It’s been a long time coming, but GT Academy finally arrived in the United States last month to, apparently, a very warm reception. According to the PlayStation Blog, over 50,000 players have registered since it kicked off just one month ago. Though registration is still open, if you need to act fast if you want in – Round 1 ends this Sunday, January 23rd, at noon EST.
The top drivers from each region are already getting settled in to GTPlanet’s GT Academy 2011 Forum, anxious to see what Round 2 has in store… Once again, good luck to everyone!
Photomode image by 240SXDRFT.
See more articles on GT Academy USA 2011 and SCEA.
“I don’t wanna become a pro driver give me money or bunch of free stuff”
If you ranked high enough each week you can win prizes. If you make the most of the pro driver part you’ll actually get money. Noob.
Stfu retard wat do u kno
More than you apparently :/
The prize is stupid I don’t wanna become a pro driver give me money or bunch of free stuff just because you are good in a game doesn’t mean u gonna be good in real life .like anybody would take u seriously yea I’m a pro driver because I was good at a game.I love this game
Well youve obviously never heard of Lucas Ordonez have you? A very successful GT4 Championship driver (i think still) that came out of the world of GT.
To be fair Lucas Ordonez had plenty of kart-racing experience and he competed in the Spanish Formula Toyota championship.
I’d love to know how Jordan Tresson and the winner of GT Academy North America will fare though because it will probably be a more representative of what a Gran Turismo player can really do in real life.
I entered but its hard to keep up with the people who get to play it every night. I get to play maybe once a week.(Married, Kids) and my wife has been in and out of the hospital for her shoulder.
I hope they do this again for americans in the future. I really think I had a chance but dont ever get the chance to drive. :(
Oh well, good luck to all those in teh top 128 per reagion!
Jeez, your life sound tough… maby you can sneak out of bed and practice at least once more every week… just don’t let the wife catch you, they also make sourround sound headphones so you don’t wake the kids. I hope I’ve made your life a little more exciting with these tips.
@Moby45
Would be great if they actually hold a worldwide GT Academy or actually expand it to more regions.
I’m pretty sure a bunch of Canadians would’ve given you Americans a run for your money if they were allowed to enter ;)
Why does everything only ever apply to Americans. There’s billions of other people in the world. Go back to the moon lol
Um. Actually, the first two GT Academies were for Europe only.
hey it ends at 23:59 eastern, according to the offical rules. not 12 noon has stated
50000 is a lot. I have the game and play it like crazy but I didn’t register. Not because I don’t want to be a pro driver or that I’m under 18 it’s just that I’m not that good. I know my limitations and every time I play GT I learn more about actual racing and become a better driver but I’m not good enough to compete. I can’t even win against good players in the online mode, I don’t want to be humiliated in a contest.
Wow, at least I’m better than 49,800 people out there.. I’m ranked 200 last time I checked!
Mind you, anyone under 18 can NOT enter. And many over 18 may be casual drivers not lookking to drive seriously or competitively. I’d imagine a few hundred thousand to own GT in the US altogether and I’d imagine with the casual gamers and underaged being counted out, 50,000 is a good amount.
I’d also imagine that 1 in like 30 racers own a wheel. And those who are serious but dont own/ can’t afford a wheel might also be counted out since they may believe that having a wheel is detrimental to placing in the competition. 5o,ooo is reasonable considering these things. In my opinion that is.
Sucks I wasn’t in that 50,000
Wish I knew how many people there were in each region.
I was sitting at 200th a few days back..I’m probably not going to be able to make the cut, but I don’t feel like I did horribly.
I wonder how many Canadians would have entered, eh?
I tried but couldn’t get a confirmation email. I have an American account that I don’t actually use, except for this contest.
Canadians can’t drive so there your answer zero
I thought there would be more entrants also. Even if becoming a pro driver doesn’t interest you, there are prizes awarded every week of the competition. In Round 1, 25 Logitech DFGT’s and 5 GT5 Playseats were given away.
Oh well, its still cool to say I’m in the top 0.0004% in the US! =)
TRC_Hunk, I’ve been using your ghost replays. I am in the top 1700-something. Not bad, but I don’t have the skill or time to compete with you. Great job, and congrats!
What wheel do you use?
50,000 is a lot, not everyone who bought the game is looking to become a pro driver. Most of us are married with children, and have jobs!
I’m pretty sure most copies were sold TO children who think that they can race, but at the end of the day they lack the proper understanding of throttle and brake control. I’ve seen too much ridicules driving behavior in the open lobby, I’d say about 90% of people who bought a copy may be on the level of being a disciplined racer.
Sorry 10% actually, 90% are kidding themselves…haha
@occasionalracer i believe it is 18 or up for the age. kids cant do the race.
I’m 17, not to boast or anything but I’m a hell of a better driver than a lot of the older jerkweeds online, main culprits of that being GT, an obsession with cars since 4, and a Mom who used to drag race in her neighborhood.
Even if I was 18, signed up for GT Academy, and get high enough in the rounds to be able to participate in it, I still wouldn’t do it; apart from NASCAR, pro-driving is a dead end sport.
@ FlareKR
That is the typical way an American views the world… Sorry to make the stereotype… I know there are people that do have interest and knowledge about international views and way of life. But you can’t sum up that racers can’t make it big just because the US doesn’t have many mainstream oppertunities besides maby NASCAR and Indy. I can guarentee you that everyone in Europe knows who Sebastian Vettel is by now, even my Grandma. You would have had to live under a rock to have missed that news, and that’s because big Motorsports headlines actually make news everywhere. The are so many more racing leagues in Europe, and alot of fans as well. On the other hand I agree with your statement that in the US you way more likely to make it big if you’ve worked your way up to professional sports, like NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL, PGA ect…. that’s something no country in the world has to offer all at once, and I must say that’s amazing entertainment (even though many ppl agree it’s not what it was when compared to the 80’s-90’s…too commercial now). Kind of makes sense that Motorsports is chillin on the back burner. But in the end there’s no way anybody is going to make it big through GT Acadamy, there are just too many guys out there that have been professionally racing for their whole life, and those guys would be the first to get any big oppertunity. GT Acadamy is more of an awareness campain to let people know that GT can make you a good racer, and there’s no denying that it will help maintain your reflexes and reaction times, but nothing will substitute real life training of course.
They’d have had a better turnout if Canadians were allowed to drive.
Oh well, WRS it is. :)
50,000 hmmmm I’m in 188 position at the moment… Makes me feel good :)
There are still pretty much contestants who take part in this event. Im still dissapointed that we here in Europe cant… :P
Thank you Jordan for the news.
Hmm… considering the amount of gamers in the States (And the number of GT5 copies sold)…. I guess it’s not much. But hey, at least we’ll have a better chance of winning ;)
Wow..I thought it’d be much more
just 50, i was thinking about 200
lol, more like not first, but you were only off by five minutes…..
50 doesn’t sound low either. Most people know they’re not good enough and don’t bother. Others just know they won’t be able to drop what they’re doing in life to go to academy and race, so again don’t bother.
It’s quite possible that others have a voice that says – ‘Ive got no chance – so why enter’
Perspective – 50,000 won’t fill a major stadium.And when you see that amount of people it doesn’t seem many considering the amount of people still outside a stadium going about normal life.
I was about to say, a lot of people don’t want to even try for pro racing as their “career”. I know automobiles is my passion but that’s not what I want to do, I want to actually design them. And very few racers ever reach the amount of fame and money as some other sports like NBA or NFL, and even people who don’t watch those or aren’t into them know of people like Michael Vick or Dwyane Wade (Yeah I’m a HEAT fan). Apart from NASCAR (which fits into the previous criteria I reffered to last sentence) ask people which drivers they know from F1 or other sports; you’ll be lucky if some rich Argentine kid says Michael Schumacher; unfortunatly, racing is not the best sport to be in if you want to make it big. Out of those 50,000 people, what’s the chance of that ONE making it big? Very, very slim.
P.S. Out of a school of 1,200 people only two knew who Sebastian Vettel is (me being one of them).
only? lol
The 2008 Academy held in Europe (with GT5 Prologue as the platform) only attracted 25,000 entrants.
It’s probably a good way of reducing the load in the PSN servers since only the reasonably serious competitors will go through the whole registration process.
I am stunned that there are that many drifters in this state.
I saw that they were using comfort tires and stayed away. lol
The should have opened this contest for Canadians as well!
@Devon
?????????