Nights of Sharjah: Drone Racing Champions 2024
In a whirlwind of propellers and adrenaline, Sharjah, UAE, played host to one of the most monumental events in the history of drone racing –
From Wednesday June 26th, 2019 through Saturday June 29th, 195 different pilots from over a dozen different countries competed on the Hobbywing World Cup #1 Track and Drone Nation World Cup #2 Track to make the cut to advance to the top-64. After 29 races, with some ending in a photo-finish, another re-gridded due to safety and a few races resulting in the top-qualifier being eliminated early, the final 8 were staged, deemed “The Great 8”, coined by World Cup co-announcer Charlie Suangka.
That final field was comprised of: Christian “AMARI” Van Sloun – the 2018 North-Central Regional Final Champion, Marco “VILANO” Matthaei – the highest ranked German Pilot at International Open, Christian “ADAPTFPV” Logsdon – 7th overall at the 2018 MultiGP Championship, Eli “BULL-FPV” Abitbol – the top Canadian Pilot, a former MGP Champs Wildcard winner and 4th overall at the 2018 MultiGP Championship, Christopher “FPVCH” Hartman – the Top Youth in the 2018 MultiGP FAI Team Selection, Ethan “ETHANFPV” Kling – another MGP Champs Wildcard winner, William “BILLSTER” Schuette – the Top Male in the 2018 MultiGP FAI Team Selection, and…. Thomas “BMSTHOMAS” Bitmatta – the 2017 MultiGP International Open World Cup Champion and as the drone racing world knows, represented his home country of Australia.
The World Cup format is simple: Top-64 race in seeded heats of 8 in a double-elimination bracket. The top-4 in each heat stay in the “winners bracket”, the 5-8th go into the “consolation bracket” until they are 5th or lower again. Once the competition hits the “Great 8”, they race once, the top-3 advance to the Grand Final, and the remaining 5 race one more time in a last chance qualifier with the winning pilot advancing to the grand final. The Grand Final (of 4 pilots) race in a “Chase the Ace” tournament where the race continually head-to-head until someone wins twice.
BMSthomas won the Great 8 stage, Billster grabbed second and FPVCH pulled up third to advance to the Grand Final Chase the Ace. Taking the Last Chance Qualifier as a solid chance to redeem himself, EthanFPV won by almost 6 whole seconds to advance to the final 4. Ironically, this was the exact same situation that BMSthomas found himself in in 2017, coming out of the LCQ into the final.
While several rounds of Chase the Ace went 3 or 4 times on all of the tracks at the 2019 MultiGP International Open presented by Team Blacksheep, BMSthomas and Billster wouldn’t need more than the two rounds required, each of them were 1st and 2nd respectively over the first two rounds, while EthanFPV and FPVCH traded 3rds and 4ths for the final podium being:
1 – Thomas “BMSTHOMAS” Bitmatta $1150
2 – William “BILLSTER” Schuette $1000
3 – Ethan “ETHANFPV” Kling – $850
4 – Christopher “FPVCH” Hartman – $700
(5th through 8th split another $1,300)
Congratulations once again Thomas “BMSTHOMAS” Bitmatta, our newly crowned two-time MGP IO World Cup Champion!!!
Our thanks to Hobbywing for their support once again of International Open, we were proud to present this exciting finale on their track, where they were proudly represented on gates, flags, in vendor row, and especially with their team manager Charlie Suangka as a co-announcer along side Joe Scully for the Championship. Hobbywing’s long-term support of all of MultiGP’s initiatives provides for the growth of the drone racing industry, and their commitment to International Open assisted to make the 2019 edition the best yet.
Full Results available at: https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17797/2019-International-Open-World-Cup
World Cup
1st. Thomas “BMSTHOMAS” Bitmatta
2nd. William “BILLSTER” Schuette
3rd. Ethan “ETHANFPV” Kling
4th. Christopher “FPVCH” Hartman
Results: https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17797/2019-International-Open-World-Cup
Team Racing:
1st. Velocidrone A -56 Laps
2nd. Team Blacksheep – 54 Laps
3rd. Team Canada – 46 laps
Final Results: https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17956/2019-International-Open-Team-Race
FAI Team Selection:
1 Ashton “drobotracer” Gamble (Top-Male)
2 William “billster” Schuette (Top-Male)
3 Colby “sfpv” Curtola (Top-Male)
4 Teng “junebug” Ma (Top-Female)
5 Christopher “fpvCH” Hartman (Top-Youth)
Results: https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17922/2019-FAI-Team-Qualifier
Micro:
1st. Phillip “dabsfpv” Chung
2nd. Max “The_Herder” Goin
3rd. Anthony “aknumbers” Kuhns
4th. Logan “BroganFPV” McKneelen
Final Results: https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17893/MultiGP-International-Open-Micro
Rookie:
1st. Joseph “fletchfpv” Fletcher
2nd. Bruce “redbarron” Elder
3rd. Ken “ohackit” Hackbarth
4th. Seth “Terraph0bia” Gillies
Final Results: https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17892/MultiGP-International-Open-Rookie
Chapter Organizer Race:
1st. John “JohnEFly” Chapman
2nd. Rodimir “RodyFpv” Tavarez
3rd. Tim “Timbo_FPV” Amero
Final Results: https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17908/Chapter-Organizer-Race
Intermediate:
1st. Matt “Hot_Nasty_KingFPV” King
2nd. Ian “Thrash” Pataky
3rd. Kyle “Formula_FPV” Wentworth
Qualifying Ranking: https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17889/2019-MultiGP-International-Open-Intermediate
Global Qualifier:
Ranking: https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17921/MultiGP-International-Open—GLOBAL-QUALIFIER
Spec Wing:
1st. Josh “HWAISH” Felland
2nd. Alex “IBcrazy” Greve
3rd. Christian “fEZ” Alvarado
Lab by lap results: https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17965/MultiGP-IO-Spec-Wing-Championship
Over 40 Race:
1st. Jon “faerry” Gaiser
2nd. Gregory “charlotteaerial” Hurst
3rd. Rick “SSBelmont” Caudle
4th. Matthijs “mattmaxx” Boerlage
Results – https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17964/Over-40-Race
Mega:
1st = Colby “SFPV” Curtola
2nd = Nurk Paul “Nurk” Nurkkala
3rd = TickelFPV Matthew “TickelFPV” Tickel
Final Results: https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17891/MultiGP-International-Open-Mega-Class
Tiny Whoop:
1st. RUSHFPV
2nd. SWEET FPV NAME
3rd. PHLUXY
4th. YIBO
Results: https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=17959/MultiGP-IO-Tiny-Whoop-Championship
LED Track by House of Kwad:
1st William “billster” Schuette
2nd Reggie “r3” Ramos
3rd Kevin “kmead” MeadLap by lap results:Â https://www.multigp.com/races/view/?race=18017/LED-Race-by-House-of-Kwad
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