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Ahmed Saleh

Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team wins $250,000 title at Gamers8 Festival

The Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team won the team title, which is worth $250,000 USD, at the Gamers8 Festival this year in Saudi Arabia.

With his virtual Porsche 911 GT3 R, Joshua Rogers won the eighth and final race of the ESL R1 Mid-Season Event on the "Rennsport" simulation platform. Earlier on Friday, the Australian narrowly missed winning the drivers' title overall.

The ESL R1 Mid-Season Event in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh featured 12 professional teams and a total of 48 drivers, including representatives from Mercedes-AMG, BMW M, and the Formula 1 racing team Williams, as well as well-known sim racing organizations like R8G Esports and Team Redline. After the group stage on Saturday, only six teams, including Porsche Coanda Esports, advanced to the final on Sunday. Mitchell deJong from the United States, Mack Bakkum from the Netherlands, and Joshua Rogers and Dayne Warren from Australia attended the live event on the Arabian Peninsula on behalf of the works team, which is situated in Gronau, close to the Dutch border. With three victories and two more podium finishes on Saturday, the quartet already held the top spot in the team standings.

The clocks for those taking part in the championship round were reset to zero on Sunday. The teams initially needed to accumulate at least 150 points to enter Finalist Mode" and compete for the prestigious championship. For instance, there were 25 points awarded for first place. Two drivers from each squad participated in each race. The "finalist" who won the first subsequent race would be declared the winner.

Team Redline was able to surpass the crucial points threshold as early as the sixth race. Rogers was able to keep Redline driver Kevin Siggy in third position and far from a victory in the next race, which was run on the Italian high-speed Formula 1 track of Monza. This outcome also indicated that the Porsche Coanda had advanced to "Finalist Mode" on its own. On the "Ardennes rollercoaster" in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, the eighth race was conducted. From pole position for the opening lap, Rogers was able to rapidly establish a small advantage. Erhan Jajovski (R8G Esports) of northern Macedonia and Enzo Bonito (Team Redline) of Italy trailed him by 2.4 seconds at the finish line. As a result, Porsche Coanda was declared the clear first-team winner of the Gamers8 ESL R1 competition. The championship title carries a cash award of $250,000.

Joshua Rogers


Joshua Rogers' collision with another vehicle at the previous race cost him the drivers' championship. The four Porsche Coanda racers competed fiercely in Riyadh on Thursday and Friday for the drivers' title. Rogers and Warren advanced to the best twelve rounds after the group stage. Max Benecke from Team MOUZ and Rogers, a German, qualified for the "Finalist Mode" after five races. After setting a personal best time in qualifying and starting from pole position in the sixth race, Rogers was already in the lead when a chaser spun him off the track coming out of the Arena portion of the Nürburgring. By taking advantage, Benecke drove to victory and the championship. As the runner-up, Rogers was only eligible for the 75,000 US dollars in prize money. Dayne Warren placed eighth overall. At the Gamers8 Festival, the Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team took home a grand total of 375,000 US dollars.

Following the ESL R1 Gamers 8 Tournament, quotes Nina Braack, Porsche Motorsport's eSports manager Thank you to the entire crew for this outstanding performance! The team classification was the objective we set out to accomplish. The tremendous teamwork over the past few weeks is what has allowed us to actually be traveling home with this title at this time. Even though Joshua ultimately lost out on winning the drivers' championship due to an incident on the track, we are nevertheless quite pleased with our second- and seventh-place finishes. As the second season of the ESL R1 Series gets underway at the end of August, we want to carry the momentum and energy we gained at this tournament with us.

Jörn Jens (Team Manager Porsche Coanda Esports): "We did well in the drivers' standings early on and had Dayne Warren and Joshua Rogers going into the final day. Josh was unfortunately involved in a collision with another driver, which prevented us from ultimately winning. However, we carried our second-place energy over to the team competition, where we quickly topped the standings. We didn't get off to a great start on the last day, but we persevered and, in "Finalist Mode," got the correct drivers on the track when it mattered most. Joshua's emphatic victory after that gave us the championship.


Nina Braack

"I am completely floored that my teammates and I won the team ranking for Porsche Coanda Esports," said Joshua Rogers (Porsche Coanda Esports). They are a pleasure to work with. Really, I'm still at a loss for words. Even though I finished in second place in the drivers' rankings, it was still a terrific week. I had to first process that in my mind. But because the boys have been so supportive, I've been even more motivated to give my all in the race for the team title.

Porsche Coanda Esports' Dayne Warren said, "This was a tough week for the entire team. I'm overjoyed that we took home the team title. Josh should have won the drivers' championship as well, though. I'm pleased with my seventh-place finish.

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