National Prefectural eSports Championship 2019 IBARAKI, Gran Turismo SPORT Division, Final Competition Report

On October 5 (Sat.) and 6 (Sun.), 2019, at the National Prefectural eSports Championship 2019 IBARAKI, which was held as a cultural program of the 74th National Sports Festival "Iki Ibaraki Yume Kokutai", the final competition of the Gran Turismo SPORT category for PS4 software, a competition title was held.

Three e-sports competition titles were selected for this program, the first e-sports tournament as a cultural program of the national government, and "Gran Turismo SPORT" (SIE) was one of them. A total of 188 players, 92 in the youth division (6 to under 18 years old) and 96 in the general division (18 years old and over), were selected to participate in this year's finals, which were held from May 11 (Saturday) to August 12 (Monday, national holiday) through the Prefectural Representative Tournament. Here is a report on the competition.

The final competition was held at the Tsukuba International Congress Center in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture. The opening ceremony was a spectacular spectacle, bringing together some 750 athletes from 47 prefectures across Japan who had won the prefectural representative rounds for their respective event titles. Also, as part of the National Athletic Meet events, Her Imperial Highness Princess Tsuguko of the Takamado family visited the venue and watched the athletes in action.

The main venue for the Gran Turismo SPORT category was a large hall with 12 steering wheel controllers and seats, which are also used in the FIA Gran Turismo Championship, a world championship. During the races, sports announcer Hiroshi Tsujino provided play-by-play commentary and Polyphony Digital's Yam provided commentary, while family, friends, and general spectators cheered enthusiastically for the prefectural representatives competing on stage.

Great races unfolded from the preliminary races held to advance to the finals.

On Saturday, October 5, the first day of the finals, qualifying races were held for the 12 seats in the finals. In the qualifying round for the juvenile division, contestants were divided into eight groups (A to H) and raced five laps around Fuji Speedway, with the winners advancing to the finals. In addition, those who were eliminated from the qualifying races were allowed to participate in the finals if they placed in the top four in the time trial held behind the race at Fuji Speedway.

Even in the boys' division, the competitors who had won the tough prefectural representative races were no less talented than those in the general division, and heated races were held in all eight blocks. The eight winners of the closely matched races were Riou Ogata (Kanagawa Prefecture), Koki Mizuno (Aichi Prefecture), Shotaro Ryu (Fukuoka Prefecture), Tadato Sasaki (Tokyo), Sumika Oishi (Shizuoka Prefecture), Hitoshi Nakamura (Chiba Prefecture), Ryoga Yamakawa (Nagano Prefecture), and Takuma Miyake (Tokyo). From the time trial, four athletes, Yuto Otsuka (Ishikawa), Kiweto Hashimoto (Hiroshima), Yuta Niwa (Mie), and Yoju Kobayashi (Ibaraki), earned their tickets to the final race the following day.

In the general category, two representatives from each prefecture competed in a team race. The rules of this long-distance race, which consisted of 10 laps around the Suzuka Circuit, required a pit stop at least once during the race to change tires, refuel, and change drivers. 48 teams, including teams from each of the 46 prefectures plus two teams from Ibaraki Prefecture (Ibaraki A and B), which had received a special quota as the host prefecture of the National Athletic Meet, were divided into four blocks from A to D. The teams were divided into three groups: A, B, C, and D. The top three teams from each block advanced to the finals.

Unlike the boys' race, which was purely a contest of speed, the general division race was a race where strategy was the key to victory or defeat: the order in which the two team members ran, when to make pit stops, and whether to use medium or hard tires with different grip and longevity. The competitors had to use everything they had in order to be one of the top three teams in each block. The race for the top three teams in each block was a gripping contest, with the spectators cheering loudly as the positions changed. As a result of the fierce battle, Aichi, Osaka, and Ibaraki A from Group A; Tokyo, Shizuoka, and Mie from Group B; Tochigi, Kanagawa, and Hyogo from Group C; and Saitama, Kagawa, and Fukushima from Group D each won a ticket to the final.
(*Yokazu Kuroda, a player selected to represent Oita Prefecture, had to withdraw from the competition due to personal circumstances. The Oita Prefecture team was represented by one player.)

The final was a challenge to be taken with pride. Mizuno from Aichi won the boys' division, and the Tochigi team won the general division!

On the second day of the competition, October 6 (Sun.), the final race was finally held to determine the best in Japan. The course and rules for the final race were the same as the qualifying race for both the youth and general divisions, but there was an additional rule to determine the starting grid for each car based on the results of a two-lap time trial held before the actual race. The spectators, who had gathered at the venue from early in the morning, watched the large screen on the stage, drinking in the spectacle of the spectacular racing.

In the final race for the boys' division, all contestants chose the "Lamborghini URACAN GT3 '15" as their car, and the race was purely a test of their racing skills. In the time trial to determine the grid, Ogata, representing Kanagawa Prefecture, who had shown overwhelming speed in the prefectural representative round and the qualifying race the day before, set the fastest time from the first lap to take pole position. It looked as if Ogata would continue to lead the race, but Mizuno, representing Aichi Prefecture, who started from the second spot on the grid, took the lead from the inside of Ogata on the first corner of the first lap, and Ryu, representing Fukuoka Prefecture, passed Ogata from behind. Ryu, who was in second place, pushed hard but received a penalty for running off the course on the third lap, allowing Mizuno and Ryu to get out of the way. Mizuno took first place, Ryu second, and Sasaki third, and Mizuno was crowned the first National Champion in the Juvenile division.

The final race of the general division followed. Pole position in the time trial was taken by the Kanagawa Prefecture team (Yusuke Tomibayashi and Kenta Morimoto), who won the C group of qualifying in 2nd place. In the early stages of the final race, the Kanagawa Prefecture team led by the Hyogo Prefecture team (Takuma Miyazono and Shintaro Sato), Aichi Prefecture team (Kanade Kawakami and Kazuki Cho), and Tochigi Prefecture team (Tomoei Yamanaka and Takuya Takahashi), all of whom are top players in the world championship, were lined up in a row. However, on the second lap, the Kanagawa Prefecture team went off course at a chicane, and the three teams from Hyogo, Tochigi, and Aichi did not miss the opportunity and quickly overtook the Kanagawa Prefecture team, changing their positions significantly. Furthermore, the Osaka team (Shunsuke Imamura and Tenta Koyama), which chose to use hard tires first and then medium tires in the latter half of the race, also passed the Kanagawa Prefecture team when it pitted and rose to 4th place, taking advantage of its tire advantage to chase the top three teams.

On lap 7, the four teams from Hyogo, Tochigi, Aichi, and Osaka went tail-to-nose, and when the Hyogo team opened up the inside at Spoon Corner, the Tochigi team slid in and took the lead. The Aichi and Osaka teams also moved ahead, and the top three positions were exchanged. In the remaining final laps of the race, the Tochigi team kept the Aichi team in front by holding their driving line, and in the final lap, the Tochigi team showed off a great drive to extend their lead slightly. The Tochigi team came out of the final corner and took the checkered flag. The Tochigi team came in first, followed by the Aichi team in second, and the Osaka team in third, all cheering for the Tochigi team that took the top spot from the fourth spot on the grid.

After the race, where the representatives from each prefecture gave their all, Kazunori Yamauchi from Polyphony Digital, the producer of the Gran Turismo series, took the stage as a presenter to present the awards. Mr. Yamauchi commented, "I was very impressed with the high level of racing in the boys' division, which is something you wouldn't expect from a very young boy. The general division also showed us a heated competition that was probably even more heated than the World Tour. Congratulations to all the winning teams," she said, praising the winners of each race.

From left to right: Tadato Sasaki, 3rd place in the Juvenile division; Koki Mizuno, 1st place; Shotaro Ryu, 2nd place.

From left to right: Osaka team (Shunsuke Imamura and Tenta Oyama), 3rd place in the general division; Tochigi team (Tomoei Yamanaka and Takuya Takahashi), 1st place; Aichi team (Kanade Kawakami and Kazuki Cho), 2nd place.

Mizuno, the youth division winner, said, "I want to do my best in the future by participating in national and other big competitions," and the two members of the Tochigi Prefecture team, the general division winners, said, "Winning the national championship was definitely a competition we wanted to win this year. This is probably the happiest I've ever felt" (Yamanaka) and "I've been working hard this year to win this tournament, and I'm very happy" (Takahashi). I am very happy" (Takahashi) with a big smile. The players received thunderous applause from the audience.

<Product Outline

Title: "Gran Turismo SPORT PlayStation Hits" and "Gran Turismo SPORT Spec II
Genre: Realistic driving simulator
Compatibility: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Pro (*PlayStationRVR compatible)
Release date: October 4, 2019 (Friday)
Price: "Gran Turismo SPORT" PlayStation Hit Blu-ray Disc edition SRP 1,990 yen (excluding tax), download version retail price 2,189 yen (including tax)
Gran Turismo SPORT Spec II" Download Edition Normal Edition 3,190 yen (tax included)
CERO: A (for all ages) (*Aged 12 and up when playing on PlayStation VR)

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(C)2017 Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. Developed by Polyphony Digital Inc.
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