sugarvalves [1963573] —
Original article
This weekend, over 2,000 players fought to qualify for the biggest racing tournament in Torn City. Find out who made it through and who missed out in our recap of the URT qualifying rounds.
The URT Winter Rally qualifiers ended late on Monday night with a dramatic final session that saw two drivers crash into the top twelve and secure their place among the final 48. But it wasn't to be for some of Torn's most experienced drivers, as many of the biggest names in racing failed to qualify for winter's showpiece event, with a glut of young drivers taking their place instead.
Over 2,000 unique players took part in the URT qualifiers, which this year saw an expanded schedule consisting of nearly 200 individual races set up by our legion of dedicated race stewards. If you weren't one of the thousands of players who took part, here's a short recap of what happened down at the Race Track over the weekend.
Uptown
The rules for qualifying were simple. Each day, our stewards set up 46 races at the same track, with two running every hour except 23:00 TCT. To qualify, drivers had to end the day with one of the twelve fastest times over 10 laps. Our first qualifying track was Uptown, and ChristmasBazaar set the bar early on Friday morning with a time of 13:06.85 in URTU2.
But this would soon be surpassed as hundreds of drivers belted around the track in a desperate bid to outpace each other. After all 46 races had been run, a time of 13:06.17 was needed to finish in the final 12, with the lower limit set by Vashti, whose team won the Faction Fury Fiesta back in spring 2021. The fastest time of 13:01.48 was set by Jokar, a driver with great experience in previous URT tournaments and player-run events.
The biggest name to make it through on Friday was Hammer, who won the Winter URT back in 2020, and was second in the Justice League Tournament in the spring of that year. Hammer's Racing Skill of 72 makes him the joint-fifth best driver in Torn City, and he's ranked joint-second out of all of those who qualified this year.
Joining Hammer in the main tournament is MIA, the winner of the 2021 Winter Wreckfest, alongside several other racing veterans including Cloudjumper, WAGA, and Bladerunner. The most dramatic moment of Friday's session came late in the day when 15 RS Jimmy_DiGriz and 29 RS Kalisa made it through to the finals in the very last qualifier posted at 22:00 TCT.
Hammerhead
Yet again we saw a good pace set early on in the Hammerhead qualifiers, with URT Summer 2020 champion Bronx posting a time of 10:01.98 in race 2. Bronx, who also came third in Spring 2020's Justice League Tournament, just about held on to a qualifying position thanks to this time, and he ended up filing the 12th and final spot once the day's races were run.
Nath posted the fastest time of the day when he became the only driver to drop a sub 10-minute time of 09:59.25. Nath is ranked alongside Hammer as our tournament's second-best qualifying driver, and in addition to being a finalist in last summer's URT, he's also finished third in the 2017 PRC - the player-run precursor to the URT.
Our tournament's top-ranked driver will be ToxicMonkeyMZC, whose RS of 79 is the highest in Torn City behind Data. Toxic holds a number of lap records in Torn City, including the fastest Class C lap on Hammerhead itself. He also finished third in the 2021 Winter Rally, adding to the second-place he achieved in the 2017 Summer PRC.
JCaine is another big name who made it through at Hammerhead, with their RS of 71 making them the fourth-best driver to qualify - JCaine was also finalist in the Summer 2020 URT. Saturday's qualifiers also saw the progression of Ketone, a 50 RS driver who finished third in the Winter 2021 Wreckfest. And a special mention must go out to Enrhik, a driver with an RS of 21 who managed to post the second-fastest time of the day.
Industrial
Those of you who follow the forums and chats will know that the third day of qualifying is when the big boys start to panic, as those who haven't yet made it through worry that they'll be pinning all their hopes on the final day. One driver who calmed his nerves early on was URT Winter Rally 2019 runner-up the_gunners2004, who blew everyone away in race 10 with a time of 13:48.77 - this would prove to be the fastest time of the day.
One name many were glad to see come through in the final hour of the day was TriGuem, formerly known as TriTuRaDor. TriGuem is a huge name on the racing scene, having organised fantastic tournaments like the Night Racers long before the URT or PRC existed. Sunday's schedule was also notable for the high number of low RS drivers who made it through, with five sub-20 players qualifying for the main tournament, including 10 RS _BabyDoll_.
And finally, the 2022 Winter Rally will be notable for the return of NS leader Stretch, a 30 RS driver who last appeared in this competition way back in Summer 2020. He posted a solid time of 13:57.64 in race 9, and this eventually proved enough to take him through as our twelfth and final qualifier.
Mudpit
Monday was the day when some people's dreams of qualification would die in the mud for another year. There were only twelve qualification spots remaining, and many of our top drivers - including several former champions - had yet to make it through. As it happens, very few of them did, with the highest RS driver to qualify at Mudpit being M3G47HR0N with 50.
Our fastest Mudpit time was posted by Green_Revolver, a driver who famously qualified for the 2020 Winter Rally with an RS of just 13, only to end up being disqualified for being late for too many races. He now returns to the tournament two years later with an RS of 29, and hopefully, he'll show up this time!
And speaking of leaving things too late, Makai and Spink almost did exactly that, with these two drivers qualifying in the final two races on the final day. Spink, who was also a URT steward, finished as close as he possibly could behind Green_Revolver, with Torn's racing system giving both drivers a time of 06:23.95. A closer look at the data then revealed that Spink's time of 06:23.948 was just one millisecond slower than Green_Revolver, with everyone relieved that these two were fighting for top spot and not 12th and 13th.
The final round was also notable for the fact that we saw the second lowest-ranked driver in URT history make it through. Sarosv holds the existing record, having qualified for the Winter Rally 2021 with an RS of just 9.52. Verycorky very nearly beat that, with their RS currently logged as 9.53!
Missing Data
Top-ranked Data was the biggest name to miss out on the tournament, with the closest he came to qualification being at Hammerhead, where he finished with the 16th best time of the day. Former champions Storm1968, Lindy_Lyson, Salvia, and ChristmasBazaar also failed to qualify, as did LumbricuS, who holds the 3rd highest RS in Torn City.
And so, while we may not have Data at this year's event, we do have plenty of actual data to give you courtesy of Storm1968. His results spreadsheet, which was updated with the help of our stewards, shows that 2,007 players took part in our 189 qualification races, with CerealKillaKyle and Prezze the most eager after entering 71 of them each. CK's efforts paid off as he made it through, as did Jimmy_DiGriz and bladerunner, both of whom qualified after entering just one qualifier each! Jammy bastards.
If you'd like to see how close you came to qualification, click the following link to view Storm1968's 2022 results sheet. Individual results for each track can be found in the named tabs, with details on the number of entrants found under the Races tab. Thank you to Storm1968 for putting together such a comprehensive record of this information.
2022 Qualification Results.
The Tournament Begins!
The absence of many former champions means that regardless of what happens this year, no driver will have ever managed to retain the URT or win both the Summer and Winter tournaments in the same year. However, if Bronx were to take the 2022 Winter Rally crown, he would become the first driver to have won both the Summer and Winter editions, albeit in different years.
But there's a long way to go if he is to achieve that, with sixteen consecutive days of rally racing action beginning on Saturday the 22nd of January. You can follow all the action by heading to the Racing forums where we'll be posting daily updates and information. And if you'd like to take part in our final weekend's open-entry prize races, keep an eye out for the newspaper article that will be published on the 4th of February.
Congratulations to all of our qualifying drivers, commiserations to those who took part but didn't make it through, and a huge thank you to each one of our stewards for helping to stage the biggest URT qualifying session Torn has ever seen.
Over 2,000 unique players took part in the URT qualifiers, which this year saw an expanded schedule consisting of nearly 200 individual races set up by our legion of dedicated race stewards. If you weren't one of the thousands of players who took part, here's a short recap of what happened down at the Race Track over the weekend.
Uptown
The rules for qualifying were simple. Each day, our stewards set up 46 races at the same track, with two running every hour except 23:00 TCT. To qualify, drivers had to end the day with one of the twelve fastest times over 10 laps. Our first qualifying track was Uptown, and ChristmasBazaar set the bar early on Friday morning with a time of 13:06.85 in URTU2.
But this would soon be surpassed as hundreds of drivers belted around the track in a desperate bid to outpace each other. After all 46 races had been run, a time of 13:06.17 was needed to finish in the final 12, with the lower limit set by Vashti, whose team won the Faction Fury Fiesta back in spring 2021. The fastest time of 13:01.48 was set by Jokar, a driver with great experience in previous URT tournaments and player-run events.
The biggest name to make it through on Friday was Hammer, who won the Winter URT back in 2020, and was second in the Justice League Tournament in the spring of that year. Hammer's Racing Skill of 72 makes him the joint-fifth best driver in Torn City, and he's ranked joint-second out of all of those who qualified this year.
Joining Hammer in the main tournament is MIA, the winner of the 2021 Winter Wreckfest, alongside several other racing veterans including Cloudjumper, WAGA, and Bladerunner. The most dramatic moment of Friday's session came late in the day when 15 RS Jimmy_DiGriz and 29 RS Kalisa made it through to the finals in the very last qualifier posted at 22:00 TCT.
Hammerhead
Yet again we saw a good pace set early on in the Hammerhead qualifiers, with URT Summer 2020 champion Bronx posting a time of 10:01.98 in race 2. Bronx, who also came third in Spring 2020's Justice League Tournament, just about held on to a qualifying position thanks to this time, and he ended up filing the 12th and final spot once the day's races were run.
Nath posted the fastest time of the day when he became the only driver to drop a sub 10-minute time of 09:59.25. Nath is ranked alongside Hammer as our tournament's second-best qualifying driver, and in addition to being a finalist in last summer's URT, he's also finished third in the 2017 PRC - the player-run precursor to the URT.
Our tournament's top-ranked driver will be ToxicMonkeyMZC, whose RS of 79 is the highest in Torn City behind Data. Toxic holds a number of lap records in Torn City, including the fastest Class C lap on Hammerhead itself. He also finished third in the 2021 Winter Rally, adding to the second-place he achieved in the 2017 Summer PRC.
JCaine is another big name who made it through at Hammerhead, with their RS of 71 making them the fourth-best driver to qualify - JCaine was also finalist in the Summer 2020 URT. Saturday's qualifiers also saw the progression of Ketone, a 50 RS driver who finished third in the Winter 2021 Wreckfest. And a special mention must go out to Enrhik, a driver with an RS of 21 who managed to post the second-fastest time of the day.
Industrial
Those of you who follow the forums and chats will know that the third day of qualifying is when the big boys start to panic, as those who haven't yet made it through worry that they'll be pinning all their hopes on the final day. One driver who calmed his nerves early on was URT Winter Rally 2019 runner-up the_gunners2004, who blew everyone away in race 10 with a time of 13:48.77 - this would prove to be the fastest time of the day.
One name many were glad to see come through in the final hour of the day was TriGuem, formerly known as TriTuRaDor. TriGuem is a huge name on the racing scene, having organised fantastic tournaments like the Night Racers long before the URT or PRC existed. Sunday's schedule was also notable for the high number of low RS drivers who made it through, with five sub-20 players qualifying for the main tournament, including 10 RS _BabyDoll_.
And finally, the 2022 Winter Rally will be notable for the return of NS leader Stretch, a 30 RS driver who last appeared in this competition way back in Summer 2020. He posted a solid time of 13:57.64 in race 9, and this eventually proved enough to take him through as our twelfth and final qualifier.
Mudpit
Monday was the day when some people's dreams of qualification would die in the mud for another year. There were only twelve qualification spots remaining, and many of our top drivers - including several former champions - had yet to make it through. As it happens, very few of them did, with the highest RS driver to qualify at Mudpit being M3G47HR0N with 50.
Our fastest Mudpit time was posted by Green_Revolver, a driver who famously qualified for the 2020 Winter Rally with an RS of just 13, only to end up being disqualified for being late for too many races. He now returns to the tournament two years later with an RS of 29, and hopefully, he'll show up this time!
And speaking of leaving things too late, Makai and Spink almost did exactly that, with these two drivers qualifying in the final two races on the final day. Spink, who was also a URT steward, finished as close as he possibly could behind Green_Revolver, with Torn's racing system giving both drivers a time of 06:23.95. A closer look at the data then revealed that Spink's time of 06:23.948 was just one millisecond slower than Green_Revolver, with everyone relieved that these two were fighting for top spot and not 12th and 13th.
The final round was also notable for the fact that we saw the second lowest-ranked driver in URT history make it through. Sarosv holds the existing record, having qualified for the Winter Rally 2021 with an RS of just 9.52. Verycorky very nearly beat that, with their RS currently logged as 9.53!
Missing Data
Top-ranked Data was the biggest name to miss out on the tournament, with the closest he came to qualification being at Hammerhead, where he finished with the 16th best time of the day. Former champions Storm1968, Lindy_Lyson, Salvia, and ChristmasBazaar also failed to qualify, as did LumbricuS, who holds the 3rd highest RS in Torn City.
And so, while we may not have Data at this year's event, we do have plenty of actual data to give you courtesy of Storm1968. His results spreadsheet, which was updated with the help of our stewards, shows that 2,007 players took part in our 189 qualification races, with CerealKillaKyle and Prezze the most eager after entering 71 of them each. CK's efforts paid off as he made it through, as did Jimmy_DiGriz and bladerunner, both of whom qualified after entering just one qualifier each! Jammy bastards.
If you'd like to see how close you came to qualification, click the following link to view Storm1968's 2022 results sheet. Individual results for each track can be found in the named tabs, with details on the number of entrants found under the Races tab. Thank you to Storm1968 for putting together such a comprehensive record of this information.
2022 Qualification Results.
The Tournament Begins!
The absence of many former champions means that regardless of what happens this year, no driver will have ever managed to retain the URT or win both the Summer and Winter tournaments in the same year. However, if Bronx were to take the 2022 Winter Rally crown, he would become the first driver to have won both the Summer and Winter editions, albeit in different years.
But there's a long way to go if he is to achieve that, with sixteen consecutive days of rally racing action beginning on Saturday the 22nd of January. You can follow all the action by heading to the Racing forums where we'll be posting daily updates and information. And if you'd like to take part in our final weekend's open-entry prize races, keep an eye out for the newspaper article that will be published on the 4th of February.
Congratulations to all of our qualifying drivers, commiserations to those who took part but didn't make it through, and a huge thank you to each one of our stewards for helping to stage the biggest URT qualifying session Torn has ever seen.
Original article
Comments
Post a Comment