Question Time: Esports | What Makes a Good Event?

[Will Mazeo]

Hows that different from real racing though? ok, maybe real drivers not exploiting physics flaws, but they surely exploit flaws of rules, because it would be stupid not to.
It's inevitable imo.

This is the kind of comment that makes me dislike the e"sports" thing even more, holy batman... I better not continue or I'll get banned

 

[KittX]

This is the kind of comment that makes me dislike the e"sports" thing even more, holy batman... I better not continue or I'll get banned

Don't get me wrong, there are many things that makes me dislike esports too, but how's Mark Donohue's Camaro or Brabham BT49C became glorified beloved things, being same old exploitation of rules?
Things with cutting corners etc - well, it's just a matter of track limits update. You roll out a small patch, and people will stop cutting.

 

[Ghoults]

You're kidding, right? A real race track, enormous structure, roaring sounds, real drivers instead of unemployed nerds, NASA tech cars, smell of fuel and rubber... In other hand we have a random guy with his face shove in a 20" monitor exploiting the physics flaws of a bad video game.

A single kick in real football ball in a friendly game in my neighbourhood worths 1000 EA Sports FIFA 2019 virtual matches.

Nobody uses 20" monitors anymore.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Nobody uses 20" monitors anymore.

What What?
My 20WGX2 dont like such a comment
Now it threatens me with a black screen

 

[PickABetterUsername01]

If the game doesn't offer a good competition within it's multiplayer format itself, nobody will give any attention to esport at all, period. So first, the game needs to offer a pretty good multiplayer structure, that's the basic.

And for those participating, money, that's all.

 

[Sky]

one that doesn't use gran turismo

 

[CrimsonEminence]

one that doesn't use gran turismo

In my opinion, the GT eSports are the only one, with some kind of personality. I can remember 4 names of good drivers right from the start, when i think of this series. No other series in racing games does that for me.^^ The GT races are pretty fun to watch, too...

 

[Enagee]

Having prominent names endorsement is helping a lot .... Norris, Verstapen, David perel, Nicki Thiim... Hope we have more online only sims.

 

[FernandoAFM]

One answer?

SimPossible Racing League on iRacing - 18 physically disabled drivers competing for the xFinity and Monster Energy titles. Our season just ended, but we kick off again in February, following the NASCAR schedule. All live on 3WideTV on YouTube.

I believe we are the first competitive sim racing league for disabled folks. And we are all really good friends.

For the non-disabled folks, we are always looking for crew chiefs, spotters, painters, team owners or anyone who wants to help drivers practice before our races.

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

Oh Jesus, here we go.

The game itself needs to be free of exploits and eSports ready. For example, for the first year of GT Sport's lifespan, you could put a piece of cardboard inside your brake pedal to activate the game's ABS. The way the ABS was coded, it gave you a small speed boost on straightaways if you had it only lightly flicker, which means every single eSports event until this issue was fixed, was potentially illegitimate and basically full of cheaters. In the sim racing realm, stuff like iRacing's camber exploit, or R3E's zero wing exploit, turns everything into a game of what jobless loser sat at home trying to break the game in ways developers didn't intend. This isn't eSports ready.

The qualifying process needs to not focus on infinite attempt autistic hotlapping marathons. Lewis Hamilton does not have 999 backup cars and two weeks to set a qualifying time for the Abu Dhabi GP, sim racers shouldn't either. When you put so much focus on hotlapping, it results in people who have no idea how to race among each other. Case in point, in R3E we did a Nurburgring 2.4 hour race during the summer, and the guy who set a blistering 8:07 in the seeding phase ended up wrecking out turn 1 lap 1 and was a non-factor throughout the entire event. Same thing happened in R3E's touring car finals during the '19 ADAC sim racing expo. Hotlappers who wrecked the piss out of each other when it came time for the actual race. Boring.

Devs need to relax and allow sim racers to be themselves. If they want to bash the game or goof off during interviews, let them. These psychotic, cultist-tier bans a handful of devs are notorious for throwing out for any little reason not directly related to pedophilia, pornography, malicious links, or outright spam need to stop.

eSports teams need to relax and not force sim racers to commit social suicide by encouraging them to LARP as real race car drivers on twitter. Seriously, you don't need fake press releases for a fake race team. This stuff is cringey and annoying and I feel bad for these kids who aren't actually making money and have to explain to their tinder matches that they're not a real race car driver. Example:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1197946557582237696

eSports tournaments should be something you apply for and are accepted into, and not something you merely qualify for. Racing is a show first and foremost. A bunch of Finnish nerds with zero personality and no ability to drive alongside each other because all they did prior to the event was hotlap for a month, doesn't even remotely make for a compelling show.

 

[CrimsonEminence]

The qualifying process needs to not focus on infinite attempt autistic hotlapping marathons.

This!

So often, it is the case, that hotlapping abilities are confused with racecraft in general.

 

[KittX]

oh and by the way, why is the name-calling for eSport drivers is so accepted here?
Calling someone an unemployed loser is just such a cheap and cheesy virtue-signalling and the way to promote your idea/opinion.
How is it any better than what the rest of people say about us simracers in general? Like those two TV blokes calling a certain simracer a loser for doing just what we do? "Go drive a real car" is usual argument of those people. It's just so cheap.
Meanwhile, the eSport racers get invited to Monaco, and most of them are still kids! while we spend thousands of dollars on sim equipment that we invest 1% of our lifetime into. Makes you check twice who is a loser here.

 

[CrimsonEminence]

oh and by the way, why is the name-calling for eSport drivers is so accepted here?
Calling someone an unemployed loser is just such a cheap and cheesy virtue-signalling and the way to promote your idea/opinion.
How is it any better than what the rest of people say about us simracers in general? Like those two TV blokes calling a certain simracer a loser for doing just what we do? "Go drive a real car" is usual argument of those people. It's just so cheap.
Meanwhile, the eSport racers get invited to Monaco, and most of them are still kids! while we spend thousands of dollars on sim equipment that we invest 1% of our lifetime into. Makes you check twice who is a loser here.

Fair enough.^^ But on the other hand, these recent GT-Sport drivers aren't the "typical" exploitism Alien, that was meant with it, i think.

But i have to say, i use equipment for music and simracing purposes for more, than 1% of my lifetime, i'm pretty sure about that. I'm happy to be privileged, to be in that position to be a loser, shoving my head into a 28" screen, playing pretend race car, or moving air with a big speaker in a guitar amp.

 

[BrunoBæ]

So often, it is the case, that hotlapping abilities are confused with racecraft in general.

Actually I was virtually killed in iRacings forum when I a few years back proposed that before you was allowed to enter an official race you had to prove that you was able to drive both fast and safe by earning a reasonable position on iRacings Time Trial competition on the track scheduled for the race.
Because in TT you have to be able to run a sequence of 4-6 laps on a track without errors.
Most of the experienced drivers had no complaints but several of the 1st corner heroes wanted to know my RL adress.

A Time Trial is a competition between you and the clock (and everyone else and the clock!) You are on track alone and must try to record the fastest sequence of laps without spinning, going off the track, or having contact with a barrier. Any such incident will invalidate your current lap sequence, and you will need to complete another full sequence in order to better your time. The Time Trial time is your average lap time for your best sequence of laps in the session. The number of laps in a full sequence varies from track to track, or from configuration to configuration..

 

[CrimsonEminence]

Actually I was virtually killed in iRacings forum when I a few years back proposed that before you was allowed to enter an official race you had to prove that you was able to drive both fast and safe by earning a reasonable position on iRacings Time Trial competition on the track scheduled for the race.
Because in TT you have to be able to run a sequence of 4-6 laps on a track without errors.
Most of the experienced drivers had no complaints but several of the 1st corner heroes wanted to know my RL adress.

This is one thing. Yeah.
But also THIS is more hotlapping ability, than actual racecraft. Safety on track, without leaving it, or making accidents is as important, as being able to choose defending lines or looking "through" the car in front from time to time, to keep and adapt your braking to the pack, fighting doorhandle to doorhandle and don't try to rear-end somebody T1.

 

[Mr Deap]

I'll never understand what's the fun on watching other people playing video games. There is even people who pay money to watch this when they have the very same game in their PCs to play themselves.

Yeah, I watched @Austin Ogonoski stream for like 2min. He got real simracing talent, but almost no view & support for some reason.

Technically he should get a sick amount of views based on his skill. Some get a lot of views, because of social media trickery pushed by trolls.

Not watching any video or play a sick amount of videogame is impossible to get good at simracing. I smell lie.

 

[BrunoBæ]

@crimson
Fully agree with that.
But first come first.
I mean if you are not able to drive a sequence of 4-6 laps with a reasonable speed without crashing your car when you are on the track ALONE - then I guess that you dont have to bother with finesses like:

to keep and adapt your braking to the pack, fighting doorhandle to doorhandle and don't try to rear-end somebody T1.

Right?

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: My qualified guess is that exactly the lack of this TT racecraft was the reason our 1st corner heroes wanted my RL adress

 

[PickABetterUsername01]

I'll never understand what's the fun on watching other people playing video games. There is even people who pay money to watch this when they have the very same game in their PCs to play themselves.

Yea, I will never understand why people watch football when they have the same ball as the guys have, just go out and play it yourself.

 

[Amanda]

Case in point, in R3E we did a Nurburgring 2.4 hour race during the summer, and the guy who set a blistering 8:07 in the seeding phase ended up wrecking out turn 1 lap 1 and was a non-factor throughout the entire event

Wasn't that the Brazilian driver who got spun out on the first corner, lost like 20 positions, and the proceeded to win the race (or got 2nd place, can't remember)?