Congratulations to Nick McMillen..
From Virtual to Reality..
From S.N.A.I.L. to GT Academy Champion!!
From left to right:
Christopher Hill (Runner-Up), Nick McMillen (Champion), Brian Marsteller (3rd Place)
Congrats to all the SNAILs who advanced to the GT Academy Silverstone finals!
From left to right:
Martin Sprau, Dan Reude, Brian Marsteller, Joey Barbato, Nick McMillen, Doug Hawkins, Christopher Hill
Click the logo below for details on the ButtKicker 4D Sports Challenge!!
Welcome to S.N.A.I.L.
Our mission is to provide our members with the cleanest and most competitive racing experience possible with minimal prep time required. No matter what your skill level is, we will provide you with a full grid of similarly-skilled drivers to compete against. It's our belief that close racing is not only exciting, but is also the best way to improve your skill and refine your racecraft! We have our official league night every Sunday night at 9:30pm Eastern / 6:30pm Pacific (we also have a new
West Coast time slot starting at 9pm Pacific!!), but we also have a
full schedule of events held on every night of the week. If this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, please keep reading to learn more about our league and how to join us.
What Makes Us Different
There are five things that we offer that you won't find anywhere else. First of all, we provide our members with the most
evenly-matched competition possible. In fact, the intense level of competition that we produce has established S.N.A.I.L. as an ideal place to
prepare for GT Academy. And if you like to keep track of your improvement, you'll be glad to know that we keep the most
comprehensive race data available on GTPlanet. On top of that, if you like to have a say in what cars and tracks you race, we feature an
interactive process that allows your voice to be heard. And finally, we're the only league where our members
win valuable prizes just for showing up to race! What more could you ask for?!
Evenly-Matched Competition
Have you ever watched a professional race where drivers with completely different skill levels were competing on the same track? Of course not! That wouldn't be fun to watch, let alone fun to participate in. Unfortunately, that disparity of pace is something you'll often find in organized online racing. When this happens, you'll be lucky to just a few drivers that you're truly competitive with. Everyone else will usually either be faster or slower than you. We prevent that from happening in S.N.A.I.L. by dividing our drivers into six separate divisions based on speed and skill. This results in full grids of evenly-matched competition and creates the closest and most intense sim racing experience around!
Preparation for GT Academy
If you have your eye on competing in GT Academy one day, there is no better place than S.N.A.I.L. to hone your skills to the elite levels necessary to make it to the finals. You need to be the best of the best to make it to Silverstone, and that's exactly what the drivers in our top division are. Half of this year's GT Academy Silverstone Finalists race in S.N.A.I.L. (click
here if you want advice directly from one of them). However, even if you don't aspire to win GT Academy someday, it's still great to be able to get tips and advice from many of the best drivers around. Regardless if you're a professional racer or a casual gamer, we can provide you with the perfect environment to learn and get faster!
Win Valuable Prizes
Have you ever wished you could win free stuff just for having fun? If so, then you might want to know that our members win valuable real-world prizes just for racing with us! These prize are based on participation and
not on race results. Some examples of prizes our members have won include a
GranStand Cockpit, a
ButtKicker Gamer2, a
GranStand Wheel Stand, and a
Wireless ButtKicker Kit. And if you want to help organize our league, you can join
TEAM S.N.A.I.L. and earn even more prizes such as shirts (e.g.
S.N.A.I.L. shirt,
F1 shirt,
GT Academy shirt), electronic/gaming hardware (e.g.
Hauppauge PVR), sim racing equipment (e.g.
Playseat Evolution), and other Gran Turismo related items (e.g.
GTPEDIA).
Spec Racing
S.N.A.I.L. was the first GTPlanet league to prohibit tuning in all of our races. This combined with the fact that we race in the same cars produces a type of racing called "spec" racing. Spec racing ensures that success is determined solely by driving skill and not by differences in car power, gearing, suspension, weight, or aerodynamics. Because variables in the car are eliminated, spec racing is the truest measure of driver skill! It also produces intense battles for position because all of the cars are equally strong or weak in the same areas of the track. Another benefit of spec racing is that you'll never spend time tuning cars or wondering if someone is truly faster than you or if they just have a better tune.
Race Format
Our league night lasts for two hours and is split into three rounds. Each round consists of two races that last
10 to 12 minutes on a predetermined car and track combo. At the beginning of each round, a brief qualifying session determines the order of the starting grid. The first race is set to 'Fastest First' to reward the best qualifiers and the second race is set to 'Reverse Grid' in order to promote on-track action. Points are awarded based on our
"perfect" points system. After a round is completed, we move on to the next round and repeat the same process with the next car and track combination. Once all three rounds are complete, we tally up the points and then let our interactive format kick in.
Interactive Process
Our unique format allows everyone to have a say on which cars and tracks we race. It is also used to strike a balance between
familiarity and
variety of cars and tracks. In other words, the progression of cars and tracks that we race is slow enough for us to learn them well, but fast enough that they don't get "old". At the end of league night, everyone votes on which car and track combo they enjoyed the least. The combo that receives the most "elimination votes" is dropped from
the lineup entirely. The combo that receives the second most votes is also dropped, but only partially. This is where our prizes play an important role in our interactive format.
Prizes
A prize is awarded to the divisions winners with the three highest scores. The division winner with the highest score gets Prize A. The division winner with the second highest score gets Prize B. The division winner with the third highest score gets Prize C: (NOTE: The three prize winners' votes do not count towards the car/track elimination vote)
Prize A: The right to select the new car and track combo to replace the combo that was voted off
Prize B: The right to replace either the car
or the track of the combo that received the second most votes
Prize C: The tie-breaking vote if the elimination vote results in a tie
Promotion and Relegation
Although we split our drivers into separate divisions based on performance and skill level, we realize that our drivers are constantly improving and deserve a chance to climb the ladder of success. That's why we promote and relegate drivers before every season based on the results and data compiled during the previous season. This is also done to ensure that our races are as competitive as possible for all of our league members, top to bottom. Regardless of which division you're in, you will almost always be fighting to gain or defend a position on the track. Simply put, no other Gran Turismo league in the world can offer this much competitive racing to so many different skill levels.
Comprehensive Race Data
It's not always accurate to promote and relegate drivers based on championship points alone. That's why the massive amounts of data we track are invaluable to our league. You'd be hard-pressed to find a sim racing league anywhere in the world that tracks driver data and race results more comprehensively than we do. In fact, our
S.N.A.I.L. Results document contains so much information that we have to archive old data to avoid exceeding the GoogleDoc's maximum capacity! You can use this data to track the points championship for each season and compare yourself to other drivers in categories such as fast laps, total race pace, total points, average points per race, and
power rankings.
Rules
We expect all drivers to follow our
OLR Rules and pursue
good racecraft at all times. If you're not sure what good racecraft is, watch
this video. It can be summed up in one simple '
Golden Rule' of motorsports:
It is the responsibility of the overtaking driver, meaning the car that is attempting to execute the pass, to make sure that the pass is made cleanly and incident free. If you don't agree with this rule or don't think it applies to you, this is not the league for you. If you ever feel like a driver is not following the rules, please
wait until league night is over, then file a
Racing Incident Report. Our Stewards will review the incident and enforce the appropriate
penalty on the driver in question.
Settings
All league settings are default unless noted below:
Boost: Off
Penalty: Weak (and Effective for Free Run) in Divisions 2-5. (
Penalties OFF for D1 only)
Race Finish Delay: 90sec
Visible Damage: Off
Mechanical Damage: Light
Slipstream Strength: Real
Tire Wear/Fuel Consumption: Normal
Grip Reduction: Real
Vehicle Tuning: Prohibited
Driving Aids: Only ABS allowed in Divisions 1-4. (
ABS, TCS, and Driving Line are allowed in Division 5 only)
Tire Restrictions: (based on Dealership PP)
Street Cars
below 450 PP -> Sports Hards
450-499 PP ---> Sports Mediums
500 PP & up --> Sports Softs
Race Cars
below 600 PP -> Racing Hards
600 PP & up --> Racing Mediums
Tuner Cars
Classified as either Street or Race cars based on this list
How To Join Us
Step 1: Post a request to join (do not PM me, just post your request on this thread)
Step 2: Watch the thread for a reply to your post (it will include detailed Time Trial instructions)
Step 3: Purchase the three cars listed in the latest
lineup below
Step 4: Get an oil change on each car, but do not do anything else to the car (e.g. add parts or reduce weight)
Step 5: On Sunday night, join the room number of division you're are assigned. It will be posted on this thread 15 minutes before the races start.
If you are not sure which division you are assigned to, please check the
Offical Driver List
