Open Letter to Turtle Racing League
Members of Turtle Racing League,
Thank you for making your way over here. Your time is appreciated. It's recently been brought to my attention that some of you harbor strong resentment towards S.N.A.I.L. and I would like to address those feelings. Last week, one of your members
requested to join S.N.A.I.L. He seemed very friendly and
thankful for the help we provided him. And just as anyone is when they're about to race in a league for the first time,
he was excited and
looking forward to making his debut. However, Psycho apparently told Ph1sher a few things about S.N.A.I.L. before he raced with us. The result of that conversation was the following PM that Ph1sher sent to me exactly one week ago:
Ph1sher
will you fricken stop copying turtle racing league? you guys just want the racing that we have! but you don't! psycho told me about your league and how you copy our league when we have good ideas, and boom he was right! so why do you even copy us? do your league in YOUR OWN WAY!! and if you noticed, most of your snails are slowly moving over to turtle racing because we have much better racing over here. you can count me out of your league, based on your poor attitude towards your drivers and how you treat them! why would you ban a driver based on a mistake they have, like making garage father not race for 2 weeks? really, you're looking at everybody's line? dude YOU GUYS DONT KNOW HOW TO RUN A LEAGUE! that's why most snails are moving over to turtle, and trust me they said our league is way better because we we're nicer and better, cleaner racers. Take Care, and STOP FRICKEN STEALING TURTLE RACING LEAGUE'S IDEAS!!
-GoodBye and Thank you for your time!
Immediately after receiving his PM, I replied with the following:
zer05ive
I'm sorry you feel that way. If you don't mind me asking, what ideas have we copied from Turtle? I would never knowingly copy an idea from another league without asking for permission first. Just let me know what ideas you're talking about and I'll remove them from S.N.A.I.L. right away.
Unfortunately, Ph1sher never replied. I was really hoping he would because I honestly don't know of a single idea that S.N.A.I.L. has ever copied from Turtle. And after waiting for a reply for an entire week, it's apparent that that he has no intention of
ever replying.
That being said, I completely understand Ph1sher's frustration. Copying someone without asking for their permission is not only wrong on GTPlanet, it's wrong in
life. Being a victim of that is not a good feeling so I don't blame him one bit for wanting to lash out at a person he believed was guilty of this type behavior. It's unfortunate when people use the anonymity of the internet to behave in ways that they wouldn't in the real world, but we all know it happens all the time. In fact, last July I had many of the same feeling that Ph1sher expressed to me. S.N.A.I.L. was copied without permission and I felt the need to
voice my frustration just like Ph1sher voiced his frustration to me.
But since I was not able to discuss the situation with Ph1sher, I have no idea how many of you have been told that S.N.A.I.L. has stolen all of Turtle Racing League's ideas. Therefore, I concluded that the only way to address the situation was to address
all of you with this open letter. First, let's point out the obvious; our leagues have many, many similarities. There's just no getting around that fact. Therefore, I can see how Ph1sher and other member of Turtle might be easily mislead into thinking that S.N.A.I.L. copied all of Turtle Racing League's ideas. However, if you take a look at the facts, you might come to a different conclusion. Let's start by comparing both leagues and discussing some of the things that we have in common:
Spec Racing
Yes, it's true that both leagues are both 'Spec Racing' leagues. Could this be an idea that S.N.A.I.L. stole from Turtle? While S.N.A.I.L. did not originally start as a Spec Racing league, we converted to this this type of racing
on January 23, 2012. In fact S.N.A.I.L. was the first league on GTPlanet to require that the 'Tuning-Prohibited' setting be used in all of it races. Turtle Racing League wasn't even created until five months later.
Saturday night enduro races
One of S.N.A.I.L.'s racing series has endurance races on Saturday nights, just like Turtle Racing League does. Could that be something S.N.A.I.L. copied from Turtle? Let's take a look.. On April 10th, 2012, cmbeal317 started
an event on the S.N.A.I.L. thread featuring endurance racing on Saturday nights starting at 10pm Eastern. Apparently Psycho liked cmbeal's idea of enduro racing on Saturday nights, because
he immediately asked when the new the Saturday night enduro series started.
After cmbeal's Saturday night enduro series finished its first season, I suggested that he create
a dedicated thread for it with the full backing of S.N.A.I.L. After all, he's raced more times in S.N.A.I.L.
than anyone else in the history of the league. How could S.N.A.I.L. not support his efforts to start a new series? That being said, one key thing remained the same about cmbeal's new series; it still featured enduro racing on Saturday nights at 10pm Eastern.
Ten days later, Psycho starts Turtle Racing League featuring enduro racing on Saturday nights at 10pm Eastern. Sound familiar?
Reverse Grid Races
Both of our leagues feature reverse grid races that are run immediately after a "Fastest First" races on the same car and track. The only thing I can tell you is that those reverse grid races have been a part of S.N.A.I.L. since the very beginning of our league. Considering that the S.N.A.I.L. thread was started more than six months before Turtle Racing League, it's impossible that this idea was taken from Turtle.
Multiple Divisions with Driving Aids allowed in Lowest Division
S.N.A.I.L. and Turtle are also the only leagues that have drivers assigned to multiple divisions. Also, both or our lowest divisions allow the use of driving aids. Are these both coincidences are could these be something that S.N.A.I.L. copied from Turtle? After all, multiple divisions weren't even considered when S.N.A.I.L. started simply because all of our member easily fit in my lounge, which is where we originally raced. However, as we gained more members, we eventually created a divisional system
out of necessity. After we were up to three divisions, one of our members suggested that we
allow driving aids and another member suggested
creating a new division in which driving aids were allowed. Psycho
liked both of those ideas and so six weeks later he created Turtle Racing League with multiple divisions right off the bat with the lowest division allowing driving aids.
Name of PSN accounts
One thing I'm sure Ph1sher noticed when he was assigned to his division in S.N.A.I.L. was that the name of our PSN accouts was strikingly similar to Turtle's. Is it possible that this was something that S.N.A.I.L. copied from Turtle Racing League? Please consider that S.N.A.I.L. created our divisional accounts all the way back on
February 7th, 2012. When Psycho joined S.N.A.I.L. a month later
on March 9th, 2012, he was sent a friend request from our SNAIL_Division2 account. Then
on May 5th, 2012, he asked for and received access to our SNAIL_Division1 and SNAIL_Division3 accounts as well. Six weeks later, he created Turtle Racing League which utilized accounts named TURTLE_Division1, TURTLE_Division2, and TURTLE_Division3. Based on the timing and Psycho's first hand knowledge of S.N.A.I.L.'s divisional accounts, hopefully it's clear that this wasn't something that S.N.A.I.L. copied from Turtle.
Promotion and Relegation
Promotion and relegation is something that S.N.A.I.L. first discussed
on January 30th, 2012. And as with most topics, we deliberated it at length. Psycho even contributed to the conversation
on June 5th, 2012, when he offered a suggestion and asked what the "pros and cons" of it would be. Two weeks later, he started Turtle Racing League featuring a system of Promotion and Relegation. I hope this sufficiently proves that Promotion and Relegation is not something that S.N.A.I.L. copied from Turtle Racing League.
Tire Restrictions
Tire restrictions were an important topic in S.N.A.I.L. and
we discussed and tweaked them at length. We thought we had finally come to a decision
on April 24, 2012, but it wasn't quite right so
we fine-tuned it again and again. In fact, Psycho even made
his own suggestion for the tire restrictions that S.N.A.I.L. should use. But instead, we opted for
these tire restrictions on April 26, 2012:
Two month's later, Psycho created Turtle Racing League with the identical tire restrictions (and has used them ever since):
Points System
Something else Ph1sher may have noticed was how similar the scoring systems were between our two leagues. After all S.N.A.I.L. and Turtle Racing League are the only two leagues on GTPlanet that have maximum score of 100 points in a night. Is this just coincidence or did S.N.A.I.L. in fact steal this idea from Turtle? You can decide for yourself, but one thing I can tell you is that our points system is something that we
deliberated at length. After four and half months of discussion and imput from our members, we finally created our
"perfect" points system. The "unique" feature of it was that we would award bonus points for winning pole position so that a "perfect" night of racing would result in 100 points:
As for Turtle's points system, there are three things worth mentioning. First, that Psycho admitted that he had "
no experience with race series points systems". Second, that
he REALLY liked S.N.A.I.L's new points system. And third, that he created Turtle Racing League six weeks later with a strikingly similar 100-point scoring system in which bonus points were awarded to ensure that a "perfect" night would equal 100 points:
In summary, S.N.A.I.L. has worked hard to find some great ideas for our league. One member who was particularly fond of the ideas was Psycho. In fact,
on April 29th, 2012, he called many of the ideas "great" and gave them a big "thumbs up". Seven week later, he created Turtle Racing League using those very same ideas.
Please know that this letter is not intended to bash the members of Turtle Racing League. In fact, there are several snails who race in your league too and they are valued members of S.N.A.I.L. The letter is merely an attempt to set the record straight for anyone who has been mislead to believe that S.N.A.I.L., as Ph1sher put it, is "stealing all of Turtle Racing League's ideas". So much time, work, and effort goes into coming up with ideas for a league, that's it's understandable why he reacted the way he did. One person who knows first hand about the efforts behind running a league is Psycho. And no, I'm not talking about the efforts it takes him to run Turtle, I'm talking about the feeling he expressed to the leaders here at S.N.A.I.L. when he said, "
I am aware of the effort that goes into each division not to mention the league as a whole. It is very much appreciated!". I guess he has a funny way of showing appreciation..
So the next time Psycho tries to convince you that S.N.A.I.L. is "the enemy" because we stole all of Turtle's ideas, please consider the facts presented above. You might even come to a different conclusion as to who's copying who..
Best Regards,
zer05ive
P.S. Have you guys figured out who I was referring to in that
post from last July?
P.P.S. Any idea why your league was named after such a sloooww animal? I mean really, who would name a
racing league after something so obviously lacking in speed?