Esports, Virtual Formula 1 and the New Era of Play | James Hodge | TED

It was Christmas Day, 1995.

My brother Rich and I, we're up early,

we're excited, it's Christmas.

He rushed into my room

and in there my father had left his IBM ThinkPad and a note.

"This is so you don't wake up your mother and me early.

Merry Christmas."

Next to it was a present.

It was a video game, a football game, FIFA '96.

We tore it open,

put it into that laptop and we huddled around

and played the match to end all matches.

We played so many more matches after that,

but neither of us became professional footballers.

Richard?

He's a lawyer.

Me, I work with data

to go and help organizations get that competitive edge and win.

Back in '95, that game was just a video game.

Nothing more.

Little did we know that in the years to come

you’d be able to compete in massive online competitions.

More importantly, you’d be able to go and connect with people

around the world that you've never met before

and have a shared experience.

And that's exactly what is happening.

The lines between the physical and the digital world are blurring.

And we're entering into a new world where we can start to dream bigger.

A far cry from the '90s,

video gaming has overtaken music

as the most important aspect of youth culture.

I see this with my children.

They're much more likely to go and watch the latest video

of someone playing Minecraft or Roblox

than look up what the UK latest number one single is.

And this has led to a shift in how we consume entertainment.

We are no longer consumers of it.

We are now being shared participants in an online experience.

I myself love gaming.

Not particularly good at it, but I love it.

And I love the Formula 1 game.

And that’s because I love real-world Formula 1 racing.

I'm going to show you a clip why.

So this is Lando Norris,

one of McLaren’s Formula 1 drivers.

Multiple podium wins last year driving the MCL35M --

oh, MCL36, sorry --

the car for this year in pre-season testing.

Let's have a look at this.

(Car engine revving)

Isn't the noise of one of those just incredible?

But the atmosphere, the drama,

the suspense of going to one of these races

and watching those cars go around, over 200 miles an hour,

it's electric.

But few of us will ever get to sit in one of those cars,

let alone be one of those drivers on the grid.

And that’s because in Formula 1, there are only 20 professional drivers.

There are ten teams with two drivers per team.

It's perhaps the most inaccessible sport in the world.

Suffice to say, there are going to be so many people with dreams,

talent and ambition to get there who will never be able to make it.

I'm going to introduce you to someone called Rudy.

Rudy Van Buren.

He grew up in the Netherlands, next to a go-karting track.

At the age of eight,

he got given a birthday present, a go-cart.

He was fast.

He was so fast, that in 2003,

Rudy won the Dutch national championships.

He had dreams and aspirations

of becoming a professional Formula 1 driver.

Then at 16,

like so many people that are trying to make that next step in the sport,

it just became too expensive.

And that dream for Rudy was over.

I'm going to come back to Rudy later.

Times change, and so does technology.

Dreams are being fulfilled in a world of online gaming,

especially in this class of competition called esports.

Esports, at its simplest, is digital competition

where you can get real-world and virtual prizes, fame and glory.

There will always be spectators,

in filling stadiums with spectators,

athletes, fans.

But now there are arenas filled with die-hard fans

with gaming rigs

and a new class of elite competitor.

Most importantly, it's accessible.

Any one of us with a PlayStation, an Xbox,

a PC with a 100-dollar steering wheel

can go and get involved in the thrill of competition.

More importantly, you can go and connect with people

and share an online experience.

There are so many different types of games.

Battle games, strategy games,

football games -- soccer -- or racing games.

The reason why I like racing so much, it's unique.

It is the only digital sport that represents the real world so much.

It is almost an exact twin of the physical world.

As part of my day job,

I work with organizations around the world.

I work for a software company specialized in data.

My favorite organization I work with at the moment is McLaren Racing.

McLaren, founded in 1963 by the New Zealander Bruce McLaren.

They’ve got an IndyCar team, they have an extreme e-team.

They have my personal favorite, the Formula 1 team.

Just look at that livery over there, I think it's incredible.

But Bruce was an innovator.

In 1963, Bruce would have never imagined

that there would be a professional gaming team,

the McLaren Shadow esports team,

That's their car.

These two cars are almost indistinguishable from each other.

They're mirroring each other in the physical

and the digital world of sports.

I spent time with Lando,

one of those drivers, talking about gaming.

Lando is saying that the game,

not the state-of-the-art simulators that the McLaren have,

the game,

is so realistic that he can tell if a bump in the road is out of place.

The only thing that he feels is missing is the wind.

Lando is one of these digital natives, a new class of gamer,

where he drives in both the physical world and the digital world

in that shared community.

The difference in Formula 1 between coming first and second

is a fraction of a second.

When you have elite people, those 20 people in that car,

the only way they can go and get better is by data.

It's the only way they can differentiate themselves,

using data to improve.

This is exactly the same as esports.

There are team managers, there are coaches, even psychologists,

but most importantly, data analysts.

In the racing game, the PC game,

they hit out around 300 different data points in real time

for you to analyze and improve what you do.

Not real F1.

This is the game.

Things like tire temperature, brakes, acceleration,

it's absolutely incredible.

It's also incredibly realistic.

Look at this.

Sometimes you can look at this and think that could be real life.

It's an immersive experience.

When you're going down that, kind of the back straight,

you're traveling about 293 feet per second.

The difference between making that corner

and dropping back and not being in the lead

is a mere fraction of a second.

You want to know: Are your tires at the right temperature?

You want to be able to know:

Are you hitting the brakes at the right moment,

turning at that right moment?

They're using data to improve again and again.

Here's Lando playing.

Lando would be playing again over lockdown.

There was no Formula 1.

Lando ended up gaming.

The most empowering part about this,

it wasn't just he was using this to practice his skill.

It was he was connecting with an online community,

an absolutely unprecedented access to Lando, the sports person.

Something you don't normally get.

Over lockdown, there was no sport.

Journalists started writing about esports.

Mainstream broadcasters started broadcasting esports on primary channels.

We started looking at esports in the millions.

It was sport.

It was the only sport.

People under 20

are much more likely to start to watch esports or watch esports,

than go and have a look at traditional sports.

The Commonwealth Games this summer

is going to have esports alongside traditional sports.

The Asian Games later this year are going to have it as a medal event

alongside traditional sports.

The gaming industry is three times bigger than the music industry.

It's going to double by 2025.

The most important part about it

is it's redefining our notion of what is sports and competition

and how we get into that accessible world of fun,

of connecting with people and enjoying ourselves.

Now, I mentioned Rudy earlier.

For Rudy, his dream hit a wall.

He started gaming.

He really enjoyed it.

Then when he was 25, he saw a competition:

World's Fastest Gamer.

30,000 people entered this.

Rudy won.

Rudy got a professional contract with the McLaren simulator team.

This led on to Rudy getting a contract for Huber racing

in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany and the Super GT Cup.

Rudy is winning some of the most difficult competitions in the world.

Just like he did in the virtual world.

Play gives us new possibilities.

The technology is closing the gap

between our aspirations and our access to that opportunity.

It's closing down barriers,

geographic barriers, social barriers,

economic barriers.

It enabled Rudy to go and live his dream.

We all have dreams

and this is allowing us to go and fulfill our dreams.

A new generation of people is starting to understand

what it really means to go and live in a world augmented by technology.

The relevance of it, the context of it,

what it actually means to go and connect with people

and technology being part of everything.

They are able to go and reimagine the world around them.

They’re more data literate than ever.

They're ready to go and create that next wave of innovation.

This really is the new era for play.

And it's open to everyone.

Thank you.

(Applause)