Admins Review

by Guest Fri Mar 29, 2013 8:34 am

Vernon-ator_1991 took time out from his busy schedule to answer a few questions asked by the media about season 3 and what he expects from season 4, i hope you enjoy....

First of all how do you think season 3 on the site as a whole has gone?

I believe Season 3 as a whole has been successful. We have had F1 battles throughout the season across 5 leagues, all of which I believe have been successful.
There have been difficulties this season, with disputes between drivers and how the leagues have been set-up and run (i.e. car allocation) but we have all managed to battle through the disagreements and come out the other side extremely positive.

We have also had the creation of leagues on the site not linked to F1, but have still brought an large element of fun. I have the privilege to be apart of the GT5 league and to have been apart of the FIFA league. The Call of Duty league seems to be very popular, however I cannot say much on the topic as I’m not involved with the league, but it is bringing in new members to the site which could also end up meaning that they become a member of an F1 league, which is the main aim on the site.

The season for me has been the best I’ve experienced so far, best results in PL1 this season in comparison to other seasons by far including my first ever victory at Silverstone, and also becoming Pro League Manager and temporary Site Manager in the absence of Linden.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the how the site as a whole has been run this season by all site managers, league moderators, admin and FIA members. It really has brought the site forward to a high level of maturity.

We have seen some of the leagues struggle this season but do you think the site as a whole has come back stronger?

There’s only 1 answer to that question, YES!!! We’ve had major difficulties this season, mainly in Pro League due to car allocation. We were not helped at the start of the season when a patch update changed the order of the cars in 2012 performance, meaning that only after 4 races a re-arrangement was required forcing a weeks break to get it right. But that wasn’t the end of it, results were still showing domination in PL1 which was upsetting a few drivers and it was only made clear a good 5 races later that racing with Environmental Effect on was a lot slower than having it off. Some drivers were using it and some were not using it, but everyone was unaware of the effect it had. Once everyone changed their settings to 0% Environmental Effect it did lead to a much more competitive league, especially with the rise of Mick in the 2nd half of the season (to my annoyance ). Once all the rough edges were smoothed out it has lead PL1 to a happy and enjoyable.

We had a slight problem with the lower leagues in PL mainly due to attendance, causing PL2 & PL3 to migrate into 1 league. This also meant that the season was started from scratch from Germany onwards. This wasn’t our most ideal situation we wanted to experience but we had no choice but to go along with it. Season 4 looks more promising for PL, we have PL1 completely full and PL2 on a driver or 2 away from also being full which is what we want because attendance has been our main issue throughout the season. Also the rise of 4 AL drivers moving to PL is hopefully a start of a trend in the upcoming seasons.

During the course of the season we have also seen new leagues introduced, what is your view on the upcoming leagues?

We have seen the creation of a couple of non F1 leagues this season (GT5, FIFA and Call of Duty), all of which have been a popular decision to create. Call of Duty especially seems popular, this is also getting new people to sign up to the website and hopefully we can convince them to maybe join an F1 league. FIFA began as another popular league with 16 members battling it out in an European Cup competition style format. Unfortunately as Season 1 continued the interest was fading and members were leaving. Once the teams for Season 2 were announced this kicked off some harsh criticism, that the random draws of the teams were actually fixed, which lead to a large number of members leaving. To this day I am unsure how that league is going as I left half way through Season 1 due to lack of time and it being scheduled on the wrong day for me.

GT5 league seemed to be a very good idea because it is a very popular game and is a more realistic racing game compared to F1 2012, so we all thought we were onto a winner. But after 2 events the attendance hasn’t been great, so a few alarms are setting off with the future of the GT5 league if the lack of numbers continue.

Everyone has helped out but is there anyone that stands out to you from this season and if so why?

It would be impossible for me to pick out 1 individual that stood out most. A number of guys really helped through the tough times to get it going in the correct direction again. The main guys would obviously be Cookster, BK, Rob, Dizzy etc. I could carry on with that list for hours. Everyone deserves a credit to their involvement with helping us out of this difficulty this season.

Well Done everyone.

And finally what would you like to see from season 4?

I would like to see all leagues to remain at a high standard and with a consistency that all the drivers make a 100% effort to make all or as many races as they can. The last thing we need again is dropping numbers. I would also like to see us go through a season without having to make too many car and driver changes. In PL that will be very difficult, but if everyone is patient with us then we can get it right.

The main thing I’d like to see this season is for no drivers to start falling out with each other, it has taken a lot to get this site running as 1 again, it would be nice to keep it that way. Oh and for me to win the drivers title in PL1 .

Bring on Season 4.