ENDED Free Rider World Cup 4

Hey guys, so that's it, we are up to the Championship Finals. First of all shoutout to the finalists and 3rd place match contestants, but also to everyone who helped the contest in some way. Even if you were one of the 53 contestants, or sponsors, trackmakers, part of the team, thank you all for making this contest possible. I know it wasn't perfect, but at least we did something to help keeping the ghosting community active. I'll talk more about the prizes and more about the people involved in this contest after the end of the final round.

Now, I will talk about the 2 previous rounds, that ended the Loser Bracket Championship. I think it was a great addition to keep people invested in the contest, so it was cool to see people still spending time on racing for the Losers Bracket.

LOSERS BRACKET SEMIFINALS
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In the semifinals for the Losers Bracket, we had one match with Cork vs Sannin vs Exylies.

The race was on my track, a BMX trial (https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/696070-frhd-world-cup-3-lb-semifinals). In this race, Exylies couldn't keep up the other two players, and left the contest with a 1:10.4 on the track. First of all, such a remarkable performance by Exylies in the contest. You made it really far on the competition and completed every single track. Congrats!

The real battle of this match ended up being with Cork and Sannin. Cork did the 3rd overall among the active players on the round, a 43.23, but it wasn't enough to beat Sannin's 1st place overall 34.77. Sannin is really on fire in the contest, and advanced to the Losers Bracket Finals. Cork ended up with a really incredible performance in the contest, where he lost to one of the Championship finalists, and still did a great job in the Losers Bracket.

In the other match, it was Selesele/Polarized vs Ultraviolet vs spruce/dumptruck.

It was one of the toughest battles on the poll, but sadly it wasn't that much of a battle in the track. It was expected a good battle between Ultraviolet and spruce, with Polarized being the underdog who maybe could pull up a surprise depending on the circumstances. However, spruce/dumptruck didn't complete the track, Selesele/Polarized completed with a 2:23.73 time, so Ultraviolet took an easy W with the 2nd place overall ghost of 40.87.

First of all, congrats for Ultraviolet to keep taking this seriously despite being busy at times, as you said. You faced players like Backtwice, Anonyymi, spruce, BrendanMagill, Chaos-Fallen (and me? haha), so you didn't have an easy journey, but you did great in the contest and advanced to the Losers Bracket Finals.

Also, major congrats for Selesele/Polarized for making this far. You managed to keep advancing pretty much every round, and this was a reward for completing every track. Congrats, man! Hope to see you on the next one, you did great!

Also, congrats to spruce/dumptruck as well. I know you wasn't very active in the past competitions, so it was nice too see you back and actually trying on a contest. You did good, sadly couldn't complete the track in time for some reason, it would be a good race with Ultraviolet. Also, in the Winners Bracket you did great, but was unlucky to face Pie42 in one of his most inspired days. Good job! I know that you alongside of other players probably have some feedback to give for the contest, especially for the tracks, so we are going to have some sort of form/survey about this contest when it's over, so feel free to check it out.

LOSERS BRACKET FINALS
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The race for the the Losers Bracket title and the spot on the 3rd place match against BrendanMagill and ShamatoZ was disputed on Coated_Badger's track (https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/705753-world-cup-round-5). First of all, cool track by Coated_Badger, thank you for that!

And there we had a really great battle:

Sannin vs Ultraviolet​

Yes, that's right. Our very Helicopter Gods descended for the High Realms in the skies and brought the battle for us, mortal beings on the ground. They even let the helicopters behind and choose bikes instead (not their choice by the way, but now I think that we could have made an heli track for this match,lol). But it was still a great battle.

The master and the apprentice fought as hard as they could, and the apprentice was victorious. Aside from tetrationiscool ramdom impressive time, lol (shame on you for not joining the contest, by the way), Sannin and Ultraviolet finished with the 2 first places on the track. Ultraviolet did a great 1:01.80 and Sannin did an awesome 1:00.10.

It was one of the most top-notch matches we had over the FRHD World Cups, so congrats for that. Ultraviolet, who had the toughest journey in the contest, is leaving with the 6th place overall. Major congrats to you, you did amazing, hope to see you in the next contest. I remember that you were doing good last year but had to leave the contest, so it's great that you were able to take this one as far as you could. Really great job, man!

And now, the favorite on the polls to take the Losers Bracket actually took the Losers Bracket title! Congrats to Sannin! You had some really good challenges as well, like Pie42, Cork and Ultraviolet, so congrats for the win! You will now face ShamatoZ and BrendanMagill for the 3rd place match. Yeah, I know that although having a chance to be the 3rd in the contest you lost the chance to fight for a spot in the Championship Finals because of 2 minutes, but it happens... There's always next year and the top 5 will get good prizes (if everything turns out right), so it's not that bad.

Also I think I'll give like a small prize if someone that's not in the finals get the 1st place on the final track (of course it can't be hacking, lol). So maybe you can try that for a motivation. I have to check our total pot to know how much it could be. This is also valid for someone that isn't in the contest, lol.

3RD PLACE MATCH
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We have 3 people in the 3rd place match, so let's see how they got here:

ShamatoZ - In the Qualifiers, ShamatoZ did the 8th best time overall, a 22.10, surprisingly beating many good ghosters and easily qualifying to the Group Stage.

In the Group Stage, he was in the pot 2 and was seeded in a group with Calculus, ei8ht and weem/WheelieMaker. In the first match of the Group Stage, he faced ei8ht and beat him with a 54.17, the 11th best time overall, against ei8ht's 55.70. In the second match of the Group Stage, he faced the Championship Finalist Calculus, and lost. Calculus did 36.90 and ShamatoZ only 41.33, the 8th best time overall. In the third and last match of the Group Stage, ShamatoZ faced weem/WheelieMaker, and it was a cool battle. WheelieMaker finished with 35.83, but ShamatoZ did 34.93, the 7th best time overall. He ended up with 6 points in the Group Stage, with was enough to get the 2nd place, behind Calculus. He then advanced to the Knockouts Stages.

In the Knockouts Stages, he faced demimondance in the Round of 16. He got a 52.83 time, the 8th best time overall, that was enough to beat demimondance's 53.50. He then advanced to face Odala in the Quarterfinals, where he did 39.03, the 13th best time overall, against Odala's 43.27, the 15th best time overall. So with that time, ShamatoZ advanced to the Semifinals to face the title holder Anonyymi. Anonyymi did the 1st place overall, and ShamatoZ didn't complete the track. However, since he lost in the Semifinals, he has the opportunity to regain his great performance in the contest againt BrendanMagill and Sannin. Will he be able to do it?

BrendanMagill - In the Qualifiers, BrendanMagill did the 11th best time overall, a 22.73, showing that he was improving since his last year performance. He advanced to the Group Stage.

In the Group Stage, he was in the pot 2 and was seeded in a group with Ultraviolet, Chaos-Fallen and NewGoblin. In the first match of the Group Stage, he faced Chaos-Fallen, who didn't complete the track (and any tracks to be honest), and BrendanMagill did an excellent job, getting the 3rd place overall, with a 52.90. Really impressive stuff. In the second match of the Group Stage, he faced the great Ultraviolet and lost. BrendanMagill did the 18th best time overall, with a 52.37, while Ultraviolet did the 2nd best time overall, a 36.30. In the third and last match of the Group Stage, BrendanMagill faced NewGoblin and he destroyed that track. He did an amazing 31.00 time, and got the 2nd place overall, easily beating NewGoblin's 55.70. With 6 points and in 2nd place in the group, BrendanMagill then advanced to the Knockouts Stages.

In the Knockouts Stages, BrendanMagill faced Coated_Badger in the Round of 16. He did 52.47, the 5th best time overall, that was enough to beat Coated_Badger's 53.47 time, although only by 1 second. BrendanMagill then advanced to the Quarterfinals where he had a really tough challenge. He faced Pie42 that had just eliminated spruce/dumptruck in the Round of 16, so he was probably confident. They both were doing an amazing contest, but someone had to lose. Pie42 ended up with a 26.47, the 6th best time overall, but BrendanMagill was able to beat that, with an excellent 24.43, the 4th best time overall. In the Semifinals, he put Calculus to work, finishing with a 1:06.90 time, the 9th best time overall. But it wasn't enough to beat the great ghost of 1:04.03 that Calculus did. Now, it's time for BrendanMagill to get back up, and fight ShamatoZ and Sannin for the 3rd place. Can he do it?

Sannin - In the Qualifiers, Sannin did the 6th best time overall, a 21.40, showing that he didn't came in to play. He advanced to the Group Stage.

In the Group Stage, he was in the pot 1 and was seeded in a group with Totoca12, demimondance and Netsik. In the first match of the Group Stage, he faced Netsik, who didn't complete the track, and Sannin destroyed that round, getting the 1st place overall, with a 52.53. Amazing stuff, it looked that everything would be good for him, and advancing to the Knockouts Stage would be only a matter of time. But... in the second match of the Group Stage, he faced your boy Totoca12 and it was a mess. He was busy, I was busy, and we both ended up not being able to ghost the track. We both lost a point, demimondance won his match and got 3 points, so we were in trouble. In the third and last match of the Group Stage, it was time for the most complicated match of the contest. It was Sannin vs demimondance. I did my part and beat Netsik, so I was advancing to the Knockouts Stage, so there was only one spot left in the group to advance to the next stage. Sannin had 2 points, demimondance had 3 points, so a tie would give the qualification to demimondance and a victory would qualify the winner. Until a few hours before the end of the round Sannin was in the lead, but with just a few hours remaining, when Sannin was sleeping, demimondance beat him with a good 37.70, which made him get the 13th best time overall. Sannin had a 38.00 ghost, that was the 14th best time overall. We reached the deadline and were closing the round when Sannin beat demimondance with a 35.90 time. But we checked the times and it was 2 minute late, so after a lot of discussion, we decided to keep with our word and respect the calendar, since we didn't make any exceptions for other cases that happen on the contest, like ei8ht and RedOrBlue completing the qualifiers late, like Slayed and DblU getting confused with the calendar and not improving the round, so it was sadly the time for Sannin to leave the Winners Bracket since he only got 2 points, against 5 by me and 6 by demimondance.

In the Losers Bracket, Sannin had a long journey to even get a shot at the 3rd Place Match. In the 1st Stage of the Losers Bracket, that happened during the Round of 16, Sannin faced weem/WheelieMaker and had a comfortable win. Sannin did the 2nd best time overall with a 50.53, that was more than enough to beat weem's 57.33. In the 2nd Stage of the Losers Bracket, that happened during the Quarterfinals, Sannin had his revenge on demimondance. Sannin did the 2nd best time overall, a 22.93, against demimondance's 35.30 time. Demimondance eliminated Sannin from the Winners Bracket, but Sannin got him back eliminating him from the contest. In the 3rd Stage of the Losers Bracket, that happened during the Semifinals, Sannin had a tough challenger: Pie42. But it wasn't enough, Sannin did again the 2nd best time overall, a 1:03.07 ghost, that was enough to beat Pie42 1:06.33 ghost, the 8th best time overall. In the 4th Stage of the Losers Bracket, the Losers Bracket Semifinals that happened on a round of its own, as mentioned at some point in this post, Sannin faced Cork and Exylies. Exylies did 1:10.4, Cork did a 43.23, but it wasn't enough to beat Sannin's 34.77, that was the best time overall. In the 5th (and could be considered last) Stage of the Losers Bracket, the Losers Bracket Finals, that also happened in a round of its own, Sannin faced the great Ultraviolet, as mentioned previously in this post. With the best time overall, a 1:00.10, Sannin beat Ultraviolet's time of 1:01.80 and become the champion of the Losers Bracket. Sannin is on fire lately, with 5 straight wins, where get got 2nd place overall 3 times and 1st place overall 2 times. He came from the Losers Bracket, but is Sannin the favorite for the 3rd Place Match?

ShamatoZ vs BrendanMagill vs Sannin

The battle for the 3rd place has begun. It'll be the surprise ShamatoZ? The revelation from last year BrendanMagill? Or the 2nd player with most Official Featured Ghosts, one of the 3 official Legendary Ghosters and champion of the Losers Bracket Sannin?​

CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS
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We have 2 players in the Championship Finals. It's Anonyymi against Calculus. Who will prevail?

We don't know, but for now, let's make a quick recap on how they got here.

Anonyymi - In the Qualifiers, Anonyymi showed that he was going to fight for be the first FRHD World Cup double champion. He got the 1st place overall with a 20.37.

In the Group Stage, Anonyymi was in the pot 1 and was seeded in a group with Pie42, Wolf777 and ZPresley. In the first match of the Group Stage, Anonyymi scared us a little bit. In a very suspicious and random (and funny) move, 1st placed on the Qualifiers Anonyymi lost his match against 32nd placed on the Qualifiers ZPresley, that has so far the only win in a round on the 2 FRHD World Cup contests against Anonyymi on a track that he ghosted, lol. ZPresley did a 54.87, the 20th best time overall, that was enough to beat Anonyymi's 56.17, the 24th best time overall. Long life to the king ZPresley! After that big upset, Anonyymi faced Pie42 in the second match of the Group Stage. It was interesting because Pie42 had just got that 2nd place overall in the previous round, so Anonyymi could be in some real trouble if he wasn't able to win this match. But he did. He got a 32.90, that was the 1st place overall and clearly enough to beat Pie42's 41.13, the 7th best time overall. In the third and last match of the Group Stage, Anonyymi faced Wolf777, and won. Anonyymi did it again with the 1st place overall, a great 29.17 time, more than enough to beat Wolf777's 38.90. With 6 points and in the 1st place of the group, Anonyymi then advanced to the Knockouts Stages.

In the Knockouts Stages, Anonyymi faced Exylies, and had a comfortable win. He got the 1st place overall, a 50.40, against Exylies 55.47. In the Quarterfinals he had a tough challenge facing Ultraviolet. But he got a good lead at the end, finishing with the 1st place overall again, a 22.43, against Ultraviolet's 28.63 ghost, the 9th best time overall. In the Semifinals Anonyymi got an easy W. He was again the 1st placed overall, with a 1:02.20 ghost, and ShamatoZ, his opponent, didn't complete the track. Now is the time to see if Finland stays at the top once again. First it was Noob, then Backtwice, then Anonyymi, and now it can be Anonyymi once again. Can Anonyymi be the first double champion of the FRHD World Cup?

It's all depending on this guy below:

Calculus - In the Qualifiers, Calculus did a good 21.37 time, the 4th best time overall, showing that he came to cause some trouble in the contest.

In the Group Stage, Calculus was in pot 1 and was seeded in a group with ShamatoZ, ei8ht and weem/WheelieMaker. In the first match of the Group Stage he faced weem/WheelieMaker. Weem did a good 54.67, but it wasn't enough to beat the 53.40 ghost from Calculus, that was the 6th best time overall. In the second match of the Group Stage, Calculus faced ShamatoZ. ShamatoZ did a good 41.33, the 8th best time overall, but Calculus crushed him with a 36.90, the 3rd best time overall. In the third and last match in the Group Stage, Calculus did a great 34.07 time, the 4th best time overall and ei8ht, his opponent, didn't complete the track. Calculus then advanced to the Knockouts Stages with 9 points, 3 straight wins and the 1st place in his group.

In the Knockouts Stages, Calculus faced me in the Round of 16. I did an alright 54.20 time, the 14th best overall, but Calculus did a great 52.80 ghost, the 7th best overall and advanced to the Quarterfinals. In the Quarterfinals Calculus had a tough match against Cork. Cork did a great 24.50 time, the 5th best time overall, but it wasn't enough to beat Calculus 23.43, the 3rd best time overall. In the Semifinals Calculus faced BrendanMagill. Another tough match where Calculus got a time of 1:04.03, the 5th best time overall, against BrendanMagill's 1:06.90 ghost, that was the 9th best ghost overall. Now Calculus is on the Championship Finals, so there's your chance to have another big ghosting achievement and an opportunity to have this week remembered for more than being banned, lol. Good luck on your battle and the question from last year is still here: Can someone stop Anonyymi?

We will find out soon enough...

Anonyymi vs Calculus

Who will prevail? The one who will be the first double champion of the Free Rider World Cup? Or the one who will end the Finnish Dynasty?

LET'S GO!​

PS: I'm trying to handle the prizes this week, so I'll update you guys about it as soon as I can. I don't know if it'll be as big as last year from the coins standpoint, but it'll be good.
PS2: As I said before, I'll probably give a prize if someone beats the champion on the final track.
PS3: The last track will be published by Exylies today.
PS4: Big post with the final announcements after this round ends.
PS5: This round ends at March 24th 11:59pm EST
PS6: Poll updated.

 

Hey, just to remind that it's ending today, 11:59pm EST. Still have some things to do about the prizes, but it's the time for the truth. Let's go Anonyymi and Calculus

 

CONGRATS FOR Anonyymi, the first double champion of the Free Rider World Cup! The Finnish Dynasty continues stronger than ever! Of course I'll make a big post about the contest and this final round soon. But first, thank you to everyone who helped or participated, without you there's no contest. I know it wasn't a perfect one, but I hope it was good enough. I tried, haha. I'll talk more about this and the prizes later today. Also, congrats to Calculus! You did great, man! Good luck next time!

Also, congrats to Sannin on the 3rd place. You worked hard for it, congrats!

 

Really busy today and handling some stuff with the prizes. Post tomorrow.

 

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So that's it guys! The Free Rider World Cup 4 is over! Anonyymi is the great champion once again! The first double champion of this contest. The Finnish Dynasty is still going strong. Major congrats to Calculus as well for finishing in second, you did great. Also for Sannin for the 3rd place. There will be so much more to talk about later in this post about the final results, but here's a quick recap on the history of this contest for the ones who might not know or the ones that want to remember.

The Free Rider World Cup was created by DblU on August, 2015. The first edition (see here) had 24 participants starting with an Qualifiers/Elimination round like this year, but then it went straight to the Knockouts Stages with 16 participants. It was a very interesting thing for the ghosting communty, although it wasn't the first racing contest on this game. @speedy_XD did 2 Racing Contests before (both won by WrzodX), back in 2014-2015 (and went back on doing it a few months ago), so it for sure was a source of inspiration. Back to the FRHD World Cup, the only participants of that contest that were in this year's contest were spruce (as Coolman2 at the time) and I. Shoutout to Eryp, though, that was in that competition and was on the hosting team this time. In the first year, Noob (still as F1N at the time) started the Finnish Dynasty after barely beating WrzodX in a very close final match. A really good match for the Championship Finals. I took the 3rd place after beating Asierro (ProLogoMaker ) on the 3rd place match.

DblU decided to host a second edition of this in January, 2016. This edition (see here) had 30 participants, with 4 participants that were involved in this year's contest: Eryp, spruce and I, again, but this time we had Backtwice as well. And not only he participated, but he won, keeping Finland on the top. It was a league system with 8 rounds, prizes for top 5. Top 5 had KONSTRUKT in 5th, me in 4th, darksmoke11 in 3rd, Noob in 2nd and Backtwice in 1st.

Since we didn't had any (that I can remember) successful big ghosting contests in 2017 or 2018 (R.I.P. NFRL) I decided to step forward instead of just saying "Yo, someone should revive and host this" every once in a while. So in January, 2019 after asking for DblU's permission to use the name, I "took over" the hosting part of the contest and did the third edition of the contest (see here). It was similar to the second edition, but it had 10 rounds instead of 8. With 29 contestants and after such a long journey, Anonyymi was crowned the champion, with RedOrBlue as the runner-up, Stevie.T as the 3rd, RustyClarkson as the 4th and I finished in 5th, completing the top 5. But last year we got an unbelievable over 100k pot, so there was coins for everyone in the contest, literally, lol.

So in this year's contest, I'll not talk much about the journeys of the top 5 players because I did it in the last big post of mine. But I'll talk about their performance on the Finals and the contest as a whole.

5th Place - BrendanMagill - After a really good impression on his first time on FRHD World Cups last year, with a 7th place overall, you shined once again and got a very deserving 5th place. You said that you were without internet for the last round, so that sucks, but you did good. You still manage to get a ghost somehow, a 3:17.10 ghost, so thank you for the effort! Nice job!

4th Place - ShamatoZ - What a great performance in this contest! As I said in the last post, I didn't know much about you but I'm looking forward to see what you can bring to the ghosting community. Well done! You got the 4th best time overall among the people in the contest and currently has the 10th best time on the track, a 1:38.27 ghost. Really good job!

3rd Place - Sannin - With a great ghost, you had a comfortable win this time. I don't know if you are 100% happy with your results or still slightly disappointed for missing your chance to be in the Finals so early, but not matter what you showed us that you are a really great ghoster and you did put on a nice show! There was drama, there was skill, there was revenge, it was fun watching you in this contest, haha. You had three 2nd place overalls and 3 first place overalls and still didn't make the finals, but you climbed all the way from the first round of the Losers Bracket winning every single game, winning the Losers Bracket and the 3rd Place match. Congrats, man! I hope you have a better luck with the calendar next time, because you are not the 2nd player with most ghost features because of luck. You might be one of our best weapons in the Finland vs World (but not Finland) war, haha. Still, congrats, man! You did good. Got the 3rd place among the players in the contest and the 5th place on the track (I see you RedOrBlue and tetrationiscool) with a good 1:11.13.

2nd Place - Calculus - You tried. You did good. Still wasn't enough, but that doesn't take away anything from you. You smashed some pretty good opponents and showed us that you are a class A ghoster. Solid ghost (apparently on mobile? wow), solid contest, 2nd best ghost among the contestants but also 2nd best ghost on the track, a 1:03.77 ghost, so congrats! You did your best. Really solid stuff. Congrats! It's not easy to finish in 2nd on a Free Rider World Cup. Hope to see you in the next one!

1st Place - The one and only Anonyymi - The question of last year still is without an answer: Can someone stop Anonyymi? We don't know yet. This time, besides the legend ZPresley, no one did. We might be looking 2 the all-time best player of Free Rider. Over 50 ghosts featured, 2 Free Rider World Cup titles. The Finnish GOAT keeps the legacy. Noob and Backtwice are probably proud, haha. Maybe you will be defeated someday but this day isn't today. Amazing contest, amazing ghost in the finals, a 1:02.83. Crushed it once again!

FINAL THOUGHTS - CONTESTANTS
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First of all, thank you for everyone that participated as a contestant in this competition. There's no point on hosting a competition if people don't show up. This year, we broke the record of participants of the Free Rider World Cup, that was of 30 participants in the second edition. This time we had 53 applications and 50 actual participants, from that point of view, it was a great sucess.

So thank you to Anonyymi, spruce, Ultraviolet, Calculus, TuttiFruity, Sannin, Cork, ShamatoZ, Slayed, FunBunOne, BrendanMagill, Pie42, Inactive, demimondance, Uniior, Backtwice, Totoca12 (lol), panda_rider, Odala, Exylies, Polarized/Selesele, DblU, Coated_Badger, Wolf777, LightningBerk, weem, NewGoblin, Calm.Wizard, Flower-shirt, Chaos-Fallen, Netsik, ZPresley, OdysseusSupreme, INCINERATOR, Radiology, Srtrindade, Apocolypse, cammh08, pssst, sboggsl, Lildonny, DietFood, shrimpersgate, MaxReznik, BenTheUnknown, Sara29, MasterWrecker, BagelsBAK210, Hunt3r_26 and ei8ht for being part of the contest. You all played a role in this contest, even if it was small. Thank you, guys!

Some of you guys stood out for the skills, some others for the consistency and respect for the contest, some for the efforts, some for disappering or barely showing up, lol. But anyways, it was good to see you guys around, that's why we do this.

FINAL THOUGHTS - TRACKS
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Ok, so there's a point that some of you guys probably had some complaints about: the tracks. So let's discuss about it a little bit.

Qualifiers - https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/688318-frhd-world-cup-4-qualifiers - Track by BrandonBishop50 & Totoca12 - I honestly didn't see many complaints about this one, so I guess it was okay. I saw a few people thinking that it was a little bit glitchy, which I can understand and it was my bad. The track was made by BrandonBishop50 and it was a very smooth ride. But I felt like the track was kinda empty, so I changed the ground a little bit and added many of the details. I think it was still good most of the time, but it might have been a little bit glitchy indeed. 9.7k plays and a 84% approval with 77 votes is not bad at all.

Group Stage Match 1 - https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/689862-tears - Track by Eryp - Insane track, couldn't criticize this track at all (other than the portal at the end that made me lose some good runs). Eryp did a solid job on this one. It was the first Free Rider World Cup track that was featured, and it was well-deserved. I assume most people liked this one as well. 16.6k plays and a 91% approval with 121 votes is amazing.

Group Stage Match 2 -https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/690920-primus - Track by Odala & Totoca12 - I know that many people didn't like this track, but let's put some things in perspective. Yeah, I had a team, but doing this contest this year was my idea and I said that I would help with the tracks. I planned on helping with most of the tracks, but it wasn't possible through the whole contest. Also, I was hosting the contest and I had a last minute trip that I had to go for almost a week, so it kinda made things a little more complicated, since I said I would actively help with the 2nd track. Odala started the track and helped as much as I could before I left, but couldn't do as much as I wanted. We wanted to have a few parts with vehicles in the tracks of the Group Stages and leave the "only-bike" tracks for the Knockouts Stages. So it was kinda of an agreement to have a vehicle track there, so Odala was just following something that I suggested and we agreed on. Also, I couldn't help as much as I wanted, so I think that it was a still a good track overall, based in what we had in mind. Yeah, many people didn't like the helicopter, but it's a part of the game since 2015 or 2016, so we thought people wouldn't mind that much. But it is what it is. We don't get everything right everytime. We know we could have done better if we started earlier. But we tried. Lessons learned for the next time. But it wasn't such a failure based on the votes: a 75% approval with 32 votes in a track with 1.5k plays.

Group Stage Match 3 -https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/691727-tortilla - Track by BrandonBishop50 & Calculus - Another not so fan-favorite track, haha. Vehicles again! Ok, you guys don't like vehicles, I get it! My bad on this track was only actually play the track when it was released since I had just arrived from my trip and had no part on this track. I'm not saying that it's bad or anything, but I was away and didn't ghost the previous track, so I pretty much didn't see much of the feedback on the track, and then I didn't have any part on this track, so I was kinda surprised to see 2 tracks being hated like this "out of nowhere" in my perspective. If I was home I would probably advise Brandon to go easy on the vehicles, but since it was an idea that I approved, to make a track with different vehicles, I didn't do it, since I hadn't seen the feedback yet. And to be honest, Pie42 did a track way harder than this where I got a 4 minute long ghost last year, that did exactly what this track did: a track with all of the 4 different vehicles. And although only 9 (or 11) people completed that track last year, people mostly enjoyed the track. So this vehicle thing it's kinda unpredictable. But I get it. People claimed that me as ghoster should have tested the tracks to see if they were good enough to ghost, and I admit I didn't do it well enough for matches 2 and 3 of the Group Stages. Not because I wanted, but it was because I honestly didn't have the time. People can ask like if I didn't have the time, why do the contest in the first place? I would say that some of the things I had to do during this contest were kinda unplanned, and also that if I didn't had the initiative, we probably weren't going to have a FRHD World Cup this year, or at least not now. So I came without any tracks done and without any coins, but I tried my best, and most of the things worked out well. So, I know it wasn't a perfect track, also the shortcut wasn't a winner move. I personally don't like vehicles very much, especially in competitions, but I thought it was necessary to have some of them, because they are a part of the game. Shouout to BrandonBishop50 for coming up with another track (and a decent one) in a short period of time, and also for Calculus for helping. Overall it had 51 votes, a 71% approval and 3.2k plays.

Round of 16 - https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/692958-frhd-world-cup-4-round-of-16 - Track by Eryp - Not detailed as the first one from him, but Eryp did a good track, with an interesting and competitive ride. I think most people liked it. I might have saw one or two small complaints, but people enjoyed the track. 86% approval, 37 votes, 3.2k plays

Quarterfinals - https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/694026-frhd-world-cup-4-quarterfinals - Track by Totoca12 - Not much to say about this one. People enjoyed the trial aspect of the it for the most part. Small complaints about the slightly glitchy beginning and the bombs at the end, but other than that I think it was fine. 88% approval, 25 votes and 2.1k plays.

Semifinals - https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/694930-frhd-world-cup-round-3-fixed - Track by BrandonBishop50 ft. Pie42, Exylies and more - Despite it not being very detailed, I really enjoyed this ride. But people apparently didn't think the same. Yeah, after my trial in the Quarterfinals, I could see that people weren't expecting a much easier track in the Semifinals, but I still didn't think that the hate was needed, but people are free to express their opinions. People had problems with tracks last year, especially the 5th track. It happens. I think if the Quarterfinals and Semifinals tracks were switched and we had some extra time to work on this one it would have been better. But it was good in my opinion. Solid job by BrandonBishop50 for doing another track. Thanks to everyone else who helped as well. 56% approval, 25 votes, 0.5k plays.

Losers Bracket Semifinals - https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/696070-frhd-world-cup-3-lb-semifinals - Track by Totoca12 - Despite being a little hard for some people, I think most people liked the challenge. Same vibe of trial that I did previously. I think it worked out okay. 80% approval, 15 votes, 0.4k plays.

Losers Bracket Finals - https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/705753-world-cup-round-5 - Track by Coated_Badger - Really great job by Coated_Badger. Great ride, cool details, solid job with the track. Congrats! 81% approval, 31 votes, 1.2k plays.

Championship Finals - https://www.freeriderhd.com/t/706438-dinosaur - Track by Exylies - What an epic track! Awesome ride, great details, it was worthy of a Free Rider World Cup Championship Finals track. Thank you, man! I know you had to rush it a little bit, but it worked out great. 90% approval, 50 votes, 2.2k plays.

So, my overall opinion is that the tracks were great. Dinosaur, Tears and Coated_Badger's were definitely in a different level of detail, but we have some cool rides on many tracks as well. Yeah, we did some mistakes, especially on the Group Stage, but I think we learned some lessons and we will try to be better in the future. I hope it was an enjoyable experience overall.

(PLEASE TELL IN THE COMMENTS WHICH TRACK WAS THE BEST FOR YOU)

FINAL THOUGHTS - FORMAT + MY EXPERIENCE
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I did like every Free Rider World Cup format so far. In the first one it was straight up Elimination and then Knockouts. Really dynamic. Second one was more skill and consistency based, since it was a league. And it as very nice. Third one as well, but it was too long. But I really enjoyed this year's format. We had a Qualifier, Group Stage then Knockouts. I think it's good this way. It's a mix of momentum and consistency, so it's nice. But I would like to hear the opinions from you guys on this. I had fun hosting it the way it was, but of course it's more important to hear the participants on this matter.

(PLEASE TELL IN THE COMMENTS WHICH FORMAT DO YOU THINK IT'S THE BEST)

FINAL THOUGHTS - PRIZES
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This is the most important matter now, since the contest is over. But I'll have to make you guys wait a little bit. I'm still waiting on mR..A and Char for Pro and some coupons of coins, so hold on a little bit with the coins, we are not sure of exactly how much we will have, but we have some confirmed donations already, and we will have at least a 50k pot if everything goes right.
This is not a scam, haha. Last year we delivered the coins a little bit late but we did and we will do it again. We are probably not going to have the same pot as last year but we are going to do our best to have some great prizes.

In a different note, this year we had some extra motivation for you guys. REAL CASH! Major thanks to the GOATS Cork and Eryp for pulling this off. Correct me if I'm wrong, but what I got is that each of them are going to do a 20$ donation each. So we have a real cash pot of 40$. That's not an insane amount, but that is so cool for motivation and to keep this community moving. This one goes to everyone that might have said to you that riding those bikes online wouldn't pay your bills, haha. They are probably still right, but 40$ less right than last time, haha.

So this is how it will go: Eryp is going to donate 15$ to Anonyymi and 5$ to Calculus. Cork will donate 10$ to Anonyymi, 5$ to Calculus and 5$ to Sannin.

So, besides the coins, Anonyymi will get 25$, Calculus will get 10$ and Sannin will get 5$. They will contact you on how they are going to do that, because I'm not very good at handling those international money transfers things. Also, will let you guys know if something changes, but so far this is what we have for the prizes. Congrats, guys!

FINAL THOUGHTS - THE TEAM + SPECIAL THANKS
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Guys, but let's be honest. I took the initiative and all, but I really COULD HAVE NOT DONE this contest without my team. So here is my thank you to each one of you guys:

Odala - Thank you for reaching out willing to help, you did help with ideas, with the track, with your participation in the contest, so thank you! I know you got busy at the end but that's fine. It's how life goes.

Eryp - Thank you, man. Just, thank you. 2 really amazing tracks and a sponsorship of real cash, many great ideas, helped so much with the seeding and many other stuff. Really couldn't have done it as well as we did without you.

BrandonBishop50 - This guy is a legend. His efforts on making the tracks, making updates to the people when I couldn't, promoting the contest and making those beautiful spreadsheets with constant updates, doing the brackets, having so many ideas for the contest. This couldn't be done without you, man. Hope to count with you in the next one. Also you did a good form/survey that I'll talk about in the end.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Cork - For the cash donation. Really nice of you, man! You made the contest better.
demimondance - For the coin donation. Just like last year, you are becoming an official sponsor.
MasterWrecker, Srtrindade and Exylies - For reaching out for the coin donations. Let's hope mR..A and Char can help us get the donations done as soon as possible.
Coated_Badger - And also Exylies again for the tracks. Same for Calculus, Pie42 and everyone who helped somehow.

PS: If I forgot someone I'm sorry. You were important as well.

FINAL THOUGHTS - FUTURE CONTESTS
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So that's it. It's the end of this contest. Please let me know what you thought of the contest in the comments and in the poll that I'll make. Also in this form that BrandonBishop50 did: https://forms.gle/UUw1TrHG6y2kYc1t8.

Let us know about what you think of the format, the hosts, the tracks, the calendar and everything.

I'm planning on making this contest again next year. If I have the time I might do a only-bike trial contest before the next Free Rider World Cup. Let's see if we can get this done.

Also, how cool would be to have something like the NFRL again? If you guys want something like this I could help, but I would need a lot of people on the team because it's a lot to handle
Click if you don't know what I'm talking about: https://community.freeriderhd.com/threads/announcement-nfrl.6661/

Thank you guys for joining! We will talk soon enough about the prizes again! In the meantime, give us your feedback.

PS: It's 5 am where I am, so it's already my birthday. So don't be so mean, lol. 22 years. I'm old.

Edit: Poll tomorrow, I have to sleep.
Edit2: I'll mention some things about the players not on top 5 when I talk about the prizes.