Today, we are delving deeper into the world of Williams Gaming Club with the latest edition of our Community Spotlight Series.
Williams Gaming Club is a part of the Williams Esports team and is steadily growing. While it may have initially benefited from the prestige of its iconic name, Williams Gaming Club’s success is credited to factors such as event variety and the promotion of innovative competitions which put incredible experiences up for grabs, including visits to the Formula 1 team headquarters.
We had a conversation with Wil Green, Community Manager of the Williams Gaming Club, to discuss past, present and future projects.
What is Williams Gaming Club?
As mentioned earlier, Williams Gaming Club operates within the Williams Esports team, aiming to bring a new generation of fans to the Williams brand through gaming. This represents a great advantage for the community as it leans on strong shoulders, relying on the experience of an established team in the Esports sector.
“We have a dedicated community team but also utilise wider teams such as our broadcast squad for race streams, our content and marketing teams for design, production and promotion, as well as a growing team of volunteers who help with the day-to-day running of the Williams Gaming Club”, Wil explained.
But why did an important Esports team like Williams decide to expand and become a racing hub as well?
Wil explained: “The Gaming Club has been in the planning for many years. Our goal is to create a space where gamers and sim racers can have fun and enjoy being in the company of, and competing with, other like-minded people”.
A variety of events
The prestigious name of the community played a crucial role in its early success: within the first two months, Williams Gaming Club reached the 1000-member mark, a number that doubled in less than a month after that first important milestone.
However, the community’s expansion in the following period of time has to be attributed to strengths like the high professionalism of the team and the diverse range of sim racing titles on which competitions are run.
Williams Gaming Club currently hosts events and leagues on F1 23, iRacing, ACC and WRC. But in the future, we could potentially see races on popular platforms such as Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport, whilst the likes of Rennsport and Le Mans Ultimate are getting ready to be welcomed by Williams Gaming Club and the competitive sim racing community when the time is right.
Is this an exclusive club?
With a wide range of championships, events and simulators, not finding anything suitable for your liking is a real challenge at Williams Gaming Club. All the main series are covered: formula cars, GTs, and even rally.
But most importantly, everyone is welcome! Despite the big name, the community aims to become a place where everyone, from the alien to the newbie, can have fun in a professional environment.
“We are currently focusing purely on the fun and friendliness of sim racing with our championships – designed to provide a safe space for everyone to enjoy racing against each other, rather than looking to create an Esports-level series”, Wil told us.
“We do, of course, have Esports drivers at Williams who may make guest appearances in these events. But our Esports-level activity sits quite separately from the Gaming Club. We don’t focus on the highest level of competition in our community, it’s more about providing an enjoyable home for drivers of all levels”.
Racers within the Williams Gaming Club community do not only compete online, but some of them also have the opportunity to meet at LAN events through the Student Racing League, an innovative format that involves 50 schools in the UK, which brings another audience under their umbrella.
“Students compete in hot lap challenges and racing leagues, culminating in a live LAN final at the Williams F1 HQ”, Wil told SimGrid.
Definitely an exciting project for the younger sim racers out there, allowing drivers from all backgrounds to shine.
Future plans
Looking ahead, Williams Gaming Club has ambitious plans. And Wil was so kind to unveil some of them.
“We’d love to create Williams Gaming Club race nights, where we have multiple series running back-to-back, with support classes and main events. There will be a full production broadcast behind them, to give every race a platform for promotion, and to ensure the whole event is exciting to watch.”
Key in their long-term pathway, members of the community will get the chance to express what they would like to see in the future and will see events tailored as a result.
“We’ll take direction from our members on what they want to see more of on our existing titles, as well as looking to host races on the new games once they’re public,” Wil explained.
The exciting ‘cherry on top’ for Williams Gaming Club, though, is that sim racers will continue to have the chance of a true one-in-a-lifetime experience, as Williams’ F1 HQ looks to welcome even more sim racers in future, with drivers getting the chance to participate together in a LAN racing event in their dedicated Esports Lounge.
