Formula E is conquering the world. Okay, that’s a little bit of a stretch, but the electric racing series is growing at such an incredible rate that it’s now dipping its toes into the world of automotive video games with the launch of the 2016 eSports eRace. Similar to ESL’s Forza Racing Championship, the eSports "Road to Vegas" eRace will feature some of the best car video gamers in the world competing to be called the best of the lot. Unlike the Forza Racing Championship though, nobody’s winning a Ford Focus RS in this competition. That’s because the stakes are much higher as the contest has been announced to come with a prize pot of $1 million.

Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag made the announcement during the London ePrix weekend and detailed specific events that will be held leading up to the virtual eRace in Las Vegas on January 5, 2017. That spectacle will be part of of the Sports Business innovation Summit that will take place at the Consumer Electronics Show.

But before that, gamers from all over the world will be required to compete in a series of online qualifying races to determine whether they make the cut. The first round of qualifying is set to take place in Long Beach, California from October 17 to 23, 2016 and will be followed by similar rounds in Paris, Berlin, and London. Only the top 10 races will move on the eRace where they will compete against 20 current race car drivers in the rFactor 2 computer racing simulator. The top-placing drivers will then receive shares of the $1 million prize pot depending on how they fare in the finale.

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Why it matters

This competition is proof that the video game car racing world is as big as it’s ever been and it’s probably going to get bigger with the advancements made by all these video game developers. The days of ruling you neighborhood in Mario Kart are over. It’s a bigger world now with bigger stakes involved and if you think you have what it takes to take down Cloud Sport’s “Road to Vegas” competition, then by all means, give it a shot. What do you have to lose anyway, right?

The first order of business is that you must be inside a Cloud Sport server to be eligible to complete. Once there, you can register in one of two formats: You can register in two ways: free mode or championship mode. The championship mode is where the competition’s going to be held so unless you want to spend all your time practicing and enjoying “disregarded races”, that’s where you want to be in. Once you’re in on any of the qualifying events, you’re going to have to accomplish a few tasks, including placing in the top 80 drivers who set fastest lap times in the qualifying round. That puts you into the semi-finals where you will compete in one of four semi final rounds. Finish in the top 5 in your semi-final round and you get to go to the grand final in Las Vegas.

You wanna talk about high-stakes video game car racing? Well, this is as high as it’s going to be considering that the prize pool here is the largest in eSports racing history. But don’t let that kind of pressure swallow you up. If you bring your ‘A’ game, who knows what kind of results you’re going to get. Maybe you even end up winning the whole pie, or at least share in it.