GEEX 2011 - USA TrackMania 2 Canyon Public LAN Tournament

[fng_thatoneguy]

See the official announcement on the Team FNG website

Then go register on the GEEX 2011 Tournament site

I'm extremely pleased to announce the first (that I know of) official USA TrackMania 2 Canyon LAN event tournament, sponsored by Ubisoft and Intel!

We're hoping to introduce the USA to ManiaPlanet with a bang, and it's stacking up to be a good time.

USA racers! I need your help to spread the word... especially to those in Utah and its surrounding states and the West Coast; since I imagine they'll have the easiest time getting themselves to the finals should they advance.

We'll start with an online tournament on
07 October 2011 - 9:00pm Mountain Time

The top 10 racers will be invited to the finals at GEEX 2011 - South Towne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah (about 20 minutes south of Salt Lake City.)

The finals will take place at GEEX on the tournament stage on:
14 October 2011 - 6:00pm Mountain Time

Prizes are graciously provided by Intel:
1st place: Customized GEEX 2011/TrackMania 2 Canyon gaming laptop
2nd place: Boxed Intel i5 processor
3rd place: Boxed Intel i5 processor

All finalists will also receive a cool TrackMania 2 Canyon t-shirt.

Best of all, registration is free... but make sure to read the fine print:

EDIT: Be sure to read ALL details and rules at the GEEX website

Finalists are responsible for any travel/lodging necessary to permit them to participate in the GEEX 2011 TrackMania 2 Canyon tournament finals.

DISCLAIMER:
This Contest is open to legal U.S. residents (excluding residents of Rhode Island and residents of Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and other United States territories), who are thirteen (13) years of age or older at the time of entry. Employees, officers, and directors of Sponsor, and each of their affiliated companies, subsidiaries, licensees, franchisees, distributors, dealers, sales representatives, their advertising and promotion agencies, and any and all other companies associated with the Contest (collectively, the "Promotion Entities"), and each of their immediate families (i.e., parents, spouse, siblings, children, grandparents, step parents, stepchildren and step siblings, and their respective spouses, and those living in the same household, whether or not related) are not eligible to participate. All eligibility is subject to all federal, state, provincial and local laws and regulations.

[G2Wolf]

Looking good . Nice to see something in North America for once

One question though, could you go into a bit more detail on how the prelims work?

[fng_thatoneguy]

You bet... I'll password the prelims server some hours before the tournament and make sure those participating have the password so they can join it.

We'll be running Rounds mode with a threshold of 42 points. Once a map finishes (someone crosses the threshold), points will be awarded to each racer according to podium position, and we'll keep a running tally of each player's points.

The finalists will be the top 10 racers based on the running tally.

Full details are in the Official Rules which can be accessed from the Tournament Registration Page

[G2Wolf]

I did read the full rules but it isn't really clear about whether it was just first to 42 points on a track wins the whole thing or how many tracks would be raced or if it was just 1 round on a track until someone hits 42 total (lol).

Thanks for the clarification.

[fng_thatoneguy]

Sorry about that... the prelims pack is there to be downloaded and the link to join our prelims server is all there on the site too... you can see all the tracks there. I'll review the rules, I thought I listed the number of tracks in the rules. If I didn't I'll get it corrected.

Thanks!

[G2Wolf]

I'm also wondering a bit about the points scheme. It seems very top heavy and anyone outside of top8 on a map might as well have not been there. It would make sense to at least give people a point for attempting the map. It would seem a bit unfair if someone got in 5maps late and in 1 map jumped ahead of most people with just an 8th place.

[fng_thatoneguy]

The scoring system I use for my tournament tracking app was taken from the 2000 game Motocross Madness 2 (MCM2). I believe it was based on the AMA Pro Racing MX official scoring.

I thought about what you said and you bring up a good point. I looked up the AMA Pro Racing MX official scoring and they extend their points out to 20 finishers. I have duplicated their scoring in my app and tested it through two full runs of our prelims with an average of 13-20 racers in our server. It was a success and seemed to work pretty well.

I appreciate you bringing that to my attention. MCM2 only allowed 8 players on LAN/online play, and I assume that's why their scoring system was tweaked the way it was.

I will update my official rules to reflect this change and explain where the scoring system comes from.

If you're interested, check it out at:
http://www.amaproracing.com/assets/AMAP ... -Rules.pdf
(Section 2.20: Championship Points)

Knowing the system works for the AMA, I have to assume everyone will feel this is a more fair way to score the tournaments. (We actually have used the old MCM2 way in the past, but we only had a little over 10 competitors so it didn't seem like a huge deal.) I do believe this is a better way and my sample group had a good time with it last night.

Thanks again! GG!

[blinky77]

Hey. I have a question: Are there any plans for a live stream of the finals?

Also, this one sounds stupid, but is registration required for entering the prelims?

[fng_thatoneguy]

MediaOne, the company hosting GEEX, has plans to stream all their tournaments as far as I understand. I don't have details on how to access it yet, but will post the info here when I find out how.

Registration is necessary to participate in the prelims, as we need to know how many are participating and need to email out the password to the server for that night when the prelims actually take place.

For now, the server is open for all to practice on.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[fng_thatoneguy]

Specs for the custom gaming laptop being awarded for 1st place:
Customized shell with GEEX 2011 and TrackMania 2 Canyon logos
1920 x 1080 15.6" LED Backlit Glossy LCD Screen
2GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon HD 6970M
Intel Core i7-2720QM Quad-Core Processor (2.20GHz), 6MB Cache
8GB Kingston HyperX Dual-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 2 X 4GB
250GB Intel 510 Series(Elm Crest) - Solid State Drive
6X Blu-ray Reader/8X DVD+/-R/2.4X +DL Super-Multi Drive with Power DVD 7
Integrated High-Definition Audio with 4 Channel support
Intel PRO Wireless Advanced-N 6230 + BT Wireless LAN Combo Module - up to 320Mbps -
Built-in 2.0 Megapixel Video Camera
Windows 7 Home Premium

Thanks to Ubisoft and Intel for making this possible!

If you haven't signed up, you have til 5:00pm Mountain time on 07 October (the day of the online prelims)
Register (no cost) at the GEEX website.

Remember that finalists will be responsible for any travel/lodging/food expenses... good luck!