Big changes for GT Academy in 2015

[Arveena]

32 national finalsts last year in germany. 8 of them got to the racecamp. With all europe countries its more than 100 just from 1 year i guess. If you count all the people who are really trying to get to the nationals. Thats a big number. Should be easy to get the exact Number but should be about 250 people affected by it. Now if you look how many people have a realistic chance of winning it and are trying really hard. Its not more than 500-1000. I mean what time is place 1000? I dont even know what place 1000 or 500 in Europe might be in the world ranking but it is certainly not that fast.

Sorry for double Post but here is the official statement from GT Academy:

Hi Christian, Sorry for the delay in responding to your questions. In the spirit of providing more gamers with the chance to follow their dream, we have taken the very difficult decision to no longer include 2013 and 2014 national finalists beyond the online competition in Europe. We know there will be some very quick Gran Turismo players out there who may be disappointed, but hope they can appreciate giving the opportunity to a new group of gamers to follow their dream. The rules are different for the International and Asian competitions as these are newer and less established than the European competition at this point. We're thankful for all the ongoing support from our fans and hope these changes will ignite the same energy and passion in even more players. Thanks

So no reason given what so ever why 2008-2012 is still allowed. No logic reason why International and Asian competetors are allowed.
Yeah and thank you for igniting my energy and passion. It costs my at least 2 Vaccations with my girlfriend worth of money and a lot more sacrifices over 12 months for nothing! I am so pissed right now.

Also the reasoning so dumb. yeah that one spot that was taken last year in the german nationals by a former finalist. Completly reasonable decision


UPDATE: "The Reason for 2008-2012 being allowed and more"

In competing countries across Europe, we found that the proportion of National Finalists who had previously attended a National Final was high. The decision for the cut-off period was chosen for practical reasons, but we felt there may be people interested to re-engage with the competition after a few years out. We apologise for any disappointment this causes. Thanks

We want to sell GT6 to the 2008-2012 Finalists or what is the reason. I dont get it

My explanation is simpler. They just simply have no names of the 2008-2012 finalists anymore

 

[gm matthew]

It's classic executive meddling: trying to appeal to a new audience, disregarding their current audience in the process.

GT Academy has been the main reason I've been playing GT5 and GT6 the past three years; if I'm not allowed to compete any more, I see no reason to continue playing Gran Turismo.

We might not be able to get them to change the rules back this year (though never say never), but we can still hope that they open up GT Academy to 2013 and 2014 national finalists again next year.

EDIT: I suppose the update gives us hope yet. Even if it means we have to wait another two years to enter again, it would be better than nothing.

 

[TRL_Andromeda]

I can see all your guys points and I understand but how many people are we talking about being ineligible? In England 2013 and 2014 14 people went to the Nationals each year? 6 of which went to race camp? Which leaves 8 each year that didn't make it and become ineligible for the following years. that's 16 people in total to be ineligible? Out of 100,000 people do you think that will change the rules of such a successful academy. Or have I missed something?

As others have stated, it adds up to about 200 people. That alone might not look like alot, but remember, these are the 200 people that are the absolute fastest, that try the hardest, the most comitted people of them all. Remove these people is like removing all the current F1 drivers to allow for 20 new people to try driving F1.

As far as I'm concerned, I'd not even make previous race camp competitors ineligible.

The winner should always be the best, not the one that is 3'rd best because the other 2 was not allowed to participate.

 

[Arveena]

I would like to know what Nissan and Team RJN are saying to this maybe I will write a letter to them.
That can not be in their interest. They have really good experience with winners who were two times finalist and seem to be happy with them as they contiued their contracts. Florian and Nick coming into my mind.

Actually i know Nick is active in the Forums. I would like to hear his honest opinion. I know that is not gonna happen because of his contract but one can dream.

 

[TRL_Andromeda]

I would like to know what Nissan and Team RJN are saying to this maybe I will write a letter to them.
That can not be in their interest. They have really good experience with winners who were two times finalist and seem to be happy with them as they contiued their contracts. Florian and Nick coming into my mind.

Actually i know Nick is active in the Forums. I would like to hear his honest opinion. I know that is not gonna happen because of his contract but one can dream.

@GumballCGT , If you want, feel free to pitch in

 

[Johnar726]

Sorry for double Post but here is the official statement from GT Academy:



So no reason given what so ever why 2008-2012 is still allowed. No logic reason why International and Asian competetors are allowed.
Yeah and thank you for igniting my energy and passion. It costs my at least 2 Vaccations with my girlfriend worth of money and a lot more sacrifices over 12 months for nothing! I am so pissed right now.

Also the reasoning so dumb. yeah that one spot that was taken last year in the german nationals by a former finalist. Completly reasonable decision


UPDATE: "The Reason for 2008-2012 being allowed and more"



We want to sell GT6 to the 2008-2012 Finalists or what is the reason. I dont get it

My explanation is simpler. They just simply have no names of the 2008-2012 finalists anymore

What about the reason to why there are no national finals in europe this year?

I can understand that they are trying to give the oppertunity to more people, but what they dont get is those people are not the best. Isnt there aim to "to turn the best gamers to real racing drivers"? Yes the fastest people get the chance sooner, but by the time those best people have become inelegible those people lower down will naturally be just as fast anyway.

At the end of the day we are all gutted about this and all agree its totally unfair but what can we do? All we can do is hope they go back to normal next year. I dont think any kind of screaming and moaning is going to get the rules changed.

Its wrong to apply these rules to europe only, its wrong for it to only apply to certain finalists but what i think is wrong most of all is ditching the nationals.

 

[O_howell20]

As others have stated, it adds up to about 200 people. That alone might not look like alot, but remember, these are the 200 people that are the absolute fastest, that try the hardest, the most comitted people of them all. Remove these people is like removing all the current F1 drivers to allow for 20 new people to try driving F1.

As far as I'm concerned, I'd not even make previous race camp competitors ineligible.

The winner should always be the best, not the one that is 3'rd best because the other 2 was not allowed to participate.

Fair points. So this makes the online rankings pretty much pointless. Chances are that those who have made nationals in the past 2 previous years are going to be in the top 1000 online ranking which means the guy in 1000 place is more like 800th in the eligible rankings??

 

[rono_thomas]

Does anyone have any information what rankings (in the online qualifiers) the guys who qualified for race camp from national finals were?

Were the ones who qualified for race camp ranked 1, 2, 3, 4 on the online qualifiers?

 

[Arveena]

Depends. There are also a lot of people too young or with too much motorsport experience. But on the other hand not all the national finalists are going to put a lot of effort in the first rounds. Some may even only show up for the final round.

OHHH wait. This year they won't show up i guess . But its the same every year to be sure you need to be in the TOP 4 and know you are eligible. You can not count on people in front of you beeing not eligible

 

[OutlawQuadrnt]

Sorry for double Post but here is the official statement from GT Academy:



So no reason given what so ever why 2008-2012 is still allowed. No logic reason why International and Asian competetors are allowed.
Yeah and thank you for igniting my energy and passion. It costs my at least 2 Vaccations with my girlfriend worth of money and a lot more sacrifices over 12 months for nothing! I am so pissed right now.

Also the reasoning so dumb. yeah that one spot that was taken last year in the german nationals by a former finalist. Completly reasonable decision


UPDATE: "The Reason for 2008-2012 being allowed and more"



We want to sell GT6 to the 2008-2012 Finalists or what is the reason. I dont get it

My explanation is simpler. They just simply have no names of the 2008-2012 finalists anymore

Sounds like a marketing decision to me. After all, the TV aspect is billed as a reality show; can't have the same faces every year because that wouldn't be interesting to the audience.

In a way, I can understand but after my firsthand experience with dealing with that particular component, it's the main reason why I didn't go to US Finals last year.

 

[GumballCGT]

@GumballCGT , If you want, feel free to pitch in

Thanks haha.

I would like to know what Nissan and Team RJN are saying to this maybe I will write a letter to them.
That can not be in their interest. They have really good experience with winners who were two times finalist and seem to be happy with them as they contiued their contracts. Florian and Nick coming into my mind.

Actually i know Nick is active in the Forums. I would like to hear his honest opinion. I know that is not gonna happen because of his contract but one can dream.

To be honest, I don't know why they would exclude national finalists other than wanting to gain a new group of possible contestants. When it comes down to it, in the end it's all about marketing Nissan, Playstation, etc. to more and more people. I know from experience over attending the last 3 years of national finals, I would say about half of the contestants were all familiar faces who had went to national finals from previous years.

I agree, Nissan and the teams who participate in the GT Academy program want the best drivers there can be, but I think this comes down to trying to appeal to a new group. A new group of gamers who may have been just outside of making it to national finals or helping entice new players to compete and not go up against "seasoned professionals" if you will. I can understand not allowing those who made it to Silverstone because they had their shot, but I cannot speak for why previous national finalists are not allowed. Just my .02 cents.

 

[Arveena]

Thanks Nick!
It helps a lot hearing this words from you! I just got an even biggger amount of respect for you guys that won it all than I even had before. For what I know they did a good Job finding you guys. All the winners I have talked to seem to be an really nice bunch of people who are all still very down to earth. I whish you and the other guys the best of luck for the upcoming season and hope you dont get in trouble for such a statement 👍

I will try to move on and will give it my best in the final round and maybe even in the liveevents just to show them what they missed.

 

[RHODRIEWILLIAMS]

Thanks haha.



To be honest, I don't know why they would exclude national finalists other than wanting to gain a new group of possible contestants. When it comes down to it, in the end it's all about marketing Nissan, Playstation, etc. to more and more people. I know from experience over attending the last 3 years of national finals, I would say about half of the contestants were all familiar faces who had went to national finals from previous years.

I agree, Nissan and the teams who participate in the GT Academy program want the best drivers there can be, but I think this comes down to trying to appeal to a new group. A new group of gamers who may have been just outside of making it to national finals or helping entice new players to compete and not go up against "seasoned professionals" if you will. I can understand not allowing those who made it to Silverstone because they had their shot, but I cannot speak for why previous national finalists are not allowed. Just my .02 cents.

Thanks for the support Nick your a perfect example of what we are talking about.

This new faces thing is rubbish its older faces with less competition.

 

[rclark83]

Does anyone have any information what rankings (in the online qualifiers) the guys who qualified for race camp from national finals were?

Were the ones who qualified for race camp ranked 1, 2, 3, 4 on the online qualifiers?

Top 14 from online 7 from facebook 7 from live events i think mate was last year anyway.

 

[gm matthew]

Does anyone have any information what rankings (in the online qualifiers) the guys who qualified for race camp from national finals were?

Were the ones who qualified for race camp ranked 1, 2, 3, 4 on the online qualifiers?

The six UK guys who qualified for Race Camp were:

Luke Wilkins - 14th in online qualifier
Ben Spurge - 1st in online qualifier
Alex Porazinski - 6th in Facebook live event
Stuart Millar - 10th in online qualifier
Shane Green - 3rd in online qualifier
Karl Chard - Goodwood live event (also 79th online)

And because I can, the four other guys in the top 10 (in no particular order):

Tim Poole - 2nd in Facebook live event (also 40th online)
Alistair Glen - 3rd in Facebook live event (also 89th online)
Matthew Daniels - 9th in online qualifier
Ste Williams - Goodwood live event

No idea about the other territories, but I do know that Gaëtan Paletou was 8th in France and 45th overall in the online qualifier.

 

[Zlork]

https://twitter.com/thegranturismo/status/593013803522117632
https://twitter.com/thegranturismo/status/593014823409086465

 

[Yuraku9090]

Is there any way to know who went to national finals in these two last years? Any ranking from the Internet or something. And also people that went to Silverstone since it all started.
I can't find any kind of information..

 

[TRL_Andromeda]

We want to sell GT6 to the 2008-2012 Finalists or what is the reason. I dont get it

My explanation is simpler. They just simply have no names of the 2008-2012 finalists anymore

Looks like you where right.
https://www.gtplanet.net/gt-academy-europes-controversial-rule-change-explained/

 

[DBY___86]

Although that doesn't help you guys now, at least you know 2013 finalists will be eligible next year and 2014 in two years time. (If I'm understanding that correctly!)

 

[gm matthew]

Interesting. I'm hoping to analyse the "right to erasure" in more detail to find why 2013 is the cut-off, and whether it means 2013 finalists will have to be "forgotten" next year, allowing them to compete again.

 

[OutlawQuadrnt]

Looks like you where right.
https://www.gtplanet.net/gt-academy-europes-controversial-rule-change-explained/

Curious. Does this mean that if that rule wasn't in place, then the Academy would've made all prior European Finalists ineligible? That's the impression I'm getting.

 

[Arveena]

Best Part of this statement is the line who tries to explain why it is only in Europe.
When Nick said he won it on its third try and no changes there.That is just a plain lie that the other academys are too young

Also again last year in Germany there was only one previous national finalst while in the US it seems to be a bigger Problem. I feel more robbed with every post and the more I dig into it.

 

[gm matthew]

I've been able to track down the rules from previous years, and the 2013 and 2014 terms both have the following:

Entrants advancing to the Territory Finals (as defined below) and beyond may not be eligible to enter any future GT Academy competition.

My concern now is whether the above rule gives the organisers the right to retain the personal data of previous finalists for the purposes of excluding them from future competitions; it would explain why finalists before 2013 are exempt.

 

[Johnar726]

One question remains, why is there no national finals either?

 

[gm matthew]

One question remains, why is there no national finals either?

I'm guessing this is primarily a cost-cutting measure. A bit of a shame, as the national finals were essentially an annual gathering of some of the fastest GT5/GT6 players in the country, and I really enjoyed meeting some of them in person.

 

[II AntR II]

I´m also affected by this situation and I thought I´d share my opinion on it.

A "little" introduction.

I was a 2014 Portuguese Finalist that qualified through the Facebook mini-game. Honestly, I was caught by surprise with the invitation e-mail (apparently there were some cheaters so I climbed up the ladder) and I decided.. why not?
Passed the Facebook final on GT6 (just) and managed to catch a place on the National Final.

All good but......I had two months of driving license (less than 300 kms on the road) and I didn´t own GT6/PS3. Obviously, I´m no newbie to simulations. I´ve raced my fair share of leagues races on FM4 until then and I´m currently enjoying PC Sims, but at the time, I had absolutely zero experience on real life racing. ZERO! I barely touched the red-line on an actual car.
Yet, I actually believe I did a good job. I was slower, obviously, yet I scored higher than other drivers because of my fast and smooth reactions. 6 seconds slower isn´t that much (I know it is, shut up )
I did horrible in the Fitness testes though! I simply wasn´t ready because, like I´ve said, I was caught by surprise with the invitation.

Anyway, my original plan was to participate in the 2015 edition with the physical and driving preparation (this is very good, had my first track time last month, did great!) done beforehand. Unfortunately, due to stupid university (freshman), I failed to find time to practice so I delayed it to 2016 and I now, because of this, I have to delay it AGAIN! Jeez...

My argument is plain and simple. The fastest man wins! It is illogical and immoral to hamper talented individuals just to give a "chance" to slower players. The purpose of racing is to give the award to the fastest driver (forget endurance races here) and GT Academy goes against that.

Another problem is the national finals. While I understand their financial reasons, I believe they are very important. They filter out the unfit guys (like me on 2014). With these rules, they have free pass, which lowers the level of perfomance on the Race Camp.

As anything, I could be deeply wrong, but this is what could come up with.

Hello BTW!

 

[Famine]

Best Part of this statement is the line who tries to explain why it is only in Europe.
When Nick said he won it on its third try and no changes there.That is just a plain lie that the other academys are too young

There is no US GT Academy any more. The US is now folded into the International GT Academy, with a significantly cut-down entry list.

International GT Academy has 1 previous full season - won by Ricardo Sanchez at Silverstone last year, though Abhiney Bikkani and Thanaroj Thanasitnitiket who were also competing are involved with NISMO still. The only previous 'international' winners were Ashley Oldfield and Salman al Khater who won standalone South Africa and Middle East competitions.

Although that doesn't help you guys now, at least you know 2013 finalists will be eligible next year and 2014 in two years time. (If I'm understanding that correctly!)

My concern now is whether the above rule gives the organisers the right to retain the personal data of previous finalists for the purposes of excluding them from future competitions; it would explain why finalists before 2013 are exempt.

I spent some time looking into the relevant data protection legislation before I wrote the piece and I can't tell you whether that will be the case or not.

It may be that the cut-off date is rolling due to a time limit on holding the data, or it may be that it comes into effect from the date that the legislation did (which was in December 2012). We'll find out in 2016, I guess.

 

[Arveena]

There is no US GT Academy any more. The US is now folded into the International GT Academy, with a significantly cut-down entry list.

There is also no German GT Academy any more. So it is just bad luck that Germans are excluded because they got into European category while americans are not (bad luck as a reason why you cannot compete for your dream is just depressing). I am done with it now. I had a shot last year where I had no chances what so ever because I could not prepare myself because I was not expecting to go. This year I am prepared and put a lot of effort in and I am not allowed to compete. Life sucks.
They could have at least announced the Terms before the qualification begins when they are changing it so drastic. Thats what evey company does who are hosting major Esport competetions. Normal way to do it is to announce changes at the end of the season for the next season. Thats they way its done in every Sport or Esport competetion i have taken part so far.
That would have saved me lot of money and nerves.

Just imagine Formula one changing a rule to exclude drivers under 18 this year (which was in discussion) but announcing it on they day the first practice starts with Max Verstappen having a contract with Toro Rosso.

 

[Famine]

There is also no German GT Academy anymore.

That is correct. However Germany was part of the European group before the split for 2012.

They could have at least announced the Terms before the qualification begins when they are changing it so drastic. Thats what evey company does who are hosting major Esport competetions. Normal way to do it is to announce changes at the end of the season for the next season. Thats they way its done in every Sport or Esport competetion i have taken part so far.
That would have saved me lot of money and nerves

I think that, to be fair, they gave warning of the possibility as quoted by @gm matthew earlier:

Entrants advancing to the Territory Finals (as defined below) and beyond may not be eligible to enter any future GT Academy competition.

I'm entirely on the fence about the whole thing myself.

As I noted in the article, I've seen a couple of guys who've done so much life-changing stuff after the disappointment of missing out one year to try to get to race camp the next that it makes for a great incentive. But then again if there are no territory finals in Europe at all this year, just the race camp, it makes sense that they don't want 4 of the same guys who weren't good enough in 2013/4 at a national level.


GT Academy's driver development program (which includes the race camp itself) analyses a lot of data. Maybe they've seen a levelling-off in the quality of the field and less of an improvement in the actual winner's progress (Gaetan's doing okay for now in LMP3 while Marc and Ricardo are enjoying GT3 drives this year, but Miguel Faisca seems to have vanished without a trace, along with Stanislav Aksenov & Peter Pyzera) due to the repetition of competitors and want to try someone completely new and unrealised - just as they achieved with Jann Mardenborough.

 

[II AntR II]

Then restrict competitors that are going on their third/fourth/fifth try (which there are).
Everyone deserves a second shot, specially when several other GTA winners got their trophy on their second opportunity. There are also talented individuals that didn´t make through because they were unfit and as result of their first failure they decided to improve and work hard on that specific aspect.