Rules - 2008 GPL World Cup

I. TEAMS

Number of teams: A total of 32 teams can participate. Each nation is free to decide how many teams it will propose to enter and which drivers will comprise each team.

Number of teams per nation: There is no limit to the number of teams per nation, but every nation or region willing to participate will have at least 1 team.

Mixed teams: As the World Cup is a nations competition, teams can only be made of drivers of the same nationality. However, mixed teams can be authorized for “smaller” nations (GPL-wise) who would have difficulty in gathering enough drivers to make a homogeneous team. It would also be more coherent if any mixed teams were made of drivers from the same geographical area (for example a Baltic team for drivers from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).

Substitutes: There is no limit on substitute drivers as long as they come from the same country/region as the original team.

Seeding: Each team will be calculated using the average GPLrank of its 4 drivers and sorted into groups of similar strength 2 weeks before season start. The fastest team of each nation is automatically qualified. To reach the number of 32 teams, the second fastest team for each nation will be drafted in and so on until the 32 fastest teams are gathered.

Team names: For the sake of clarity, exotic team names will be not be used so each team shall officially be named from its nationality and rank if from the same nation (i.e. Ghana 1, Ghana 2, Ghana 3, etc…).

Driver names: Drivers should preferably use their own full name, but indicate which country they are from by adding max 3 letter abbreviation in front of their last names like this: 'Driver GHA Driverson' (must be before last name only!)

Helmet color: To help differentiate teams on track in races, drivers on each team should use the same helmet color. Teams in the same group should have different colors.

Nation captains: Each team will have a nominated captain. This captain will be the spokesman of his team to participate in forum discussions and polls regarding the series rules and proceedings (a dedicated sub-forum has been created for this purpose).

II. CARS

Car selection: 1967 Cars. For every round of the tournament, each team must use all the 7 car types at least twice. Any team that fields less than 14 drivers in a round due to driver absentees must drive each car type at least once and not more than twice.
-Penalty for breaking this rule is disqualification.

III. TRACKS

Track selection: Each team will select a home track for every round of the cup to be announced no later that 2 weeks before every round. Only original tracks can be selected.

Pit wall Kyalami: At Kyalami, the pit wall must not be used. To remove the pit wall, unzip this file to the gpl\tracks\kyalami folder and overwrite if necessary.
-Penalty for accident caused as a result of breaking this rule is a Stop-Go in the pits or 30 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for DNF caused as a result of breaking this rule is 1 minute added to the race time.

IV. ROUNDS

The 2008 GPL World Cup will use a tournament system comparable to the one used for FIFA World Cup of Football. 4 rounds will be held: First round, quarter-final, semi-final and then final.

First round: 8 groups with 4 teams per group. 4 races per group, 16 drivers per race

A given team may score from all of its 4 drivers in each race. The 2 nations with the most points after the group stage advance to the quarter-final. If equal on points, placings will decide the winners (number of 1st and if still equal number of 2nds etc).

To determine the composition of the 8 first round groups, the 32 participating teams will be classified from fastest to slowest based on the average GPLrank determined above in chapter I. The following table will be used (where 1 represents the fastest team and 32 the slowest) :

Group A	1	9	17	25
Group B	8	16	24	32
Group C	5	13	21	29
Group D	4	12	20	28
Group E	3	11	19	27
Group F	6	14	22	30
Group G	7	15	23	31
Group H	2	10	18	26

This seeding system inspired from tennis tournaments would assure the 2 fastest teams can only face each other in the final round, and also makes for evenly matched groups at the start of the competition.

Quarter-Final: With 16 teams advancing to QF, we get another group round with 4 groups of 4 teams. Same proceedings as the previous round with the first 2 teams advancing to semi-final. Seeding based on the standings of the first round as follows:

QF A	A1 + B1 + C2 + D2
QF B	C1 + D1 + A2 + B2
QF C	E1 + F1 + G2 + H2
QF D	G1 + H1 + E2 + F2

Semi-Final: 8 teams left, 2 groups of 4 teams, same proceedings. First 2 teams of each group advance to final. Seeding based on the Standings of the quarter-final round, as follows :

SF A	QFA1 + QFB1 + QFC2 + QFD2
SF B	QFC1 + QFD1 + QFA2 + QFB2

Note: Care will be taken to avoid having 2 teams of the same nation being part of the same group at either stage of the tournament. This point would be the only issue where a slight modification of the seeding system described above would be necessary.

Race order: At each round, the bottom seeded team will stage it's home race first, followed by the third, second, and finally the top seed.

V. SPORTING REGULATIONS

Points system: Points will be awarded to the first 10 classified drivers that completed 90% of the total distance as follows : 15-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1, plus 1 point to the fastest race lap. Same system for every race of each round.

Race format: All races are 50% GP length with realistic damage (no car reset possible) with a 30-minute qualifying session held immediately before the race to decide the grid.

Protests: Races will not be reviewed for infringements automatically, only formal protests or admin initiatives will be processed. Protests must be delivered to the admin team within 1 week of the race and will be treated anonymously. Decisions will be announced within 1 week after receiving the protest and can not be appealed.

Start crash: Should any driver cause a mass crash before Turn 3 on the first lap, he will be disqualified with no exception and regardless if it was intentional or not. A mass crash is defined as 3 or more cars being involved in an incident.

Pits: The pits is defined as part of the track and can be driven through at speed but not used for overtaking except in emergency situations.
-Penalty for breaking this rule is a Stop-Go in the pits or 20 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for accident caused as a result of breaking this rule is a Stop-Go in the pits or 30 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for DNF caused as a result of breaking this rule is 1 minute added to the race time.

Yellow flags: Warning about accident ahead. Overtaking is allowed in qualifying but not during the race. Yellow flag period starts after first flagman and ends after the first flagman without a yellow flag.
-Penalty for breaking this rule is a Stop-Go in the pits or 20 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for accident caused as a result of breaking this rule is a Stop-Go in the pits or 30 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for DNF caused as a result of breaking this rule is 1 minute added to the race time.

Blue Flags: A faster car or cars is/are approaching from behind and should be let past before 3 visible flags, but focus must be on safety. All cars have the same right to the track so it is as much the faster cars responsibility to make the pass without incident.
NOTE! Should a driver get blue flags unfairly as a result of starting from the pits or counted wrong by the game after warping, he may ignore them but be extra careful when overtaking and can not expect other cars to give way when lapping.
-Penalty for ignoring more than 3 blue flags without letting cars past during a lapping situation is a Stop-Go in the pits or 20 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for accident caused by any competitor during a lapping situation is Stop-Go in the pits or 30 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for DNF caused by any competitor during a lapping situation is 1 minute added to the race time.

Black Flags: Black flags after jump start must be followed by a Stop-Go under your pit board in the pits within 3 laps or 30 seconds will be added to the race time. Any other black flags can be ignored.

Checkered Flag: If a driver is about to be lapped just before the finish of the race, he might wrongly be given the checkered flag and should continue 1 more lap. It is up to the drivers to keep count of number of laps, but a sure sign the race is really over is when all the flag marshals are waving.

Qualifying behavior: As the pits is part of the track and can be driven through at speed, entering the car and exiting the pits must be done in the safest possible way by first looking for other cars at the live feed from the TV screen in the pit garage. On track, a driver must not hinder other competitor's hot laps in any way. Every driver has the same right to qualify as well as possible so can finish a hot lap even if cars behind are hindered. Cars catching a slower car on a hot lap must therefore abandon their laps and not hinder the competitor in any way. Out or in laps, and slow laps after a car has been off track or made a large error are not considered hot laps.
-Penalty for breaking this rule is a Stop-Go in the pits during the race or 20 seconds added to the race time.

Illegal qualifying times set as a result of rail-riding, corner-cutting or warp must be reset by leaving the game and re-entering with a new helmet color.
-Penalty for breaking this rule is a Stop-Go in the pits within the 3 first laps of the race or 30 seconds added to the race time.

Race behavior: A driver may use the whole width of the track and choose any line he wants but can not change line more than once between each corner. In an overtaking situation he must however give enough room to a competitor. An overtaking situation is defined as when half or more of the car is alongside another and enough room is defined as half the track width. An obvious dive is not an overtaking situation even if half the car was alongside at some point.
-Penalty for braking this rule is a Stop-Go in the pits or 20 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for accident caused as a result of breaking this rule is a Stop-Go in the pits or 30 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for DNF caused as a result of breaking this rule is 1 minute added to the race time.

Re-entering the track: If a driver has been off the track in the race, he must try to re-enter safely.
-Penalty for braking this rule is a Stop-Go in the pits or 20 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for accident caused as a result of breaking this rule is a Stop-Go in the pits or 30 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for DNF caused as a result of breaking this rule is 1 minute added to the race time.

Corner cutting: Cutting a corner is defined as when all 4 wheels are off the track and only permitted as a result of losing control of the car, but must not be used to save any time or for overtaking. Should a car be overtaken it must be let past within 3 corners.
-Penalty for breaking this rule in the race is a Stop-Go in the pits or 20 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for accident caused as a result of breaking this rule in the race is a Stop-Go in the pits or 30 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for DNF caused as a result of breaking this rule in the race is 1 minute added to the race time.

Rail riding: Rail riding is only permitted as a result of losing control of the car, but must not be used to save any time or for overtaking. Should a car be overtaken it must be let past within 3 corners.
-Penalty for breaking this rule in the race is a Stop-Go in the pits or 20 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for accident caused as a result of breaking this rule in the race is a Stop-Go in the pits or 30 seconds added to the race time.
-Penalty for DNF caused as a result of breaking this rule in the race is 1 minute added to the race time.

Chat: In-car chat must be switched off in options.

Cheating: No change of program code for car or track improvement is allowed, only released and community approved game modifying utilities can be used. Regular and intentional breaking of the sporting rules will also be seen as cheating.
-Penalty for breaking this rule is exclusion of the team from the event.

Force Majeure: Should any race be interrupted for whatever reason, the race can be re-run according to the distance covered before the interruption counted in complete laps as shown on available replay or by drivers or GPL TV spectators testimony. If the race can not be re-run it will be cancelled and not count for the round.
- less then 25% = race must be re-run immediately or latest 4 days after schedule deadline date
- between 25% and 75% = race can be re-run latest 4 days after schedule deadline date if the majority of teams agree
- more than 75% = race counted as complete if agreement on positions can be made, otherwise can be re-run latest 4 days after schedule deadline date if the majority of teams agree

Other: Any other dispute not covered by these rules will be by settled by the tournament admins.

VI. SCHEDULE

Teams within a group should as far as possible arrange their own matches, but do so within a set date to ensure continuation based on the schedule below. If teams can not agree on a time among themselves the schedule date and home team time will be used and no races can be held after this date except after force majeure like described above or other extreme circumstances as decided by the admin team.

A team reaching the final would have a 16-race schedule to face.

Here is the official World Cup schedule, in which the given dates are the deadlines before which a race has to be held :

Jan. 27	Groups	Race 1
Feb. 17	Groups	Race 2
Mar. 16	Groups	Race 3
Apr. 6	Groups	Race 4
Apr. 27	QF	Race 1
May 18	QF	Race 2
June 8	QF	Race 3
June 29	QF	Race 4
Sep. 14	SF	Race 1
Sep. 28	SF	Race 2
Oct. 12	SF	Race 3
Oct. 26	SF	Race 4
Nov. 9	Final	Race 1
Nov. 23	Final	Race 2
Dec. 7	Final	Race 3
Dec. 21	Final	Race 4

VII. SERVERS

Race servers: Dedicated servers with starters will be available for all races.

Race hosting: All races will be run on VROC, but if not working will be hosted on iGOR and can be joined there or via normal multiplayer with IP (IP given in chat).

Server names: Server name will be GPLWC for all servers taking part in the event.

Bandwidth Patch: All drivers and servers must use the Bandwidth Patch set to show 5 cars in front and 3 behind. ('fast' settings)

Race server password: To be announced in the chat room before races.

VIII. CHAT ROOM

Chat room: 2008gplwc ( irc.shadowworld.org ) no password