I really wanted to see these FIA championships succeed, as I've been a fan of the franchise for almost two decades now and consider GT Sport, with the extra content it's gotten over the last year, to be among the best modern racing games. However, the events of today were a huge blow for Gran Turismo's attempts to gain traction as an e-sport, and earn respect from the sim racing crowd.
PD likes to have everyone driving different cars in most races for the sake of the show. This is fine when it's Group 3 (GT3) and the players have some control over what they end up driving. The Semi-Final and especially the Manufacturers Series were great races that showcased sim racing at it's best. But come the Final, everything went to hell.
Two of the four races were N500 (road cars with roughly 500 horsepower) and Group 1 (LMP1). Neither class is balanced; the former because they lack the data on road cars, the latter because the group features hybrids, non-hybrids, Group C, and concept models. Even Group 3 has some duds in an otherwise balanced class. Since everyone had to drive something different, how could they possibly make things fair?
The answer was that they didn't. The final 16 picked their cars by lucky dip. Yes, they actually decided a world championship on lucky dip, with Ryota Kokubun (one of the favourites) in particular getting jobbed by an awful trio of cars. And even if the eventual champion was probably the best driver on the day anyway, the victory is made to look hollow in the wake of such an unfair format.
What makes this more of a blow for me is the fact that PD had three regional finals to gather feedback from and improve the format. The change to lucky dip for the final round was itself a response to the top 10 battle in Asia-Oceania hinging on the draft order being based in order of rankings in the online season, which denied Latkovski a chance to win that. But surely PD would've heard the rumblings of this being an equally bad set-up, either from the competitors, the observers, or both, and they should've gone back to the drawing board.
But they didn't, and it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I say this out of love for Gran Turismo, not hate. This cannot be allowed to happen next year, PD either need to get much better at working the BoP or stop trying to shoehorn in races in poorly balanced classes. And the lucky dip needs to die.
PD likes to have everyone driving different cars in most races for the sake of the show. This is fine when it's Group 3 (GT3) and the players have some control over what they end up driving. The Semi-Final and especially the Manufacturers Series were great races that showcased sim racing at it's best. But come the Final, everything went to hell.
Two of the four races were N500 (road cars with roughly 500 horsepower) and Group 1 (LMP1). Neither class is balanced; the former because they lack the data on road cars, the latter because the group features hybrids, non-hybrids, Group C, and concept models. Even Group 3 has some duds in an otherwise balanced class. Since everyone had to drive something different, how could they possibly make things fair?
The answer was that they didn't. The final 16 picked their cars by lucky dip. Yes, they actually decided a world championship on lucky dip, with Ryota Kokubun (one of the favourites) in particular getting jobbed by an awful trio of cars. And even if the eventual champion was probably the best driver on the day anyway, the victory is made to look hollow in the wake of such an unfair format.
What makes this more of a blow for me is the fact that PD had three regional finals to gather feedback from and improve the format. The change to lucky dip for the final round was itself a response to the top 10 battle in Asia-Oceania hinging on the draft order being based in order of rankings in the online season, which denied Latkovski a chance to win that. But surely PD would've heard the rumblings of this being an equally bad set-up, either from the competitors, the observers, or both, and they should've gone back to the drawing board.
But they didn't, and it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I say this out of love for Gran Turismo, not hate. This cannot be allowed to happen next year, PD either need to get much better at working the BoP or stop trying to shoehorn in races in poorly balanced classes. And the lucky dip needs to die.
