Esports Champ Wants To Enter Into The Actual World Of Motorsport
Eight weeks, hundreds of competitors over numerous events, and a multi-million-pound prize pool—yet this wasn’t your typical sports competition.
Luke Bennett is the reigning world champion after winning the inaugural Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia.
Not only that, but the 19-year-old from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, will return £100,000 richer after winning the top prize in sim racing.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Luke told BBC Newsbeat. But now he hopes to turn his dream into a reality by pursuing a career in motorsport.
Luke is a member of Team Redline, a spinoff of Red Bull’s Formula One team that includes Belgian-Dutch racing driver Max Verstappen.
“It’s just like driving a car in real life,” Luke says of sim racing. “But on a computer.”
The team was created over 20 years ago, but Luke says people are still startled when he tells them what he does.
He claims that when he mentions the reward money, people are taken aback.
“It shows it’s getting bigger and bigger and it can be a career for some people.”
Team Redline dominated the Esports World Cup, never finishing lower than fourth place in the tournament’s grand finals.
“It’s been a rough few months,” Luke admits. “Every day, practice, practice, practice.”All that weight has been removed from our shoulders.”The future’s uncertain.”
Luke is not only fast on the virtual track. He claims that his career is also advancing rapidly.
“I started driving with just a £100 steering wheel on the desk and having a bit of fun,” he shares.
Not long after, fellow rivals recognized his talent, and his parents assisted him in purchasing a better simulator.
“That’s when things really took off,” he recalls
“I joined Team Redline and after that, it’s just been up and up and up until this point right now.”
Esports events are still “quite niche and quite new,” he claims.
“It’s not been long since all this prize money started coming through and all these big competitions started, so there’s not many stories of people going all the way.”
In that respect, he’s a trailblazer, conceding that “the future is a bit uncertain” for esports stars.
Despite the uncertainty, the business gained a boost last month when it was revealed that an Olympic Esports Games would be held beginning next year.
The Games, like the Esports World Cup, will be held in Saudi Arabia as part of the Kingdom’s 12-year relationship with the International Olympic Committee.
Before the World Cup, players, streamers, and fans were divided over the decision to stage it in the Arab country, which also paid the prize money, due to its human rights record.
Homosexuality is prohibited in Saudi Arabia, and the country has experienced criticism for its attitude toward LGBT relationships, as well as a lack of women’s rights.
Critics blasted it as “sportswashing,” but organisers defended the choice, telling Newsbeat that no one will encounter prejudice at the event.
Luke describes the country as “a really cool setting” for the event and now hopes to win additional events and make it to the Olympics, which he describes as “unbelievable.”.
“I think I’d find it a bit weird calling myself an Olympian because I really don’t feel like one,” he declares.
“But it’s something that would be very cool.”The dream remains the same: we may be world champions, but there’s always more.
“We want to be world champions in everything, so we’ll keep going.”
And if he can be a pioneer in online esports, Luke sees no reason why he can’t also be a pioneer offline.
“I hope one day to get into the real world of motorsport,” according to him.
“I see more and more people get a way in through sim racing now, and hopefully that does happen.”If not, I’ve got plenty of time to figure out what I want to accomplish because I’m still just 19.”
