GT7 'TOYOTA GAZOO Racing GT Cup' 2022 Series to begin May 15

JayOTT · May 12, 2022

After taking a few test seasons to find and remove the launch day gremlims, GT7 set to host it's first online championship in sport mode.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing announces the outline of TGR GT Cup 2022 online race | 2022 | e-Motorsports | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing has announced details on the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing GT CUP 2022, an online race in âGran Turismo 7â for PlayStation®5 and PlayStation®4.

toyotagazooracing.com

This will be the 4th running of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing GT Cup, previously known as the Supra Cup. Much like last year, the series consists of 7 one-make events in various Toyota cars. This includes Toyota's current WEC challenger in round 3, set to be added to GT7 in the May update.

Round 1: May 15, SF19 Super Formula, Spa
Round 2: May 22, Supra GT500 '97, Suzuka
Round 3: June 5, GR010 HYBRID, Le Mans
Round 4: July 3, SF19 Super Formula, Nurburgring
Round 5: July 24, GR86/Subaru BRZ '21, Autopolis
Round 6: August 14, Supra RZ '20, Fuji
Round 7: August 28, Yaris RZ '20, TBD

Gran Turismo uses an iRacing style format for it's online championships. Entrants are placed in splits based on their driver rating, and points are dervied from finishing position score multiplied by the average strength of the field. The main difference is that GT's championships are split into multiple regions, who each race and compete in their own seperate block.

There are 3 timeslots for races per round, per region. If a player enters more than one timeslot in a round, their last result is the one that counts for the round. Each players best 4 scores out of 7 rounds count for overall standings per region, and from there a total of 24 drivers will qualify for the world finals, provisionally scheduled for November.

This final is listed as being held offline in conjunction with the Gran Turismo World Series, which in essence confirms that the Nations and Manufacturers Cup's will also be starting officially in the near future. These too are unlikely to deviate drastically in format from last year, back when it was known as the FIA Gran Turismo Championship.

JayOTT · May 16, 2022

Round 1 report

The Super Formula round at Spa proved controversial on a number of fronts. A glitch was discovered in the lead up where the car would erronously regain it's full allocation of overtake 100 seconds after depleting it, allowing players to use 3 or even 4 times as much boost over the course of the race as they should have. Another issue had to do with the handling at Pouhon, where the car would suddenly become extremely sketchy even though it was supposed to have more downforce in that corner than almost anywhere else on the track.

The final sticking issue for many players was the overly sensitive and inconsisent penalty calls. Some players were punished for minor contact that cost neither driver time or damage, and sometimes the game would completely blame the wrong driver. This clip for example sees Gallo get sideswiped after serving a penalty for an earlier Les Combes mistake;

https://clips.twitch.tv/NurturingTolerantSnailRiPepperonis-RnUFz8-nxZcVnqqY

Of course, this didn't apply to everyone, and the general rule of thumb was that the better you qualified the easier it was to stay out of trouble. These were the players in each region that managed to master the chaos the best;

Oceania: A. Lee, 331 points.
Asia: T. Miyazono, 440 points.
EMEA: BSCOMP+ Aphe, 472 points.
South America: L. Bonelli, 408 points.
North America: R. Heck, 396 points.

Hopefully the SF car and ability to race it without getting penalised for everything is fixed by July. In the meantime, round 2 promises to be a more fun race for all parties involved.

JayOTT · May 23, 2022

Round 2 report

After the chaos that was round 1, many were looking forward to the relative sanity of driving a 1997 JGTC Supra around Suzuka. It would be a true test of consistency and nerves as by contrast to the 8 lap at Spa, this was 14 laps with considerable tyre wear to contend with. The no-stop strategy was faster, but would leave drivers having to battle the "cliff" in the final laps, whilst controller users were forced to pit due to additional front tyre wear over wheel players.

At it's best, it produced perhaps the best racing we've seen on the game and platform since the transfer from Sport to GT7. It still wasn't perfect though, as world number 1 in free practice, CRV, couldn't capitialise on his speed due to failing to load into the Asian top split;

And if the game was working, the sim racing equivalent of a mechanical DNF could still happen, as PolUrra saw his win in EMEA top split go begging due to a pedal malfunction;

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Your top scorers for this round included some previous winners proving that their Super Formula success was no mere fluke. With 4 scores counting, the repeat winners effectively have one foot in the final already.

Oceania: A.Lee, 340 points.
Asia: T.Miyazono, 442 points.
EMEA: PRiMA_Kylian19, 472 points.
South America: IOF17, 429 points.
North America: 雲 (PX7-Lamb), 401 points.

There's still a general sentiment in the community that GT7 isn't quite e-sports ready yet, and so players are hoping the update confirmed for this coming week will improve the situation. Either way, the update will include the Toyota GR010 that we'll be racing at Le Mans next round.

JayOTT · Jun 6, 2022

Round 3 report

With the real life Le Mans 24 coming up this Sunday, Gran Turismo eSports has booked two visits to the venue in two weeks. The first would be a Toyota Cup one make in the Toyota GR010. This car in GT7 has been given a generous amount of top speed (340km/h+) to make it competitive with the 2016 LMP1's in Group 1, so it feels more like a Group C car than anything else.

The perils were numerous. Track limits were a big issue, as in some corners the enforcement level was kerbs, in others it was white lines, and in the back straight chicanes it was an unintuitive blend of both! There was also a grid start to contend with, something never seen at Le Mans out of motorbike racing. Far from the worst first corner to barrel into thankfully.

The race itself was a 6 lap sprint with mediums or hards as options. But as I mentioned in the world series report, mediums are rubbish right now and with x5 tyre wear, hards was the meta strategy if you could avoid drama at the start. It was glory for some, and a hard learning experience for others before we return to this track next week for Nations Cup.

Oceania: G. Barbara, 327 points.
Asia: T. Miyazono, 424 points.
EMEA: V. Gallo, 466 points.
South America: L. Bonelli, 359 points.
North America: R. Heck, 395 points.

JayOTT · Jul 9, 2022

Round 4 report

The 2nd Super Formula leg of this Toyota tour came with a massive twist; both qualifying and the race would start with a wet track. 12 laps at Nurburgring GP, well within no-stop territory even with x5 tyre wear, but it hinged on what the weather was doing. In most splits there was little to no rain, so the track would dry out and create a difficult choice between trying to keep the intermediates from roasting to death or pitting for softs at lap 7-8, the theorhetically faster strategy, and trying to stay on the narrow dry line.

Which leads to the bonehead of the round award. TakuAn, in a comfortable position to cruise to victory, pointlessly pits on lap 7 in a split that actually had some rain, so the track wasn't really dry yet. He immediately goes off track on pit exit, then starts panicking and not maximising the dry line grip. Then he tries to overtake the no-stoppers on the wet line several times. About the only thing that wasn't his fault per se was the final calamity with Chuupaghetti, but he should've been past several times over before it.

Oceania: G.Barbara, 329 points.
Asia: D. Wigneswaran, 382 points.
EMEA: M. Busnelli, 451 points.
South America: L. Bonelli, 347 points.
North America: D. Heldt, 387 points.

JayOTT · Aug 11, 2022

Round 5 report

I'm a bit late with this one due to bigger things going on (this round was on July 24). The road car leg of the Toyota Cup began with a straightforward sprint at Autopolis, with players able to choose either the 2021 spec Toyota 86 or Subaru BRZ. 10 laps with no fuel or tyre concerns, but the reduced aero and a grid start made it a fair bit more eventful then the Nations Cup round at this venue.

Events weren't necessarily good for GT's image though; a car glitching on the grid in the Oceania top split resulting in me hitting them 80's F1 style, matchmaking issues in Asia sending a clear top split driver down to 2nd split for no reason, and a bumper pass in North America where Lester failed to redress after stealing position away from D.Heldt. E-sports ready!

Oceania: A.Lee, 341 points.
Asia: TX3_tokari71, 388 points.
EMEA: P. Urra, 448 points.
South America: L. Bonelli, 352 points.
North America: 雲 (PX7-Lamb): 388 points.

JayOTT · Sep 5, 2022

I'm going to cover both remaining rounds in one post...

Round 6 report

For reasons I will cover later, this was seen as the effective last round for most. It was a throwback to the first ever Toyota Cup race from back when it was the Supra Cup: 10 laps of Fuji Speedway in the 2020 Supra RZ. One mandatory pitstop, but no fuel or tyre concerns.

There was however the usual grid start into a tight first turn that has become the Toyota Cup's trademark, but surprisingly it was the end of races that caused all the drama. In Oceania, both A.Lee and holl01 forgot to pit and were relegated to the bottom of the finishing order, whilst in Asia, Wigneswaran got in trouble for punting Yamanaka and costing him a victory, causing the latter to make a questionable outburst on Twitter;

https://twitter.com/x/status/1558812714578759681

Gallo and Heldt also had big wins in this round, wins that had they not gotten, may have left them outside the qualifying positions in their respective regions.

Oceania: AE_McEwen, 334 points.
Asia: たくあん (LG-TakuAn_): 373 points.
EMEA: V. Gallo, 455 points.
South America: A. Carrazza, 348 points.
North America: D. Heldt, 393 points.

Round 7 report

Four days before round 6, the final round was revealed to be... a dirt race. The Yaris would be in action on the Sardegna Windmills course, 12 lap sprint with no gimmicks, other than the fact this was a completely different road surface to what we normally race on in this game. The top players had a solution for this however; don't do the race at all.

Not very GIGACHAD. So whilst the points weren't there, I felt this was a fun race to do for the sake of it, at least excluding the chaotic start. I got my highest slot 1 top split finish (2nd), but not my highest points score. In North America however, major controversy was brewing...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1565534865595965442

The short version is that STR Cyrus was in 4th place after 6 rounds, and North America only gets 3 spots at the final. So he needs more points, but if no-one races, the average DR of the lobby is lower and therefore, no points. But then half a field of A+ drivers who haven't raced in TGR yet conveniently turn up for the finale, boosting the points. Lester seemed to predict this may happen, so he had also queued up to defend his 3rd.

This is where our bonehead of the round comes in. Gyrza Groana, probably the fastest vTuber to play this game, finds herself right behind the battle between Cyrus and Lester after qualifying, and instead of letting that race happen, she sticks the nose into a gap that was never going to stay open;

The resulting contact drops Lester to 4th, with Wheaties passing them both for 2nd. Lester has to make up ground quickly and does so here;

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But then Gyrza, after having a full lap to calm down, decides to take Lester out without even attempting to make it look like an accident. Sadly, I don't have the footage of this since the Twitch clip has been deleted. The end result was Cyrus winning, and even though Lester fought back to 2nd despite all of that, it wasn't enough.

Oceania: A.Lee, 282 points.
Asia: TanTE_B-Quik, 327 points.
EMEA: F. Bertani, 357 points.
South America: Nacho Gonzalez, 219 points.
North America: STR Cyrus, 380 points.

North America has never come close to being the highest scoring region for a round, so naturally everyone accused Cyrus of lobby stacking. Gyrza too copped a lot of flack for interfering with the championship, seemingly on purpose to help Cyrus. In fairness however, she owned up to her mistake and appears to have simply gotten angry after a bad day;

https://twitter.com/x/status/1564119292114763777

But with this happening just 8 days after the HSR wall glitch round in Manufacturers, it's safe to say that this has been one of the most controversial fortnight in Gran Turismo eSports history.