Announcing "official" monthly RLD tournaments
Thanks to some good discussion with members, I'm happy to announce that Redline Derby Racing will be hosting monthly mail-in tournaments starting this June with Truck-O-Rama 2.
These monthly tournaments will be hosted by Redline Derby Racing in Ohio and will feature modder and stock tournaments based on various themes. Restrictions will be basic and more or less open to allow for maximum creativity, fun and performance.
Dates for these tournaments will vary but I'll try to keep them somewhat consistent...probably end-of-the-month type dates. I'll attempt to schedule tournaments out a couple months at a time so everyone can plan builds, scout parts and buy cars.
Every tournament will offer prizes to the winners and every tournament will be run regardless of how many entries are received. If only 4 cars are entered, it'll be a quick bracket...or if it's 64 cars, it'll be a long weekend of racing...either way, someone will win and take home a prize.
These monthly tournaments do not affect any other tournaments created on the site by other members. Those tournaments are simply "unofficial" and are managed and controlled by the hosts involved. Member tournaments can be as specific or broad as they choose, they are not bound by any rules otherwise.
June will be the kick-off month and the rest of 2015 will be a "pilot" run for this structure and format. Assuming things go well and I can actually keep up with all that racing, we'll head into 2016 as a year of tournaments that could lend themselves to points, race history and other championship style tournaments.
With all that, I want to thank everyone that has continued to support Redline Derby Racing to point where we can justify having a monthly tournament schedule. I'm looking forward to all the racing, seeing all the great cars and seeing how much further we can grow this thing.
Discussion
Right now, "official" means only that the tournaments are candidate for sponsorship prizes and as-yet-to-be-created career stat tracking (a la Fantasy League).
Official tournaments are not necessarily one-and-dones...formats will probably vary. I haven't really thought that far ahead yet. In my head, as this structure progresses and a system gets built to support it, we would expand it so "official" means select tournaments hosted by anyone, series or otherwise.
I feel one other point about "official" tournaments is that they'll run no matter what and on a somewhat regular schedule. Even though 98% of the time all the tournaments end up happening anyway, something rooted in a schedule will be easier for new racers to hop on board and be better for promoting.
Try not to get caught up on "official" and "unofficial" at this point...it's just a label to help me organize things and plan for upcoming site features. I feel it's only fair that I be the one to test out new concepts and applications so when they fail, they're only failing myself and not someone 3000 miles away on a Sunday afternoon. Once they're proven, they'll be opened up to everyone.
This is great, Im jonesing for more races to look forward to!
Any thoughts to having the weights/wheels/axels remain the same for each event. This would allow for the monthly winners to face off in the year end RLD Grand Champion Tournament? Lets say the tourney starts in June'15 runs through March '16 (ten winners/entrants). Other racers that do not have cars in the race yet, could build cars to challenge those who have already won their month's race (giving the winners byes/seeding privileges)?
just wanted to see what the thoughts would be for this concept...
2seven
What this regular schedule of tournaments could become is still up in the air. I agree that it lends itself to champion-style, post-season tournaments...and things like constant weights, rules, etc. are all within the realm of possibility. I like a lot of those ideas...but...
I'm treating the monthly races for 2015 as a trial run to, a) see if I can keep up in constantly hosting, and b) to help me build new site features and applications. If all goes well, in 2016 we can really start to figure out league rules, track stats, crown champions and had out prizes. I'm building towards that but I don't want to jump in too deep, too soon. In short, it's a big beta test. The ideas in my head could fall flat on their face, and if they do, I want them to fall before I've committed to a year-long schedule backed by lots of expense and promises.
Assuming this all goes well, as we get closer to the end of the year, we can all discuss what would be best/fun for a year-long program. I think it could be pretty exciting and help boost our racing quite a bit. So far the feedback has been pretty positive, so that has me motivated to keep moving down this road. I know I work slow but I really want to see this happen so I'm going to be squeezing work in on it whenever I can.
Just a quick update that all monthly tournaments will have a 1st of the month the deadline. This makes it easy to remember and manage.
The actual race will take place after that date. This gives me time to photograph and preview, then video, edit, etc.
http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj515/majestik9/nightstalker2_zps71f4b03e.jpg
Enter all and run for points, or enter when ya can, or pick and choose what looks good to ya. Keep it simple, no FTE's, no cut axles, give weight limits and dry lubes with minor mods and lets race. sounds good, sounds like fun.
Official - Run by RLD? one and done race?
Unofficial...run by members? series racing?
Can these two terms be defined?