Esports World Cup champion takes aim at real racing world

Over eight weeks, hundreds of contestants take part in multiple events, with millions of pounds in prize money on the line – but this isn’t any sporting event.

Luke Bennett will return from the inaugural Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia as a world champion.

Not only that, but the 19-year-old from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, also received a handsome reward of £100,000 after taking the top prize in sim racing (short for simulated racing).

“It’s so surreal,” Luke told BBC Newsbeat. But now he hopes to get a chance to realize that dream in motorsport.

Luke is a member of the Redline team, an offshoot of the Red Bull F1 team, which counts Belgian-Dutch racing driver Max Verstappen among its alumni.

“It’s just like real-life racing,” Luke said of sim racing. “But on a computer.”

The team has been around for more than 20 years, but Luke says people are still surprised when he talks about what he does.

He said people were shocked when he told them about the prize money involved.

“It shows that it’s getting bigger and that it can be a career for some people.”

Team Redline dominated the Esports World Cup, never falling outside the top four in the event’s finals.

“It’s been a rough few months,” Luke said. “Every day—practice, practice, practice.

“Now all the weight has been lifted off our shoulders.”

Luke isn’t just fast on the virtual track. He says his career is also taking off.

“I started driving with just a £100 steering wheel on my desk and had some fun with it,” he said.

Before long, other contestants noticed his potential, and his parents helped him buy a better simulator.

“That’s when things really took off,” he said.

“I joined the Redline team and the team has been improving ever since, until now.”

Esports competitions are still “pretty niche and pretty new,” he said.

“It wasn’t long before all these prizes started being handed out and all these big tournaments started, so there weren’t a lot of stories about people making it along the way.”

In this sense, he is a pioneer, admitting that the “future is a little uncertain” for esports champions.

Despite the uncertainty, the industry has been given another boost last month with the announcement that it will start next year There will also be Olympic eSports competitions.

Like the Esports World Cup, the Olympics will also be held in Saudi Arabia as part of a 12-year partnership between Saudi Arabia and the International Olympic Committee.

Ahead of the World Cup, players, broadcasters and fans were divided over the decision to host the tournament in the Arab country, which also funds the prize money, because of the country’s record on human rights.

Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia and has been criticized for its stance on LGBT relationships and lack of women’s rights.

Critics denounced this as a “sporting shuffle” but organizers defended the decision. Tell Newsbeat no one will face discrimination at the event.

Luke said the country is “a really cool environment” for the event and now aims to win more races and make it to the Olympics – which he said would be “incredible”.

“I feel a little weird calling myself an Olympian because I really don’t feel like an Olympian,” he said.

“But it would be a really cool thing.

“The dream is still the same – we may be world champions, but there is always more.

“We want to be world champions in everything, so we’ll keep going.”

If Luke can be a pioneer in online esports careers, there’s no reason why he can’t be a pioneer in offline esports.

“I hope to get into the real world of motorsport one day,” he said.

“I see more and more people getting into sim racing now and hopefully that will happen.

“If not, I still have plenty of time to decide what I want to do because I’m still only 19.”

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