With the Gran Turismo World Series live event action from Prague now in the record books, Polyphony Digital has announced a short Exhibition Season for online racers to fill the time until the upcoming Tokyo event.
Comprising only Nations Cup racing, it’s a short, four-race series that will see you revisiting two of the events used in Prague and two others which we’re going to guess could be a part of the action in Tokyo at the end of September.
Once again the series will take place on successive Saturdays, beginning this weekend on August 17 and concluding on September 7 — three weeks before the next live event, and possibly allowing some room for a second season before then:
GT World Series 2024 Exhibition Season – Nations Cup
- Round 1 – August 17 – X2019 – Dragon Trail Seaside – 32 laps
- Round 2 – August 24 – Honda RA272 – Eiger Nordwand – 7 laps
- Round 3 – August 31 – Super Formula SF23 – Monza – 20 laps
- Round 4 – September 7 – Gr.3 – Watkins Glen – 20 laps
This time round we’re seeing no difference in the race lengths for the various levels of competition (more on this below) and in fact very few differences of any kind. The top, GT1 level retains the “heavy damage” setting — requiring a pit stop to repair — rather than the self-healing “light damage” of GT2 and GT3, except in the final round where it’s light across the board.
Unusually there’s low tire and fuel consumption settings, at 4x and 1x (except for 2x fuel at Monza) in all races. There’s also no mandatory pit stops in any race, and only Monza features a required tire grade change. Indeed the first and last races currently look to have free choice of racing tire and therefore completely open strategy…
As with the past few Exhibition seasons, there’s ten slots for each round in GT2 and GT3 League, starting hourly across the bulk of daylight hours for the central timezone of each region — from 0800 to 1800 UTC in the EMEA region. The GT1 League players have fewer opportunities, with three slots that start every two hours in the afternoon/evening; that’s from 1400 to 1800 UTC in EMEA.
Keeping with the standard regulations from most of the GTWS’s life, you can enter as many slots as you wish for each round, but only the last one you enter counts towards your score. This is the case even if you disconnect and score zero. Also note that only your best two round scores count towards your points total, although you’ll be ranked by only your best single round across R1-3; don’t panic if you see grayed-out scores!
The Gran Turismo World Series is a more formal, longer-format event than the Daily Races, though it uses the Driver Rating (DR) you’ve accumulated from your previous ranked multiplayer events as a basis.
At the point you enter the series (whenever that is) you’ll be assigned into a “League” appropriate to your DR rank. Those players with a Driver Rating of A or A+ go into GT1 League, with players holding a DR of B going into GT2 League, while drivers at C and lower slot into GT3 League. You’ll remain in that League regardless of any changes to your DR in that time.
Each race awards points according to the average Driver Rating score of the players in any given lobby, so GT1 lobbies will be worth a great deal more than GT3 ones. The formula works out as roughly 5% of the average DR being converted into points for the race winner, with each position worth around 5% less. That means a win in GT1 League could be worth almost 500 points, but a GT3 League victory with the lowest-rated D players might be worth only single figures.
Regardless of the League though, there’s plenty of credits available for taking part. You’ll receive a bonus according to your overall ranking within your league, as well as your ranking in your primary and secondary geographical areas, and region.
There’s more for GT1 players, with up to 6m credits available, but should you rank in the top 5% in every category in GT3 it’s still worth 3m. In fact you’re just about assured 750,000cr even if you only take part in two races.
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