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The event was presented by Starmach, a company founded to promote drone racing across Asia and to enhance the development of the sport. Meaning “Dreaming of Fast Flight”, their team of production personnel delivered an outstanding event, especially for a first-time endeavor. From LED-lined inflatable gates, to fully lit stages, netted spectator areas to the fine details of pyrotechnics and champagne for the awards ceremony, there was much glitz and glamour to behold.
Also, hosted in partnership with Gemfan, production teams were shown great hospitality during their time in the technological city rooted in Chinese culture.
An intense Registration and Tech Inspection process commenced on Thursday morning. 81 pilots from 11 countries were verified on-site and over 186 drones were inspected to meet regulations. The RF environment only afforded 6 available channels (of a standard 8 ) to fly, so the practice spanned from Thursday afternoon through Friday morning to afford each Pilot 3 practice rounds.
The forecast turned gloomy as rain plummeted and flooded the course as the pilots attended the Drone Racing Industry Forum on Friday morning. Fortunately the rain clouds broke shortly after the forum completed, and the qualifiers began, with all of the pilots running 3 qualifiers that day, and one additional qualifier on Saturday morning.
The field of 81 pilots were narrowed to the Top-32, which were divided into a Top-16 group and a “Next-16” group, with each competing in their own double-elimination bracket for prizes in the “Next-16”, and their share of $22,500 USD and trophies in the Top-16.
The Next-16 brackets were an even battle for the most part, with the final race finishing with: Wannapong “Milk FPV” Wanraya from Thailand as the Champion, followed by Leung “Ka Kei” Ka of HONG KONG finishing 2nd and Liguang Zhong finishing 3rd.
The event culminated into the Top-16 Double-Elimination Brackets with a star-studded roster of pilots from the Eastern Hemisphere. The Final 4 pilots competed in the “Chase-The-Ace” Format where the races would be run repeatedly until a pilot won twice. One rule, the “IronMan Clause” afforded the Top-Qualifier going into the brackets, MinChan “MCK FPV” Kim of Korea the chance to win in the first round if he won the first round… and he crashed. The first win went to Thomas “BMS Thomas” of Australia. The energy in the air intensified each round as the action was incredulous. The next round just MinChan and BMS Thomas were left in the air, until they had a mid-air, both crashing out. After a DVR Review, the pilot who had successfully passed the last obstacle was MinChan, by less than 1.5″ ahead of BMS Thomas for the win of Round #2. Next the Third Round was won by Jehyeong “BulldozerFPV” Jeon of Korea, however after a protest, the result was blanked as one of the pilots was eliminated in the race by a fallen gate. The Fourth Round became the Final Round after MinChan finished his laps first, though he was hotly contested by the field.
A steady stream of hundreds sat in VIP Chairs watching the action over the weekend, however the true reach of the event was massive. Broadcast on YouTube, BiliBili, Government CCTV and more, there were over 450,000 views on Friday and over 650,000 views on Saturday for a reach of over 1.1 Million Views!!!
This event was a massive launch for grand-scale drone racing in Asia; look for more legendary events by Starmach and Gemfan in the near future!
The 2019 Starmach Pan Asian Drone Racing Exhibition was sponsored in part by: STARMACH, GEMFAN, Radiolink, TeamBlackSheep, FlyColor, T-MOTOR, 3BHOBBY, Caddx, SZ-SPEED, Fat Shark, STARDRONES, FULLYMAX, and RUSH FPV.
Re-live the English Broadcast of the Championship:
| Handle | Name | Country | Finish Position | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MCK FPV | MinChan Kim | KOREA | 1st in Chase the Ace Championship (3rd, 1st, 1st) |
| 2 | BMS Thomas | Thomas Bitmatta | AUSTRALIA | 2nd in Chase the Ace Championship (1st, 2nd, 2nd) |
| 3 | Bulldozer FPV | Jehyeong Jeon | KOREA | 3rd in Chase the Ace Championship (2nd, 3rd, 4th) |
| 4 | MODO FPV | Chang hyeon kang | KOREA | 4th in Chase the Ace Championship (4th, 4th, 2nd) |
| 5 | STAR FPV | SUNGJU PARK | KOREA | 3rd in Race #13 (Top-16) |
| 6 | Ken | Ken Inoue | JAPAN | 4th in Race #13 (Top-16) |
| 7 | CU FPV | Kim SiYun | KOREA | 3rd in Race #12 (Top-16) |
| 8 | Rappy | JunYong Heo | KOREA | 4th in Race #12 (Top-16) |
| 9 | Rondo | Kay-Ronnie Chow | HONG KONG | 3rd in Race #10 (Top-16) |
| 10 | R.O.K | DONGROK HAN | KOREA | 4th in Race #10 (Top-16) |
| 11 | Young Money | YoungRok Son | KOREA | 3rd in Race #9 (Top-16) |
| 12 | Fready | SeongMin Ko | KOREA | 4th in Race #9 (Top-16) |
| 13 | FPRDAN | Daniel Ayre | AUSTRALIA | 3rd in Race #7 (Top-16) |
| 14 | JOONFPV | Joonweon Choi | KOREA | 4th in Race #7 (Top-16) |
| 15 | Heepsy | Samuel Heeps | AUSTRALIA | 3rd in Race #5 (Top-16) |
| 16 | ZOPOK FPV | Seojun Kim | KOREA | 4th in Race #5 (Top-16) |
| 17 | Milk FPV | Wannapong wanraya | THAILAND | 1st in Final Race #14 (Next-16) |
| 18 | Ka kei | Leung ka | HONG KONG | 2nd in Final Race #14 (Next-16) |
| 19 | Liguang Zhong | Liguang Zhong | CHINA | 3rd in Final Race #14 (Next-16) |
| 20 | Kanpai | Kanpai Larnlua | THAILAND | 4th in Final Race #14 (Next-16) |
| 21 | AIYA KIM | Kim Tang | HONG KONG | 3rd in Race #13 (Next-16) |
| 22 | WBAG | Jiayan Zhang | CHINA | 4th in Race #13 (Next-16) |
| 23 | Theo | MinJae Kim | KOREA | 3rd in Race #12 (Next-16) |
| 24 | StephFPV | Chao Ting Yu | TAIWAN | 4th in Race #12 (Next-16) |
| 25 | MOGA FPV | Mo Gayeon | KOREA | 3rd in Race #10 (Next-16) |
| 26 | HY_FPV | Hyunyeon Kim | KOREA | 4th in Race #10 (Next-16) |
| 27 | Leo | Hao Xu | CHINA | 3rd in Race #9 (Next-16) |
| 28 | MUNI FPV | PokMun Jeong | KOREA | 4th in Race #9 (Next-16) |
| 29 | SEAN | Shangzuo Chen | CHINA | 3rd in Race #7 (Next-16) |
| 30 | Foxur | Alexander Lea | USA | 4th in Race #7 (Next-16) |
| 31 | Xiaoxian Li | Xiaoxian Li | CHINA | 3rd in Race #5 (Next-16) |
| 32 | SPPINAKERFPV | MINSEO LEE | KOREA | 4th in Race #5 (Next-16) |
| 33 | XH_FPV | Heng Xia | CHINA | Qualified 17th |
| 34 | Long Qiang | Long Qiang | CHINA | Qualified 20th |
| 35 | YUHAN | Han Yu | CHINA | Qualified 23rd |
| 36 | Boba | Bo Chen | CHINA | Qualified 27th |
| 37 | Au kwok kui | Au kwok kui | HONG KONG | Qualified 37th |
| 38 | Mimi huang | Mimi huang | CHINA | Qualified 38th |
| 39 | RYAN_Y | Zishuo Ye | CHINA | Qualified 39th |
| 40 | LYL | Yiliang Liu | CHINA | Qualified 40th |
| 41 | LIH | Junhua Li | CHINA | Qualified 41st |
| 42 | SU | Xiaodan Su | CHINA | Qualified 42nd |
| 43 | Lehua Ma | Lehua Ma | CHINA | Qualified 43rd |
| 44 | Rohens | Jiaming Li | CHINA | Qualified 44th |
| 45 | Mao Zhang | Mao Zhang | CHINA | Qualified 45th |
| 46 | MAGIC | Guobin Ma | CHINA | Qualified 46th |
| 47 | YoungChan | YoungChan An | KOREA | Qualified 47th |
| 48 | Lancelot | Rusheng Feng | CHINA | Qualified 48th |
| 49 | SKIDOOSH | David Andrews | USA | Qualified 49th |
| 50 | XIONGFEI | Xiongfei Qie | CHINA | Qualified 50th |
| 51 | Tianshu Xie | Tianshu Xie | CHINA | Qualified 51st |
| 52 | Cheng Ma | Cheng Ma | CHINA | Qualified 52nd |
| 53 | Tairan Sun | Tairan Sun | CHINA | Qualified 53rd |
| 54 | Aries | Yong Shen | CHINA | Qualified 54th |
| 55 | ANKI | Qi Yang | CHINA | Qualified 55th |
| 56 | YANGHAO | Hao Yang | CHINA | Qualified 56th |
| 57 | Fahua | Sommerladt cyril | FRANCE | Qualified 57th |
| 58 | feiniaoyi | Li Sun | CHINA | Qualified 58th |
| 59 | ADAM | Lei Wu | CHINA | Qualified 59th |
| 60 | Dequan Zhu | Dequan Zhu | CHINA | Qualified 60th |
| 61 | SKYRO | Liu Sijia | CHINA | Qualified 61st |
| 62 | Anning Xu | Anning Xu | CHINA | Qualified 62nd |
| 63 | alien | Chenggong Zhu | CHINA | Qualified 63rd |
| 64 | XFPVIEW | Jorge Eduardo Carvalho | PORTUGAL | Qualified 64th |
| 65 | Akera | Paolo Gnoni | ITALY | Qualified 65th |
| 66 | 41 | Zeyu Li | CHINA | Qualified 66th |
| 67 | ZXQ | Xiaoqi Zhang | CHINA | Qualified 67th |
| 68 | Jason Lin | Jason Lin | TAIWAN | Qualified 68th |
| 69 | Shuhao Wang | Shuhao Wang | CHINA | Qualified 69th |
| 70 | TENGYONG | Yong Teng | CHINA | Qualified 70th |
| 71 | Squarefpv | Richard hendrickson | Qualified in a tie for 71st | |
| 72 | Jinghao Lai | Jinghao Lai | CHINA | Qualified in a tie for 71st |
| 73 | Runyi Luo | Runyi Luo | CHINA | Qualified in a tie for 71st |
| 74 | Zheng Fu | Zheng Fu | CHINA | Qualified in a tie for 71st |
| 75 | Orion-FPV | Alvaro Martins | PORTUGAL | Qualified in a tie for 71st |
| 76 | Dan fpv | Dan Choi | Qualified in a tie for 71st | |
| 77 | 60A | Daian Liu | CHINA | Qualified in a tie for 71st |
| 78 | Yunxiong Liao | Yunxiong Liao | CHINA | Qualified in a tie for 71st |
| 79 | Duowei Sang | Duowei Sang | CHINA | Qualified in a tie for 71st |
| 80 | Yize Gao | Yize Gao | CHINA | Qualified in a tie for 71st |
MultiGP is the largest professional drone racing league in the world. Because of this, MultiGP hosts frequent competitive gatherings and casual events within its extensive network. The Organization currently has over 30,000 registered pilots in addition to 500 active chapters worldwide. MultiGP nurtures its Chapters by providing tools, guidance and community support. Due to this structure drone racing is fun, organized and rewarding for pilots, Chapter Organizers and spectators.
