Establishing Brand Language | Talking About DRL as a Competitive Sport
how-to material for live & show commentators & branded collateral
As a new sport, the majority of DRL commentators for the live shows and the NBC & Digital shows either have no professional experience commentating, or no experience with drones, drone racing or DRL. This commentator guidebook was developed as brand language briefing material for any communicator who was tasked with writing or discussing our sport, and leans into key emotional themes we often lean into when producing the live show or editing the post-produced show.
The DRL Cockpit
There is no cockpit in the world quite like the DRL cockpit. Nearly all drone racing requires its pilots to build, tune and prep their own drones before racing. But in DRL, Tech Ops handles all the prep and testing of the Racer4 fleet, ensuing every drone put on the starting blocks is top-of-the-line. Between heats, pilots communicate with Tech Ops to set their rate bank, check and set their camera angles, and confirm the radio frequency (RF) connection between the goggles and the drone is solid. This approach to race prep can be unnerving for rookie pilots, but pretty quickly you see the rookies start to enjoy having Tech Ops handle the grunt work, so they can focus strictly on their flying.
DRL Tech Ops
Much like a pit crew in NASCAR, Tech Ops is the true backbone of DRL racing. This team of ten designs, builds, and maintains the fleet of 600 Racer4 drones that DRL uses for racing. The fleet lives in DRL’s NYC offices, and Tech Ops is responsible for testing each and every drone before they are shipped to events. Then, once onsite, Tech Ops will hover test the entire fleet to ensure each and every drone is fit to fly at top speeds. When racing begins, each Racer4 placed on the line gets a fresh battery, a prop check, and a camera check. Tech Ops and pilots communicate to ensure all systems are functioning properly before the each heat countdown begins. Every member of DRL Tech Ops is an experienced pilot in his own right, and they are the first to test out the lines of each and every new course and venue. These guys are the ones responsible for ensuring DRL racing gets more reliable – and faster – season after season.
The Racer4 Fleet & “Spec Racing”
DRL builds and maintains a fleet of over 600 identical Racer4 drones. The Racer4 is a proprietary high-speed drone built from scratch by the DRL team for maximum speed, performance. The Racer4 was built with entertainment in mind. It’s the size of a dinner plate, and covered in over 1000 LEDs that can be set to flash any of the pilots’ twelve competing colors. DRL racing is what is called “spec racing.” Instead of most drone races where pilots build and maintain their own drone for competition, the identical Racer4 fleet ensures that the true differentiator of a champion comes down to one thing: pilot skills. Pilots receive their own Racer4’s approximately one month before the season starts, and practice on nothing but this rig until the World Championship.
Explaining Semifinals Round Scoring
Semifinals is all about “two wins and you’re in”. In Semifinals, the 12 pilots are split into two groups of 6. Only the top three from each group will advance. Pilots fly six regular heats. Each heat takes roughly 60-75 seconds. Any pilot to win two of those six heats automatically clinches his spot in the Finals. After six heats, any pilot who hasn’t won two goes into a seventh “Sudden Death” heat, one last winner take all race to determine who else will advance to Finals. Every once in a great while, we’ll see three pilots each take two wins. When this happens, all three pilots advance, and there is no sudden death. We’ll also see that a pilot has clinched into Finals by Heat 5, and while no other pilot has won a single heat. In this case, we skip Heat 6 since there’s no point in running it, and go straight into the Sudden Death heat.
Explaining Finals Round Scoring
Finals is all about “one win and you’re in”. The six pilots who advance to Finals just need to win ONE of any of the first six heats to secure their spot in the seventh, winner-take-all “Golden Heat”. However, once a pilot wins one heat, his goal is still to keep winning. A winning pilot wants to “play defense”, securing more heat wins to ensure the smallest possible field of pilots in the final “Golden Heat” matchup. Most often, we see just 2-3 pilots in the Golden Heat. It’s happened just once in DRL history where each of the six pilots takes a win in the first six heats, and we are facing a 6-pilot Golden Heat.
How Pilots Learn the CourseOne week prior to each race, pilots receive a 2D map to review at home. Once onsite, pilots are given a 20-minute walk through course tour. They are also provided with an FPV video of one of DRL Tech Ops flying the correct route through the course. On the first day of racing, Pilots complete four staggered start practice runs, and two staggered start Time Trials, which seeds them in start position order for Ranking Rounds. Ranking Rounds is four heats of heads up racing. So by the time pilots are competing in the elimination-based competition of Semifinals, they will have flown the course at least ten times. Most pilots opt to continue to review the FPV footage overnight as well to really let the course sink in.
How to Win in DRL
Becoming a champion in DRL not just about beating 11 other pilots. It’s about overcoming three enemies: The Pilots, The Course, and Your Own Nerves. Pilots are balancing so much when they come into a race. They have to learn the course, find their ideal line for each and every turn, bounce back after midairs, find their best pass opportunities, and get over any previous bad heats. Pilots who win in DRL have taken control of their own nerves. They are confident about their practice and the skills that brought them into the league, and they are confident they can make it all the way to the top. The best pilots have the discipline to play it safe and take only calculate risks when they know they need to. They wait patiently for their opportunities, and they shake up their lines in real time when they see something isn’t working. And most of all they need focus. Taking the time to overthink a line or to question where exactly to go for a pass often means you’ve already lost. The best of the best have these instincts built into them, and train aggressively to nourish those instincts for race time.
The Importance of Consistency
Being a fast pilot and smashing the leaderboard once is something every pilot in DRL can do. Being consistent is what sets a DRL pro from a DRL champion. Drone racing is a mental sport. Consistent pilots are those who can best handle momentum shifts. They accept mistakes and move forward vs. dwelling on previous heats. The inability to leave past heat performance behind can be detrimental to so many pilots. Excellence in DRL means performing at the top edge of your abilities heat-over-heat, round-over-round, and level-after-level to become a World Champion. Only a very few have accomplished this to-date in the lifespan of this young professional sport.
The Importance of the Mental Game
Flying 90MPH means adrenaline is coursing through their bodies. They need to learn to harness that adrenaline, keep it all inside, and limit their movements to just the miniscule thumb and finger maneuvers needed to successfully complete the course line. Like any athlete, DRL pros struggle with confidence coming into every race. Have I trained enough? Have I done all that I can do to be ready? Does this course play to my strengths? We often see pilots who have a couple bad heats completely change their attitude and body language in the cockpit. They clam up. They shift in their seat. Suddenly, they’re flying scared, making unforced errors, taking risky passes, and overall just pushing harder than they need to as they try to overcome their own demons and try to get back into the race.
The Importance of Balancing Speed with Control
In DRL racing, if you’re not first, you’re last. Winning heats is the only way to advance from Semifinals to Finals. So pilots need to master how to fly at the top speed that works for them, without sacrificing control. Going too fast means it takes just a microsecond to lose control and cash. Throttling back from 100% to 90% can mean all the difference in control and consistency. Pilots are considered “smooth” put fewer inputs on the sticks than the rest. They’re in control throughout, vs. making harsh corrections, which can often result in an overcorrection and a crash. Pilots have to plan their movements 1-2 turns ahead of them. How you exit one turn factors directly into how you enter the next one.
The Rookie vs. Vet Mindset
Rookies are well known for pushing too hard and crashing. Rafa and Moda were particularly guilty of this during Level 1: Miami. A true DRL pro needs to understand that different sections require different flying styles. Vets are more adept at changing their speed and approach to suit different parts of the course. They’ve also adapted over time to the DRL-style of racing, where Tech Ops are prepping and placing all drones. Rookies often get distracted by Tech Ops, the crowds or the cameras. Veterans know they only need to think about one thing when they’re in the cockpit – racing.
When a Pilot Cools Off / Falls Apart
We’ve seen this before in Finals, particularly with rookies. By this time, our pilots have flown this track 10-15 times, dealing with that rush of adrenaline heat after heat. It can wear you down, causing both mental and physical fatigue. These pilots always talk about literally feeling exhausted at the tail end of a race because they’re dealing with that spiking rush of adrenaline they get for 60 seconds every 3-4 minutes for a couple of hours. The best pilots have learned how to manage their nerves and their adrenaline, pushing through it to keep performing at their peak. Gab707 is a great example of this, known for pulling back in the first couple of heats, then coming out with back-to-back wins in Heats 4, 5 and 6 of the Finals when a lot of pilots are starting to drag.