The first-ever United States GT Academy is about to kick off on December 20, 2010, and Sony officially opened registration earlier this week. Click the big “Register Now” button right here to get started (you must be 18 years of age or older as of December 6, 2010 to enter – see the official rules for more). Once you provide your personal information, you’ll be assigned to one of four different national regions:
- West: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming.
- Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas
- Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin
- Northeast: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, DC, West Virginia
As was seen in the GT Academy 2010 qualifier, the first portion of the competition is based on your combined performance in two time-trial events, presumably on the same track in different cars (most likely a stock Nissan 370Z and the tuned version you see above). This time, however, contestants will have to survive three rounds of elimination (it is not clear from the official rules if subsequent rounds will be held with different cars or tracks). Keep in mind that throughout these first three rounds, you are only competing with other players from your local region. Here’s how it works:
Round 1 / December 20, 2010 – January 23, 2011 / Top 128 from each region progress to Round 2 (512 total).
Round 2 / January 31, 2011 – February 6, 2011 / Top 16 from each region progress to Round 3 (64 total).
Round 3 / February 14, 2011 – February 20, 2011 / Top 8 from each region progress to the National Finals (32 total).
Even if you’re not serious about becoming the next Jordan Tresson or Lucas Ordonez, there’s going to be lots of prizes given away each week throughout the competition. From the official rules:
Round 1 Prizes:
The top 128 contestants from each of the four Regions at the end of Round 1 will receive a Gran Turismo PSP download voucher code.Round 1 Weekly Prizes:
During each of the five weeks of Round 1, Sponsor will award the following prizes. Contestant with the fastest combined Time Trial Event time on the national leaderboard will receive one Playseat Revolution (Gran Turismo Edition) racing seat (plus one (1) Logitech Driving Force GT wheel and one (1) GT5 poster (approx retail value $760.00). The contestants that finish with the second through fifth fastest combined Time Trial Event time on the national leaderboard will receive one (1) Logitech Driving Force™ GT wheel and one (1) GT5 poster (approx retail value $160.00). Contestants that finish with the sixth through twentieth fastest combined Time Trial Event time on the national leaderboard will receive one (1) GT5 poster (approx retail value $10). A contestant cannot win more than one of the same prize. For example, winner of week 1 (Playseat, Logitech wheel and poster) cannot win those prizes in subsequent weeks. If the same contestant finishes in the same winner bracket more than once in each week of competition, the prize will be awarded to the next person on the national leaderboard.Round 2 Prizes (64 Prizes):
The top sixteen contestants from each Region at the end of Round 2 will receive a copy of Gran Turismo® 5 Collector’s Edition for the PLAYSTATION®3 system. Approximate retail value, $99.99. Round 2 winners will be announced by February 13, 2011.Round 3 Prizes (32 Prizes):
The eight top contestants from each Region at the end of Round 3 will win a prize package that includes one roundtrip airfare to the National Finals, hotel accommodations for two nights, transportation to and from the National Finals, and a chance to race and compete to move on to GT Academy where the ultimate prize is the chance to become a real professional race driver. (Approximate retail value of trip to National Finals and accommodations is $3000.00). A National Final’s qualifying contestant’s Prize will be forfeited if that contestant is unable to travel during designated time period, or if that contestant does not return required affidavit in time to verify age and state of residency or other compliance with these Contest rules. No refund or compensation will be made in the event of the cancellation or delay of any flight. Travel and accommodations are subject to availability. All expenses and incidental travel costs not expressly stated in the package description above, including ground transportation, meals, incidentals, passenger tariffs or duties, surcharges, airport fees, service charges or facility charges, personal charges at lodging, security fees, taxes or other expenses are contestants’ sole responsibility. If Sponsor determines that air travel is not required due to a contestant’s proximity to prize location, ground transportation will be substituted for roundtrip air travel at Sponsors’ sole discretion.
If you’re in an SCEE region, don’t fret – as was announced at GT5’s Madrid Launch Party, yet another GT Academy competition will be returning to Europe soon. For those of you here in the US, which region will you be competing in?
See more articles on GT Academy USA 2011.
Will PD ever think about their own home region? What happened to us here in Asia (Japan/Taiwan)? Don’t forget about us!
Unfortunately the GT Time trial winner last year (carlpky) is in my region so it will be tough.
…and which region is that? lol
midwest here!this is gonna be freakin awesome! finally the US gets a turn.
Uh oh, TRC and TDR, I’m in!!!!!
for all the british columbians that aren’t super duper serious about winning the whole thing, you could just sign up for an American PSN account and put in the TSB shipping (point roberts shipping) info for your address still be able to pick up the prizes if you are to win one.
LET US CANADIANS IN!! WE’RE SANDWICHED BETWEEN ALASKA AND THE REST OF THE US! CMOOOOOOOON T.T…
*breaks down in tears in a corner*
you mad bro?
I guess I’m glad that i live in Alaska. :D
West region. I will be bringin the heat >=)
Signed up. :)
The prizes, beyond being quite generous and surely helping to generate interest (and just generally being a really cool thing), are actually very important for the competition. I never would have believed it if someone told me so, but the Time Trial Demo had major problems with people practicing offline until the last week or last day and then running a fast “official” lap right before the deadline so that others wouldn’t have a chance to overtake them. This should provide the needed incentive not to do that any longer.
North Carolina Represent!!!
I think i will be able to make it past the first round, probably the second
Michigan here too
Why do I have to be 13? I wanna be 18 just once!
99% chance the winner will be from GTP I think
100% chance the winner owns a kia and doesn’t have a girlfriend
and probably hasnt left his parent’s basement since about 12:15am nov. 24th.
most of the fastest drivers in the game wont be able to pass the physical aspects of the gt challenge
And most likely has all the prizes mentioned above…………
Ill be in South East, FL.
I doubt I’ll be very good, but I’ll give it a shot! Region Southeast!
Florida-Represent! Time to get serious.I’m expecting to get to the second round. :)
Wonderful now we have a full league of us-dbags who think they’re talented because of a video game…. hooray
Your calling people in the U.S. d*****bags? You are the d bag for calling people that are from other countries dbags.
I am in the US…and the US is filled with d-bags. One trip to a Gamestop, or a review on how many nerds took days off work for the new WoW proves that.
wow ur cool.. ‘think they’re talented because of a video game’ since you said this i’m assuming you have no idea how many people that race for real play this ‘game’.. ALso, so far i haven’t seen a single ‘dbag’ using trashy language until i read your comment.
I’m assuming you have no figure on to how many people that race play this “game” either..
Nor do you know how many people that race play this game for anything other than competitively…
Nerdery runs rampant as people believe people who have progressed beyond SCCA weekend outings at their local track and shifter kart kids actually spend time perfecting their racing line with a 370z on their ps3…
Michigan – Midwest region here. Just gonna give it my best.
Southeast region. Natchez mississippi.
Ready to test my skills against the rest of you guys. Not havin leaderboards is killing me lol.
I have been to national finals in he wcg for 2 other racing games. Hope I can make it 3.
Good luck to my fellow TRC members!
There is no doubt in my mind that you will excel in this competition, Goose! I’ve only proven myself to be good at one other racing game, but GT5 is a whole different beast. I hope I can make the transition.
After that internal Hotlapping we done thru TimeRacing aint no doubt you to will be blazing!!! Good Luck.
Just signed up, Midwest here.
It seems like maybe Midwest will be a little slower? I can hope :P
Oh, how badly I will get my ass kicked. Gonna have fun playing however. Hoping I win that playseat at least before getting knocked out. Put in the Northeast bracket.
Ever drive through Connecticut? Our average speed correlates with the highways number which we are driving on. Our major highways are 84, 91, and 95. It gets crazy
@east beast
Never been to Connecticut, but if you want to see crazy, come over here to Germany. Average speed is as fast as your car can go.
Looking forward to the EU Academy.
@Nsubordinate Proper.
plus i heard a little rumor once that you guys over there make a 6-cylinder car worthy of worship.
I finished 32nd in the time trial demo, so thinking I’ll make second round and that’s about it.
I was 19th so I’ll be in the same neighborhood.
lol. ^_^ know me?
I’m in Ohio so not far away from KY!
i want the racing seat…
I haz teh racing seat, but will take anudder 1
Good luck boys & girls, lets go NY!
+1
Also did anyone actually get an email confirmation yet? its been almost 24hrs and no email.
Been 48 hours for me and no confirmation email yet… Check your spam folder just in-case yours got caught. Mine hasn’t even hit spam. But, if you want to feel safe that your registration went through, try register again and it should tell you you’re already registered if everything went OK.
check your spam folder
Yea, check your spam folder. I just registered and that’s where I found the E-mail.
None for me either, spam folder or otherwise. Beginning to think I mis-spelled my email. About to do it again.
all registered up, Midwest is gonna own this. All the best drivers come from the Midwest. :)
thats only cause we got nothin else to do!
Registered here and added to the Southeast! The prizes seem good for a game competition. However, I’m still scratching my head about the round 2 prize of GT5 collector’s Edition. We have to own the game to enter and many of us (like myself) have the collector’s edition. Give us the Signature Edition please. XD
if i won a second free CE of GT5 i would never open it.
Some nice prizes there. Have fun US peeps and gl to all.
Dammit. When will they ever bring GT Academy to Central Africa? USA and Europe get all the luck. :D
I’ll bet that if they did bring it here I’d have a pretty good chance of winning at the very least the seat and wheel!
At least this gives us a time frame for the update that will introduce leaderboards
steve, you are one funny guy. xD
Sounds interesting, I might give it a shot with my DS3! lol
It’s to bad this is USA only because Canada and Mexico could steal alot of those seats in the final.
Yes, you’re right. Last year, the best North American was a Canadian (Gc_Under_01) and in top 20 it was almost 50/50. In Mexico, though, there was not a big big competition.
At least they realized they needed to change the name of the Academy as they ‘dissed’ Canada and Mexico by calling it the ‘North American’ GT Academy!
Already registered and ready to go. Region west, bring the heat!!!
West Region, Colorado Springs here! I won $24,000 in cash and prizes playing Forza 3, now myself and fellow TRC (Time Racing Club) members are going to take over GT5!
EU ?????????????????????????
Eu. Means Europe
@ trc. Your gonna have some still competion here mate. What’s you psn so I can add you and have few races against you
I believe TRC_Hunk will do just fine as will myself and some of the top forza guys that are making the switch.
@trc dirty. Won’t expect you lot not to do fine only a little bit of banter (joke) between froze guys and gt guy. Will add you on the psn and hope to race you 2 night then. See how good forza compares lol . I cam 152 on last gt academy so we should have a Laff. You got a wheel?
Yeah i’m using a wheel but its just the DFGT. I’m still kinda getting used to the difference in physics but IMO better.
Difference between Forza competition and GT competition is that real pro-simracers don’t even waste their time with games like Forza.They live in GT world (or PC sim-racing world).
Is there such a thing as real “pro sim racing” just saying. Hey what do you do for a living. Oh me i’m a real pro sim racer.
Damn, I’m 17, one year shy of 18.
Umm? Next year?
I love all the Forza guys coming in here thinking they are going to dominate. The number of serious/competitive racers who play Gran Turismo is a hell of a lot more than Forza. You’re in the big leagues now.. play time is over.
@Zmann I agree with your comment. Making the switch from Forza to GT5 is a huge challenge, but I’m up for it! Do I really think TRC will just come in and dominate? No. But I do think we will make a name for ourselves here. GL all!
I suppose you deserve some amount of credit for giving the GT series a shot.. I know you’ll enjoy it. Good luck on making the switch.
Cant wait to get these time trials on the road. Ill be south west and texas. Cant wait to see what those so called “forza elite” can do lol. Welcome to the driving simulator.
I am switching over from Forza as well (PpR). I know for a fact that the TRC and TDR guys are all fantastic racers and hot lappers. Yes the physics are a bit different, but that doesn’t matter. I’m fast in Forza, iRacing, and GT5. You can relearn the physics, you cant relearn talent and driving styles you don’t have to begin with. Skill shines through any game you play, even need for speed. hahah
HAHAHAH look at all these n00b FM racers, and the name TRC hahahaha thats so funny, whats that stand for Totally Rad Clan?
….Oh wait im in TRC, damn it think before you post V8 its not that hard!
I have not doubt in my mind at all that 90% of TRC members can handle there own and dominate the boards if intended, as for a 1 off tournament AJ da sick azz Boy will Dominate with or without previous GT games under his belt.
Talent is talent dont mater what game your playing.
Good Luck everyone from the States.
AJ is sick. He and I had a hell of a battle in week 1 of the hyundai challenge. If i remember coreectly the time difference was like .01? something. Hope he’s enjoying that arcade cabinet while i’m stuck with my stupid leather chair.
No love for Canada …
yah that was one helluva battle jersey! i remember that at the last minute u edged me by .006, then i came back and edged u by .006, before eventually winning by merely a couple hundredths. they never sent me an arcade cabinet, they sent me a check for $2,000 instead. =D