Interest Check: 3D3's 100 Week Anniversary Team Event (Aug 10)

To be honest we don't know the cost yet... We aren't taking orders as much as measuring rough interest at this point. The cost may be region specific (E.g. US vs EU vs ??) and shipping different also. You don't have to participate to order one. More info coming later.

 

I just emailed him, we'll see if he bites.

I'm going to sign up confirmed now. Gettin' the band back together.

 

OK, here is the first in a series of "reveals". By that I mean letting you guys know some of the specifics... now these are our current thoughts, but everything is subject to change if we get very strong feedback (or if we think of something better ).

Reveal 1: Team Qualifying

We said this event was team focused and we are going to extend that to qualification. Here's the concept:

• Each team will qualify together in an observed pre-qualifying race setup with at least one approved qualifying steward present to verify the room settings and green flag the laps (via replay since they can't watch every driver at once).
• The qualifying race will be set to 5 laps: one un-timed out-lap, two timed laps, one un-timed in-lap, plus one buffer lap so the race end timer never gets tripped.
• Drivers are allowed to assist each other via draft (pulling or bumping) if they choose.
• Drivers will be allowed to reverse off the grid and position themselves on the final corner prior to their out lap. But after this initial setup, no driver can go backwards again, but otherwise they can proceed as dictated by their "assist" strategy. Examples:
  • Relay: The first driver proceeds on his out-lap, while the others reverse and park on the final corner. As that first driver approaches his first hot lap one of the parked drivers begins his out lap and at the same time provides a draft assist, getting out of the way if desired prior to turn 1 or continuing to pull...
  • Train: Fastest driver goes first and pulls a 2nd driver.
  • No Assist: Drivers spread out and avoid draft as well as any possible interference.
  • Combination of the above.
• Normal track boundary rules and penalties apply to each driver.
• The final buffer lap can be used to assist, but take care not to cross the finish at the end of that lap. If the race finish timer is tripped that's the fault of the team and they will suffer if they can't complete their hot laps.
• Drivers/teams may choose to forgo the team qualifying and run a solo session. By choice or because they prefer to run solo.
• Any driver that DC's during a team qualification session before completing a single timed lap can qualify solo, but will only get one timed lap in their make-up quali race. Once a hot lap is completed no re-runs are allowed.

Practice qualifying as a team and see what works best for your group. Share your strategy or keep it secret*.

Qualifying stewards are not allowed to share any strategy they observe, only the team members can choose whether to keep it private or reveal.

 

No, your start position (individual driver, not team) is determined based on the fastest clean lap (of the two timed hot laps). The only wrinkle versus normal pre-qualification is that drafting is allowed if you choose to run the qualifying race "as a team" and pull/push each other. Drivers on the team can wait/stagger/group however they want in order to achieve the best result.

 

Depending on the count of drivers in each lounge we may allow one observer per room... will have to see how it pans out with the number of teams and drivers.

 

I was going to mention that, but wasn't going to presume.

Don't you worry... we'll get you set up on a team. Twissy has yet to register and he told me he would like to participate also, but it's too far out yet for him to commit. It'll work out and every driver who wants to is going to be able to participate one way or another.

 

Hey Dale (RaceRyder)! Noticed you signed up (did my PM convince you )

I put you on TEAM USA Red (for now) and re-balanced the two USA teams based on average handicap, but honestly I think the Red/Blue splits are more or less imaginary now.

We'll wait for a few more sign ups, figure out if the reserve guys are actually racing and maybe conduct a couple USA team practices late in July and then we can refine the Team USA rosters.

 

That... or just bribe the other teams' drivers with those yummy maple candies.

 

OK, another "reveal".

Questions and comments welcome. The exact multiplier formulas above are still a work in progress and not 100% final at this point.

 

One reason we have a handicap is that teams can form how they like and we don't have to "balance" them completely. The PURE teams are going to want to stick together and are likely going to have quite a low handicap. Part of the fun of the event is being able to pick your teams. Other teams could decide to match this with stacking or stick to balanced teams... that's up to them.

We could drop the handicap and just let it fall as it will. Any country with more than 4 drivers could create a true A and B team and stack the A team as much as possible. Of course that brings into question multi-country teams like NA that span multiple countries -- without a handicap system is that fair?

I would rather have a conservative handicap system and just let drivers join the teams they like as long as they are country/region based.

The proposed handicap system is quite conservative. Take this example where I put 4 teams against each other (Team Oranje, team USA Blue, Team GB, Team Belgium). Then I just sorted all the drivers by handicap and assumed they would finish in that order and applied base points and then points net of the multiplier (struck out points for 4th driver on teams) :

Code:

[B][U]Place	Driver PSN	Team NAME	Base	Hand	Mult	Points[/U][/B]
1	GTP_PASM	Team Oranje	20	1.454	 1.04 	 20.71 
2	GTP_Jump_Ace	Team USA Blue	17	1.984	 1.18 	 20.10 
3	GTP_Kreezydoed	Team Belgium	15	2.458	 1.33 	 19.97 
4	GTP_ROCK3T	Team GB     	13	2.519	 1.35 	 17.57 
5	GTP_Speedy6543	Team Belgium	12	2.665	 1.40 	 16.82 
6	GTP_Jared93	Team USA Blue	11	2.724	 1.42 	 15.65 
7	GTP_theW__42	Team Oranje	10	2.8	 1.45 	 14.50 
8	GTP_Patrick1	Team USA Blue	9	3.156	 1.58 	 14.26 
9	GTP_oink	Team GB     	8	3.183	 1.60 	 12.76 
10	GTP_Racingworld	Team Belgium	7	3.383	 1.68 	 11.74 
11	GTP_Sjaak	Team Oranje	6	3.689	 1.81 	 10.86 
[s]12	GTP_otxjto	Team USA Blue	5	3.785	 1.85 	 9.27[/s] 
13	GTP_NINE_HUND	Team GB     	4	4.016	 1.97 	 7.86 
[s]14	GTP_Straffestef	Team Belgium	3	4.903	 2.45 	 7.36[/s]

Team points with and without handicap:

[B][U]Team Name	Base	 Handicapped[/U][/B]
Team USA Blue	37	 50.01 
Team Oranje	36	 46.08 
Team Belgium	34	 48.53 
Team GB     	25	 38.19 

The handicap actually flipped 2nd and 3rd place in this case.

We could actually track both points systems and declare a "straight points champion" and "handicapped points champion" for the event. We'd have to choose one of the two systems for the round 2 room assignment (probably straight points).