sugarvalves [1963573] —
Original article
In the late edition of the Winter Newsletter, we promoted several player-run competitions in an effort to inspire others to join those mentioned and also create their own. But be warned, for organising such contests can often be a thankless task. In this, our special competitions feature, we are going to investigate how two events, the Professional Racing Championships and the Battle of the Brains, have both come under scrutiny due to various shenanigans. We shall start with the PRC, where viewer discretion is advised due to the presence of a cute baby picture.
The PRC: George, Bob or Bust?
At the beginning of this year, I published a rundown of the Professional Racing Championships finalé which could only have been improved through the inclusion of quotes from its organiser, GeorgeCostanza. Sadly, Mr Costanza was busy tending to his newly spawned offspring at the time, so we've had to wait a whole fortnight to hear his thoughts. But now, without further ado, let us explore the competition a little further as we delve into George's mind, explore an on-going poll, and find out what the future holds for the PRC.
"Honestly, I feel great about the first PRC I ran, especially since I didn't really prepare or plan to do this I was nervous I may run into some unforeseen surprises or problems which didn't really seem to happen. I was able to get every race set and filled and not one person missed their race (until Bob's Burnouts)."
For anyone who did not follow the story, GeorgeCostanza stepped in to run the PRC in the place of its founder, BackAlleyBob, after he cancelled the championships citing an in-game feud and real-life events as his reasons. The PRC was well-liked amongst the racing community, and it was a relief to everyone when George announced he was willing to organise the championships in Bob's stead.
A relief to everyone, bar one man. BackAlleyBob.
"I'm not sure I see things with Bob ever being resolved, I got literally daily hate messages from him some of which I sent to you and others to see if maybe I was over-reading things or just plain missing something. Eventually I posted some of them on the forum to allow some insight into what was going on behind and the scenes and perhaps give Bob a wake-up call on how he was acting, but nothing worked and they kept coming, both publicly and privately."
"Although I never want anyone to go through any sort of break-down or any sort of mental collapse, he should know that the way he acted reduces awareness and understanding for people going through such things. People should know this community is great and will be there for people going through such things, but it's a two way street and people will only try so hard to help and be kind until they just no longer can."
On the surface, it seemed Bob had taken umbrage at what he perceived as George's failure to adhere to his rules and format. Few could scarcely believe how Bob was behaving, especially considering he'd cancelled the PRC due his own complaints of unfair treatment at the hands of others. Eventually, I felt compelled to intervene, and in recent weeks I have made it clear that a Bob-run PRC will not continue to be sponsored if he fails to change his behaviour.
Pictured: The least erotic result for "over the knee spanking" which I could find with safesearch turned on.
What I did not know was that George and Bob had some prior history.
"I have interacted with Bob 4 times in my life in Torn, he was my first (and really only) buy-mug, I bought a DP from his bazaar when he was around 300 days old, and then my 2nd interaction was near a year later when we discussed this and I reimbursed the mugged amount, I'm not a fan of buy-mugging and I tried to make amends with him and fix my wrong-doing."
"The 3rd was when he joined my wife's company and then quickly quit within a few hours - when she questioned him about this (as she fired someone to hire him) he went on a verbal rampage to the point where she woke me up to see if I knew what was going on. Turns out it was a case of mistaken identity and he thought I had changed my name to Squire - we both share the same profile picture - my wife and I were able to laugh it off and thought we had all moved on amicably."
The most recent interaction between the pair took place during the summer PRC, when George thanked Bob for running the competition in which he was a finalist. But it seems that Bob has not been able to forgive or forget his disagreements with George so easily. It is therefore understandable why Bob might be angrier than he has cause to be, given that a player he has issues with has taken over his competition.
Imagine if the roles were reversed. One day in the future when GeorgeCostanza's daughter is a little older, perhaps he won't have time to take her to the park because he's too busy organising the 2023 Winter PRC. So little GeorginaCostanza pops on down to play by herself, with daddy promising to join her later once he'd finished. But when he arrives, who does he find pushing his little girl on the swings? None other than BackAlleyBob. And not only is he pushing her, but he's pushing her higher than she's ever been before, using an unorthodox swinging technique which George completely disagrees with.
Pictured: A heartless bitch who'd let anyone push her so long as she gets high enough.
George would be furious at this turn of events, but one imagines that his love for his daughter would be so much that he'd be reluctantly happy to see her enjoying being swung by his arch-nemesis. Similarly, Bob's love for the PRC should have resulted in gratitude towards GeorgeCostanza for his incredible efforts in sustaining the competition. Unfortunately, this hasn't been the case, and nor has Bob offered George so much as an apology.
Bob has attempted to reach out to everyone in the community, myself included, in an effort to make amends for his actions. Everyone, it seems, bar GeorgeCostanza, the one man who he should be more grateful to than anyone else. In a private message to me on Saturday, Bob elaborated on why he chose to do this.
"I thought hard on an apology...and I decided I only owe it to you and Ched. Let the city tear my up...I don't care anymore. Just know I am sorry and that I have what it takes to do this. I PROMISE you! But...I have left it to the people to decide."
It seems a simple enough task to complete, an apology, yet Bob remains reluctant to offer up such a gesture. If he cannot bring himself to utter the words 'Sorry George', then might Bob be similarly stubborn in the face of future requests from myself and the authorities regarding the PRC? What if I want Bob to rename the Speedway rounds in honour of Sharpmid, who similarly goes round in circles trying to make a non-existent point? I don't know why I'd request such a thing, but I might. Would Bob refuse?
In lieu of an apology, George has been offered a role alongside Bob in organising the Summer PRC. At first, this may seem like an olive branch of sorts. But this branch, being mostly comprised of a brown coloured stick, is covered in something else brown and sticky. Unsurprisingly, George is none too keen to take up this position given how Bob has acted thus far.
"I have no interest in interacting or engaging with him, and don't really see myself responding to him in the future, he's burned that bridge just one too many times in the past month. Running a competition with him? No, sounds horrid. Would I consider running another PRC or PRC-style event? Sure. But it's a long way off from June when the next event will run and I have no idea what I'll be doing or how busy I will be."
"One thing is for sure, if I'm unable to adequately run the event I will of course step aside and not have the event suffer from my life (firm believer Real Life > Torn), and there are many willing and eager players who would step up and do a great job with it I'm sure."
So who should run the next PRC? George? Bob? Bernie Ecclestone? A horse in velour shorts? The answer to this lies within the hearts and minds of you, the good people of Torn, for in Bob's apology thread he has included a poll. In said poll, the options offered are the following:
(1) Bob runs the PRC
(2) Someone else runs the PRC
(3) Bob and George should run the PRC together
(4) Who gives a crap?
Those who are serious about this competition should avoid option three, as there seems no prospect of this happening anytime soon - a vote for option four would prove more useful. Therefore, it seems the poll provides us with a simple choice between two options: Bobyes or Bobless.
I would encourage the public to vote on this matter in order to help us direct our future efforts. At present, the choice is not obvious. This is without a doubt Bob's competition, and his hard work and dedication mean he retains the support of many amongst the community. His rules, whether you agree with them or not, make the PRC uniquely attractive to players outside the traditional racing community, with gamblers and sponsors both drawn into taking part. However, Bob's volatile personality and seeming inability to take instruction are huge black marks against his suitability.
George, on the other hand, has proven a more than worthy replacement for Bob, and one wonders what he would have done this winter were his hands not tied by umbilical cord. George performed an outstanding job, seeing the event through to its conclusion on Christmas Eve, despite the looming presence of a child-shaped tornado on the horizon. Although these outside commitments meant he wasn't able to replicate Bob's meticulously detailed approach, George put in far more effort than anyone expected, and his work was thoroughly appreciated by both racers and staff alike.
The problem is, George is unsure whether he'll be in a position to run the event come June - right now, he's focused on trying to catch that final letter of the alphabet which has proven so elusive.
"It's a long way out even without a kid would be hard to commit, but definitely with one who knows what tomorrow may hold nevermind June - just hopefully some solid sleep."
We wish George well in his attempts to enter the land of slumber, and we eagerly await the community's response to BackAlleyBob's poll to finally put this issue to rest. In the meantime, whoever takes charge of the PRC would do well to read George's thoughts on this past competition, which have been provided for you below in the form of a hot series of quotes.
"Before mailing Chedburn to find out if I could run the event I inform my wife (Squire) of my intentions, there was no point in trying to undertake this competition if I did not have her support and understanding I would really need to be on multiple times a day. She, like the saint she is, welcomed me to take on the competition and graciously was my first donor of the event, which was why the Showdown was dubbed Squire's Showdown - none of this would have happened if not for her."
"She kept up with the happenings the whole way through (whether she wanted to or not) and went through all of the Bob drama with me, even informing me of new postings and slanders in the thread. Even through Christmas and days before the birth of our daughter my wife was supportive and understanding, and allowed me the time on Torn I needed to successfully run this competition. I can't imagine trying to do all of this in secret and it was much more fun being able to share it all with her every step of the way."
Until now, I was unaware of just how much Squire had been involved in supporting George's efforts. Our collective thanks must, therefore, go to Squire for helping George run an imaginary racing competition during which time she may have had other more pressing matters to attend to. Or perhaps we're being too harsh on ourselves? Perhaps the stress of the PRC and BackAlleyBob's comments acted as some form of distractive pain relief - like kicking someone in the nuts to help them forget about a headache - and our little competition's drama helped ease the arrival of George and Squire's child into the world.
Probably not, but you never know.
The commitment George and Squire have shown to Torn City is beyond question, and regardless of whether they are involved in the PRC's future, their efforts will not be forgotten. George told me how he was on his phone for ten to fifteen minutes every day while his daughter's arrival was imminent, taking time out from his life to arrange prizes, final postings, and graphic medals. He admits this situation was hardly ideal, but with the support of the racers firmly on his side, any effort expended was always greatly appreciated.
"Sometimes I was unable to stay up or be near a computer to screenshot and upload the results which I could tell was tough for those who wanted to see how each race went, but with the long join windows it was tough. This is something that I would suggest be fiddled with to find a good balance of large join windows and reasonable start/end times...To be completely honest, it went better than expected and that was in large part due to the the support and response I got from the community at large."
"Unfortunately due to the timing of Squire's Showdown I was unable to watch it live like I had done with the qualifiers and some other racers, between the holidays and baby prep it was all I could do to make sure races were set, racers were informed, and results were recorded. Fortunately some of the racers gave great lap-by-lap details and it certainly seemed to be a real nail biter!"
Indeed it was. The whole competition was riddled with more drama, upsets and shocks than a romantic evening spent bathing with a toaster. We saw experienced drivers crash out early while young upstarts battled through to the later rounds. While this turn of events may have been a surprise to some, George seemed to think that such an outcome was always on the cards.
"With the format of the races taking the order of qualifying some of the highest DS qualified first and then raced against each other, leaving some of the lower DS to qualify last and race each other - it gave some opportunity for lower DS to make it far in the competition. This was different from a typical 'playoff' system where the top seed goes against the lowest seed giving benefit to the higher ranked player."
George believes that an alteration into this format is something worth looking into, as while the current approach is simple and easy to understand, it does seem rather odd that drivers are forced to race against the same opponents in the heats as they faced in qualifying. However, the drama created by this setup cannot be denied, and one would hope any future competitions bear this in mind, since the extra opportunity for surprise afforded by a short 20 lap race is one of the reasons why the PRC was and is so popular.
"It [20 lap races] really shows how random some results can be and I actually really like it, as a community event you want a large group of people to participate and this allowed a very large and diverse racing crowd to take part. One of my goals and I believe a core goal of the PRC is to encourage racing and give people more of a reason to keep racing and getting better aside from the 2 merits."
"I am glad to say that this goal has been accomplished as I had people join and qualify that would've bet their first born they wouldn't finish in the top 50 as well as others who have reached out to find out when the next PRC is to see how long they have to raise their driver skill for a chance at their own Bugatti."
The key to establishing a competitive, entertaining and respected competition is finding that balance between luck and ability. I feel the Winter PRC had this balance nailed harder than Jesus' limbs, as it rewarded not only those with a high skill level but also those drivers who displayed knowledge of the tracks, cars, and setups required. George expands on this below, and also offers his thoughts on potential changes for the future.
"I like the way racing can be random, but reflexive of effort. What I mean by that is you need to figure out the type of track and pick the right car, typically each track has only a few optimal choices. Then you need to get the upgrades just right, balancing dirt/tarmac, long/short, and in some cases turbo 2 or 3. Of course driver skill will play a roll, but on a 1 race basis as long as you can figure out the first two choices correctly, really anything can happen."
"One thing that was asked and contemplated was if there were even more hidden modifiers at work, I don't believe there are, but if racing could be tweaked, updated, or overhauled it would be great to include. Things like how many times you've raced certain tracks - plenty binge 100 lap races on Parkland and Docks and would have great experience there, but that may not give you the leg up on Speedway, Mudpit, or other tracks. Plenty of people solely do 100 lap races, so they are great at the long-term races, but what about those that do official or 20 lap races, perhaps there could be benefit to racing at particular lengths as well."
I can confirm that it is unlikely major changes will be made to racing in the near future, with plenty of other projects frothing at the guts and drawing our attention at present. However, I do know that the prospect of allowing spectating is something we are looking at, and when the time is right, I do hope to make a case for new races or cars to be introduced too. But all of this effort depends entirely on the continued success of player-run competitions like the PRC. We hope this situation resolves itself at some point in the near future so we can concentrate on supporting the community's efforts with grand prizes and brilliantly written articles like the one you're currently enjoying.
Pictured: The Torn City Times is read by attractive people, like you!
So with positivity in mind, let us praise BackAlleyBob for setting up a competition that has entertained so many people. Bob, you are an organisational tour de force, you are better than the comments you have made, and you have it in you to apologise to a man whose wife was thinking about your comments while she was preparing to push a human out of her body.
I shall leave the final words on this to GeorgeCostanza once more, as he reflects back on the legacy of BackAlleyBob, the response George has had from the community and the arrival of his baby girl.
"I really want it known how much I commended BackAlleyBob for not only starting the PRC but for growing it to the point where Ched was comfortable to release a one-of-a-kind item as a prize, this is a very large accomplishment. I know in our early conversations I made it clear to you how much I appreciated everything and that I was grateful for all his hard work and saddened by the way the whole blew up and he was left in a hole of sadness, anger, and depression."
"Baby was born December 27th, and is a BEAUTIFUL, happy and healthy girl (we'll call her Soybean for Torn purposes). I had penciled out the dates the event would cover and with 1 race per day I knew it would end right at Christmas, luckily my wife was able to hold out to her due date so everything lined up, but the end of the event was quite hectic for me and I wasn't able to be as involved or as entertaining as I would have liked."
"But I would like to share a picture with every one who shared a kind word, a best-of-luck, or even a 'who let you touch them' since I had announced the good news in my Mr. Torn submission. This is a great community, and every single kind regard meant the world to me and my wife, so truly thank you to each and every one of you. So until next time, enjoy this little cutie."
Pictured: The sickening consequence of romantic love.
In honour of GeorgeCostanza, Squire and the impending death of their social lives, the next PRC will see $100million awarded to the finest young racer of the competition; one who has achieved results above and beyond their supposed level. This award will be given retrospectively to Buiiet, and shall be known henceforth as The Soybean Award.
Drama Ensues as Battling Brains Turn on Each Other
Have you ever seen a brain fight another brain? I have. It is not a pretty sight.
Another player run competition which came to an end recently was the fifth edition of Battle of the Brains, which was administrated by Tarun, sponsored by Kuber and won by _Rome_, who took home $100million TCT worth of items after being the only player to reach the final round. Well done poindexter.
Pictured: Now let's gang up and steal this nark's lunch money.
Out of the thirteen players to participate in the Fourth Tier, only _Rome_ managed to solve the final question before hints were provided. This meant that there were no runner-up prizes awarded, with the $50million-valued prize for second and $25million for third going unclaimed, and the seven runners-up given the alternative title of Complimentary Winners along with a $10-15million-valued prize.
A further prize worth $4million was handed over to five players described as Hard Faught, which I think was supposed to read fought, and this would not be the first nor the last time a mistake like this was made. Thanks to a grammatical error the BOB event was not without its controversies, with the Third Tier of the contest overshadowed due to a wording problem in the penultimate round's question statement.
Up until then, the competition had gone relatively smoothly. Battle of the Brains, having been organised and moderated by Tarun, Anjan_002, Bablu and Dark_Lordz, attracted 56 players who each paid $808,000 or 101 beers to enter. Upon the start of the contest, entrants were greeted with the following question:
The answer to this question was 74658, a figure which 12 players were unable to squanch their brains into deducing. In total, thirteen players departed the competition after the first question with one additional player rendered unable to compete due to the unfortunate act of being sent to Federal Jail like a wazzock. Thus, the Second Tier opened up on the 7th of January with the following coconut-based query:
The answer to this question was 6, which coincidentally also stumped six players who were driven coco-nuts by this puzzle. But worse was yet to come, as most of the remaining 37 players were left completely baffled by the way January 8th's Third Tier question was phrased.
Tarun's broken English made this question hard to decipher at first, but after a couple of readthroughs, it eventually makes sense. However, it later transpired that there were two answers to this question - 11 and 12 - but the BOB team only wanted one of them. This isn't really a fair way to run a competition, and competitor DeaconLynch took the team to task over this having offered up 11 as his answer, only to be marked as disqualified. Tarun described the situation as follows:
"The 3rd Tier was one of the most controversial tiers in the competition's history due to wording problem, difficulty level. Most of the 37 competitors did not understand the question. The BOB staff´s decision was creating the Tier 3B, which made the Tier 3A neutral."
Tier Three, also known as Tier Three-A, was therefore replaced with Tier Three-B, which asked the following question on the 10th of January:
Due to the controversy in the previous round, all of those who made it to Tier 3 were allowed to respond regardless of whether they had answered Tier 3A correctly. Notable critics were graciously permitted to remain in the competition. This time, the answer was 1098.5, and 24 players fell at this hurdle leaving just 13 entrants remaining.
With the controversy over and done with, Tier Four arrived on the 11th of January to pose the following problem:
This time the wording of the question was clear and concise, and the answer to this was 595, with _Rome_ being the only player to send the correct answer before any hints were given. In return, he was handed a Goodie Bag, four Feathery Hotel Coupons, a Poison Mistletoe and 35 Smoke Grenades. These prizes are well deserved; not just for solving the questions, but for being able to figure out what the previous rounds' questions were asking in the first place.
Those who secured "Complimentary Winner" status were Scamlife, SKG, blackacidblood, Mark_Anthony, WhyUWasteUrTime, Drewsh3 and MEHmichael. The Hard Fought players were named as -Kazul-, Chris_, Fear, TxGemini and vader54. Congratulations to all of those who placed in this contest, and further congratulations to the organisers for setting this up. We may have made fun of your badly worded questions, but the ability to organise a competition as complicated as this in a second language is no small task - most people in Torn can't speak their own language let alone the tongue of another.
This Battle of the Brains competition certainly has its merits and clearly has a dedicated following, but work must be done to clarify the wording of the questions and the rules regarding methodology. It is apparent to all that the BOB team put in a lot of effort here, so it would be a shame to see this all undone thanks to a few elementary mistakes. The next competition is due to start at the beginning of February and will be sponsored by CapturerHulkMad. Hopefully, by then the kinks will have been ironed out of this contest's shirt, and it will look presentable and ready to meet its girlfriend's parents.
Because the last thing Torn needs is yet another controversial competition for people to argue over.
The PRC: George, Bob or Bust?
At the beginning of this year, I published a rundown of the Professional Racing Championships finalé which could only have been improved through the inclusion of quotes from its organiser, GeorgeCostanza. Sadly, Mr Costanza was busy tending to his newly spawned offspring at the time, so we've had to wait a whole fortnight to hear his thoughts. But now, without further ado, let us explore the competition a little further as we delve into George's mind, explore an on-going poll, and find out what the future holds for the PRC.
"Honestly, I feel great about the first PRC I ran, especially since I didn't really prepare or plan to do this I was nervous I may run into some unforeseen surprises or problems which didn't really seem to happen. I was able to get every race set and filled and not one person missed their race (until Bob's Burnouts)."
For anyone who did not follow the story, GeorgeCostanza stepped in to run the PRC in the place of its founder, BackAlleyBob, after he cancelled the championships citing an in-game feud and real-life events as his reasons. The PRC was well-liked amongst the racing community, and it was a relief to everyone when George announced he was willing to organise the championships in Bob's stead.
A relief to everyone, bar one man. BackAlleyBob.
"I'm not sure I see things with Bob ever being resolved, I got literally daily hate messages from him some of which I sent to you and others to see if maybe I was over-reading things or just plain missing something. Eventually I posted some of them on the forum to allow some insight into what was going on behind and the scenes and perhaps give Bob a wake-up call on how he was acting, but nothing worked and they kept coming, both publicly and privately."
"Although I never want anyone to go through any sort of break-down or any sort of mental collapse, he should know that the way he acted reduces awareness and understanding for people going through such things. People should know this community is great and will be there for people going through such things, but it's a two way street and people will only try so hard to help and be kind until they just no longer can."
On the surface, it seemed Bob had taken umbrage at what he perceived as George's failure to adhere to his rules and format. Few could scarcely believe how Bob was behaving, especially considering he'd cancelled the PRC due his own complaints of unfair treatment at the hands of others. Eventually, I felt compelled to intervene, and in recent weeks I have made it clear that a Bob-run PRC will not continue to be sponsored if he fails to change his behaviour.
Pictured: The least erotic result for "over the knee spanking" which I could find with safesearch turned on.
What I did not know was that George and Bob had some prior history.
"I have interacted with Bob 4 times in my life in Torn, he was my first (and really only) buy-mug, I bought a DP from his bazaar when he was around 300 days old, and then my 2nd interaction was near a year later when we discussed this and I reimbursed the mugged amount, I'm not a fan of buy-mugging and I tried to make amends with him and fix my wrong-doing."
"The 3rd was when he joined my wife's company and then quickly quit within a few hours - when she questioned him about this (as she fired someone to hire him) he went on a verbal rampage to the point where she woke me up to see if I knew what was going on. Turns out it was a case of mistaken identity and he thought I had changed my name to Squire - we both share the same profile picture - my wife and I were able to laugh it off and thought we had all moved on amicably."
The most recent interaction between the pair took place during the summer PRC, when George thanked Bob for running the competition in which he was a finalist. But it seems that Bob has not been able to forgive or forget his disagreements with George so easily. It is therefore understandable why Bob might be angrier than he has cause to be, given that a player he has issues with has taken over his competition.
Imagine if the roles were reversed. One day in the future when GeorgeCostanza's daughter is a little older, perhaps he won't have time to take her to the park because he's too busy organising the 2023 Winter PRC. So little GeorginaCostanza pops on down to play by herself, with daddy promising to join her later once he'd finished. But when he arrives, who does he find pushing his little girl on the swings? None other than BackAlleyBob. And not only is he pushing her, but he's pushing her higher than she's ever been before, using an unorthodox swinging technique which George completely disagrees with.
Pictured: A heartless bitch who'd let anyone push her so long as she gets high enough.
George would be furious at this turn of events, but one imagines that his love for his daughter would be so much that he'd be reluctantly happy to see her enjoying being swung by his arch-nemesis. Similarly, Bob's love for the PRC should have resulted in gratitude towards GeorgeCostanza for his incredible efforts in sustaining the competition. Unfortunately, this hasn't been the case, and nor has Bob offered George so much as an apology.
Bob has attempted to reach out to everyone in the community, myself included, in an effort to make amends for his actions. Everyone, it seems, bar GeorgeCostanza, the one man who he should be more grateful to than anyone else. In a private message to me on Saturday, Bob elaborated on why he chose to do this.
"I thought hard on an apology...and I decided I only owe it to you and Ched. Let the city tear my up...I don't care anymore. Just know I am sorry and that I have what it takes to do this. I PROMISE you! But...I have left it to the people to decide."
It seems a simple enough task to complete, an apology, yet Bob remains reluctant to offer up such a gesture. If he cannot bring himself to utter the words 'Sorry George', then might Bob be similarly stubborn in the face of future requests from myself and the authorities regarding the PRC? What if I want Bob to rename the Speedway rounds in honour of Sharpmid, who similarly goes round in circles trying to make a non-existent point? I don't know why I'd request such a thing, but I might. Would Bob refuse?
In lieu of an apology, George has been offered a role alongside Bob in organising the Summer PRC. At first, this may seem like an olive branch of sorts. But this branch, being mostly comprised of a brown coloured stick, is covered in something else brown and sticky. Unsurprisingly, George is none too keen to take up this position given how Bob has acted thus far.
"I have no interest in interacting or engaging with him, and don't really see myself responding to him in the future, he's burned that bridge just one too many times in the past month. Running a competition with him? No, sounds horrid. Would I consider running another PRC or PRC-style event? Sure. But it's a long way off from June when the next event will run and I have no idea what I'll be doing or how busy I will be."
"One thing is for sure, if I'm unable to adequately run the event I will of course step aside and not have the event suffer from my life (firm believer Real Life > Torn), and there are many willing and eager players who would step up and do a great job with it I'm sure."
So who should run the next PRC? George? Bob? Bernie Ecclestone? A horse in velour shorts? The answer to this lies within the hearts and minds of you, the good people of Torn, for in Bob's apology thread he has included a poll. In said poll, the options offered are the following:
(1) Bob runs the PRC
(2) Someone else runs the PRC
(3) Bob and George should run the PRC together
(4) Who gives a crap?
Those who are serious about this competition should avoid option three, as there seems no prospect of this happening anytime soon - a vote for option four would prove more useful. Therefore, it seems the poll provides us with a simple choice between two options: Bobyes or Bobless.
I would encourage the public to vote on this matter in order to help us direct our future efforts. At present, the choice is not obvious. This is without a doubt Bob's competition, and his hard work and dedication mean he retains the support of many amongst the community. His rules, whether you agree with them or not, make the PRC uniquely attractive to players outside the traditional racing community, with gamblers and sponsors both drawn into taking part. However, Bob's volatile personality and seeming inability to take instruction are huge black marks against his suitability.
George, on the other hand, has proven a more than worthy replacement for Bob, and one wonders what he would have done this winter were his hands not tied by umbilical cord. George performed an outstanding job, seeing the event through to its conclusion on Christmas Eve, despite the looming presence of a child-shaped tornado on the horizon. Although these outside commitments meant he wasn't able to replicate Bob's meticulously detailed approach, George put in far more effort than anyone expected, and his work was thoroughly appreciated by both racers and staff alike.
The problem is, George is unsure whether he'll be in a position to run the event come June - right now, he's focused on trying to catch that final letter of the alphabet which has proven so elusive.
"It's a long way out even without a kid would be hard to commit, but definitely with one who knows what tomorrow may hold nevermind June - just hopefully some solid sleep."
We wish George well in his attempts to enter the land of slumber, and we eagerly await the community's response to BackAlleyBob's poll to finally put this issue to rest. In the meantime, whoever takes charge of the PRC would do well to read George's thoughts on this past competition, which have been provided for you below in the form of a hot series of quotes.
"Before mailing Chedburn to find out if I could run the event I inform my wife (Squire) of my intentions, there was no point in trying to undertake this competition if I did not have her support and understanding I would really need to be on multiple times a day. She, like the saint she is, welcomed me to take on the competition and graciously was my first donor of the event, which was why the Showdown was dubbed Squire's Showdown - none of this would have happened if not for her."
"She kept up with the happenings the whole way through (whether she wanted to or not) and went through all of the Bob drama with me, even informing me of new postings and slanders in the thread. Even through Christmas and days before the birth of our daughter my wife was supportive and understanding, and allowed me the time on Torn I needed to successfully run this competition. I can't imagine trying to do all of this in secret and it was much more fun being able to share it all with her every step of the way."
Until now, I was unaware of just how much Squire had been involved in supporting George's efforts. Our collective thanks must, therefore, go to Squire for helping George run an imaginary racing competition during which time she may have had other more pressing matters to attend to. Or perhaps we're being too harsh on ourselves? Perhaps the stress of the PRC and BackAlleyBob's comments acted as some form of distractive pain relief - like kicking someone in the nuts to help them forget about a headache - and our little competition's drama helped ease the arrival of George and Squire's child into the world.
Probably not, but you never know.
The commitment George and Squire have shown to Torn City is beyond question, and regardless of whether they are involved in the PRC's future, their efforts will not be forgotten. George told me how he was on his phone for ten to fifteen minutes every day while his daughter's arrival was imminent, taking time out from his life to arrange prizes, final postings, and graphic medals. He admits this situation was hardly ideal, but with the support of the racers firmly on his side, any effort expended was always greatly appreciated.
"Sometimes I was unable to stay up or be near a computer to screenshot and upload the results which I could tell was tough for those who wanted to see how each race went, but with the long join windows it was tough. This is something that I would suggest be fiddled with to find a good balance of large join windows and reasonable start/end times...To be completely honest, it went better than expected and that was in large part due to the the support and response I got from the community at large."
"Unfortunately due to the timing of Squire's Showdown I was unable to watch it live like I had done with the qualifiers and some other racers, between the holidays and baby prep it was all I could do to make sure races were set, racers were informed, and results were recorded. Fortunately some of the racers gave great lap-by-lap details and it certainly seemed to be a real nail biter!"
Indeed it was. The whole competition was riddled with more drama, upsets and shocks than a romantic evening spent bathing with a toaster. We saw experienced drivers crash out early while young upstarts battled through to the later rounds. While this turn of events may have been a surprise to some, George seemed to think that such an outcome was always on the cards.
"With the format of the races taking the order of qualifying some of the highest DS qualified first and then raced against each other, leaving some of the lower DS to qualify last and race each other - it gave some opportunity for lower DS to make it far in the competition. This was different from a typical 'playoff' system where the top seed goes against the lowest seed giving benefit to the higher ranked player."
George believes that an alteration into this format is something worth looking into, as while the current approach is simple and easy to understand, it does seem rather odd that drivers are forced to race against the same opponents in the heats as they faced in qualifying. However, the drama created by this setup cannot be denied, and one would hope any future competitions bear this in mind, since the extra opportunity for surprise afforded by a short 20 lap race is one of the reasons why the PRC was and is so popular.
"It [20 lap races] really shows how random some results can be and I actually really like it, as a community event you want a large group of people to participate and this allowed a very large and diverse racing crowd to take part. One of my goals and I believe a core goal of the PRC is to encourage racing and give people more of a reason to keep racing and getting better aside from the 2 merits."
"I am glad to say that this goal has been accomplished as I had people join and qualify that would've bet their first born they wouldn't finish in the top 50 as well as others who have reached out to find out when the next PRC is to see how long they have to raise their driver skill for a chance at their own Bugatti."
The key to establishing a competitive, entertaining and respected competition is finding that balance between luck and ability. I feel the Winter PRC had this balance nailed harder than Jesus' limbs, as it rewarded not only those with a high skill level but also those drivers who displayed knowledge of the tracks, cars, and setups required. George expands on this below, and also offers his thoughts on potential changes for the future.
"I like the way racing can be random, but reflexive of effort. What I mean by that is you need to figure out the type of track and pick the right car, typically each track has only a few optimal choices. Then you need to get the upgrades just right, balancing dirt/tarmac, long/short, and in some cases turbo 2 or 3. Of course driver skill will play a roll, but on a 1 race basis as long as you can figure out the first two choices correctly, really anything can happen."
"One thing that was asked and contemplated was if there were even more hidden modifiers at work, I don't believe there are, but if racing could be tweaked, updated, or overhauled it would be great to include. Things like how many times you've raced certain tracks - plenty binge 100 lap races on Parkland and Docks and would have great experience there, but that may not give you the leg up on Speedway, Mudpit, or other tracks. Plenty of people solely do 100 lap races, so they are great at the long-term races, but what about those that do official or 20 lap races, perhaps there could be benefit to racing at particular lengths as well."
I can confirm that it is unlikely major changes will be made to racing in the near future, with plenty of other projects frothing at the guts and drawing our attention at present. However, I do know that the prospect of allowing spectating is something we are looking at, and when the time is right, I do hope to make a case for new races or cars to be introduced too. But all of this effort depends entirely on the continued success of player-run competitions like the PRC. We hope this situation resolves itself at some point in the near future so we can concentrate on supporting the community's efforts with grand prizes and brilliantly written articles like the one you're currently enjoying.
Pictured: The Torn City Times is read by attractive people, like you!
So with positivity in mind, let us praise BackAlleyBob for setting up a competition that has entertained so many people. Bob, you are an organisational tour de force, you are better than the comments you have made, and you have it in you to apologise to a man whose wife was thinking about your comments while she was preparing to push a human out of her body.
I shall leave the final words on this to GeorgeCostanza once more, as he reflects back on the legacy of BackAlleyBob, the response George has had from the community and the arrival of his baby girl.
"I really want it known how much I commended BackAlleyBob for not only starting the PRC but for growing it to the point where Ched was comfortable to release a one-of-a-kind item as a prize, this is a very large accomplishment. I know in our early conversations I made it clear to you how much I appreciated everything and that I was grateful for all his hard work and saddened by the way the whole blew up and he was left in a hole of sadness, anger, and depression."
"Baby was born December 27th, and is a BEAUTIFUL, happy and healthy girl (we'll call her Soybean for Torn purposes). I had penciled out the dates the event would cover and with 1 race per day I knew it would end right at Christmas, luckily my wife was able to hold out to her due date so everything lined up, but the end of the event was quite hectic for me and I wasn't able to be as involved or as entertaining as I would have liked."
"But I would like to share a picture with every one who shared a kind word, a best-of-luck, or even a 'who let you touch them' since I had announced the good news in my Mr. Torn submission. This is a great community, and every single kind regard meant the world to me and my wife, so truly thank you to each and every one of you. So until next time, enjoy this little cutie."
Pictured: The sickening consequence of romantic love.
In honour of GeorgeCostanza, Squire and the impending death of their social lives, the next PRC will see $100million awarded to the finest young racer of the competition; one who has achieved results above and beyond their supposed level. This award will be given retrospectively to Buiiet, and shall be known henceforth as The Soybean Award.
Drama Ensues as Battling Brains Turn on Each Other
Have you ever seen a brain fight another brain? I have. It is not a pretty sight.
Another player run competition which came to an end recently was the fifth edition of Battle of the Brains, which was administrated by Tarun, sponsored by Kuber and won by _Rome_, who took home $100million TCT worth of items after being the only player to reach the final round. Well done poindexter.
Pictured: Now let's gang up and steal this nark's lunch money.
Out of the thirteen players to participate in the Fourth Tier, only _Rome_ managed to solve the final question before hints were provided. This meant that there were no runner-up prizes awarded, with the $50million-valued prize for second and $25million for third going unclaimed, and the seven runners-up given the alternative title of Complimentary Winners along with a $10-15million-valued prize.
A further prize worth $4million was handed over to five players described as Hard Faught, which I think was supposed to read fought, and this would not be the first nor the last time a mistake like this was made. Thanks to a grammatical error the BOB event was not without its controversies, with the Third Tier of the contest overshadowed due to a wording problem in the penultimate round's question statement.
Up until then, the competition had gone relatively smoothly. Battle of the Brains, having been organised and moderated by Tarun, Anjan_002, Bablu and Dark_Lordz, attracted 56 players who each paid $808,000 or 101 beers to enter. Upon the start of the contest, entrants were greeted with the following question:
The answer to this question was 74658, a figure which 12 players were unable to squanch their brains into deducing. In total, thirteen players departed the competition after the first question with one additional player rendered unable to compete due to the unfortunate act of being sent to Federal Jail like a wazzock. Thus, the Second Tier opened up on the 7th of January with the following coconut-based query:
The answer to this question was 6, which coincidentally also stumped six players who were driven coco-nuts by this puzzle. But worse was yet to come, as most of the remaining 37 players were left completely baffled by the way January 8th's Third Tier question was phrased.
Tarun's broken English made this question hard to decipher at first, but after a couple of readthroughs, it eventually makes sense. However, it later transpired that there were two answers to this question - 11 and 12 - but the BOB team only wanted one of them. This isn't really a fair way to run a competition, and competitor DeaconLynch took the team to task over this having offered up 11 as his answer, only to be marked as disqualified. Tarun described the situation as follows:
"The 3rd Tier was one of the most controversial tiers in the competition's history due to wording problem, difficulty level. Most of the 37 competitors did not understand the question. The BOB staff´s decision was creating the Tier 3B, which made the Tier 3A neutral."
Tier Three, also known as Tier Three-A, was therefore replaced with Tier Three-B, which asked the following question on the 10th of January:
Due to the controversy in the previous round, all of those who made it to Tier 3 were allowed to respond regardless of whether they had answered Tier 3A correctly. Notable critics were graciously permitted to remain in the competition. This time, the answer was 1098.5, and 24 players fell at this hurdle leaving just 13 entrants remaining.
With the controversy over and done with, Tier Four arrived on the 11th of January to pose the following problem:
This time the wording of the question was clear and concise, and the answer to this was 595, with _Rome_ being the only player to send the correct answer before any hints were given. In return, he was handed a Goodie Bag, four Feathery Hotel Coupons, a Poison Mistletoe and 35 Smoke Grenades. These prizes are well deserved; not just for solving the questions, but for being able to figure out what the previous rounds' questions were asking in the first place.
Those who secured "Complimentary Winner" status were Scamlife, SKG, blackacidblood, Mark_Anthony, WhyUWasteUrTime, Drewsh3 and MEHmichael. The Hard Fought players were named as -Kazul-, Chris_, Fear, TxGemini and vader54. Congratulations to all of those who placed in this contest, and further congratulations to the organisers for setting this up. We may have made fun of your badly worded questions, but the ability to organise a competition as complicated as this in a second language is no small task - most people in Torn can't speak their own language let alone the tongue of another.
This Battle of the Brains competition certainly has its merits and clearly has a dedicated following, but work must be done to clarify the wording of the questions and the rules regarding methodology. It is apparent to all that the BOB team put in a lot of effort here, so it would be a shame to see this all undone thanks to a few elementary mistakes. The next competition is due to start at the beginning of February and will be sponsored by CapturerHulkMad. Hopefully, by then the kinks will have been ironed out of this contest's shirt, and it will look presentable and ready to meet its girlfriend's parents.
Because the last thing Torn needs is yet another controversial competition for people to argue over.
Original article
Comments
Post a Comment