eSports World Cup Foundation
Luke Bennett became world champion at the Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia.
With eight weeks, hundreds of competitors taking part in multiple events and a multi-million-pound prize pool, this was no ordinary sporting event.
Luke Bennett will return home as world champion from the inaugural Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia.
Not only that, the 19-year-old from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, also won a sim race (short for simulation racing), taking home £100,000 in prize money.
“It feels quite surreal,” Luke told BBC Newsbeat, but now he hopes he has the chance to make it a reality through a career in motorsport.
Luke is part of Team Redline, an offshoot of the Red Bull F1 team that produced Belgian-Dutch racing driver Max Verstappen.
“It's just like racing cars in real life,” Luke says of sim racing, “but on a computer.”
Although the team was founded over 20 years ago, Luke says people are still amazed when he tells them about his work.
He says people are surprised when he tells them the amount of the prize.
“This shows that it's becoming bigger and bigger, and for some people it could become a career.”
Team Redline dominated the Esports World Cup, never finishing outside of the top four in the tournament's Grand Finals.
“The last few months have been tough,” Luke said. “Practice, practice, practice every day.”
“It's lifted a whole weight off our shoulders.”
The future is uncertain
eSports World Cup Foundation
Luke hopes he can translate his success in esports to a real race track
Luke isn't just fast on the virtual track – he says his career is also progressing at top speed.
“I put a 100-pound wheel on my desk and started driving it just for fun,” he says.
Soon after, other competitors noticed his potential and his parents helped him buy a better simulator.
“That's when things really started to move,” he says.
“I joined Team Redline and it's been going great ever since, up to now.”
Esports tournaments are still “fairly niche and fairly new,” he said.
“It's still so early since the prize money was paid out and the big tournaments started that there aren't many stories of people making it all the way to the end.”
In that sense he's a pioneer, and he acknowledges that “the future is a bit uncertain” for esports champions.
But despite the uncertainty, the industry received a new boost last month with the announcement that Olympic esports competitions will also take place from next year.
Like the Esports World Cup, the tournament will be held in Saudi Arabia as part of a 12-year partnership between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the International Olympic Committee.
Before the World Cup, players, streamers and fans were divided over the decision to host the tournament in an Arab country, which also funds the prize money, due to its approach to human rights.
Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia and the country has faced criticism over its stance on LGBT relationships and lack of women's rights.
Critics denounced it as “sportswashing”, but organisers defended the decision, telling Newsbeat that no one would be discriminated against at the event.
Getty Images
Nearly 1,500 gamers to compete at Esports World Cup in Riyadh
Luke said the country had been a “really amazing platform” for the competition and now his goal is to win more competitions and qualify for the Olympics, which he says would be “incredible.”
“It feels a little weird to call myself an Olympian because I don't really feel like one,” he says.
“But that would be really cool.
“The dream is still the same. We may be world champions, but there's always more to it.”
“We want to be world champions in everything, so we'll keep working hard.”
And Luke believes that if he can be a pioneer in his online esports career, there's no reason he can't be a pioneer offline too.
“I'd like to get into motorsport one day,” he says.
“Now we are seeing more people getting into it through sim racing and I hope that will continue.
“If not, I'm still only 19 so I have plenty of time to decide what I want to do.”
Newsbeat airs live weekdays at 12:45 and 17:45, or you can listen back here.
