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Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I had an idea for something to do in FH3. That idea was to create a custom career story arc, spanning multiple championships, single events, bucket lists and share it with you guys. I wanted to make the career more inline with what I personally would like out of a Horizon single player mode, and luckily there are tools in the game that kinda allow us to do that. So everything from picking starting cars, to some background exposition, to rivalries between competitors, showcasing a smaller characters story & more. So depending on if these are liked or not I might continue on with it, but at the moment it's just a trial run. Forgive my writing (especially grammar) & photography skills also, I'm pretty terrible haha! Anyway here goes..
Hmmph. Where was I.......ahh. There I was!
Name: Spencer Low
Age: 27
COR: USA
Competitor Number: 238
I had found myself on the list of competitors for one of the coolest and most sought out festivals in the world, that being: Horizon Festival #3: Australia. I was a late entry; a wild card if you will but that was my style.
Eagle Ridge, Colorado. One of the more popular spots for getting sideways in the first Horizon Festival.
This wasn't my first Horizon festival as I managed to get a last minute entry into the first ever Horizon festival in Colorado, back in 2012. I only managed to get past the first bracket before getting knocked out. The next Horizon festival was scheduled for 2014, so what was I do to in-between? Thankfully Alice Harper (head honcho for all things Horizon) had set up a track-based race series that goes year round, made up of many divisions, for all Horizon contestants to hone there skills. So off I went to do that, with some relative success.
Horizon Festival #2, in France & Italy.
Around comes Horizon Festival #2, this time in France & Italy. I qualified for the festival and made the second bracket, before getting eliminated. Followed by continued success in the track-based series and now along comes 2016, the year of the Horizon Festival. One plane ticket to Australia and one shot at making the big leagues at Horizon Festival #3. One problem though... I needed a car, something I'd have to sort when I got to Aussie. Anyway, to Byron Bay we go!
A beautiful sunset & a gorgeous town. This is Byron Bay, the location of Horizon Festival #3, in Australia.
Horizon Festival #3 was to take place initially in Byron Bay, a small "holiday" town on the coast of Australia, close to Melbourne. Though if the festival did get popular enough, they would expand it to other areas of Australia. There was a lot of skeptics saying that Horizon wouldn't prove popular enough in Australia & wouldn't need to expand anywhere further.
Regardless, I arrived in the small town and luckily enough stayed at my friend Daniel Escapa's (a Horizon veteran too) place, which he was renting.
Daniel Escapa's House, in Byron Bay, Australia.
Of course he had his car imported and all ready to go, a beautiful 1991 BMW M3 E30 in immaculate condition, a car he's been renowned for driving ever since he had it in Colorado in 2012.
Daniel Escapa's white BMW M3 E30 at Horizon Festival #2. He likes to gives the car a 'clean' look.
Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky. I did have a 'signature' car; it was a 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R and it was completely kitted out (estimated worth around $55K). I was going to bring it until Keira, the Horizon Festival #3 Manager (one below the boss) announced that Volkswagen were pulling out of sponsoring & supporting the Horizon festival all together, meaning no-one could use any Volkswagens at all. Thus, I had to leave the car back in the US and gather together what money I could find (there wasn't a lot since I had sunk so much money into the Scirocco) and purchase a car here, in Aussie.
My street-spec precious 11' Scirocco R that was banned from entering Horizon Festival #3, back when it was blue. Thanks alot, VW.
My budget was only around $5500, so it meant I was going to have to find something really slow and compete in lower classes and work my way back up to the level of my Scirocco. The way Horizon Festival #3 was set out allowed for this to happen. The basic premise of the festival is that there are 6 "Main Event" Championships, covering each rating class (D, C, B, A, S1, S2). There are only twelve spots in each of these Championships, and one is reserved for the previous festival winner. So really there's only 11 spots to shoot for.
So how do you qualify for a spot in the "Main Events"? You earn enough fans & earn enough "round points". Fans are earned through everything you do, whether it be single events, bucket lists, PR Stunts, Championships, Illegal Street Races. Fans follow your festival actions and every competitor is ranked based on how many followers they have. The Horizon Festival is not just about driving fast, its about driving with style and personality (something I have lacked in the past.). Round Points are only earned through doing officially sanction Horizon Festival races, either being single one-off races or championships. There a lot of these events going on, some times simultaneously (can't do them all) and they cover a wide variety of car types & classes, allowing for tighter budget competitors (like myself) to stand a chance. You can only enter a maximum of 10 'round point' events, then you are ranked against every other competitor.
The average of your ranking in the round point events and how many followers you have then determines if you make the cut to the next round. There are 2000 competitors at Horizon this year, and they've announced that to make it to the C-Class bracket, you'd have to be in the Top 1000 of the D-Class bracket. The top 11 ranked competitors in the bracket & last years championship then duke it out in the "Main Event" Championship, where huge cash prizes are on offer, which gives a huge advantage to those competitors as they can build more expensive & faster cars. Then, we move on to the next bracket. I had never even come close to the top 11, in fact in first Horizon Festival I was ranked 145th (out of 250) then in the second Horizon Festival I was ranked 342nd (out of 1000).
So with that all set out, it was time to find a car. Daniel managed to hook me up with three different options:
1972 Land Rover Series III for $5000
1980 Subaru BRAT GL for $4750
1974 Toyota Corolla SR5 for $5500
The question is...which one would I take?
PART 1: A Difficult Choice
Hmmph. Where was I.......ahh. There I was!
Name: Spencer Low
Age: 27
COR: USA
Competitor Number: 238
I had found myself on the list of competitors for one of the coolest and most sought out festivals in the world, that being: Horizon Festival #3: Australia. I was a late entry; a wild card if you will but that was my style.
Eagle Ridge, Colorado. One of the more popular spots for getting sideways in the first Horizon Festival.
This wasn't my first Horizon festival as I managed to get a last minute entry into the first ever Horizon festival in Colorado, back in 2012. I only managed to get past the first bracket before getting knocked out. The next Horizon festival was scheduled for 2014, so what was I do to in-between? Thankfully Alice Harper (head honcho for all things Horizon) had set up a track-based race series that goes year round, made up of many divisions, for all Horizon contestants to hone there skills. So off I went to do that, with some relative success.
Horizon Festival #2, in France & Italy.
Around comes Horizon Festival #2, this time in France & Italy. I qualified for the festival and made the second bracket, before getting eliminated. Followed by continued success in the track-based series and now along comes 2016, the year of the Horizon Festival. One plane ticket to Australia and one shot at making the big leagues at Horizon Festival #3. One problem though... I needed a car, something I'd have to sort when I got to Aussie. Anyway, to Byron Bay we go!
A beautiful sunset & a gorgeous town. This is Byron Bay, the location of Horizon Festival #3, in Australia.
Horizon Festival #3 was to take place initially in Byron Bay, a small "holiday" town on the coast of Australia, close to Melbourne. Though if the festival did get popular enough, they would expand it to other areas of Australia. There was a lot of skeptics saying that Horizon wouldn't prove popular enough in Australia & wouldn't need to expand anywhere further.
Regardless, I arrived in the small town and luckily enough stayed at my friend Daniel Escapa's (a Horizon veteran too) place, which he was renting.
Daniel Escapa's House, in Byron Bay, Australia.
Of course he had his car imported and all ready to go, a beautiful 1991 BMW M3 E30 in immaculate condition, a car he's been renowned for driving ever since he had it in Colorado in 2012.
Daniel Escapa's white BMW M3 E30 at Horizon Festival #2. He likes to gives the car a 'clean' look.
Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky. I did have a 'signature' car; it was a 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R and it was completely kitted out (estimated worth around $55K). I was going to bring it until Keira, the Horizon Festival #3 Manager (one below the boss) announced that Volkswagen were pulling out of sponsoring & supporting the Horizon festival all together, meaning no-one could use any Volkswagens at all. Thus, I had to leave the car back in the US and gather together what money I could find (there wasn't a lot since I had sunk so much money into the Scirocco) and purchase a car here, in Aussie.
My street-spec precious 11' Scirocco R that was banned from entering Horizon Festival #3, back when it was blue. Thanks alot, VW.
My budget was only around $5500, so it meant I was going to have to find something really slow and compete in lower classes and work my way back up to the level of my Scirocco. The way Horizon Festival #3 was set out allowed for this to happen. The basic premise of the festival is that there are 6 "Main Event" Championships, covering each rating class (D, C, B, A, S1, S2). There are only twelve spots in each of these Championships, and one is reserved for the previous festival winner. So really there's only 11 spots to shoot for.
So how do you qualify for a spot in the "Main Events"? You earn enough fans & earn enough "round points". Fans are earned through everything you do, whether it be single events, bucket lists, PR Stunts, Championships, Illegal Street Races. Fans follow your festival actions and every competitor is ranked based on how many followers they have. The Horizon Festival is not just about driving fast, its about driving with style and personality (something I have lacked in the past.). Round Points are only earned through doing officially sanction Horizon Festival races, either being single one-off races or championships. There a lot of these events going on, some times simultaneously (can't do them all) and they cover a wide variety of car types & classes, allowing for tighter budget competitors (like myself) to stand a chance. You can only enter a maximum of 10 'round point' events, then you are ranked against every other competitor.
The average of your ranking in the round point events and how many followers you have then determines if you make the cut to the next round. There are 2000 competitors at Horizon this year, and they've announced that to make it to the C-Class bracket, you'd have to be in the Top 1000 of the D-Class bracket. The top 11 ranked competitors in the bracket & last years championship then duke it out in the "Main Event" Championship, where huge cash prizes are on offer, which gives a huge advantage to those competitors as they can build more expensive & faster cars. Then, we move on to the next bracket. I had never even come close to the top 11, in fact in first Horizon Festival I was ranked 145th (out of 250) then in the second Horizon Festival I was ranked 342nd (out of 1000).
So with that all set out, it was time to find a car. Daniel managed to hook me up with three different options:
1972 Land Rover Series III for $5000
1980 Subaru BRAT GL for $4750
1974 Toyota Corolla SR5 for $5500
The question is...which one would I take?
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