ENDED Free Rider World Cup 5 - Prizes Out!

If everything goes right, January 24th.

 

That's exactly how we did it last year. A semi-ramdom way. Since the poll is ending in a couple of hours and it's unlikely that the results will change, I will announce how things are going to go. I will also release the calendar today. Expect updates in a bit.

 

UPDATES ON THE CONTEST:

Hey guys, how are you doing? The contest is starting soon, so there's two things I would like to talk about today. First one being the format of the contest, since the poll for it ends today. We'll discuss how many rounds will happen, the duration of those rounds and how things are going to go. After that, we will talk spefically about the contest's calendar, with dates, times, deadlines and how we will proceed with things related to that.

CONTEST'S FORMAT

So, let's talk about the the format of the contest. First of all, as I'm writing this post we had 52 total votes on the poll, which is very good, so thanks to everyone that voted, even if you didn't join. I made the poll because we have tried all kinds of formats and I wanted to have the one that the majority of the people liked better. So we are doing Option C (that won win almost 60% of the votes), the same format from last year.

This format has 3 different stages and resembles the FIFA's World Cup of soccer/football.

Stage 1: Qualifiers

As of right now, we have 37 players. The idea here is to reduce that number to 32 players, where we can work better with those numbers. There will be a Qualifiers track (the first one, to be released in January 24th), where all of the contestants will have to race to get the best time possible on there. The players with the 32 best times will advance to the next stage (Group Stage), and the remaining 5 will be eliminated. I'll make a track to announce the contest in the game to see if we can get some more players and there's a few ones that might still join, so that number may grow, but no matter how many players we get, we are reducing that amount to 32 players, so even if you think you have a great chance of qualifyng, don't forget to try to improve your ghost, because you can't see all of the 32 players in the leaderboard. We will try to make you guys updated on who's getting eliminated close to the end of the round (BrandonBishop50 is probably going to make a spreadsheet about that) so you guys aren't caught off guard, but it's a tricky round for sure.

Stage 2: Group Stage

In the group stage, we will have a seeding process where we will sort the players out in 8 groups of 4 semi-randomly. I'm the only one from the team that is going to participate in the contest, so the ones who won't, will be in charge of the seeding. The only things that will be done manually are putting the qualified players in the different pots so we could have more balanced groups. We will make 4 pots. The best quarter of players in pot 1, then the next quarter in pot 2, then the next in pot 3 and after this one, there's pot 4. We will not make it based on the Qualifiers Round result, because people could intentionally get "bad" results to get on "easier groups". We have good parameters to be based on, like the Official Featured Ghosts list, the Free Rider Top 100 list, and our own experience as ghosters, so we will make a wise choice on the pots. Then there will be a draw where we will randomly (using some program, number generator or whatever) put 1 player from each pot in each group.

The groups will consist of 4 players, where there will have 3 matches per player, each one against a different player from the group. Winner of the match (best time out of the 2 players in the match) gains 3 points, loser gets no points. A draw would be hard to happen, but if it happens, 1 point is given for each player. If the player misses the match or fails on making a ghost, he loses 1 point. Then, the best 2 players from each group will advance. If 2 players get tied in points, the player with the lowest combined time (sum of every time from the player's ghosts from the Group Stages) will advance. If it somehow remains tied, the spot goes to the winner of the match between the 2 players. If somehow (really?) it remains tied, the best time from the qualifiers gets the spot. If that's not enough we'll figure something out.

Stage 3: Knockouts Stage

In the Knockouts Stage we'll have an eliminatory stage with the 16 players that advanced onto the next stage. In the Round of 16, we'll pair those 16 players t in 8 matches (see below)* and the winners advance to the next stage, the Quarterfinals. In the Quarterfinals we reduce to 8 players with 4 matches, then there's the Semifinals with 4 players in 2 matches and then Championship Finals with the 2 finalists and the 3rd Place match, that we'll talk more in a bit.

*In the Round of 16 we'll probably have the matchups lined up like that:

1st Group A vs 2nd Group B
1st Group B vs 2nd Group A
1st Group C vs 2nd Group D
1st Group D vs 2nd Group C
1st Group E vs 2nd Group F
1st Group F vs 2nd Group E
1st Group G vs 2nd Group H
1st Group H vs 2nd Group G

Bonus: Losers Championship

Also there will be a Loser Championship, with everyone who lost except the ones in Qualifiers round, and it will be happening in the same tracks that the next stages will take place (with 2 additional ones). The losers of the group stage will battle in the next round against each other in 1v1 matches for a spot in the next round where they will face the losers of the next knockout stage. This first stage will happen during the Round of 16, and there'll be rounds for the Losers Championship in the Quarterfinals and Semifinals tracks in a parallel way to the main contest. After that, there will still be 6 players in the Losers Championship, so there will be 2 additional quick rounds for that. In the Losers Championship Semifinals there will be two 1v1v1 matches that will reveal the 2 finalists of the Loser Championship Finals. Then the 2 players have a match in another quick round and the winner will gain a spot on the 3rd Place Match against the losers of the Semifinals from the main contest, in an 1v1v1 match for the 3rd place that will happen in the same track as the main Championship Finals, that will be an 1v1 match with the 2 winners of the Semifinals.

Here is something from last year, but that is meant for 16 players. It's not 100% like the contest then, but it's pretty similar and will help visualize how things are going to go. Any questions let me know (we might update this).
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j0NJLY89wMVoohC8opyl4Ncf26C1evdiAUJgupaB6Uk/edit

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We are making new spreadsheets to help visualize the whole thing. Here's some from last year to help you guys to see how things will be displayed:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18y46TdNsP5q8iJ7SsLmJg8JvH6d3mFbAVm-t2x9kl9s/edit#gid=7295258
We will make new ones soon.

CONTEST'S CALENDAR

So, here is what we came up with for the calendar. The rounds will be 3 days long for the most part. The 2 additional rounds for the Losers Championship will be the exceptions, since they will be only 2 days long. We will also have a full day for the Seeding process, since we'll need to analyze the players who advanced for the Group Stage in order to make the Seeding. The contest is starting in January 24th and ending on February 22nd, with the results, final post and hopefully an update on the prizes coming in the next day. So, here is the calendar:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ExIsShxzkZboK08RtO694lCGLXu3tVBvyHvCnDt_zN8/edit?usp=sharing


PS: Other then the Apocolypse donation I'm not sure about the prizes yet, but I'll update you guys if I have something interesting.

PS2: The time when the tracks are going to be posted (approximately) is on the Calendar in the GMT timezone, and the CST, EST, BRT and AST timezones, that are the ones from the members of the team. If you guys have a suggestion of another good timezone just tell me and I'll add.

PS3: 5 days until the contest, let's go!

 

Not really, lol. But last year there were some doubts on how things would work, so I tried to explain it in the best way possible this time, haha. Not sure if it worked, but I hope so.

Short version: Just get one of the 32 best times in the first round and after that, just check who you are up against each round and try to beat the player. At the end of the contest you will either get eliminated or win the whole thing, lol

 

Great times... Is the legend ZPresley coming to play this time? Also Anonyymi. Come on? Show yourself, haha. You have a few days to decide if you will attempt to keep the crown or not.