A handball between Prince Albert, Princess Charlene and French rugby player Mathieu Bastareaud has marked the official presentation of the Monaco Rugby Sevens Qualifier Tournament for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The virtual kick-off took place at the Yacht Club of Monaco with the Princess’s brother Gareth Wittstock, who is general secretary of her Foundation, and Minister of State Pierre Dartout also in attendance.
The men and women’s Olympic Rugby Sevens Qualifying Tournament for the Tokyo Olympic Games will see 24 teams compete on 19th and 20th June 2021 at the Stade Louis II in the Principality of Monaco. General Secretary of the Princess Charlene of Photo: Monaco Foundation Gareth Wittstock, Prince Albert, Princess Charlene and Minister of State Pierre Dartout at Tuesday’s presentation, by Eric Mathon / Prince’s Palace
The event is organised with the support of the Monegasque Rugby Federation, the Prince’s Government and institutional partners.
The top two women’s teams and the top men’s team to come out of Monaco will go on to compete in this year’s summer Olympic Games in Japan.
Rugby Sevens is expected to be one of the most highly anticipated events of the Tokyo Games, following the success of 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
At the same time, on 19th June, the Sainte-Dévote children’s rugby tournament will be held, organised by the Monegasque Rugby Federation with the support of the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation. It will see 16 teams from around the world competing in an under-12 mini Sevens World Cup format run alongside the senior event.
The Monaco Sevens 2021 draw will take place in the Principality at the end of April.
AS Monaco Esports has partnered with Gambit Esports to launch the AS Monaco Gambit team, whose professional players will play on the Fortnite and Dota 2 stages at the highest level.
Gambit Esports is owned by Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), a Russian digital, media and telecommunication service.
A total of eight players (three on Fortnite and five on Dota 2), accompanied by a four-person staff, will wear the AS Monaco diagonal jersey, including Mark “letw1k3” Danilov and Ilya “Toose” Chernishov, two of the most successful Russian players on the Fortnite title. AS Monaco becomes the first football club to enter this major esports discipline which is popular among hundreds of millions of gamers around the world.
In addition to participation in the competitions, whose debuts for the AS Monaco Gambit team are scheduled for 11th February on Fortnite (FNCS Chapter 2 season 5) and 14th February on Dota 2 (ESL One CIS Online season 1: upper division), the agreement provides for several joint operations, with the organisation of fan experiences when the health situation permits. A line of co-branded products will soon be available online as well in MTS shops in Russia.
“We are delighted to launch this partnership with Gambit Esports,” said Oleg Petrov, Vice-President and CEO of AS Monaco. “The creation of our joint team, AS Monaco Gambit, allows us to take a new step in this sector by joining forces with a reference on the international Esports scene.”
The Russian businessman added: “Esports is a very fast-growing market and an important pillar of our digital development. This orientation responds to a twofold objective: to enable us to diversify our activities by addressing a different, young and highly connected audience, while supporting the club’s internationalisation strategy by developing our presence in key territories.”
The creation of the AS Monaco Gambit team also marks the first Russian Esports club to establish a relationship with a foreign team.
“The partnership with AS Monaco will allow us to offer a unique experience to football and sports fans,” said Irina Semyonova, Head of the MTS Esports Department. “This is a great opportunity to develop our activities.”
AS Monaco and Esports
In 2016, AS Monaco was one of the first French football clubs to embark on the Esports adventure. Since then, Monegasque players have represented the princely colours on several games and have notably shone on PES. Since last July, the club has won its second consecutive eFootball.Pro title, a European competition bringing together FC Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munich.
This season, the club is competing in PES, Fifa and now Fortnite and Dota2. MTS and Gambit Esports
Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) made its entry into Esports in 2018 with the acquisition of Gambit Esports – one of most established esports organisations in Europe. Gambit is currently represented in six gaming disciplines – Fortnite, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Dota 2, Apex Legends and Valorant. Gambit’s teams have repeatedly won the World and European championships, as well as silver and bronze medals in major international competitions.
By the time the Covid-19 epidemic reached Monaco in early 2020, the government had implemented or was trialling a number of technical projects as part of its Smart City programme. Suddenly, technology that was designed to improve lifestyle in the Principality took on a whole new significance: to help protect the population and save lives.
“Monaco is a science-based country. We collect the data, we analyse it, and we make a decision based on all the information we have,” Georges Gambarini, Smart City Programme Manager, tells Monaco Life.
The government has been steadily introducing a range of new technology on its path to becoming a Smart City. Noise monitors, traffic sensors, ‘smart’ traffic lights… they’re all delivering real time information for the government to adapt its city planning.
But Georges Gambarini never imagined that the technology he was charged with implementing would soon be used in Monaco’s strategy to tackle a worldwide pandemic.
“Pedestrian censors, for example, helped us monitor pedestrian flow in the city during the post-confinement period, especially at the train station exit,” reveals Mr Gambarini. “We had around 20,000 to 25,000 people a day passing through the train station, and each day we tried to understand that flow. Were we at 50% of our normal situation? Was there are a risk of contagion because we had a lot of people in a small corridor of the train station? It was very useful in helping us to understand what the real situation was in the city at a moment when anxiety was high.” Photo: Monaco authorities use 3D simulation technology for impact analysis, by Monaco Life
One of the areas where Monaco has made significant ground is 3D technology. Every detail of the entire Principality has been digitally mapped. It is a critical advantage in urban planning, particularly in a development-heavy country like Monaco.
But again, technology that was introduced to measure, for example, how a new building would impact road traffic or wind propagation in the city, was utilised to help shape the government’s health measures.
“We were able to determine what the contagion risk was in a specific area of Monaco when someone was infected with Covid-19,” says Mr Gambarini. “In our 3D model of the Principality, we are able to inject a certain number of people who are contagious, apply the rules of contamination, and predict what the impact will be if there are 100 people without masks, then 200 people, etc.”
These 3D simulations allow authorities to recreate any digital scenario in Monaco and adjust their discussions and decision making according.
“It helps with questions like ‘Do we put in some new exits there?’, or ‘Will social distancing work in that space?’,” says the programme manager. “And it works because it is based on mathematics and the scientific rule of transmission.”
There are unknown factors, of course, but for the large part the people in Monaco have played by the rules.
“I’m not saying that digital saved everything in 2020, however thanks to digital people were able to work, to go shopping, etc. Decisions were made with the help of very deep data analysis, and technology sometimes helped to reinforce those decisions.”
If Monaco’s technical abilities advanced in 2020, they are set to excel in 2021 with the introduction of the sovereign cloud – data storage and computer power that not only resides in Monaco, but is also owned, governed and managed locally, with controls in place to ensure data is not accessible from outside the Principality.
“It will give us a very modern infrastructure with high calculation capabilities that we miss today,” explains Mr Gambarini. “We need to export our data to create algorithms, so the sovereign cloud will give us a very secure infrastructure and allow us to industrialise our deeptech strategy.”
From the beginning of 2021, the health situation in Monaco has accelerated significantly. What role technology is playing in limiting this impact will be a topic that Monaco Life will return to in the months ahead.
A new entry to the Formula One club, simply called the Monaco F1 Racing Team, is set to be the first new team to join the circuit in several years and the announcement is causing quite a stir in the racing world.
Formula One is about to see its first new team in ages, and aptly, due to its long racing history, the team is set to be Monaco-based. The new squad, called the Monaco F1 Racing Team, is looking to use new racing rules to secure entry into the exclusive club that has traditionally been dominated by big corporations and car manufacturers.
Monaco Increase Management (MIM), who joined forces with Spanish-based Campos Racing in 2019, were in negotiations with then-boss of F1 Chase Carey, but the reaction by Carey was lukewarm and nothing concrete came of the talks.
The team was hoping to debut in 2021 when new racing regulations would come into effect, but last year’s interrupted season due to the Covid pandemic put the kibosh on those plans.
“The current Monaco F1 Racing Team Project was the first to actively discuss the possibility of an entry with the F1 governance as early as 2019 and we were set to set up a structure accordingly, realising the potential of the new Technical Regulation that was initially supposed to come into force in 2021 and was subsequently delayed because of the pandemic,” said Salvatore Gandolfo, Founder and CEO of MIM, in a press statement.
The health situation delay was coupled with an accord put forth by F1 that said that any team wishing to join must pay a whopping $200 million (€165 million) “anti-dilution fee”, with the proceeds being evenly split between the current 10 teams on the Formula One roster. The fee is meant to protect the current prize money distribution system but is a big ask of anyone trying to break into the club.
Whilst this is officially on the books for 2021 to 2025, discussions with Formula One’s new chief, Stefano Domenicali, revealed a willingness to waive the massive fee.
“We believe that the recent statements of the new CEO, Stefano Domenicali, which suggest that the $200 million entry fee for new teams could be waived represent a step forward in the right direction,” said Gandolfo. “We appreciate the open attitude of both Stefano and the FIA and are ready to take the necessary steps in order to have our application finalised.”
The Automobile Club of Monaco has so far not raised objection to the name of the team, and if all goes ahead, the Monaco F1 Racing team will be the first to enter the fray since Haas in 2016.
Luxury ski resort Courchevel has been given the green light to open a blue slope during the February half-term break, but skiers won’t be taking a lift. Instead, they’ll have to access it by car.
The ski-starved can rejoice this school holiday as one of France’s most exclusive and popular ski resorts, Courchevel, introduces an inventive way to get around the ban on opening ski lifts due to the health risks posed.
Using a combination of ingenuity and imagination in order to allow access to a blue slope, the fabled Savoie-based ski station has created a track that allows cars to reach the top of the kiddie slope by car.
The run, which opened on Saturday, descends roughly two kilometres and gives skiers gasping for a day on the slopes the chance to get out and have a bit of fun. The Tourist Office of Courchevel assured the public on Monday of the safety of the signposted run, confirming reports put out by France3 Alpes.
The run is authorised for the February holidays and is free to those intrepid enough to make the 10 minute long journey up the mountain. The resort is hoping to attract people for the novelty run, and keep them there with other offerings, such as helicopter tours, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing excursions.
Photo by Courchevel Tourism
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