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Drone Champions League announces 2021 season

New cities. New formats. Even a new prize! It’s all part of DCL’s 2021 season, which may well be coming to a major city near you.

It’s shaping up to be an interesting – and exciting – season for the Drone Champions League. This year’s events will take place in a hybrid format, featuring both virtual racing and team competitions in seven global locations. There’s even going to be – and Kudos for this – an inaugural DCL Women’s Cup.

Let’s dive in.

Virtual global tour

With the action streamed live on Twitch and IQIYI, the action will take place in virtual locations around the world. Here’s how DCL describes the tour in its news release:

The battle for the DCL World Championship 2021 begins in June with a return to the virtual
landscape of Proptown, USA, followed by a July stop replicating the castle ruins at Reutte, Austria.
In August the online format moves to the iconic location of the Great Wall of China before zipping
back to a venue from the creative minds of the developers, Oilbando, USA in September. October
will include virtual stops in Laax, Switzerland and another destination in China to be disclosed,
before the champions are crowned at November’s season finale, planned in Mexico City, Mexico.

Sounds like fun. And looks like it, too:

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DCL Women’s Cup

Let’s face it. There simply aren’t enough #womenindrones. And so we’re very pleased to see that DCL is taking its own steps to address this imbalance. DCL says the Women’s Cup will run in parallel to the DCL World Championship. The point? To inspire women (and girls) to become involved with the First-Person-View racing community. Again, from the release:

While all genders are eligible to participate across the range of DCL series, the platform is being
launched particularly to spotlight female talent, offering the opportunity to enjoy support from a
DCL team and demonstrate their drone-racing skills for a global audience of millions.

We really hope this aspect of the season is a success.

Format

DCL is also introducing what it calls a “fresh format” this season. Rather than seeded brackets, each Drone Grand Prix will begin with Round Robin competition. Pilots from opposing teams will clash in pairs in small heats.

The two teams with the highest scores will face the ultimate showdown in the Grand Final, while those with the third- and fourth-best results will race for the last podium spot in their own final. Both podium finals will include a climactic Big Heat, with all pilots flying at the same time.

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Find out more

If you’re looking for more info (and there definitely is more info), you can find it here.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

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