RL GT3 Championship

Hi out there,

TTT is currently in a break - and the future is to be planned (as there will hopefully be a life after TTT spring 09).

Toad and myself had many fantastic races and great moments with this community, so we set up the first Redline-Transcontinental-US-Switzerlandish-Championship organization of the world.
(I didn't ever realize how far away from switzerland california is in reality (looks like a small world on goolge maps if you zoom out) - but the ping was quite high most of the time so i should have made my thoughts earlier - slowbrainer-i-am ).

You find below our thoughts about what happens after TTT.
We asked SeeFlat about the Schedule for RLTC - and are going first with the GT3 championship after some exchange of timeframes and feasability-thinking. If there is any other event planned please let us know as we can postpone this even to later if there is anything else coming up.

The idea of posting it here is
- to check whether there are any facts we forgot and you find
- that we need input on "2) Day/Time" and also on "11) Dates / number of races".

All other ideas / thoughts are welcome too -

Here our thoughts:

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Principles
a) Keep it simple
b) build on what we already have
c) rely on known racers*
d) have long races instead of sprints
* new racers are welcome if they proof they understult the rules and can behave in some Multiyplayer-sessions before. No noobs we don't know will be invited to participate.

1) Ranking
We use the same ranking as SF's RLTC did (Points per race-standing and total-time-standing combined) - with an extension of not counting ONE race, so any may not show up once and it does no harm.
Reasons:
- it exists
- SF's RLRC has experienced no more problems with it
- so people get used to it
- missing one race is allowed due to real-life-facts we can not deny.

2) Find day/time so people can show up
Races will be held on a specific day/time combo, starting last week of march/first week of april, lasting for 10 weeks.
We propose
- sundays after 20 UTC
- friday nite (here), so say 22 UTC
- saturday night, 20-22 UTC time
Here input of racers is welcome

3) Website
Will be up and running when discussions are over.

4) Allowed participants
Participation in RLGT3C is invitational.
Specific codes of conduct (call it rules if you like) will be available on the website. The target we try to achieve is clean racing rather than Kamikaze-overtakings.
New players can show their ability of clean racing in regular MP-races (only before the Tournament starts to avoid catch 22, hehe).

5) Frequency of races
1 a week for 10 weeks

6) lenght of races
target-finishing time is 40 mins ( we are aware of Redline not being able to show replays longer than 30 minutes - if you feel like this is a major problem - please post below).

7) Racers per race
We hope for races in 12. This never happened before in Redline Race series (afawk) but is the most fun-promising setup we can think of.
We will see who is in and whether its feasible and decide on this later on.

8 ) Group of organizers
Toad and Alphonse - we keep it simple and transcontinental.

9) Cars
True GT3 cars only, that is at the moment:
- Corvette C6 Z06R (is it that one?)
- Mustang FR500 GT3
- Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S
- Porsche 968 GT3
- Lamborghini Gallardo GT3
maybe other GT3 cars that might arise until we start the tournament.
The car you pick for the first race will be the car you have for the rest of the races.

10) Tracks for the races are
- Monaco
- Bardagi
- Spa
- Mountainside
- Imola
- Brands
- Black Forest
- Thruxton
- RockyPass
- Watkins Glen

11) Dates / number of races (TTT ends march 14)
March 28
April 4
April 11 (we know its easter - will this work for you?)
April 16
April 25
May 2
May 9
May 16
May 23
May 30
June 6 (only if we drop easter-date)
Here input of racers is welcome

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We are looking for some enormous fun and hope you like the idea too.
All words and comments are welcome...

Toad and Alphonse

nice. thanks for setting this up Toad and Alphonse.

dates and times are all ok here, although i never know where im headed next. i imagine the weekends will be best for most though.

will there be a time trial like the rltcc?

if there is anything that a man of my limited computer abilities can do to help let me know.

thanks again. slow

wow....

Oh yeah! That's going to be MP racing on another level.

Since I'll be back from the school trip quite a while before Round 1, this would fit right into my time calendar if I make it in !

Thanks a lot for setting this up, Toad and Alphonse

This sounds great guys. Thank you for your efforts!

alphonse wrote:2) Find day/time so people can show up
Races will be held on a specific day/time combo, starting last week of march/first week of april, lasting for 10 weeks.
We propose
- sundays after 20 UTC
- friday nite (here), so say 22 UTC
- saturday night, 20-22 UTC time
Here input of racers is welcome

So the idea is to choose a fixed day and time when everyone will race?
- If so, then you'll have to distribute all participants on that time over multiple hosts according to their classification (a la SF).
You might run into a logistical nightmare considering that the hosts themselves are part of the ranking, unless you set an entry limit...
- If not so, and you let people race in their preferred time slot, they will always race the same people.

Or am I thinking too complicated and you already have a simple approach?

EDIT: At first glance, I didn't take much notice of the track choice. Now this is, of course, your choice. But I do miss Silverstone and Monza, which both seem extremely suited for GT3. Bardagi and Mountain, on the other hand, seem a bit out of place, but that might be your intention...

We really do want to hear what you think about our GT3 series.

We also need your input on any aspect of the organization that will make the series more fun and competitive.

Please tell us if you are considering entering.

It will help us arrange for hosts needed to run twelve car fields. Once we have a feel for interest we can go about
devising group structure to begin the series.

Slow spoke up already and has asked about the possibility of a time trial to that end.

We do have some options, for instance:

● We could have a time trial like See's TCC series.
● We could also set up a Hall of Fame Strict Time Trial on a select track within a short period.
● Or (Simplest) Alphonse and I choose based history and MP experience where to place everyone on grid.
● what's your idea?

As for track choice we are not locked into any set just yet. Mountain reverse has had many races in MP and is real challenge with these powerfull cars. Bardagi, is very drifty with these cars but the barrels could have more influence on outcome than we would like.

Silverstone has two problems in my opinion, it has bad fps issues for many, and it has been in every race series we have had. Time to give this one a rest. Monza is a great track and if everyone wants it, fine, now what do we drop? Also it favors the Corvette because of it's top speed and hurts the pokey Porsche 968.

There will be more things to look at before we set things in motion but for now, please let us know what you think.

Cheers

Toad

Alphonse and Toad.....

Been thinking about this since I first read your original posting to get the brewing going on this event.

My first wow = Why so big?

I really think 10 races is way two much. The reason I had set up my tourney to be only on 4 tracks was because of the commitment factor. If you get 20 or 30 people to join... it will be impossible to get so many to make all 10 races spread out over such a long period of time. Also, to propose a tourney that players had to choose a car and stick to it. (for me part of the whole fun) If you get guys that turn out to really hate their cars.. they'll drop in mid tournament. Also, the time investment to really try all Gt3 cars, on all 10 tracks to see which one suits them best. Don might but he's a perfectionist minority.

I don't know how you were planning hosting, or how many players might want to join. I had set a maximum of 24 when I planned my thing because I thought it would be possible to find at least three hosts in group 1, 2 and 3 that could host 8. And frankly, 24 committed players for four races was a very long shot to say the least. I'll repeat myself, I think it might be nearly impossible to get 24 players or even 20 to be able make 10 weeks.

This year, I was planning to cut down to only 20 invitations so we could have 2 groups of 10 (lots of cars is fun) and I was going to have 4 races in four consecutive weeks. I was palnning to do: Watkins, Spa, Imola and Brands (for tradition) The first three being new tracks for an RLTCC tourney.

As for time frame, I was hoping for May, but I have mentioned in private to Alphonse that my schedule has been crazy and I didn't even know if I could pull it off. I was still hoping to try though. If you guys work out all the kinks and can manage to pull it off, there is no way i'll put on an RLTCC in the summer. So I'll push it off till fall I guess. (which is fine) I could probably not get much interest following your line up. You have all the tracks I wanted to use and holding an event with the same length races using slower cars would generate little interest. (Been there, done that... but better syndrome).

Scoring: I think my model worked out pretty well. No complaints from players and the stats seem to indicate placement equaled talent pretty accurately.
I was hoping Alphonse's big programming brain would hatch something better that I could steal!

I do wish you guys the best of outcomes for your tournament. Lots of smart people you can bounce ideas off of but follow your vision of what you think it should be. Run a tight ship. Live by your convictions. It should be a blast whatever decisions you make

Build it... they will come.

Cheers
See Flat

See Flat wrote:Also, the time investment to really try all Gt3 cars, on all 10 tracks to see which one suits them best. Don might but he's a perfectionist minority.

Is a way as another to ask me something?

Well, I agree with SF about the ten races. is more then 2 months and could be hardly played by me too. What I complained about the SF fun RLTCC tournament was the 4 races. I hoped more, but this will let you to be focused on perfect races. I think 5 races for all the tournament is the best for our chance.

Also, reducing the tournament time, you will allow for new tournaments in the future.

About 12 players racing and 40 minutes race. With 12 players, most of us, will not just fight against 11 players, but also against fps and lag issues. Considering the formula: skills=fps+ping. This option will be compromising for some good talented players.

40 minutes races without stops. I used to play clanwars of 40 minutes (2 matches of 20 minutes each). 40 minutes is stressfull, involving, deep. But, is it just me?

I think I can live with 40 minutes, if it isn't 40 minutes of Bardagi. I love that track, but I guess we will do some 45 laps there.
I must also say that the 10 races put me off. As Don said, that's nearly three months. It might block other events from happening. 4 to 6 races might be much better, also because I have no idea where I will be in May or June.

Apart from that, I love the idea. I wouldn't necessarily leave out some high speed tracks because of the 968. I knew from the beginning it would be difficult on these tracks with the little 4 pot.
Then again, 4 laps of the Ring might also fit the bill. But I would probably need to invest in a new Mac before that.

Sounds great! The Z06.R is indeed the GT3 Corvette.

I think 6 races is better than 10.

NoNameBrand wrote:Sounds great! The Z06.R is indeed the GT3 Corvette.

I think 6 races is better than 10.

I'll second that. 10 such long races are indeed a tad too much I beleive...
6 (or 7, depends on how much of an endurance junkie you are ) sounds like a nice compromise.
By the way, how about additional seperate qualifying sessions for each Round? (shoot outs)

Now if you do 6 or less or the full lot of 10 races as initally planned is your decision of course But I sure am up for a GT3 tournament !


Valentin

Although I'm not sure if I can hold out for 40 minutes, you can consider me a considerer.
I would also prefer 6 races over 10.
The rest of your setup looks fine by me.

alphonse wrote:2) Find day/time so people can show up
Races will be held on a specific day/time combo, starting last week of march/first week of april, lasting for 10 weeks.
We propose
- sundays after 20 UTC
- friday nite (here), so say 22 UTC
- saturday night, 20-22 UTC time
Here input of racers is welcome

so, date and times will be fixed? do i have to be there on sunday night or can i, if i 've to work on sunday-/friday evening also go for a saturday night race? if so i have to pass to this tournament :'(

great idea. i would race everything with all of you.

my only problem here is: i'm on vacation from April 18 to May 9 - can we have "missing two races is allowed..."
maybe then those who think 10 races are too much can be happy with "only" 8 races

Count me in here too.

I'm in the less than 10 races camp. 40mins race time is definitely do-able and enough to make you drive differently than a normal sprint race. Sounds fun.

Sounds fun. I'd certainly like a chance to throw that pony around in competition.

Thanks for the work Toad & Alphonse.
I'd like to try this.

Time to say thank you for all the words and feedback you wrote.

We have taken all into consideration and are working on finalization.
more on this matter as soon as we are ready to roll...

Toad and Alphonse

Hi guys, I'm interested, but I can't really commit to all ten races. I'd suggest five or six races - maybe squeezed into two weeks? Three races on the first weekend and the rest on the following weekend. Then it wouldn't be as hard for people to get to the races. With your current time schedule I will miss at least one race, maybe two. Of course, all this is up to you organizers.

::EDIT:: I hope I'm not too late in suggesting this....