2019 Swatch DRL Tryouts winner, Christopher “Phluxy” Spangler, becomes an official Swatch Pilot in The Drone Racing League’s 2019 DRL Allianz World Championship Season. (Courtesy of the Drone Racing League)
The Drone Racing League’s annual race simulator tournament concluded this past Saturday at the HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas, with Christopher “Phluxy” Spangler being named the 2019 Swatch Pilot winner. Spangler will receive a $75,000 drone racing contract and will compete in the 2019 DRL Allianz World Championship.
Spangler, a 28-year-old native of Bloomington, Minn., emerged victorious from a field of 210 contestants in a round-robin esports tournament. The DRL’s flight simulator program launched in 2017 and can be downloaded for $19.99. Since its debut, the Swatch DRL esports tournament has been used to propel one elite gamer per year into a professional contract.
“I’m stoked to have been named the 2019 Swatch Pilot. It feels really surreal and I’m super happy to be able to fly in the 2019 DRL Allianz World Championship Season,” Spangler said in a press release. “Last year at the 2018 Swatch DRL Tryouts, I got fourth, and over the past year, I changed my mindset and the way I trained, putting in a minimum of three hours of practice on the DRL Simulator every day, and it really paid off.”
The winner of last year’s training program was Emmanuel “UFO” Moto, who logged 264 hours of practice on the simulator. During real races, pilots wear glasses that give them a first-person view from a camera, enabling them to controlled drones around objects. The simulator positions pilots from the same point of view.
“We’re incredibly excited to welcome DRL’s newest Swatch Pilot, Phuxy,” said Nicholas Horbaczewski, DRL CEO and founder, in the press release. “The Swatch DRL Tryouts is the only esport in the world that translates into real sports, further blending the digital and the real of the Sport of the Future.”
SportTechie Takeaway
In stark comparison to other esports, the DRL’s training simulator allows players to get reps that are almost identical to actual real-world races. That makes the transition from gamer to professional entirely plausible. But as the last two year’s winners have said, hundreds of hours of repetition are still needed to win.
