Some of the professional players in the Gran Turismo series have recently been used to attract the audience Gran Turismo 7They are tired of being there paid to appear delusion Exit the game And the series, like Louis Bentley, told Jalopnik magazine about all the problems virtual pilots constantly have to face.
Bentley He began by telling his victory, with bitter disappointment later, in the 2019 Salzburg Pro/Am for the FIA GTC-approved Gran Turismo Championships, a competition in which the best drivers were paired up with players for promotional purposes. Well, although basically Bentley won the race, who took the podium with his teammate, used more as a decoy, holding a Thrustmaster T-GT as a prize, turned off the cameras, had the expensive steering wheel removed and was told the prize would go to the influencer only.
For the hypothetical driver, this was a real slap in the face, causing him to weigh heavily all the time spent training to become one of the three fastest GT drivers in the world.
After Bentley, others have told their experience as well, rolling out a system based on prizes that are often useless and unable to keep drivers’ jobs. For example, the winners of the Nations Cup and the Manufacturers’ Series have been invited to the FIA Awards to appear alongside professional drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Sebastien Ogier. The best driver got gifts from Gran Turismo partners, like watches from TAG Heuer or steering wheels from BBS, but no cash.
All the virtual pilots They agree that they would have preferred financial compensation or support to turn their passion into a career, rather than these awards, as is the case for other motorsports, such as the eNASCAR Series that awards iRacing winners with cash prizes. Also, looking outside of driving games, the situation is much more rosy for professional players.
Nobody really complains about the equipment Sony has received or the general treatment, with paid flights and accommodations in four and five star hotels. The problem is money which never reach and this makes it impossible to convert the hours of training it takes to reach the top of the category into a real job.
Furthermore, players cannot even wear T-shirts with the logos of potential outside sponsors, but in fact they must wear a Gran Turismo uniform, with only the franchise logos. In short, there is no way to monetize so much effort that many have decided to opt out, because real life is starting to call for it. The underlying issue is clearly a structural issue and is sinking into the way the esports sector is organized at Polyphony Digital, the game development studio that also runs the Gran Turismo franchise, which fails to engage large esports organizations and does not create a network of sponsors for events, such as being able to to compensate drivers.
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