The pieces continue to fall in place for ESL R1: The most recent line-up reveal belongs to Heroic, who have announced a quartet of drivers from Northern Europe to compete in the inaugural Spring Season starting on February 11th at IEM Katowice. This leaves only two more teams that have yet to unveil their drivers.
Heroic is a newcomer to sim racing, but has assembled a strong roster of talent led by former Porsche works driver Tommy Østgaard, who has been racing with Coanda Simsport most recently – a team that also found its way to the ESL R1 grid. Østgaard has his racing roots on the real circuits, taking his first steps in sim racing in 2007. The Norwegian’s list of accolades include a GTE class win in the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual, an overall win in the 2020 iRacing Daytona 24h and a second place in the event in 2022.
Østgaard is joined by his fellow compatriot Oskar Biksrud. At just 16 years of age, Biksrud is the youngster of the team, having previously been with Coanda as well. He raced in the 2022-23 Virtual Le Mans Series season with the team in a GTE class Porsche 911 RSR in three of the four scheduled races, teaming up with Kevin van Dooren, Dylan Pereira and Joni Takanen.
The Norwegian duo is joined by Dane Mikkel Gade under the Heroic umbrella. The 20-year-old joins the team from FYRA SimSport, with whom he has recently taken the GT class win in the top split of the iRacing Daytona 24 Hours in an all-Danish line-up with Lasse Bak and Lasse Sørensen. Gade had previously been racing with BS+ Competition as well.
Heroic’s roster is completed by Finland’s Tuomas Tähtelä who joins the team from Kova Esports. The 26-year-old has competed in the Porsche Esports Supercup with the team, as he did with his previous squad Altus Esports. He will be back in the competition after taking the PESC Contenders championship.
The final two teams that have not yet unveiled their line-ups are G2 Esports and FaZe. Want to keep track of who is driving where? Check out our ESL R1 social media guide to follow everything about the competition!