B2O Blancpain League and Open vs Fixed Setups

[Kenadian]

Hello all,

As many of you are aware, Open vs Fixed has received passionate discussion in regards to our League since its inception.

Initially I'd expected some blow back with the decision but thought people would just embrace it as a BOP tool and move on. This however has not been the case so I'm forced to consider Open to stem this debate.

Semantic arguments aside, the purpose of Fixed was to ensure all had to deal with the exact same setup. If some drive Fixed better than others then there's nothing I can do about it. The sole purpose of Fixed was to create a level playing field for everyone.

There will come a time when our League is a packed field populated with Drivers of all skill and License levels and it's about giving all the best possible racing experience.

To be clear the goal is not to have close racing in tiny little packs, the goal is (and always has been) a tighter field overall.

In 3 months time the entirety of S2 2016 should furnish us enough data to clearly indicate whether Fixed or Open is the right choice for our League and our Community.

Where I erred is in deciding for all of you that Fixed was the only means of keeping the field tightly packed. I based this on my own experience on track given the wide disparity in any GT3 Official Race (or Practice Session for that matter) however forgot we're not just another GT3 field.

Our strong social component and tight-knit iRacing Community may equate to Open being a viable alternative hence my temporary reversal in decision.

Having said that we will need to be vigilant on ensuring everyone is running the same base so the following settings will need to be observed in all Open Setups:

1. Full fuel must be taken for Qualify and Main Races. Blancpain Sprint Series is not a fuel strategy race so full fuel is our BOP.
2. Setups must be shared in our Forums for other League Drivers to test. Anyone unwilling to share their setup will not be permitted to run it in League.
3. Longer term we'll need to consider some measure of Setup School to help everyone understand how to setup a car best for their Driving style.

If we do this properly and help everyone understand how to make the most of their driving style then Open may help everyone.

Done right this can be a very good thing for both our League and growing B2O iRacing Community.

I ask you all be cognizant of the time frame here as this is a temporary change. The long term viability of Open Setups in our League is not set so I ask you all please make the most of it.

Thanks,

Ken

 

[Slider]

Thank you for opening it up, Ken, even temporarily. I'll be running the Merc and Vette this season and will share any setups I make for both cars, if anyone wishes to venture there too. I'll also try to upload hotlaps for guys to see at least how I do it. Maybe we could submit a feature request to IR for minimum fuel amount, much like maximum.

 

[Jerad]

I'm pretty stoked for this. Thank you Ken! After Friday at the Glenn with Dino's setup was amazing. I was actually able to keep up with some people until I somethinged a breaking point into T1.

 

[Daunt]

I"m excited to give it a try and really love the idea of the mandatory setup sharing option. That in itself is a good balancing measure.

In the long run, you say you'd like to submit that feature request which is smart, but in general, I'd like to see more fine-tuning with league as it is, not just fuel. Forcing wing angle, or allow fixed setups except for changes to brake bias, TC and throttle shaping. It still doesn't make sense to me that something like TC and throttle shaping isn't changeable in a fixed setup.

I've got something up my sleeve that will help everyone with setups though... :icon_cheesygrin:

 

[Noodleguitar]

I'll be interested to see how this affects the races and competition. We can't really tell a difference from the data because we don't have enough drivers for that but we can see if open setups are found more positive based on driver feedback.

Especially now it makes more sense to me to open up the setups, because at least the Audi seems to have a bad baseline setup, while we don't know if it is actually any faster than the cars that have easier to drive fixed setups.

Many people often make adjustments for weather though, so I couldn't post a definitive setup until a little before the league race starts. And don't you think it would scare new people away if they are forced to upload 1 or 2 setups every week? It's not a big effort if you ask me but I've seen a number of occasions where people that are interested in joining a social league will avoid doing anything more than driving the car.

A much more relaxed way in my opinion is, to have a setup request rule, where anyone can ask anyone to give them their current setup and they'll have to share it.

 

[Daunt]

In my opinion, I'd like to see people post the setups here on the forum, but I'd moreso say it's important to share during practice and race sessions.

 

[Kenadian]

Honestly Noel I'm not worried about populating this League whatsoever which is why I've made no effort outside of Twitch to promote it. To date we've attracted many Drivers who either fit and stick around or don't and move on.

I see no reason to suspect League will be any different in this regard.

If we attract people who can't do the bare minimum to be involved then we'll replace them with others who are.

As it is one of our rules is if you want to participate you need to register in the forums and announce yourself. This is already a prerequisite in lets face it, a very small order of prerequisites.

I do understand what you're saying about weather but there's nothing that I or anyone can do to adjust for that. All you need worry about is sharing your setup and maybe stating the weather it was run in; it will be up to the individuals to setup for whatever conditions they face.

If this means you share one setup then that's what it means. I doubt it will come to that though because given Practice Pals it's likely many will be running similar setups as we oftentimes share them in this manner.

This means that I can even share your last Merc setup in a Practice Pals Session as early as Monday or as late as Friday.

This is the beauty of it as our League is an extension of Practice Pals.

...and just like Practice Pals it becomes clear who's willing to participate very quickly. Those not willing to do a little extra won't even be granted access into the League or be pruned inside their first season.

 

[Bump2win]

I've heard this league is horrible. Kappa