adriaan_26 takes his second title thanks to a flawless ride in the last race of 2022, with three gamers fighting for the win and the crown!
Repsol Honda Team’s adriaan_26 reclaimed the MotoGP™ eSport title after he emerged victorious from an epic bar-banging final race of the 2022 MotoGP™ eSport Championship, to win the Global Series outright by 15 points!
For the sixth year in succession, the Global Series pitted the fastest gamers from around the world against one another over five rounds and ten races. Each finalist was chosen to represent one of the twelve current MotoGP™ teams as they fought it out to become the 2022 MotoGP™ eSport Champion.
And following on from four action-packed rounds, the fifth and final round was as filled with drama as it was tension, with eleven of the fastest gamers in the world going head-to-head in two intense fights. After Ducati Lenovo eSport Team’s PieroRicciuti55 scored a crucial victory in race one, three names were covered by just five points going into the year’s final race.
The fifth round was the fourth Virtual event to take place this year. As has become tradition in the Global Series finale in recent years, double points were on offer for both races. A finalist could score 50 points for a race win, 40 for a second place and 32 for a third. MotoGP™’s Jack Appleyard and Jack Gorst combined presenting and commentary duties throughout the hour-long show. 
Round five really put the skillset of each finalist to the test. The two tracks disputed were ones that hosted brilliant MotoGP™ encounters this year: Race 1 was from the Termas de Rio Hondo Circuit in Argentina while Race 2 saw the field take on the spectacular Pertamina Mandalika International Circuit in Indonesia.
PieroRicciuti55 was majestic in Race 1, passing polesitter adriaan_26 for the lead on Lap 3. From there, he never looked back and swept to a convincing victory by 1.3s ahead of Suzuki ECSTAR’s eSports Team AndreaSaveri11, who also got past the Repsol Honda for a crucial second place. That left adriaan_26 on 125 points heading into the final race, while PieroRicciuti55 and AndreaSaveri11 were both on 120. A win for any one of the three would be enough to clinch the title!
Meanwhile it was a disastrous penultimate race for three-time champion trast73 (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™), who came into the season finale second overall. He lost huge points in Race 1, crashing in a collision off the line before another fall on Lap 1 cut short his race, dropping him from second to fifth overall and all but ending his chances of glory. 
The final race of the year certainly lived up to the billing. The first two laps were fast, frenetic and full of incident, as the lead exchanged hands between the fast-starting trast73 and PieroRicciuti55, before adriaan_26 grabbed the initiative on the third lap and hit the front.
From there, the Spaniard was flawless. Despite the close attention of PieroRicciuti55, who did everything to exert as much pressure as possible, adriaan_26 held on to win by just over 1s and take his second MotoGP™ eSport crown, adding to his success in 2020. An adrenaline-fuelled finale was further ensured by AndreaSaveri11 just getting the better of trast73 for third in a hectic late battle.
That race was enough for Adriaan_26 to clinch the crown by 15 points, as his final haul of 175 bettered PieroRicciuti55’s 160. AndreaSaveri11 was so close, ending the year on 152, 23 points off the top.
2022 was another vintage year for the MotoGP™ eSport Championship with a title fight that went all the way to the wire. The series will return bigger and better next year, and on this evidence, you won’t want to miss the action! 
For more info checkout our dedicated eSport News page superbike-news.co.uk/esport/
Or visit the official MotoGP eSport website motogp.com
