Do you compete in online racing events?

[Gunn]

Online Live For Speed racing is gaining momentum, the LFS community has several well organised events and leagues to choose from. So let's see what racers think about competing online.

Choose the option that best describes your online competition status. Feel free to discuss your thoughts.

[Chris_Kerry]

I compete in the Vixen Challenge weekly and the OWRL when possible.

Both very well run FOX leagues.

[xaotik]

I've tried competing the OLFSL but due to lag from my side to their servers I never manage to finish. Had better luck with helping out hosting one race so far. However, it's great fun on any side.

The only downside with organized events is that they require some sort of commitment and "training" which can't always fit in someone's schedule.

[nikimere]

ESL UK and LFS Nations Cup atm.

[tristancliffe]

Vixen currently, and the disbanded UKLFS league before that. After Vixen I imagine I will look for another league, probably in another car, to take part in.

[CrazyICE]

launched my own fun-"league"...http://uf1champ.crazyice.net
two seasons finished...now it dies :(

not because a lag of visitors, but because of a time/team-issue :)
now, i focus more on my team...

[audimasta]

Joined the Oval/SO short league 99ers Kyoto Oval Bravura. Racing leagues are great :D

[Blackout]

Im competing in OLFSL, its my first cup thingy. Before that I have raced about 1h long single LFS Suomi (Finland) races. Organized longer private races are the most fun, I dont play much on public servers anymore :)

[Gunn]

I assume that most of you guys are competing close to home (geographically speaking). I imagine that for some people events may be scarce due to their location and to the popularity of LFS in their country or region.

[Tweaker]

It is the time the leagues choose to race, and the experience the league sometimes requires.

Early/Midday races in Europe don't workout for Pacific timezones. And vice versa.

And since North America doesn't actively have a wide assortment of leagues, you could picture the LFS Online Players graph history circling around the globe really. The peak would be in Europe, and the bottom down in North America... if you get what I mean. It really is too bad, not many leagues have been successful in our area because nobody shows full interest. In the early S1 days, a few startup leagues were made, but never finished. Usually North Americans have to suffice to playing in leagues that support International players and times.

Also, there are not many fast North American Drivers (maybe 10 tops), and the interest from them is dwindling since there is nobody else to race at night. It is not fun winning or having amateur racers lose all the time. That said, you could break it down why there are hardly any leagues here:

-Fast drivers -- Would win most of the leagues in our area, but also have hardly any competition, which isn't fun

-Slow drivers -- Would constantly be losing from the fast drivers in our area, and they lose hope way too fast, also not fun for them.

There ought to be more leagues for slower drivers. They need the professionally organized league to help their driving, also allowing to give them more racing experience in competitive races and pressure. I even wish that some Australian leagues could join up with North American players to make a league, their timezones are better suited for most of us, and they are usually playing LFS when we are playing our last two or three hours of racing in the evening. And their league structures always seem to work out well whenever I read about it.

But I wouldn't like to latch onto some other continent's leagues just to get some gameplay. We really DO need a well thought out league for our locale, but none have seemed successful enough in our region when comparing them to the successfullness of Europe's or Australia's leagues, at least to me.

Been in a few leagues, but ALL have been either cancelled, abandoned, or I left on my own behalf.

S1:
-LX League (cancelled when the MRT came out) (This was fun Josh!)
-Auto-X league (abandoned really)
-A few other small ones that weren't 'big'

S2:
-LFSnal (too big, not active enough, left)
-MoE (still in it, and so far the only league that can fit into my time)
-Other leagues I request to join, but later find myself leaving before season starts

[X-Ter]

I have been running in (and administrating) leagues at SCORE for almost three years now. And since the start on January 1:st 2003, more than 50% of the racers come from North America. To be exact, more than 47% of the hits on the site is from USA and little more than 12% is from Canada. The rest is mostly from Europe and Australia.

SCORE races has always started at 20:00 and 22:00 CET, witch is 2pm and 4pm EST. Since we race on Sundays, North Americans have no trouble at all joining at those times.

This year, we have had no less then 12 vehicles on the grid for any given race. Many of the wins are made by American as well as many of the track records. So calling North Americans slow is not fair at all :)

My only problem right now is to convince all those Americans and Canadians that a switch to LFS is a good idea. Not an easy task at all, and I can't really tell why. :shrug:

[Vendetta]

I would join leagues, but time is not on my side.

[NotAnIllusion]

I'd compete, problem is my rather restricted car choice. Only competitive in FXR, XFG :p

[YUGO45]

I compete in the nations cup,........ would want also to drive in some other league , just which one? :Looking_a

[Neokiller]

i compete in portuguese league and in nations cup sometimes... and in other leagues when i have time..

[Vykos69]

since 2003 in OLFSL and later that year in EPS and then endurance league ;)

Still running in EPS though ;)

[tailing]

I've been racing in the AAL since it first began as an offshoot of the Endurance League, can't remember now but that'd be 1-1.5 years ago.
I like it but sometimes wonder if you lose part of the fun when racing competitively. When I first played S1 I'd race online most nights for an hour or two, nowadays rather than regularly racing online I'll be practicing offline and only racing online in league races.

Hearing about how hard it is to get things going in the States I think we're pretty lucky here in Oz. Great community and high participation with 60 or more racers per event ranging from WR holders to those who just want a bit of fun.

Anyway I'd recommend league racing to anyone, no doubt it's where all the best racing takes place within LFS.

[Tweaker]

When I first played S1 I'd race online most nights for an hour or two, nowadays rather than regularly racing online I'll be practicing offline and only racing online in league races.

Hmmm very true I think. A lot of the legendary drivers of LFS are hardly online anymore, a real drag :( I think a lot of them are practicing for leagues like you mention here... and hardly going online :worried: S1 was fun, I always saw regulars and new faces online and it was great, but has the online play really grown old for some veterans???

Maybe it is because the faster drivers don't find the competition they deserve, and winning all the time is actually not all that rewarding when playing online against average drivers.... so they resort to playing in Leagues... hmmm. Oh well :shrug:

[kamo2000]

I raced in Polish Gti cup, and now racing in MPT cup.

[Vykos69]

Hmmm very true I think. A lot of the legendary drivers of LFS are hardly online anymore, a real drag :( I think a lot of them are practicing for leagues like you mention here... and hardly going online :worried: S1 was fun, I always saw regulars and new faces online and it was great, but has the online play really grown old for some veterans???

Maybe it is because the faster drivers don't find the competition they deserve, and winning all the time is actually not all that rewarding when playing online against average drivers.... so they resort to playing in Leagues... hmmm. Oh well :shrug:
I think, the competition in leagues got really tough, and therefor leagueracers like to practice for their upcoming races. That inherits clean racing on the track/car combo coming up. And that you mostly do not find on public servers cause the difference in skill is sometimes just too high, and instead of some cool clean training races you get a wrecking szenario... :/ Only solution then: Go to priv. servers or practice offline...

I for myself try to practice on public servers, but I see that it often gets boring to new guys, cause they simply cant keep up that fast without practicing (except next league race is on Aston National :P ;) ). It's a difficult situation actually ;)

[Tweaker]

I really don't see all the terrible wrecking, just accidents people make, it can happen. But it doesn't fit a league racer's preference to crash all the time probably... but online racing can still be fun.

Kind of defeats the purpose of racing online if all the CLEAN racers go race offline or in leagues... you know? It is just leaving LFS' reputation of an online racing sim to private races rather than its very sweet public Get-up-and-Go Sprint races it was known for (S1).... :( Leaves all the dirty and inexperienced racers online, which is terrible in my opinion. Most average drivers need to learn from the fast drivers, but S2 (because LFS now has damage) leaves the two main driving skill levels VERY much divided because fast drivers want to have a 'perfect' undamaged car and always win with fast times, sucks. Throw a bit of fun once in a while, online racing is still great fun out there..... it just hasn't been put to good use from fast drivers, the interest is very low for pub-ing.

[Bawbag]

I just joined the OFLS League, I joined because I was told it catered for faster people and slower people, I wouldn't have joined say an elite league or something like that, but in my 1st race I got 14th best hotlap which put me in pool 1 for todays race. Didn't think i'd get that especcially when i've just joined S2 a couple of weeks.

I can't wait till the big 30 lap race, all will be trying not to crash, no one joining mid race and ignoring blue flags etc etc, it should be good fun is my tyres don't explode! :D

[Richard Torp]

I never practise for a car/track combination in leagues. No time for it.
I race in Nations Cup, ESCC, Thursday Night Race, DPRT Sunday Cup (for danish racers only). Normally its fun...:thumb:

[tristancliffe]

For my league races (see above), I do a lot of practice in the proceeding week. This tends to take the form of 5 lap sprint races on public servers, so my league racing actually INCREASES the amount of public racing I do. Quid Pro Quo.

[joshdifabio]

...S1:
-LX League (cancelled when the MRT came out) (This was fun Josh!)...

Yeah it was a real shame that once the mrt came out there wasn't really any interest anymore and only about 5 of us turned up for the 2nd race :/.

[tailing]

For me at least trying to practice online is futile, not implying that races are filled with wreckers but there's just too many distractions and the races aren't long enough. The AAL runs races at least an hour long so I practice in stints the same length that I plan to run in the race so I can determine my best pace to run, factoring in fuel use and tyre wear.
I share a lot of your feelings about things Tweak and would like to get online more but I might get 5 hours a week to race which makes it hard. Also doesn't help that the AAL is so competitive :p :D

[owl_NO]

OLFSL and Nations Cup at the moment. It's great fun :)

[Blowtus]

I've had lfs for quite a while now, in the last few months I've played much more than ever, a mate entered a league and I liked the sound of it. makes it feel much more like 'racing', you know what track you'll be on next week, you know who you'll race, you need to work out a set, practice to become as competent as you want. Previously I'd assumed it'd feel too structured / stuffy, but I love it. Don't seem to race public servers at all these days though :( 1.5 events a week mean I'm either working on a setup / hotlap, or involved in the event. Don't have any more time than that to spend with lfs.

[Gunn]

For those who were introduced to online racing events through LFS, has competing changed your view towards race sims? Are you more serious than before or more interested in LFS now that you have tasted online competition?

For those who were introduced to online racing events prior to the apparance of LFS, how has LFS changed your view towards online racing?

[NotAnIllusion]

Granted, not really a series or a league, but I'm now involved in the 3 race endu tourney running the dSRC team's practice session on each of the consecutive Fridays. I've definitely taken racing mroe seriously immediately. I practiced a little for the first event, and as the 2nd one is approaching I find myself concentrating more and more on practising. Getting a solid rhythm, a decent consistency and pace needed for longer events.

It's great fun to be involved in such events, and does make joining other leagues a more distinct possibility because random races on public servers often don't have many people of the same skill level. I'm a clean driver, fast or not and judging from how much fun this current 3 race tourney is, I definitely look forward more and more to being involved in organised events of longer span!

[Blowtus]

For those who were introduced to online racing events through LFS, has competing changed your view towards race sims? Are you more serious than before or more interested in LFS now that you have tasted online competition?

yes, to both.

[STROBE]

Not sure if this is the right topic for this, but here goes.

I voted "haven't competed, and not sure if I want to". It's not because I have no interest in events, it's because I could never afford the time, persistence or inflexibility required to practice (sometimes from scratch) a particular car/track combo and have to race it on a particular day.

But that's not to say I love the public servers - I've often grown frustrated with the T1 spills, random shunts, etc. And recently over the past week I've noticed a couple of times that even when an admin is present, it doesn't do anything to improve things as they behave childishly and abuse their power, restarting the race just because they didn't make it through T1 in the way that they wanted, or threatening to ban you because you (unknowingly) tried to kick their friend whose car never moved from it's starting position on the main straight. Sure, I've just been unlucky and in both cases I just left and looked for another server, but both rude folk/n00bs and six year old admins take the fun out of public server racing sometimes.

So basically what would interest me most is a kind of "half way house": a server that runs longer races, but on a (automated?) schedule so they're much more regular than a weekly/fortnightly league event. For example, a server that:

- starts the cycle at the top of the hour with 10 mins free practice / messing about
- at ten past the hour, 20 mins qualifying.
- at half past, the race starts, which would last for 20-25 mins.

With no mid-race join and all the other n00b-unfriendly measures switched on, the racing would be cleaner but still accessible to all. Each week, it could change to a different car class / track combo, run that for a week, then change again, etc. And by sticking to an hourly schedule, once you know what that schedule is then you don't have to worry about missing the start of the next race if you go and make a drink/snack as is often the case on a public server running sprint races.

[bbman]

SCCC has hosted such an event, called Mini-Enduro... Was kinda fun, but only lasted 1 week... :shrug:

I'm racing OLFSL now, and to answer Gunn's question: Yeah, joining a league does change your way of racing... You're training to know a track till the event, you try to get consistent with decent times, in the same time you try to find a way not to burn the tires too much, tweak your setups and looking for a proper strategy, so that the event will be a success... :nod:

[XRRoy]

Dutch League and ESCC for me, but both are comming to their ends :(

ohye, used to race in endu aswell

[traxxion]

Dutch league, OLFSL, 1NL and (RIP) dE Ladder for me... :)

[sazea]

In S1: French MRT league and GT/GTi League, French Rally league, "Pepe" challenge and dE ladder. A lot of inter-team challenge with FRH versus BSKfr, SCR.

In S2: ESL LFS Warm up Cup, ESCC, French Rallycross League, Master of Endurance and LFS Nation Cup.

That's all :D

[B2B@300]

So basically what would interest me most is a kind of "half way house": a server that runs longer races, but on a (automated?) schedule so they're much more regular than a weekly/fortnightly league event. For example, a server that:

- starts the cycle at the top of the hour with 10 mins free practice / messing about
- at ten past the hour, 20 mins qualifying.
- at half past, the race starts, which would last for 20-25 mins.

With no mid-race join and all the other n00b-unfriendly measures switched on, the racing would be cleaner but still accessible to all. Each week, it could change to a different car class / track combo, run that for a week, then change again, etc. And by sticking to an hourly schedule, once you know what that schedule is then you don't have to worry about missing the start of the next race if you go and make a drink/snack as is often the case on a public server running sprint races.

I like the idea and it has been brought up before.. but IIRC it would need some insim programmer to make a program to do it and there isn't one available at the moment as far as I know :shy: but If someone was to make such a programme I would sponser a server to run like that :scratchch