Multinational esports organisation Team Liquid has announced that Liquipedia, its esports encyclopaedia, is launching a new wiki dedicated to Formula 1.
The move represents the first step in a series of potential expansions for Liquipedia, part of a broader plan to diversify into coverage of traditional sports titles.
Liquipedia, which was founded by Team Liquid in 2009, is an encyclopaedia offering comprehensive coverage of various esports titles. Information such as tournament results and details, team profiles, player bios and standings are kept up to date by community volunteers, alongside staff.
Liquipedia’s wikis are a leading source of information for countless esports fans across several esports titles, though its popularity varies per game. Team Liquid claimed in a release that Liquipedia has received over 62m unique global visitors and 1bn page views in the last 12 months.
Similar to its other offerings, the Formula 1 (F1) wiki will include detailed Grand Prix results, circuit information, driver and constructor biographies and other sporting data. The new wiki, which has been designed for F1 fans, will also offer a summary of everything happening in F1, including season standings, race information, a calendar of events, as well as driver and staff transfers.
Team Liquid said it made the decision to move into F1 because of the significant overlap between esports and F1 fans, as well as the lack of similar offerings for F1 coverage. Formula 1 is actively involved in esports via the F1 Esports Series, and it leaned into esports heavily during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A lot of our contributors are fans of both esports and Formula 1, and we identified a need within F1 for a service like Liquipedia,” Job Hilbers, Senior Manager of Liquipedia, said in a release. “If you follow F1, you’re familiar with the problem that there is no single website that provides an at-a-glance overview of how the current season is going and what’s happening in each GP. … Liquipedia aims to use tried, tested, and established methods to provide that coverage for F1.”
A Team Liquid representative told Esports Insider it would initially focus on early adoption amongst esports fans in order to drum up momentum and feedback, before pushing to mainstream F1 fans more broadly.
Team Liquid said plans to move into Formula 2, Formula 3 and Formula E were in the pipeline, and that other motorsports — as well as traditional sports — were also being considered.
The move forms part of a strategy to broaden the encylopedia’s remit to the world of traditional sport after 15 years of covering esports across its now 21 fully fledged wikis.
Diversification has emerged as a key trend over the last several years as esports organisations look for new revenue streams amid widespread difficulty monetising esports teams directly.
