Aerial Sports League

---

The Aerial Sports League (ASL) is a drone sports sanctioning body and entertainment production company based in San Francisco, California. At ASL sanctioned events in professional sports arenas and elsewhere, pilots race, battle and compete using custom built drones and first-person view (FPV) technology on various configurations of race courses and gaming arenas. Originally founded as Game of Drones in 2013 by Marque Cornblatt (Chief Executive Officer) and Eli D’Elia (lead designer), it was launched as a community and organization dedicated to developing drone sports hardware, technologies and culture.

ASL is the producer of the first and longest-running drone competition series called “Drone Sports World” at Maker Faire with 6 competitions hosted at the event in San Mateo, California and competitions in New York at World Maker Faire since 2014. TechCrunch produced a piece explaining the core of ASL's pilots, their drones and races. ASL hosted a range of different drone sports events at Maker Faire with over 250,000 spectators in attendance in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York in 2018.

ASL produces the CA Drone Speed Challenge, a multi-year production partnership with Comcast to create innovative sanctioned drone racing events celebrating California's contributions to the growing drone sports community. This event introduced newly sanctioned event formats, including drone drag racing and eSports crossover races.

Working with multiple San Francisco Bay Area museums, community organizations and schools, ASL has developed a range of drone training and STEM education programs for students, families, corporate events and parties. These include short flying experiences, team building workshops for corporate clients and complete “build, fly & keep” intensive workshops for students, families and community groups.

ASL's history includes commercial product development, social events, a range of competitive events in the public arena and the creation of the Museum of Future Sports.

History

Game of Drones

Beginning in late 2012, founders Marque Cornblatt and Eli D’Elia began constructing custom designed drone airframes out of thermoformed Kydex, polycarbonate and an arrangement of otherwise sourced materials. They created a durable, damage resistant drone airframe appropriate for use in competitive drone games. They initially worked at home using custom tools and then moved production to TechShop in San Francisco, California and began using industrial manufacturing tools. Cornblatt began posting videos to YouTube under the name Game of Drones, demonstrating activities, events, technologies and DIY instructions. Cornblatt, D’Elia and an informal community of drone combat competition pilots and enthusiasts began meeting regularly in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2013 to develop and participate in new aerial competitions and games. Soon after the events began, Reiner Von Weber joined the company as lead engineer and Doug Burnet joined as Chief Operating Officer.

On April 26, 2014, Game of Drones was incorporated in Delaware, DBA Ballistic UAV, Inc. (filing #5488822) and began producing drone sports and entertainment for events, clients and festivals. Soon after filing for a trademark on May 1, 2014 in the United States (serial number 86268627), the cable network HBO contested the use of the incorporated name and the founders agreed to release it, re-incorporating as Aerial Sports League in its stead on June 3, 2015 (filing number 5759393).

Early community events

The earliest drone competitions were held in May 2013 in various locations around the San Francisco Bay Area with roboticists, artists, engineers and makers that designed, built and piloted their own quadcopters. The informal battles amongst friends developed into a sanctioned game format, with emerging rules and regulations at its inaugural event, the “Fly-in Launch Party” held in San Francisco.

Competitions at Maker Faire Bay Area and World Maker Faire

ASL's first public drone combat competition under the name Game of Drones was produced at Maker Faire in San Mateo, California in 2014. Pilots competed in duals with timed aerial combat matches, as well as group competitions with no time limit and several dozen competitors in which the winner was determined by the drone that remained in flight for the longest time. The ASL combat arena features a net-enclosed safety cage, strict safety procedures and mandatory compliance with all local, state and FAA imposed restrictions. ASL hosted similar drone combat games at Maker Faire in San Mateo (2014—2017) and at World Maker Faire in New York (2015—2017). ASL also produced FPV drone racing competitions at Maker Faire in San Mateo (2016—2017) and at World Maker Faire in New York (2016—2017).

Drone drag racing competitions

KQED television’s science bureau published an article and on-air segment in 2015, featuring the South Bay chapter of ASL, where pilots gathered “to compete in a day of races and drone to drone combat” in Silicon Valley.

ASL produced the first televised drone drag race, held at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco on July 20, 2017. Comcast sponsored the Xfinity CA Drone Speed Challenge as an “influencer” event with an invite-only audience. Sixteen pilots and four alternates from throughout California were chosen via an online video submission process. Selected pilots were flown to San Francisco to compete for a grand prize of US$10,000. Speeds in excess of 100 mph were recorded by trackside radar readings performed by a California Highway Patrol officer. The event was produced into a 30-minute special television event, broadcast on NBC Sports Bay Area in 2017 and 2018 on multiple dates.

Commercial product development

On Kickstarter, 283 backers pledged $51,143 to help bring a project to develop the “World's Toughest Drone Airframe” to fruition. The final product, a 450 mm thermoformed polymer monocoque airframe named the HIRO, was commercially distributed and sold through multiple online retailers. Wired magazine noted, “The military grade polymer airframe is impact-, fire- and shotgun-resistant.”

Prior to its incorporation, ASL was accepted into Highway 1 in San Francisco, a hardware startup accelerator run by international electronic parts maker PCH. During the intensive program, the company developed prototype racing drone hardware targeting new pilots learning how to fly drones. Upon graduation from Highway 1, ASL failed to raise significant financial capital for their consumer drone product and soon pivoted away from hardware to focus on their growing drone sports community and professional entertainment opportunities. Eli D’Elia and Reiner Von Weber both left the company during this transitional period.

Social events

ASL is the first organization to arrange gatherings for the local community via Meetup.com. From their beginnings arranging ad hoc meetings of drone hobbyists to exchange information on making, flying and competing, ASL evolved into larger public events. In the summer of 2016, ASL produced and hosted “Drinks and Drones” at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, a sold-out drone sports nightclub pop-up event.

Museum of Future Sports

Looking to the future of drones and related technologies, ASL launched the Museum of Future Sports, a 501(c)(3) corporation. The Museum is a STEAM education laboratory and multi-use sports venue dedicated to professional eSports, drone racing and robot combat games.

​Technological advances

Combat drone competition airframe

The development of drone combat armament began with early prototypes consisting of commercial drones from DJI covered with protective layers of foam and latex, pitted against paintball attacks for strength and durability testing. Cornblatt and d’Elia soon began experimenting with Vac-u-form frames in various materials, designed to be waterproof and provide sturdier protection. These prototypes were tested in paintball arenas, water take-off and crash scenarios and against fire and water hoses. Heavier airframes supporting up to six rotors and a pneumatic paintball gun were tested on a range in drone-on-drone combat rounds including FPV piloting. The "Sumo" model airframe was tested for damage against dead drops from 400 feet in the air and multiple hits from a shotgun.

Race gates

On November 24, 2013, Game of Drones created one of the earliest known drone race courses to feature “race gate” obstacles, constructed from PVC pipe and balloons at the Game of Drones Fly-In Launch Party on the premises of Paintball Jungle in American Canyon, California.

Drone/eSports digital crossover format

In 2017, ASL introduced drone racing and drone combat sports to the professional video game community at DreamHack in Denver, Colorado. The eSports/drone sports crossover event, the Xfinity CA Drone Speed Challenge - Level 2, was held both on the Internet and in the real world in the summer of 2018. A series of four team-based virtual FPV drone races were held in the video game simulator Velocidrone. In July 2018, 8 winning teams of 3 pilots each were invited to a live championship endurance race on a course constructed throughout the Golden 1 Center sports arena in Sacramento, California.

First-person view Goggle Bar

In May 2016, at the Drone Sports World event at Maker Faire in San Mateo, California, ASL created the “FPV Goggle Bar” with sponsor Fat Shark, to offer spectators the experience of drone racing from the pilot's perspective. Using wireless video transmission on board the drones racing, fans donning head-mounted displays were able to see the same live video visuals as the pilots during the races. Audience members were able to experience the physiological “flow state” phenomenon associated with drone racing from a first-person view.

Official rules of drone combat

1. All pilots must wear safety goggles at all times while inside the combat arena.
2. Standard drone combat consists of 2 drones fighting head-to-head in a pre-defined arena, usually defined by a safety net. The objective is to knock the opponent's drone to the floor while avoiding your own drone hitting the floor.
3. Combat starts with each drone ready to fly and idling in a designated landing zone or ring. At the sound of the buzzer, each drone lifts into the air.
4. Each player begins with 3 points. One point is deducted each time a player's drone touches the floor. The first player to reach 0 points is declared the loser.
5. If combat results in both drones hitting the floor at the same time or within 3 seconds of each other, then both players lose a point. However, a game-winning point or “kill” point cannot be obtained if both drones hit the floor at the same time or within 3 seconds of each other. The drone still in flight must not hit the floor with 3 seconds of the potentially losing drone hitting the floor in order to lose its final point.
6. Each time a drone crashes, pilots have 90 seconds to lift-off again. During this time, they are permitted to enter the arena to make emergency repairs, replace batteries and parts or make adjustments to their drone. Pilots have 90 seconds to get their drone flying or they are eliminated from the match. During this time the drone still in operation is allowed to land and rest. If for any reason a drone hits the floor outside of the ring upon landing or otherwise crashes or cannot lift-off again, it will lose a point, as if it had crashed in combat.
7. Matches end at 5 minutes elapsed time. The drone with the highest score will be declared the winner. If there is a tie, the winner will be determined by a sudden death face-off, in which the first pilot to lose a point loses the match.

Recognition

Game of Drones began to garner recognition in the mainstream media, when an article by The Wall Street Journal noted the brand is "Trending as Nonlethal Hobby" with "...a group of civilian developers in the U.S. is trying to change [militaristic perceptions]..." The New York Observer noted that Game of Drones may have become “the NFL of Drone Fighting.” Business Insider highlighted the potential that “racing and fighting your friends' drones could be the next great outdoor sport” as Game of Drones refined its consumer-friendly product offering at Highway 1.

The development of the Flow State Tantrum as a “hard-to-destroy and ready-to-fly” drone kit with a first-person view head-mounted display and software training modules for consumers, priced at under $500US, was touted as moving drones “out of the hands of hobbyists into the mass market” by IEEE Spectrum Magazine.

Recognizing drone racing and battling as sporting events with eSports crossover potential, Wired magazine posited that, “If the Aerial Sports League sees its vision through, [their pilots] may represent the first generation of drone sports fans and pilots, taking their video game skills into the real world.” MarketWatch predicted that leagues like ASL that support “drone sports, such as drone racing and various forms of drone combat, have become a booming global industry that combines Nascar with mixed martial arts and video games.”

Marque Cornblatt was a presenter at TEDx Hollywood in 2016 with the talk, "Flow State: Journey from ICU to Drone Racing Superman." This presentation examined the powerful, neurochemical processes called flow state that occur when pilots use head-mounted displays with a first-person view and how this experience is being studied and harnessed for potential physical and mental health benefits.

Douglas Burnet presented at the first Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Drones Conference in a session on drones and sports in 2017. sUAS Business Magazine mentions ASL's participation in the conference as a “big driver behind the rapid rise of drone sports, which includes racing drones around a track and ‘drone wars’ with dedicated combat drones...and first-person view.”

Educational programs

ASL launched its first drone building and flight training educational program, “working with organizations like the YMCA of the East Bay, the Aerial Sports League teach[es] classes to kids where they learn to assemble and even battle the drones” in June 2017 in San Francisco. ASL lobbied for changes to the State of California’s laws regarding drones with combative modifications, in order to make exceptions for battle style games with safe play areas and non-lethal weaponry, as well as to promote the league’s events as opportunities to embrace students’ curiosity in the many educational aspects of drone making, flying, repair and combat.

In 2015, ASL created its first structured educational program in conjunction with the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Mateo, California. The workshop was created for adults, families and younger participants ages 10 and older that focuses on the construction and use of sports drones. Originally based around the 450mm ASL HIRO combat drone kit, then expanding to include the 180mm ASL HIRO racing drone and eventually including commercially available micro-scale drones. Students learn the basics of drone technology by building their own drone from scratch, with hands-on guidance from ASL pilot instructors. Students then learn how to fly using basic hover-and-land skills and more advanced techniques, including FPV drone racing. The class size is small, with a high student-to-teacher ratio.

See also

• Drone racing
• Drones
• First-person view (radio control)
• Micro air vehicle
• Multirotor
• Quadcopter
• Radio-controlled aircraft
• Unmanned aerial vehicles

External links

• Aerial Sports League website

This article "Aerial Sports League" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Aerial Sports League. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---