hey guys! the first season of FRHD Teams starts on Sunday, September 1st, just a couple of days away. I'm really excited to see how the first season unfolds. I've heard rumblings of a few incredible tracks coming soon, some serious competitive talk, and I've got a few surprises in store for you all, so I think this season will be chock full of cool experiences. so obviously this is a new type of contest. as TPlacella called it, a "Team Mission Mode", which I think is accurate! it's meant to encourage a playful team dynamic for the forums, which I think will inspire a sense of camaraderie for teammates and some gentle ribbing between opposing teams, all in good fun. this season will be an experiment in a few ways. it was a big risk to let you guys blindly self-sort into teams, but in the spirit of serendipity, I wanted to see how it'd play out with no info. I've put a lot of thought into the points and the powerups, but there's no way of knowing the perfect balance of each thing without trying it out. and once this season starts, I'm committed to not changing the scoring and rules (for this season), for better or for worse. I have absolute legend Volund with me to run this thing, I could never run an event without his trusted input, and the team captains (Cerasium, Eryp, Rayb25, and Pie42) have each been extremely helpful in getting their teams running, providing feedback, and asking the right questions. Totoca12 has been instrumental in getting the ghosting side of this handled as well. huge thanks to all of them and everyone else involved so far. so however this game plays out, above all I want you guys to have fun with it. often I come onto the forums and see several people online but no new posts, and I wanted to do something social that everyone could participate in. so that's what this is, lol. there's a few things to clear up before the games begin! each team now has a hidden forum! only your team (and admins, myself, and Volund) can see and post in these threads. feel free to use these forums however you'd like, whether for strategizing or shenanigans. links to forums: heli, truck, balloon, blob. the exact starting time of earning points will be when I post the "week zero" results on saturday night in the weekly score report thread. this means only tracks posted and ghosts made after that point will be able to be counted for points. do not expect the next featured ghost update to count for points, as it will only contain ghosts from January through August. Volund is hosting the first Teams-based contest, the Team Duathlon Contest. team captains are drafting team members to form squads right now, so talk to your team! I've added a 100-point incentive for team spirit, will be given to each team that shows an effort to cooperate and develop a team culture. stuff like making group signatures or avatars, logos, code words only you know, secret handshakes, mottos, whatever else you can think of. seeing how you guys build your team together is what excites me most about the contest, so I want to encourage that. just to reiterate, the vehicle powerups that your teams are named after, those are just team names! a vehicle for you to rally behind. you are not required to only use that vehicle or make tracks only for that vehicle, that would be kinda crazy. and a reminder that the first 20 points of the competition are up for grabs: that's all for now! if you guys have any questions about the contest, feel free to ask, now is the time. hope you guys are as excited as I am.
