The first GT Academy 2010 national finals are now complete! TiZzla won in New Zealand, while GTP_DHolland came out on top in Australia. Congratulations to both of you! Participants and attendees are sharing their results, pictures, and impressions from the event here in our forums, so head there to find out how it all went down.
Unfortunately, the finals were not without their controversy – as it appears Sony failed to present a completely fair and professional event for the racers, viewing the national finals as little more than PR stunts instead of serious competitions. Our user vrrm, who was not racing, was able to see just how poorly executed the event actually was (via his forum post):
For Sony this was a promotional event. It was about publicity. For the participants it was a potentially life changing sporting event. These two approaches do not fit well together.
For example I saw photographers taking pics, with flash on, while kneeling in front of & just to the left drivers. This happened to Devie during a race, a few seconds before he went off. I saw another racing incident that put Dan’s participation in the final in question happen right in front of Glen Seeton (the guest racing car driver steward), but he was on his mobile phone at the time and didn’t notice.
Each driver had a steward looking over their shoulder to judge whether race behaviour was fair. None of these stewards had any real knowledge of GT. Only one had racing experience (Seeton). Towards the end of the day when people were growing tired the steward job often fell to young girls on the Sony publicity team. This is completely unacceptable. Racing rules, stewards and scrutineers at events like this must be drawn from people experienced in Gran Turismo. Protests should be handled seriously by a panel rather than by a marketing manager who is more concerned about keeping to the event timetable.
I completely agree with vrrm that the lackluster organization for such a competition is unacceptable. If you’re about to participate in your own national final later this month, be forewarned and expect less than ideal conditions. Talk and communicate with other participants, and respectfully remind your local Sony organizers that unfair and inconsistent stewardship will not be tolerated.
The first European finals start this weekend, with Austria, Germany, Portugal, France, and Switzerland. Thanks to ripping_silk for snapping the above photo from the NZ finals!
UPDATE: Now with video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F4Vp2yMEYE
could someone tell me what track was used and are the physics the same as the demo
Just realised that video was from GameArena
Australias tard central for gaming =/
@ The TERRIBLE graphics of this demo put me off at setting a competitive lap time. I could have made the to 5 easily based on pure skill.
Yeah? Name 3 race sims with better graphics. That’s like me saying I could’ve placed first ‘cept I didn’t like the engine noise. Pure fantasy/fiction.
really man, gt5 and gt5 p have better graphics than this demo, so i think the same!!
Congratz Dholland and tizzlaa!
Shame on the officials. As GTP members are regular racers I feel they are able to judge if the races are fair or not. Hopefully it will be better in other countries.
@TOLL~Scibba~HRT and djcorrosive. take your rant to private.
Now Now Scibba and nvswog, I have had both of you on my list and both of you are great guys, Scibba can get over excite a bit and can be a bit vocal at times LOL, but he is super fast on GT and when comes to crunch not many ppl will beat him in straight out racing, but he will never sit there for hrs hot-lapping so GT academy is just not for him IMO.
Anyway, lets not get this topic of track guys, Its DHollands glory thread IMO, so Well done to DHolland and good luck with what comes next!!! DO us Aussies proud!
Lol nothing for me to get pissed off about :)
sure has been a while :)
@ djcorrosive i remember ho you are i was just playing with you the GTP comments see how piss of you get i can’t believe you remember all that shit from last year nice talk with you again
@ djcorrosive i don’t remember anymore from last year sorry mate and life goes on
@ The TERRIBLE graphics of this demo put me off at setting a competitive lap time. I could have made the to 5 easily based on pure skill.
Yeah? Name 3 race sims with better graphics. That’s like me saying I could’ve placed first ‘cept I didn’t like the engine noise. Pure fantasy/fiction.
Best of luck to you guys!
U do or don’t? Lol
u bloody flaptard lol.. Memory can’t be that dead surely! Lol and I used to smash pills and goey for a good 6 years lol
mmmmmmmmmmmm remember sorry
your name on there used to be just scibba right
you were full going off on private message on psn cause u got banned or whatever for a bit from here??
and u always had v8 super car races in your comment bit
cause i def did have u on there
and this was awhile ago champ. last year to be exact lol
are you sure your talk to the right guy? because i don’t remember that race at all
Scibba, you most def were on my psn
nvswog was my psn
remember, we had the lotus races a few times on high speed ring!
REMEMBER ? lol
congrats to GTP holland, well done mate =)
note 0’42 a glimpse of the GT5 interface perhaps. Looks like replay, with transport controls
Man, they started a complete race car field to compete on Indianapolis. That must be awesome.
@snausages
you are right, what a complex replay-menu. still waiting for more info.
Well done guys, but the comments around it just being a PR stunt…what do you expect?! That’s exactly what this TT stuff is – a marketing exercise.
Congrats to the two winners…
Shame that Sony don’t seem to be taking this as seriously as they should be…
Then again – it seems that they’re not taking GT as seriously as they should either.
C.
hey good to se hey aussie v8 supercar driver in GTP talking Gelnn Seton
BTW,
The TERRIBLE graphics of this demo put me off at setting a competitive lap time. I could have made the to 5 easily based on pure skill.
Good work guys. No Spa :(
To all Gt academysters: good luck.
As Bobby would say: if you are not first you’re last!
sorry mate i don’t remember you at all on my PSN. sound like your piss of with something
hahahah u OBVIOUSLY dont remember me you wank stiff haha :P
You were on my PSN for fkn ages lol
@ djcorrosive i will like to see you do better mate. how come you did not make to the nissan GT academy? if you can talk back
Scibba its cause you’re no good mate :P
well done to GTP_Holland and GTP_TiZzla well done you guys i wich i was there to
Well done Holland! Show ’em how we do it in Oz!
Majority is crap btw
http://www.gamearena.com.au/videos/latest.php/50339
if you look closely at 00:42, you can see screens of the latest GT5 build’s replay GUI!
I can’t recall but didn’t you have to own Prologue for the first Academy? Aside from that, I doubt he was grinding away for hours upon hours on it…
Controversy aside, it’s probably clear that the best driver won on the day. Also, the sheer amount of people this year who beat Lucas Ordinez time (although he may not have been competing all that hard) raises questions about the previous Academy.
If you can’t handle a bit of flash going off in front of you then I doubt you will fair much better in a full blown race situation lol. It should be a level playing field though, fairs fair.