Forza Racing Championship coming with new ‘Forza Motorsport 7’ esports features

Buckle up, put on your driving gloves — if you still wear those — and practice your drifting, because Microsoft is looking for the best Forza Motorsport 7 players in the world. The Forza Racing Championship 2018 kicks off in April, and it’s looking for competitors right now.

On March 24, Microsoft and Turn 10 Studios will host a preseason invitational for the Forza Racing Championship featuring “some of the best drivers and teams around the world” before the regular season kicks off on April 2. It will be split into two series of seven weeks each, and they will end with a live playoff event worth $75,000.

“At the end of the two series, the top 24 drivers will be invited to compete in the Forza Racing World Championship for their shot at a $100,000 prize pool and the title,” it said on the official website. The first series finale will take place live in Seattle, while the second will be live in Mexico City. The World Championship will take place live in London in October.

Registering for the Forza Racing Championship is free, but requires that you have an Xbox One and Xbox Live Gold, a copy of Forza Motorsport 7, and are at least 16 years old. You’ll have to create a Gfinity account if you don’t already have one and connect it to your Xbox Live account in order to be registered.

Along with the Forza Racing Championship, Turn 10 is also bringing esports-focused features from Forza Motorsport 6 into Forza Motorsport 7 with enhancements. The “spectate” option features improved camera angles and “100 percent precise” car positioning data, and “See the Grid” gives viewers the ability to easily see position changes in real time.

“Both Spectate and See the Grid will be added as part of our February content update for Forza Motorsport 7 and represent just the start of our esports feature set,” Turn 10 esports channel manager Ryan O’Connor said in the announcement.

Forza Motorsport 7 is available now on Xbox One and Windows 10, and buying a digital copy for one system automatically gives you a copy for the other via Xbox Play Anywhere. On Xbox One X, the game runs at 60 frames per second with 4K resolution.