Six Emerge from Fast and Furious Weekend of Esports Qualifying

Six gamers have booked their spot in the GT Sport NZ Championship Grand Finale after a busy weekend of qualifiers in Auckland. Hopeful contestants flew in from across the country for Saturday’s event that took place at the SKYCITY Foyer Precinct.

The GT Sport NZ Championship is the latest event from New Zealand based esports broadcasters LPL.

The standard of racing was high and LPL Director Duane Mutu says the qualifying times prove New Zealand has top-quality gamers across a range of genres.

“The qualifying times put up by these contestants during the weekend are up to international standard,” Mutu says.

“It shows that the Grand Finale will be a tight contest given there was very little separating the qualifiers.”

Matt Smith produced the quickest lap time of the day as he blitzed the course in 2min 1.025sec.

The other qualifiers were Faine Kahia, Josh Ritchie, David Fisher, Chaz Holland and Johann Ward; they were all within two seconds of Smith.

Online qualifying remains open until 5pm on Wednesday, November 29 and there’s two spots up for grabs.

“Anyone who is thinking about having a crack should definitely register and get involved, this is a great competition,” Mutu says.

The Grand Finale will be contested at the SKYCITY Theatre in Auckland on Tuesday, December 5 at 7pm.

The eight racers will compete against each other in a 25-lap race around Mt Panorama with a celebrity contest to serve as the curtain-raiser.

The GT Sport NZ Championship will feature the eight fastest racers from across New Zealand as they compete for a $10,000 prize pool; including cash prizes, PlayStation VR, and Limited Edition GT Sport PlayStation®4 (PS4) bundles.

The live broadcast for the Grand Finale starts at 7pm on SKY Sport and the celebrity curtain raiser will feature crowd favourite athletes from the Warriors, Breakers and the Mystics.

Six Qualifiers from Saturday

Matt Smith – 2:01.025

Faine Kahia – 2:01.050

Josh Ritchie – 2:01.340

David Fisher – 2:01.683

Chaz Holland – 2:01.687

Johann Ward – 2:02.578

Tickets are available for next Tuesday’s qualifier here: https://premier.ticketek.co.nz/shows/show.aspx?sh=GRANTURI17

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