Here at The Sim Grid, we know how big and diverse the esports racing community is. So, we thought it was about time that we started shining a light on some of the organisations and people involved in this ever-growing sport of ours.
To kick things off in our first Community Spotlight post, we’ll be taking a look at one of the newest groups on the block: British University Sim Racing (BUSR).
What is BUSR all about?
Despite still being a relatively new organisation, BUSR has quickly become the number one place for university students to compete against each other across multiple sim racing platforms. Competitors in these events aren’t just racing for pride either. In addition to real-life prizes awarded by sponsors of the league, drivers can also earn points towards the overall British University Esports Championship (BUEC), effectively a massive virtual varsity tournament hosted by NSE.
So how does it all work? Well, BUSR entrants have to verify themselves as legitimate students through NSE’s sign-up system. This ensures that the racers will get to represent their UK-based university in an official capacity, while the points they score will automatically get added to their university’s overall BUEC tally without them having to lift a finger.
As for the actual racing, there’s something for drivers from all different motorsport backgrounds to get stuck into. Currently, BUSR runs leagues on platforms such as F1 2020, DIRT Rally 2.0, and Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) – the latter of which is jointly run by the events team here at The Sim Grid. The Sim Grid currently provides a host of different administrative services to BUSR; from tracking driver details, to tallying up points and results, or even compiling event calendars.
There are currently two main ways for entrants to get involved with BUSR on the Assetto Corsa Competizione platform. Firstly, there is the Invitational World Tour; a casual tournament where competitors simply race for fun. Then, there are the seasonal leagues (arguably the main attraction), where drivers battle it out to finish top of the standings across a mixture of sprint and endurance races.
The team behind the scenes
To get an idea of how the organisation is run, The Sim Grid spoke to BUSR’s five founding board members. First up, Michael Cabrera-Yap, the Chief Financial Officer and one of three board members from Royal Holloway University.
In his words, Michael’s job role ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’. “I manage the finances of the organisation,” he explained, “from running costs like servers and licenses for content to the stock filing, and investment opportunities we have.”
Then, there is Jason Sawford (Director of Communications) and Juuso Helviö (Director of Partnerships) who have also spent the past few years studying at the Surrey-based university.
Jason’s role typically involves overseeing all major aspects of BUSR’s media operations, from the live-streaming of races to the coordination of social media content. Juuso, meanwhile, is more focused on building and maintaining relationships with commercial partners, as well as coming up with business plans to help BUSR grow as a business.
Vincent Sisi, better known by his peers as ‘Québec’, holds the position of Events Manager. Québec works first-hand with a dedicated team of staff to devise new event ideas and then put them into action.
Completing the set is Dion Sejdiu. As Regulations Officer, Dion has the task of ensuring that all the racing that takes place under BUSR’s banner is governed fairly.
“My job is essentially to manage the stewarding team, and to run the Court of Appeals,” he elaborated. “I also regulate the BUSR Discord server as much as possible to ensure that all members are enjoying their time with us!”
So, with introductions out of the way, we decided to ask who was the quickest driver out of the bunch. Predictably, no conclusive answer emerged. However, they did manage to agree on something else.
Launching the BUSR project has been a colossal task; a task that they recognise would have been impossible without the support of the rest of their team behind the scenes. From events organisation to stewarding, social media, and live broadcasting; the effort put in to make BUSR a success extends way beyond the five founders at the top of the tree.
From our short time speaking with them, it became apparent that good teamwork and positive morale were two of the key things which had given this group of student sim racers such a fast rise to prominence.
As Juuso put it, “there is a big group of extremely talented staff behind us that are the heart of the show. That really can’t be emphasized enough.”
Humble beginnings and lofty ambitions
All of this begs the question: How has a small group of undergraduates built one of the most exciting new student esports organisations in less than a year? Well, the answer is intertwined with the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
When the UK entered its first period of lockdown, all of the plans that Royal Holloway’s motorsport society had arranged had to be cancelled on the spot. So, with go-karting off the table, they decided to race each other virtually instead. From there, the project blossomed, as Juuso went on to describe in more detail:
“After holding some casual events with other students at our university; Jason, Michael & I noticed the lack of any real organized racing competition for students nationally, despite the massive growth of sim racing as a whole.” he explained.
“We figured that with our skills and know-how, we would be able to fill that niche as we had already built a small community beyond Royal Holloway thanks to our casual events alone. After that, it was a joint effort with all our staff to really spread the word and get off the ground.”
So, with the plan set in motion, the trio of racers from Royal Holloway was soon joined by Québec and Dion, from Coventry University and the University of Hertfordshire respectively.
“I was invited to the BUSR Discord server by a guy from my uni’s own esports server,” recalled Québec. “From then on I took part in a few events and ended up organising the first Rally and RX events in the BUSR.
“After running said events and sorting out the Discord server I was then invited to become part of the emerging BUSR Board Team. Since then, I’ve been getting to know these guys while building a new sim racing organisation!”
Likewise, a similar chain of events led to Dion’s arrival. After being invited to join in with BUSR by somebody from Hertfordshire’s esports society, he ended up applying to become a race organiser and steward. That quickly turned into a management role, with Dion ending up overseeing all tournaments based on the F1 2020 platform. His good work soon earned him the fifth position on the board, and the organisation hasn’t looked back since.
Over the following months, interest continued to grow in BUSR’s championships, culminating most recently in the 2021 GT3 Spring League, co-hosted with us here at The Sim Grid. More than thirty full-season entrants took part, with Harry Spiers eventually being crowned champion in his Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Loughborough University.
If you’re a UK-based university student and you’d like to claim your place on the BUSR starting grid, then good news! Britain’s premier student sim racers will be back on Assetto Corsa Competizione after the upcoming exam period, for the 2021 Summer Championships.
You’ll be able to find out more information nearer the time here at The Sim Grid, just make sure to keep an eye on our ‘Championships’ page!
