Chronicle of Chaos: A Retrospective of the Virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans Disaster

We take a review of the events that occurred in what was supposed to be the premier event of sim racing and well…draw your own conclusions.

It was the third time that this event was held after debuting in 2020, with another edition taking place in January 2022. None of these events were free of several red flags, disconnections and incidents of all kinds; such as strange engine failures, bugs in graphics transitions, etc.

According to Motorsport Games, both were a resounding success. According to the participants and those who know a little about the history, they were something else. After the 10 years of license and exclusivity signed with ACO to do this with MSGM in rFactor 2 and the inclusion of several ACO members as MSGM executives, it seems that the license is well secured.

Furthermore, Romain Grosjean, Juan Pablo Montoya, Fernando Alonso and other important figures in motorsports are or have been associated with MSGM to defend whatever happens, so it is not surprising if they come out to promote or justify what happened. Let’s see how the 2023 event has transpired.

• Invitation or qualification-only event
• Unprecedented deployment in participation and coverage
• Specific preparation of drivers and teams for the event
• Disconnections of drivers from the early hours of the race
• First red flag
• Second red flag
• Security issues due to IP sharing
• Experiences from inside with various bugs
• Grosjean’s comments on areas for improvement
• Retirement of teams due to gear change bugs
• Grosjean’s comparison to real-life faults
• Max Verstappen’s statement about future event participation
• Verstappen’s withdrawal and declaration of the event as a joke
• Studio 397’s admission of problems and frustration
• Traxion’s statements about the “attack” and disconnections
• Users banned for speaking negatively about the event in Traxion’s streaming.

We remember that the registration for the event costs more than 2000 euros per team. So it’s not that Max, Jimmy or other renowned streamers compete for free and give their visibility to the event, but they also pay to do so.

The growth of sim racing depends on events like this having as their only topic of conversation the race and the drivers. Instead, the organizers only feed the controversy and offer a spectacle that is not up to par and ends up doing a lot of harm to those involved, the sim racing community, and themselves.

What is your opinion of what happened?

See you on the track!