Polyphony Digital has wiped driver and manufacturer points following a widely abused penalty system glitch in a Gran Turismo World Series Online Season 2 event.
The issue arose during a recent round of the Manufacturers Cup, at the returning High Speed Ring circuit. Drivers discovered that it was possible to wall-ride turn two on the circuit without penalty if there was a car-to-car contact just before the vehicle impacted the crash barriers, allowing it to slingshot around the outside with excess speed.
This allowed drivers to work collaboratively to evade a penalty in order to get a faster race time, a better result, and more points for their manufacturer — boosting their chances of snagging a coveted slot in the Gran Turismo World Final in Monaco this November.
PD officially announced that it was reviewing the situation, pending an appropriate course of action, but it now appears to have made its decision — according to a social media post of an item posted to the GT World Series driver Discord channel.
Any driver known to have used the wall-riding technique will have their points for the round set to zero, while those that did not will retain their score. This appears to have already taken effect, judging by the number of “0” scores in the GT1 League rankings.
However all points scored by the manufacturers themselves for the round will also be set to zero, but only for the Asia-Oceania and Americas regions. The Europe, Middle East, and Africa region (EMEA) will be unaffected.
That’s a relatively significant outcome. Manufacturers Cup has a complicated format, wherein each manufacturer is ranked in each round in each region by its best driver, with the top marques in each of the three regions scoring 40 points.
These points are tallied across the season and the regions and used to decide what brands will qualify for the finals: the top nine manufacturers, plus series partners Genesis, Mazda, and Toyota.
That means the EMEA region will now have a larger effect on which brands make it to the Monaco event, courtesy of eight points scoring rounds to seven in the other region, and we won’t see how that plays out until the end of the season on September 30.
It remains to be seen if the drivers face any other consequences, or have been warned over future conduct, but it’s clear Polyphony Digital looks rather dimly on such things.
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