Well, I don't know actually how to start this as I have some good points to make but also I have some bad ones, I know in theory in the last round I should be all sentimental and be like "Ohh, I can't wait for next season" and "what an amazing season" and "thank you to everybody involved" and so on, and I do actually feel all of the above, but I would like to be myself and just share my opinion of the last round from my point of view - and hopefully I won't get fired!
I think I am going to do a Jeremy Clarkson here, start good - bad - good or similar, let's see where we end up...
Race One Division One
Well, @Chris Butcher got pole and wanted to make one hell of a last event. As it happens with him sometimes (sorry Chris), luck is definitely not on his side since commentators kept saying that Mr. @Craig Patteson was very unlucky in other eSport competition, maybe he tagged Chris just before the start of RDMC 11. Chris had a good start but soon it was clear that his laps were not recorded and inevitably followed by a disconnect. With the session made in such a way that he wasn't able to join for race two, it was game over. Absolutely gutted for Chris, he's a good bloke and I really wished he could have taken the fight to Ross not just in this race but overall in the championship... I presume I am preaching to the choir as I am sure he had the same desires...
Moving on, the battle was now between @Chris Shepherd and @Ross McGregor and last lap was epic, I really loved how both of them used absolutely every trick in the book, at the hairpin (20:30 timestamp in the YouTube broadcast) Ross was going for the undercut and as soon as Shepherd realized he just put the car in the middle to block that move off, proper smart and good race craft and until the penultimate corner where Ross somehow managed to get the smallest of overlap and dive on the inside, another Rossi from Ross. Behind @Matt Le Gallez and Mr.Craig Patteson were fighting hard for the last podium spot with @Sehzade747 waiting for both of them to run into trouble, but Craig managed to hold on for his first podium this season, with Matt fourth and Garcia fifth.
As usual rest of the top 10 battles were bang on crazy and unexpected, so for one last time, be sure to watch the broadcast with @Joseph Wright and @Paul Glover by just pressing play on top of this article.
Race One Division Two
@Jopamir took the win in what looked like a comfortable lead of three seconds with @Luka Berk in second. Winning the final podium spot would be @Franklin Stegink from @King_of_sertao by only 0.3 seconds and @Daniel Monteiro who got one too many cut warnings and had a last-lap penalty.
Sadly for the final two races, there were only 15 people in the server but it seemed they still enjoyed themselves and a big praise to each and every one of them for sticking to it. Big thank you from me, a very good way to show respect to the organizers :
- @Luka Berk
- @Matej Ivanusa
- @Jose Paulo Miranda
- @Ed Sierra
- @Rob Moore
- @Paul Beecroft
- @Franklin Stegink
- @David Mann
- @Mike McGeer
- @Daniel Monteiro
- @Alex Townsend
- @Craig Dunkley
- @Dave Stephenson
- @Colin Alexander
- @Ingemar Petersson
- @Fernando Pina
Race Two Division One
Well this was a tad more "interesting" but we got another winner that I can take some credit for, I think, no? @Pappa_G_27 I remember that I kinda said on TeamSpeak that maybe you will get a race two victory and here we are? where's my beer? Joking aside, after some misfortunes he ended up in the front of the pack in race two and as soon as the lights went all that he did is stretch the gap to second place, good consistent race, Congratulations and with that we can say we have five winners in RDMC by Extreme Simracing Season 11 in division one, @Chris Butcher @Sehzade747 @Ross McGregor @Chris Shepherd and the above-mentioned @Pappa_G_27.
So, Simon led every lap of the race and @Fatalist88 got second while the battle for third....in the last lap @fex was in that position until the last sector where I presume he touched the grass in the braking zone and went off, gifting third to @TobiasR who in his turn barely got that from a charging Ross McGregor by only 1 tenth at the line.
The bigger story is that at the start of the last lap fourth to ninth where 1.5 seconds apart, basically a train of cars and being the last race of the last round of the season things got a bit rough, and rough is the very short resume of race two.
Also sadly we lost Chris Shephard at the start of the race as he was starting from pit lane and then he realized that he was too far off to get any good points and did not finish the race, and that affected his championship standings a lot....
With Alister Reed on the podium the stats for division one of podium finishers are :
10 podium finishers in RDMCS Season 11 :
@Chris Butcher @Chris Shepherd @Ross McGregor @Matt Le Gallez @TobiasR @Craig Patteson @Pappa_G_27 @Bram Hengeveld @Sehzade747 @Fatalist88 congratulation to all of them.
Race Two Division Two
For a clean Portuguese sweep, @Daniel Monteiro took the win like his compatriot with a 6 second gap from the battle for the third place between @Luka Berk and @Trebormoore84 with the later finishing fourth just 0.4 behind the podium.
The stats for division two winners and podium finishers are :
14 podium finishers and five race winners
@Mike McGeer @M I @Frank Lehmann @Daniel Monteiro @Jopamir are the winners
@EireGreen™ @jayjfinn @Franklin Stegink @Luka Berk @Trebormoore84 @Paul Joseph @praxtonio @Yetch @Scott duncan the rest of the podium finishers.
Congratulations to everybody.
Honourable mentions go to @Jivesauce for his race reports and we wish him much health and everybody that made race reports, as I do enjoy reading them.
Also @Dave Stephenson for his work behind the scenes and maybe with more free time he will have some decent speed also! Thanks Dave! luv u!
Winners and Strawberries - Round 5 by Mr. C (let the hate come in)
- As I said in Round 1 "Definitely Ross McGregor" - Double RDMC Champion, congratulations;
- @Pappa_G_27 for second race win;
- @Craig Patteson and @Fatalist88 for their first podiums.
- #deserved, just no!;
- Chris Butcher, the bad luck never runs out it seems;
- bad, bad racing behavior in division one and poor attendance in division two;
First double champion of RDMC by Extreme Simracing
Well beyond that what is there to say? Ross McGregor stepped up to the plate in a field full of talented simracers and won. I mean, personally I am impressed overall but what impressed me more is the fight. I might be wrong, but knowing Ross and watching him race, his style and attitude was that he waited for others to do mistakes and then pounce. Well this season he just improved himself (in my eyes) and fought wheel to wheel like the best wheel bangers out there and it was lovely to see, and the Rossi like moves at the end of the races were a treat in itself.
Massive congratulations to Ross and hopefully we will see more of him in other RaceDepartment eSport competitions.
My take of RDMC Season 11 by Extreme Simracing
Hmm..I have been far and close, I have seen and done good and bad, I have witnessed greatness and defeat and I enjoyed every bit.
As a spectator, I have seen many eSport competitions in my 9-ish years of simracing and I always enjoy the unpredictability of races and BTCC style of racing rather than more big names that have high pretensions. This season was good to watch and even though at times the racing was a bit hectic, to put it mildly, I have definitely seen a lot worse. I properly enjoyed myself and the full reverse grid was a master-stroke, I wished the "feature" race was at least 80min or like in the old days, 90min, "90min Mini Friday" maybe in RDMC Season 12.
This time I was also a part of the team, boy do I have a terrible voice
, but I did enjoy writing the articles and share my own personal view of things that I have seen, and talking about what I have seen, my takeaway highlights from this season are :- Round One @Matt Le Gallez speed = shocked;
- Position 4/5 to end of top 10 each race crazy fights;
- Chris Butcher hefty and unprecedented penalty;
- Last race driving standards;
- and to end on a high, Ross final lap manoeuvrers.
Last round, last race - why people?
So, 15 people in Division Two? really? Whenever there are talks about an eSport competition there is so much hype, so much interest, and everybody is willing to jump and participate and by the end of an ONLY 5 round competition, we have such a big drop in participation!!!
Please o Please tell us, people, what are we doing wrong? as I know there are places in this simracing world where commitment is higher, I will be more than happy to read every single suggestion and take it on and debate it, but try to see the other side too, the side of the people that do this volunteer work because we love simracing.
We put work, passion and then all we want to see is people having fun and enjoy with us this passion, but when we get such a high attrition rate we get deflated and unmotivated to do another eSport competition, and then community asks again for that and we live in this vicious circle here at RaceDepartment, what is the solution?
What happen, did most people kept the anger until the last race and then went all berzerk? I get it, I am a simracer also, I have been punted, hit, flashed, dive-bombed, sideswiped and all the things and I definitely served some of it back but this was another level, yes I have seen worse in my simracing career but that is no excuse to have it here, I know adrenaline is running high and the fight back response is on but just try for the future to be that little bit earlier on the brakes, if you have a guy that he's mega aggressive let him by, your going to lose more time and places fighting with him than just let him go and in the long run you will definitely feel better if not coming on top.
Winners and Strawberries - RDMCS Season 11 by Mr. C (let the big hate come in)
- The one and only, the mega, the ultra the double Ross McGregor champion;
- Matt le Galez for second place, well done, well-done sir;
- Craig Patteson, broke your duck, congratulation on a well deserved 3rd place;
- @Kresh for the big winner of the Extreme Simracing prize, congratulation;
- Extreme Simracing - thank you and hope you guys keep up the good work;
- RaceDepartment.
- Chris Butcher, definitely he was my favorite for the championship, sorry mate;
- hmm...struggle to find another bad-ish thing, let's go with last round attitude in general.
P.s. - disclaimer - I am by no means a professional writer so take this article with a light heart and see the funny side. These are my personal opinions and don’t reflect in any way shape or form what RD administration thinks, or the RD community in general.
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