teamnimrod.net

I wanted to take a moment to toot Team Nimrod's horn. I know that Forza Motorsport doesn't fit the bill for every Nimrod, but we do have one heck of a contingent. There's a bit of buzz in our forums about resurrecting a weekly "Forza Night", and I'm all for it – despite my complete lack of virtual driving competency. You'll find a calendar entry (to the right) detailing this week's race details, with a link to the forum thread for more information.

Back in July several of our drivers had the opportunity to take on Turn 10 (the game developer) head-to-head. Please continue reading for the excerpt direct from forzamotorsport.net's weekly Pitpass Report.

Team T10 Takes on the Forza Community…

By: Landin Williams, Turn 10 Community Lead

Yo! Welcome back to this week’s edition of the Turn 10 community update, your weekly source on everything you need to know about Forza 2 and its online community. As some of you may know, last Friday marked the debut performance of Turn 10’s all new racing division which was recently created in order to challenge the community to a weekly race on Forza 2. Each week the fastest developers from Turn 10 studios will be facing off against a new set of community challengers, in a 3-on-3 team race where the fastest team takes home the glory.

So far our internal crew of racers known simply as “Team T10” is progressing nicely, and while we are still working on perfecting our skills as a team, we have already had our first matchup against The Really Good Forza Drivers (RGFD). We were confident in our skills and as always were talking trash (or should I say I was talking trash). Team RGFD was unaffected by our attempts to intimidate them, and as Friday rolled around I decided on Team T10’s final roster and set-up the multiplayer lobby.

Check out RGFD's front runner "jimnran" passing Turn 10 Dev "BeerLimey" on the inside. Note the tires off the track…

Team T10 Takes a Commanding Lead…

Maple Valley was the stage, and as we prepared to complete our 8 lap battle with “grace, speed and style”, I actually became slightly nervous, something I haven’t felt in quite some time. There was a lot on the line for this inaugural challenge, and after talking so much trash there was no way that we could accept defeat. Representing the Forza 2 community, and racing for the blue squad was team RGFD, with driver’s X jimnran X, X204Fx JCotter, and NMRD Paradox. Representing Turn 10 studios, and racing for the red team was CamelRacer T10, BLKJ SIDEFX, and BeerLimey.

The flag dropped for the race, and although we set the grid order to random, Team T10 had a major advantage right from the get go starting 1, 2 and 3 on the grid. Knowing that CamelRacer T10 had the fastest qualification times, I left him pass and fell into second place, just in front of my fellow teammate BeerLimey. Team RGFD followed closely behind. I already regret saying this, but in the back of my mind I thought this race was in the bag right out of the gate, as I knew Camel wouldn’t let anyone catch up. I was thinking along the same lines.

The first lap went off without a hitch, however RDFD’s front runner X jimnran X, was putting some serious pressure on T10’s BeerLimey, who was desperately hanging on to third place. Not ready to let Camel and I run away with the race, jimnran made a gutsy pass (two tires barely off the track) on Limey who drifted wide on turn 2. Limey kept his composure, knowing that we still had first and second place locked down, and kept up a good pace for the rest of lap 2. RGFD knew they had to make some serious moves in order to win this race, and in an attempt to make up time, JCotter pushed it too far on the final corner, and secured himself a date with the wall. Dropping further and further away from the pack things weren’t looking good for Team RGFD, however it was my own small mistake on the first turn that gave jimnran a free ticket to second place. With around 5 seconds separating CamelRacer T10 from jimnran, and two dev’s in third and fourth, it was looking like Team T10 would take home the win.

After colliding with the wall on the final turn, RGFD's "Jcotter" barely misses teamate "Paradox" as he zooms down the front straight.

Disaster Strikes for Team T10…

At this point we are halfway through the race when it happened…the moment that turned the tide against Team T10. That final menacing corner on Maple Valley has already taken down one of the RGFD racers, and now it was time for T10 to feel the burn. BeerLimey, who was currently holding down 4th place (and 2 points), cut in too early and headed straight towards the wall, as NMRD Paradox squeezed by the wreckage and took 4th place. Still shaken from the crash, but desperate to regain 4th place, Limey fought a hard battle with Cotter and Paradox. Exchanging positions (and a little paint), the fight for 4th place was easily the closest and most intense racing in this challenge. With everything on the line, both teams pushed for every last position and after an amazing exit on the final turn, BeerLimey tried to pass on the inside of turn 1 with late braking, and ended up in the grass (and subsequently in last place).

So as it stood we have Camel (T10) in first, jimnran (RGFD) in second, BLKJ SIDEFX (T10) in third, Jcotter and Paradox (RGFD) in fourth and fifth, and BeerLimey (T10) in sixth. Team T10 was up by 3 points with only 2 laps to go…and it would take a miracle for jimnran to deplete the 5 second deficit to snag first place from Camel. At this point I was in third place, with a huge margin separating me from fourth, so in my eyes the race was pretty much over. Cruising through the back section on lap 6, I made my way down towards the final corner and spotted two cars almost side by side in the distance…the final corner had claimed its final victim.

The unthinkable had happened.  CamelRacer T10 had a huge margin, and in an effort to play it safe, let off the gas going into the final corner, a serious mistake that essentially cost us the race. That’s right folks–Team T10 has lost its inaugural battle against the Really Good Forza Drivers…and it all came down to this critical moment. The shock and amazement that was going through my head when I rounded the final corner has been echoed throughout the hallways here at Turn 10 studios, as the news of our loss spread like wild fire. Some players have even threatened to walk away from this, and I quote, “Micky Mouse Operation”. Team T10 will be back…better, faster, and stronger than before, however I must accept defeat and send a serious congratulations out to the drivers from RGFD. They never gave up hope and raced until the final lap was done, and for that Turn 10 commends you!

Now…I’m not one to make excuses, however this just needs to be said. When team RGFD showed up to the race, with color coordinated rides and matching liveries, Team T10 was intimidated. We had the speed and at times we had the grace, but it is very obvious that we were lacking the style. Style gives you the confidence to succeed even when faced with insurmountable odds and Team T10 needs the communities help. So as I mentioned briefly last week we need a cool livery to give us the confidence to perform under pressure, and as a result have created a livery design contest.  Each week we will be holding a different livery design contest for our latest challenge, and since the cars will change every week, we won’t be able to re-use past liveries.

Our next challenge is set for Friday the 11th of July, and will feature racing with the 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII MR. The specifics of the race have not been determined yet, but we have selected this car for the event in order to give the painters a head start on creating a livery. We are looking for something sleek, sexy, and of course stylish, so check out the “Design a livery for Team T10” contest thread here, and help us beat the pants off of our next challenger with grace, speed, and style!

In addition to this we have already created the challenge thread for next Friday the 11th of July, so gather your friends and sign up here to take part in our second team challenge!

Read original blog post

That was indeed one of the most exciting, white-knuckle races in Forza Motorsport I have ever been a part of, and I am proud to have been one of the few chosen for this inagural event hosted by Turn 10 Studios. And just for clarification, the team name of 'Really Good Forza Drivers' was chosen by me simply due to the fact that Turn 10 was looking for a team of non-hardcore gamers with a not-so-serious name. My post was the first offical entry to the event, as the other two prior to my post were not quite organized, and I wanted to be exactly what Turn10 was looking for…and so my plan worked!   Before posting, I asked Jim and Cotter if they would like to be in my 3-man team as they are both very talented in Forza, and would be very competitive with whomever Turn10 put in the drivers seat on their team. Even though I'm a decent Forza driver, and I was the most consistent on the track for this event, the placement does not lie. I knew I needed some help and I chose very wisely! Thanks again Jim and Cotter!

Let me know if you get a chance to play with them again and I'll buy the game and be an alternate.

just kidding.