No. 322009.7.15

Infiltrating the Qualifying Tournament

Hi there, it's Uchida.


Nowadays, I hear the rainy season's already finished in some southern parts.
Around the Future Lab, it's still in the middle of the rainy season.
The humidity is toooo high! It's sooo damp!
Just those two factors are enough to make me almost feel depressed.


Like blowing off such a damp, the qualifying tournaments of the Wangan Maxi 3DX national championship have been held all over Japan.
As a first nationwide championship for Wangan Maxi, I was dying of curiosity to find out what kind of players I'd see there.
So, in private, I actually stopped by a qualifying tournament held at a nearby arcade.
The age group of the players participating at that arcade ranged from elementary school to high school students.
Maybe because they weren't used to participating in tournaments, there was a somewhat tense atmosphere.


From my viewpoint, the point to finish a fight seemed to be, to put it bluntly, "presence of mind."


In one of the races,
the selected course was "Wangan line (westbound), Rinkai Fukutoshin Ramp Start."
Maybe because the two players thought the race would be determined by the straight Wangan Line, they both chose the "825-hoursepower/DG" setting. Player 1 chose a "car with front engine, rear-wheel drive and with high engine displacement" which should be good for the maximum speed, and Player 2 chose a "Full Time 4WD" which should be weak for the maximum speed.
The race started while I thought that those cars' differences clearly show since both players' skill levels were almost equivalent.
As I expected, the race was developing with Player 1's "FR with high engine displacement" leading.
However, as the course was almost going through the Tokyo Bay Tunnel, Player 2's "Full Time 4DW" was catching up.
As for the course position, Player 2's "Full Time 4DW" was on the left, and Player 1's "FR with high engine displacement" was on the right.
Then, Player 1's "FR with high engine displacement" was moving to the left side to stop Player 2 going ahead.
This block worked well, and Player 1 still kept the lead.
But…the momentum generated by that step-on made Player 1 pass through the left at the point of selecting a branch before the Ohi U-turn.
So, from there, the course was moving from the Ohi U-turn to the CI direction.
Since both players' settings were fully tuned to Power, those tunings required severe driving techniques.
At the Hamazakibashi Junction getting into C1, direction right was selected, and the course was going to C1 Inner.
After the Ginza zone, at the branch before the Edobashi Junction, the direction right was again selected.
The shortest route going to the Wangan Line direction which could utilize the car setting was selected. Smart selections.
But, maybe because the continuous severe driving forced a lapse in concentration, Player 1 made a mistake at the continuous S-curves around Kiba area.
This mistake changed the order, and in the end, Player 2's "Full Time 4DW" won the race.


The key point of that race might be:
"Was it necessary to block at the point before the high-risk branch?"
Considering that there was still a lot of the race course remaining and that the course was favorable for Player 1's car type, it would've been a better choice to leave that out.
But I guess …Player 1 must've felt pressed. It makes sense if we assume that Player 1 thought, "If Player 2 gets ahead of me here, I may never be able to pass Player 2 later."
"Feeling pressed" intervenes with the "presence of mind" and causes a player to do things he/she usually doesn't do, and that ends up in self-destruction…that's the scary part of a one-shot deal.
Player 1 in that race was hasty in selecting "Reject" in VS player before the race, so I guess Player 1 was really truly nervous.
We can assume if the race was held in the same conditions and was a regular race, there is the high possibility that Player 1 would win the fight.


All in all, the key point of fights is "presence of mind."


Advice to players who participate in the qualifying tournaments from now.
How to keep your "presence of mind"…that'll be to gain experience, that is, practice.
Of course, it would be nice to experience the exact same feeling as a qualifying tournament, but in reality, that's not possible.
So, you need to experience as many races as you can in your normal fights.
You should even actively try out a course you've never run before (a course you're not good at, etc.).
In qualifying tournaments, what if a course you're not good at is selected…only that will take away your "presence of mind".
I think experience in the same courses and even in selecting branches will make a significant difference in races.


Well, I'll finish up here this time.
See you around.