World Drone Prix Super Bowl Race: $ 1 million prize pool

Top drone pilots from all over the world will compete in Dubai. The prize fund of the largest drone racing championship is $ 1 million.
The first World Drone Prix World Championships will be held March 11-12 in Dubai. 32 participants will compete in high-speed piloting of multikopter on distances with obstacles. Broadcast championship in real time - here .

Initially, more than 100 teams were invited to participate in the competition. Previously, a number of qualifying tournaments were held in Los Angeles, Seoul, Berlin and the cities of China, as a result of which the number of finalists was reduced to 32 riders.

The prize fund of $ 1 million will be divided between the winners of various categories, including such as "Best route team", "Best time to complete the distance", "Best free style team" and "Best designer" (this nomination is available for teams that collected their own drones on their own). In addition, the audience will vote for the best team.
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This event will be the first in the calendar of world competitions organized by the World Organization of Racing Drones and Sheikh Hamdan, Crown Prince of Dubai, for the development of sports and technology related to drones.

Pilot drone Rio Rex (Ryo Rex), who founded the drone racing Aerial Grand Prix in Los Angeles in 2014, is now working with the World Drone Prix and believes that this is the direction of the future. The race track itself was specially created for this competition and includes a number of obstacles for pilots.

“Over the past two months, the team has been able to gather the best engineers and partners from around the world to create micro-racing technology that has never been used for any technical sport before,” says Rex.

There are other drone race competitions, but none of them has such a global scale. According to Rex, the Drone Racing League is currently only open to individual pilots who compete in small groups and is not available to the general public.

“The World Drone Prix will be the start of the selection process worldwide. The goal of the competition is to create a professional arena for the benefit of the public, ”says Rex.

The participants of the World Drone Prix were selected with the help of videos that showed piloting skills in certain conditions. Pilots are allowed to use any kind of drone and components, which, according to Rex, opens the league’s doors for hundreds of manufacturers who are eager to conquer their audience.

League sponsors are Skydive Dubai and XDubai. In addition, according to Rex, a number of potential partners are interested in this sport. The league is also supported by Sheikh Hamdan and the International Drone Racing Association (IDRA).

Now the pilots are competing in parks, canyons, in offices, supermarkets, in the fields, oceans and underground tunnels. Rex hopes that this event in Dubai will transfer the usual hobby to the category of professional sports.



In addition, according to Rex, in the League there is a place and virtual reality. And although this competition will be broadcast on high quality in 2D, 360 ° video is just around the corner.

“As virtual reality develops and improves, the format of competitions and races will expand and adapt to technical innovations. Virtual reality will give unprecedented realism, literally moving you to the place of the drone itself, ”says Rex.

Many pilots are already using virtual reality helmets to control drones at various events to improve visibility and control.