We are well into the 2022 CFR Organized Play season and I've updated the rankings. Finally. Thank you for your patience.
Monday, June 20, 2022
2022 Organized Play Update and a Ranking Tweak
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
WBC 2022... It's On!
Two years ago WBC steward Chris picked tracks for the WBC CFR tournament. Now you all will finally get to race those tracks at WBC 2022.
Instead of repeating myself... here's the list of tracks.
Good luck all.
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
CFR 2021 Organized Play Wraps Up
A couple tourneys (mostly mine) ran longer than anticipated this season. So this is later than usual. By a month or two really. But its wrapped and we can crown a champ.
2021 OP Champ: Stephen Peeples
Huge congrats to Stephen. Stephen won 8 races this season -- the most of anyone and nearly half of the 18 races he participated in. He also won 2 tournaments -- tied for the most tournament wins. This season culminated a sharp rise to the top for Mr. Peepels who raced in his first ranked race in the 2018 season. He was ranked 40th in the 2019 season and 6th last year.
Michael Polcen's top 5 races were slightly more valuable than Stephen's but Michael did not win a tournament this season -- coming in 2nd twice instead -- spoiling his bid for a 2nd title.
Dave Ling placed 8th officially but did win two of the more prestigious tournaments (Redscape's C1 and my P1). But he won only 2 races all season plus only 2 other podiums to end up with fewer points for his top 5 races than the other drivers around him.
Defending two-time champ Don Tatum came up short of the three-peat but did continue his streak of ranking top 4 in all 5 of the OP seasons so far.
Most Improved: Thomas Van Hare
Thomas was ranked 98th last season and jumped up to 30th this season after winning a race and the Hamilton series this year.
Honorable mentions: Robert Rund has been ranked in the 40s for the last 3 season and really put it together this year for 7 wins and a tournament victory to end up 5th on the season. Mike Greason moved up from 74th to 17th. Kevin Harrington from 78th to 25th. Kathryn Harley from 88th to 32nd. Larry Dygert from 101st to 42nd. Leon "Blacketo" from 120th to 64th.
Rookies of the Year: Curtis Milburn & Jeff Caldwell
I couldn't bring myself to single out one of them. Curtis and Jeff finished ranked 44th and 45th, less than a point apart. Curtis participated in 10 races. He didn't win any but did grab 2 podiums. Jeff only participated in 4 races and did no better than 5th... except for the race he won.
Steward of the Year: Brian DeWitt
I got a nomination for this award this season. I don't think I ever have before and honestly should ask for them in the future. As racing started to occur in person again this year, Brian offered up his house for the DMV series -- hosting double race-days with large scale cars and lunch! I'm sorry I never made it. Maybe next year.
Friday, April 9, 2021
Supercharged: light, quick racing
I got my Kickstarter copy last week and the game has taken over my workbench since then. I played probably 10 games, all solo. My quick reaction at this point: This is a light, quick-playing game with some engaging bits. I liked it. Quick disclaimer, Jim Dietz was instrumental in getting CFR published for which I will always be grateful.
Light, Quick-Playing
Racing games have a habit of being long or being racing
games in theme only. I applaud designers
Mike Clifford and Mike Siggins for coming up with a quick play game that feels
like racing. I admit that people looking
for deeper decision making may not enjoy this game. But I also think that there is a bigger decision
space here than might be apparent at first.
It is tempting to think that your only decision is which of
your cars to 7 spaces and which to move 6.
But more often the decision is really IF you want to move all of that
speed or not. Slipstreams make a huge
difference in this game and shorting yourself a couple spaces this move to set
up a slipstream is probably worth it. Or
maybe you should move fewer spaces to create a blocking situation for some cars
right behind you that have yet to move this turn. Or maybe I want to move a little less because
it means that a car that moves up behind me later in the turn will be in a
curve and not eligible for a slip next turn.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not the thinkiest game. But after a couple plays you can find ways to
be thinkier with your moves.
Engaging Bits
There are some specific design elements I really enjoyed
with this game. The grid position
assignment was very well done. Faster
teams will be randomly assigned to grid spots 1-4 and then mixed in with the
next tier of teams for spots 5-11 and so on.
I think this works really well as there is a level of randomization
within constraints.
I love that you can reconfigure the track. Although I get that this is mostly cosmetic. The reality is that the track only matters to the degree that you can change the order and quantity of straight spaces versus curve spaces. If you are going to use all of the pieces every track, there are really only so many variations you can create. And yet, it’s fun to do.
This is not an overly produced game but I really like the
design esthetic of the 1930s era cars and the added bit of rationale when cars
get bounced from races is great. (Yes,
drivers got sick ALL the time during races back then.)
Rougher Bits
As with any game there are things I did not like as
much. In my first handful of plays I noticed
the track was REALLY clogged up in the back during turns 1 and 2 after the
starting procedure. If the random
determination of who went first was mostly backmarkers you ended up with a LOT
of spun cars because there was literally nowhere for them to go. Recovering from a spin requires a pull from
the Action Deck and can mean that car is done for the race. Lots of spun cars means you churn through the
Action Deck which means more and more Events.
Events can be random one time bonuses but can also mean random retirements. While I saw this happen more in early turns
before the field naturally spreads out, I would typically cycle through the
Action Deck about 3 times per race. I
get that a lot of retirements is very thematic, but when I saw the French team
lose both cars that were 1-2 in the race a turn from the finish line it just
felt bad. This would have been a
table-flipper if it were competitive.
So, I came up with a couple ideas, one of which I REALLY like. First a little background.
Every game you control two different teams. Each turn, 1 card for each team is shuffled together
with cards for all of the other teams and that random draw determines who moves
in which order. This very random turn
order is what I think is the cause of more mayhem than I enjoy.
My Supercharged House Rule
At the beginning of the turn, each
player puts one of their team’s cards facedown into the “moves first” pile and the
other facedown into the “moves second” pile.
Randomly assign half of the privateer teams to each pile. When the two piles are complete, shuffle each,
and then place the “moves first” pile on top of the “moves second” pile. The cards are then drawn from this combined
pile.
If one of your teams has had both
cars removed from the race, continue to play both cards because that hides
which pile you put your remaining team in.
This ends up doing several things I enjoy.
First it helps solve track congestion issues. If I see that one of my cars has a lot of
traffic in front of it that I want to try to avoid, I can put that team’s card
in the “move second” pile. Maybe things
will have cleared out. I felt like this played
out the way I’d hoped. But it also had
another impact I did not anticipate.
Because fewer cars got stuck in situations where they had no options and
had to spin, I churned through the Action Deck less. Now I’m shuffling only once per game not
three times. That means a LOT fewer
random events knocking out drivers for no real reason… especially late in the
game.
This rule also adds a decision to every turn that was not
there before. Sometimes it seems
relatively obvious that I should make one of my teams go first and the other go
second. But often I saw myself
considering both teams for different reasons.
And then you are put in a situation to maybe prioritize one team over
the other or start trying to anticipate the other players’ choices here.
I’m sure this modification is not for everyone, but if you
are looking for more decisions and less random give it a try.
Solo
A few words about Supercharged as a solitaire
experience. Supercharged solo is not set
up to be competitive. You aren’t racing
against the game. You are just running
the system to see what happens. I
actually enjoy that kind of solo experience but I realize that will not be best
for everyone.
I also decided that I’d rather play this game solo with the
4-player rules than the solo rules in the box.
I think the game is easy enough to play multi-handed. There is not a TON of player interaction in
your decision making. And it’s easy enough
to anticipate what a Team might decide to do based only on their situation and
not trying to anticipate other Teams’ moves.
This also means you get to play with the Tactics cards which provide
more decisions to make and keeps more cars from spinning out. The Great Maneuver card is often a get out of
jail free card when you would otherwise be stuck spinning.
To Sum Up
A light, quick racing game with enough flavor to feel like
racing. The lighter level of decision
grit keeps the game light and quick but your satisfaction with that will vary. I recommend my turn order modification. I also recommend playing 4-handed solitaire
and not the solo rules in the game. It honestly
gives you a better flavor of the game.
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Annie Bousquet, Race Car Driver
I was developing a version of the Reims race track for Championship Formula Racing when I noticed that one of the corners was named for someone I did not recognize. Who was Annie Bousquet and why does she have a corner named after her?
It turns out that Annie Bousquet was a race car driver from 1953 until 1956. And her career would make an excellent movie.
The opening scene could be a hotel lobby bar at a picturesque Italian ski resort (Sestriere in the Italian Alps along the border with France). We would see two Italian race car drivers regaling an audience with their tales of life at over 200 kph. One of those drivers is double F1 world champion Alberto Ascari. In the background Annie listens intently – her recently broken leg propped up on an ottoman.
Fast forward a few months: Annie’s cast is removed and she almost immediately enters her first rally.
In addition to being a race car driver, Annie Bousquet was a woman. In the 1950s women were reportedly more tolerated in Rally racing as it was considered a more casual form of auto racing. Annie was herself turned away from the 12 hours of Sebring which frowned on women participants.
Annie did manage to enter a number of sports car races, many of which were FIA sanctioned championship events. She also broke the female lap speed record in 1955 – posting an average speed of 230.5 kph at Linas-Monthery in a Porsche Spider. The previous record of 215 kph had been set in 1934.
But a mere 4 years after her first organized race, Annie’s racing career would come to an end. In January of 1956 Annie’s husband died in a car accident. Annie kept racing. In June she was entered the 12 hours of Reims but her Porsche was being repaired and was only ready the night before the race and 500 km away from the track. She drove through the night and insisted on taking the first stint. She suffered a fatal crash an hour into the race.
The reaction to Annie’s death followed a familiar dichotomy between treating Annie as a driver or as a woman. On one hand the corner where she died was named after her and a racing award was given her name. But the governing body for the 24 hours of LeMans banned women – a ban that lasted until the early 1970s -- and the French Automobile Federation currently has no mention of Annie on their web site or the award they named for her.
The race winner reportedly suggested that fatigue played a role in her crash but a number of written accounts of Annie’s life suggest that she was “a victim of her own enthusiasm” or focused a lot of attention on how often she crashed.
I prefer to look at Annie Bousquet as a race car driver of the 1950s. As such Annie was constantly pushing the limits of an immature sport – very much like every other 1950s race car driver I’ve read about. Like many others, it sadly turned fatal. In this case, cutting off a career only 4 years old.
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Championship Formula Racing Organized Play Update
Its early days but James Benham is in the top spot right now for 2021 after winning the Redscape Fall Squall series this weekend. Your right-this-second top 10 and more detail at the links below:
This could end up being a completely virtual season... depends a bit on what happens this summer. So I expect that some drivers may not get as much racing in as they usually do. But the opportunities for PBeM or TTS racing have increased since the pandemic hit so I anticipate a good season either way.
Keep racing everyone and I look forward to more results in the future.
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Changes For 2021 Organized Play
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The CFR OP Trophy |
We have just completed the fourth year of Organized Play for Championship Formula Racing and the ranking system has largely remained the same over that period of time. One of the main things I tried to do with the original system was to give different values to different races based on the competition. In theory, a win against a bunch of strong competitors should be worth more than a win against a group of rookies. The trick is judging the competition.
What I have done up to now is to count a driver's best race finishes over the last two years. I would then use that value to judge that driver's ability. The ability of the drivers in a race would add or subtract points from the value of that race.
The main problem with that concept is that it is circular. If I win 5 races against relative newbies I'm going to look like a world beater. But I can't judge the value of those wins until I figure out the value of those wins...
I also had a siloed community problem. If a group of drivers mostly race only against each other how do I compare them to others?
Late this season, I decided to try to improve the system.
Goals
My main goal was to try to improve the system's ability to value different races and tournaments. Specifically and in relative order of importance:
- Improve the system's ability to value individual drivers
- Do something about silos
- Prevent radically high tournament ratings
- Create a more predictable and consistent ranking system
- Provide points for ladder sub-tournaments
- Rebalance tournaments in relation to races
Ratings vs. Rankings
CFR Organized Play is all about figuring out which driver had the best season -- what I would call a ranking. It is not about figuring out who the best driver is -- what I would call a rating.
This is a distinction that happens (perhaps unintentionally) in sports all the time. The winner of the NBA Finals may not be the team that was arguably the best team in the NBA right now. But it was the team that won the playoffs and thus had the best season as defined by the NBA.
The NBA and most professional sports leagues are able to easily ignore ratings when crowning a champion because they can fairly structure seasons and playoffs to give everyone a similar chance and similar competition.
CFR Organized Play does not do that, instead it simply observes everything going on as organized by various people and has to judge a champion. This is where ratings come into play. The system uses ratings to try to figure out how much value to give every race because it can not rely on some overall structure to keep things even.
I bring this up as a preface to talking and ELO and ratings because at the end of the day, these are just tools for trying to fairly figure out a ranking. But driver ratings have never been goals in and of themselves for CFR Organized Play. And... I'll talk about that more a little further down this page.
ELO to the Rescue
I've been using a ELO a lot over the last couple of years in a slightly related project to rank and categorize the best F1 drivers of all time (more on that much later). So I felt comfortable using ELO as the basis of how good individual drivers are. For those not already familiar, ELO can be used to figure out how likely one person is to beat another person based on the difference in ELO scores between the players. After each event, the actual results are compared to what ELO thought would happen and adjustments are made to each player's ELO scores.
A complication with using ELO is that as described above, ELO works best if it is updated after every game or short event. But I don't always get race results immediately after the race and PBeM races take months to end. How does that work with ELO if in middle of that month long race, some of the drivers participate in 3 live, in-person events? What's their ELO?
So, I decided that I would only recalculate ELO at the end of every season. Every race that season would assume each driver had the ELO they started the season with. I would then add up all of the ELO adjustments from their races that season and calculate a new ELO for next season. I'm sure this means that my ELO scores are not as accurate as they could be, but I do not think calculating on the fly would be feasible.
Playing around with K
ELO calculations have a variable called K that tends to get tweaked by people who use ELO in different situations. What I ended up doing with K is using it as a way to express my confidence in a particular driver's ELO rating which is how I ended up addressing silos.
First I wanted to measure my silo problem and make sure it exists. So I crunched some numbers.