Introducing the HLR

The GMWC is unveiling a new way to enjoy casually-competitive simulation motorsports: The Hot Lap Ranking (HLR) Competition.

The HLR is a 'perpetual' competition, much like the Rolling Rankings, but it has several distinct differences.   First, as the name implies, it's focus is hot lapping, rather than racing or racecraft.  Second, it is completely independent from the league's events and the results of those events.  That latter point is perhaps the most critical, and is in fact the motivation for the HLR's existence.

As a league, we strive to provide opportunities for league members to indulge their affection for motorsports on both a competitive and social level, and for league members to be able to participate as fully as possible despite the demands of their normal lives.  While the forum and the practice server are always available to fill that social role, the league's existing set of competitive opportunities were such that they left some of our league members 'out in the cold', so to speak, merely because those members aren't able to regularly participate in the events.

So we created the HLR as a complement to our current competitions, and crafted it such that it fills a niche that has heretofore been neglected.

Specifically, the HLR is an individual driver competition where each driver has at all times a single score.  That score is simply the cumulative time for the fastest laps achieved by that driver on each of a fixed list of tracks.  The list is short, currently 4 tracks, and so the HLR score for a driver would consist of the sum of just 4 lap times - the fastest lap achieved by the driver on each of the 4 tracks.  The faster you are, the lower your cumulative time will be, and the higher your HLR score will be.

Keep reading for the full details of the HLR...

• The HLR is conducted on its own dedicated server: rfactor.gridmotorsports.com:34293
  That server has already been included in the 'Quick Connect' options of the GM software.  The HLR is *only* conducted on that server, meaning that a lap doesn't count if it's not executed on that server.  There are several reasons for dedicating a server to the HLR.  It removes the potential for any confusion regarding the legitimacy of any lap by any driver.  If it's done on the HLR server, it's legitimate.  If it's done on another server, even in the context of a GMWC event, it's not.  The HLR server will be configured according to HLR-specific settings, and that ensures consistency across all of the lap times.  We don't have to worry about differences between those settings and, say, event settings or settings on one of the Team servers, because laps on those servers don't count towards HLR so it doesn't matter how those servers/events are configured.  Lastly, having a dedicated HLR server guarantees that anytime someone wants to log HLR laps they're able to do so in an official capacity and it doesn't interfere with activity on any of the other servers.

• *ANY* GM vehicle class can be used.  That's right -- it's wide open.  Drive whatever car you think you can drive the fastest.  In some ways, the HLR is provided as more than just another competition -- it's a controlled environment in which drivers can establish their own personal performance benchmarks and work towards steady incremental personal improvement.  Drive the vehicle in which you feel the most confident.  Or drive the vehicle in which you feel the least confident, and use the HLR as a means to challenge yourself.  Whatever, it's up to you.  Don't necessarily get caught up in comparing your HLR score to everyone else's.  Yes, it's a competition, and that's fun, but think of it also like a golf score.  Improving your personal best is always a good thing -- regardless of what anyone else is capable of scoring.  The HLR is a means for you to gauge how you're doing, relative to yourself, because it's kind of a 'vacuum' score.  There are no races, or qualifying, or pit stops, or people punting you off the track, etc..  It's stripped down to the bare essentials: executing a fast lap.
• The track list will change, but slowly and incrementally.  Right now it's 4 tracks: GP-200, Mid Ohio, Laguna Seca, Zandvoort GP.  (There will be an accompanying forum post that has download links for each of these in case you don't already have them.)  It hasn't been decided how often the track list will change, but we are committed to changing it just one track at a time.  The way the scoring works, if a driver is missing a lap time for any track in the list then that driver won't have an HLR score.  So, when we swap out one track for another, the HLR scores for everyone will temporarily 'reset' to NULL.  As soon as a driver logs a lap time for the new track, they'll have a new HLR score (assuming they had already logged times for the other tracks).  A short track list (~3-5?) also helps keep the HLR competition accessible to new drivers, and it helps keep the competitive burden low for everyone.
• There will be a decal associated with HLR, and possibly some other periodic award(s).  The decal has not been unveiled yet.  We anticipate that the frequency for re-assignment of the HLR decal(s) would be weekly, just so that it corresponds to our other administrative tasks, and to allow at least a guaranteed window of time for the decal winners to enjoy their 'reign'.
• The HLR is a 'no holds barred' kind of competition.  It won't be supervised -- it can't be because it's essentially being conducted 24/7.  We won't be policing track cheats.  If you can log a lap, it's a valid lap.  However, we actually intend to use the HLR as a terrifically convenient means of track verification -- specifically because we don't intend to police track exploits.  We *want* you to find them.  So, drivers can think of themselves as testers for a given track, when they're participating in the HLR.  If we discover that a track is just blatantly busted in some fashion or another, we'll likely swap it out of the HLR in favor of another track.  But, for instance, if Spa were to be on the HLR list, we wouldn't be policing the exploit of the Bus Stop chicane.  It's impractical to do so, and even if everyone was a perfect gentlemen, the occasional 'oops' cheat is going to happen and we don't want to be in the business of having to manually correct the results files to exclude invalid laps in a sea of otherwise valid laps.  So, we're just declaring everything 'valid' by definition.
• As with all other league activity (unless explicitly declared otherwise), setup sharing is obligatory.  The reason for this is the same as it is for our other activities: being able to enjoyably compete in the league doesn't require that you personally know how to setup a car.  The people that are good at it and inclined to it can do it and everyone reaps the benefits.  There are occasions where we allow someone's setup prowess to impart them a specific competitive advantage, but in general setup dividends are paid out to everyone and the competition is about execution.

In summary, the HLR is basically just an opportunity for folks to compete against both themselves and other drivers in an official league fashion, but without the specific schedule constraints that are imposed on our other competitions.  It is a 'hot lap' type of competition because (a) we already have several race-centric competitions (RR and TC/DC) and because hot-lapping is most conducive to the goal of keeping the HLR competition accessible to as many drivers as possible, regardless of their personal schedules.