As the first round of GT Academy 2015 got underway last week, some eagle-eyed gamers spotted a significant change to the rules – putting paid to the myth that no-one reads the terms & conditions. The section in question is near the start and covers who is eligible for consideration to compete at the post-qualification stages of the contest:
1.3 – To enter this Competition, each Entrant must:
(j) not have competed at a GT Academy Territory Finals (or equivalent or similar stages in any jurisdiction) in the 2013 and/or 2014 GT Academy competition
This has not passed without comment, with a number of people remarking both on GTPlanet and on Facebook, about what seems to be a bizarre decision. We reached out for an explanation of this stipulation and are pleased to report that official word has come back from GT Academy itself.
The first part of the justification is pretty easy to follow:
GT Academy is constantly trying to evolve its programme and in doing so offer opportunity to new talent. As a result we have taken the very difficult decision to no longer include 2013 and 2014 National European finalists beyond the online competition as we were seeing a number of the same faces at national final stage.
GTPlanet has been in attendance at several of the UK National Finals and it’s certainly the case that a handful of the same gamers do return periodically – though the disappointment of missing out the first year has been inspiration to some to radically alter their lifestyles in order to pursue their dream the following year.
However, many gamers have been asking why 2008-2012 territory finalists are still eligible but 2013-2014 ones, even first timers, are not. This boils down to changes in European data protection legislation:
We have set the cut-off at 2013 due to stringent regulations in data protection which do not allow us to keep records of finalists prior to that date.
In effect, under the European “right to be forgotten”, the GT Academy organisers are not allowed to hold any data regarding the territory finalists prior to the 2013 competition, so even if an individual competed at national finals in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012, they must be treated as first time finalists.
We appreciate that some players may be disappointed, but hope this revised approach to the competition will pave the way for new players to realise their dreams. We are thankful for all the ongoing support from our fans and hope these changes will ignite the same energy and passion in even more players.
It’s important to note that these restrictions only apply to the European GT Academy – the International and Asian events are still too new for players to be getting two or three bites at the cherry.
While we doubt that this will give much solace to players who have been training and focussing their skills after their first final in 2014 to find the rug pulled from under them, the notion that GT Academy wants to again unearth a completely unrealised potential is a return to the program’s roots.
See more articles on GT Academy 2015.
I LOL’d.
Jerome
Still not going to find the best RACERS by having everyone run time trials. Some of the best testers in F1 just don’t have the “race craft” to compete when the lights go out for a race. I think the same thing applies here. We should be racing each other to find the best.
+1
The time trial is just the filtering process to determine who has the general aptitude for getting a [virtual] car around the track quickly. Someone who is a tenth or two faster in a Gran Turismo time trial has literally no bearing on their success as a real race car driver. All success in the TT means is that you understand braking and weight shift and hitting an apex etc. etc, the general principles of racing. It only gets you an invite to the dance and then the rest of the criteria take over.
It’s really an error in their drafting of the terms of entry without considering how EU laws might apply… what they should do IMO is give past participants a chance to compete for some (say 2 out of 6 or 3 out of 10) spots in the regional finals. It will ensure the fastest person has a chance.. give past entrants something to work for.. and it wont block entrance of new talent… and it makes for better reality TV.
Sounds fair to me. Hopefully it will give some other drivers the chance to compete at a national final.
Remember that there is are no National finals for the European GT Academy this year.
Terrible decision. This just means they’re not going to get the best drivers. They already restrict the number of times you can get to the final. I know someone who was in the final last year and are training hard this year. Well done for dashing his hopes.
Can someone who plays in 3rd person(pussy view), like the kid on the right side of the picture, be turned into an actual race car driver?
That’s Ben Spurge, who set the fastest time in the online qualifier. Twice.
I believe Ben also uses cockpit view when he’s racing in his real life Formula Ford but I could be wrong. I don’t think the FF comes with a “pussy view” but we’d have to ask Ben to be sure….lol.
Several of the Aliens I try to race with use 3rd person because you simply have a much better view (higher viewing angle of the corner means easier comprehension if it’s dimensions, as well as being able to actually see all corners of your car for close racing)
So, it’s more of a strategic “I know it’s not realistic but I like winning”, thing. You know, how race car drivers think.
Maybe their are too tired of only seeing male show up on the final, so they make it easier for the ladies.
This makes no sense whatsoever…lol.
*facepalm*
The European Union enacted “Forget me laws” so that more of those “really hot chicks’ who spend their spare time pretending to be a race driver on a video console can make it to the GTA finals… makes perfect sense
Perhaps the reason they keep seeing a number of the same faces in the finals is because those are the people who can perform and actually deserve to be there. The ban them from competing is to shun there abilities which are clearly enough to have gotten them far several times. This rule sucks.
But not enough to get them any further. Repeatedly.
GT Academy isn’t just about finding out how good someone is now, but how good someone can be in 5 years.
Famine: But that still makes them better than the newbies that couldn’t beat them to get to the final.
At Gran Turismo, perhaps. Remember that GT Academy territory finals test four disciplines equally – presentation, driving ability, fitness and Gran Turismo. You only get there by being good at Gran Turismo and you only progress if you show ability AND potential at the others.
That said, as I mentioned in the article, the reaction of some competitors to failing one year is to improve themselves to achieve the next. That’s exactly the attitude that GT Academy should be fostering because that’s exactly what it looks for – the ability to continually improve.
Interesting to read they want to attract new talent, plenty of that in America at the grassroots level from my experience – Most of whom don’t even bother with GT anymore, let alone videogames.
I think it’d be cool if they did something like that football movie “Invincible”, you know like : A- Take some classes/Get educated in racecraft, B- Get some seat time on your own, C- Work hard and acquire SCCA license, D- “Done all the above ?, Come on down !”
Obviously there’s logistics and other issues, but I’d find that more approachable than spending hours upon hours staring a screen, lapping a virtual car in virutal wonky physics.
Some top professional racers use sim or videogames to train themselves, since they have limited testing season. Don’t know about those talented people that you mention, but maybe americans are so rich that they can do trackdays about 100 laps without a financial problem.
I have to question if you know how varied the SCCA is, in both disciplines and cost of entry.
You can go autocross for cheaper than a PS3, and actually have something other than data to show for it in the end.
I kind of like the idea about this but what about someone who made it to the nationals and the only reason why they didn’t make it was because another player was playing dirty and ran them off the road. They should come up with a “player X” contest so they will still have a chance of going because over all they are still the best!
The driving standards in the national finals are strictly monitored.
Why is this restricted to national finalists then? Surely the right to be forgotten law extends to people who have made it to the old regional finals at Silverstone too? Proving that they attended is providing kept data illegally in the same way??
Someone better phone Arnaud & Thibault Lacombe, Dan Holland and that Irish photographer dude who put in so much effort to get to Silverstone and tell them they might be back in the fray!
Seriously though how is OK to provide information proof of competitors participation at the Silverstone combined finals if there is a law against it if it’s not OK to provide nationals data? I smell one of those big fat GT Academy Rats with this.
I also think that they are encouraging people who are excellent TT drivers and are currently actively competiting/playing the game that are not eligible for 2015 to do the times of one of their GT6 buddies who aren’t quite quick enough. It would have to be one of the really fast guys though who only got to the nationals 2014,2013.
I think old Silverstone finalists should now be able to re-enter and video evidence of the laptimes should be provided.
It is my understanding that Race Camp attendees sign a data protection waiver that allows their name and image to be used in promotional material, including broadcast television.
I see, what about the TV footage captured and used from the nationals of 2008,2010 etc? Surely that has the same effect therefore??
I am not familiar with any broadcast of the 2010 national final events, only the 2010 “boot camp” (as it was then). That said, I didn’t get involved with GT Academy until the 2010 boot camp.
Yeah they use some of the TV footage of the nationals quite often. This is what I mean, it cannot be down to this new right to be forgotten European law because if it was a player would have a right to be deleted from any record of those boot camps for the same reason and in the same way.
I think they’ve opened up a can of worms over this and when they try and force it back shut again I can see the reasons sounding slightly too convenient.
I’ve never seen any footage of 2008/2010 national finals anywhere – except some small clips exclusively of the race camp finalists at the national finals used in the GT Academy 2010 TV show.
I recall you were at one of those finals? Did you sign a data protection waiver?
I can’t remember what I signed, I probably did sign one but what I mean is wouldn’t someone from those national who went further still have a right to be forgotten? It is a typical mess up really I mean what they’re insinuating and how people are reading is that they don’t want the same old faces popping up all the time from the TT’s who weren’t able to make it further previously but the stupid irony is that even though I went to 3 nationals I am still eligible now! It would be far better to have a more thorough advanced competition especially at the nationals and then simply don’t allow anyone to ever enter more than 2 and put age limits on it. It’s crazy I mean if I put the laps in and the dedication I could still possibly qualify so I could take a place away from the younger guys at the grand old age of 43 so I really don’t know what they’re trying to achieve.
Also, why don’t they just be honest and tell us what they’re trying to achieve instead of being so evasive and secretive, I am sure we’d all understand if they simply said they wanted someone young and mature minded and they’d prefer someone who is naturally adept at the game even though a bit of a rookie rather than a seasoned gran turismo pro.
I don’t see what they’re being secretive or evasive about. They said they want to exclude previous national finalists “as we were seeing a number of the same faces at national final stage” but that they can’t exclude national finalists from before 2013 as European data protection law means they can’t hold any data on those people.
I’d agree that this does beg a question about previous boot/race camp finalists but I’m assuming that GTA Global’s data controller knows what they’re doing – it seems reasonable to me that the data control for race camps falls under a different banner as they were televised events which require data protection waivers.
Strictly speaking, the primary purpose of the “right to be forgotten” is to allow individuals to request that organisations delete personal data about the individual that is no longer relevant.
Under various data protection laws throughout Europe, organisations must have a valid reason for retaining and/or processing data, and presumably GT Academy is no longer allowed to retain the details of national finalists before 2013. The questions now are why is 2013 the cut-off, and will the details of 2013 and 2014 finalists eventually have to be deleted as well?
I don’t know if the cutoff date is rolling due to a data expiry clause or at the point the legislation come into effect (which was December 2012).
Perhaps they could consider a one-off event for those that were in the previous national finals (and qualify this time) so one of them goes through to race camp yet there are still allows a majority of new faces coming through?
“Right to be Forgotten”? I have heard about this, but only how an individual can request the EU to get their online information erased. I have not heard of one case occurring to an organisation like GT A where data cannot be kept. I first thought that a past finalist had applied this and has effectively removed PSN history as well. This is pretty new.
So does that mean, if I enter the last round (2nd of June) which we’ll all be playing at home, I won’t be able to compete for next years GTAcademy?
Or are the finals where the top 32 meet together?
You must have entered the territory finals to be ineligible.
No, the clause applies specifically to in-person attendance at national/territory finals, not the online portion of the competition.
Does this mean that 2013 European Territory finalists have to wait until 2016, while 2014 finalists have to wait until 2017 before they will be eligible again?
I would also like an answer to this is possible
Wondering this as well, first I thought that’s what’s meant but reading their reasoning it sounds more like they ban any prior finalists they can.
If this “right to be forgotten” business is consistent, then yes, 2013 finalists will be eligible again in 2016.
As above, I don’t know if the cutoff date is rolling due to a data expiry clause or at the point the legislation come into effect (which was December 2012).