Final 2020 Online 22 November Coque López Not held [33]
Nations Cup Americas Regional Final 2020 29 November Adriano Carrazza [34]
Nations Cup Asia-Oceania Regional Final 2020 6 December Takuma Miyazono [35]
World Finals 2020 19-20 December Takuma Miyazono Takuma Miyazono Mikail Hizal
Takuma Miyazono
Daniel Solis
Subaru [36][37]
2021 World Series 2021 Round 1 6 June Not held Valerio Gallo Angel Inostroza Porsche
World Series 2021 Round 2 11 July Patrik Blazsán Takuma Miyazono Subaru
World Series 2021 Showdown 21-22 August Ryota Kokubun Tomoaki Yamanaka
Igor Fraga
Coque López
Toyota
World Series 2021 Round 3 3 October Valerio Gallo José Serrano Porsche
World Series 2021 Round 4 14 November Valerio Gallo Igor Fraga Toyota
World Finals 2021 3-5 December Tomoaki Yamanaka Valerio Gallo Tomoaki Yamanaka
Igor Fraga
Coque López
Toyota

References

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