Online Stunts Competition History - Part 3
Its incredible how fast we are getting old. I just read through the first two parts and realized that the last entry was made almost three years ago. I'm much different from the person back there, my english is more advanced (at least I hope :)) and the Stunts Community is also different. Also advanced? Well lets see. :)
As this is such an incredible amount of time, I'll mainly stick to ZakStunts, as the competition I'm related to the most. I'll mention of course other competitions happenings - which I can remember, but I welcome your additional comments too. It'd be great to see our history from more viewpoints too.
So where were we? Summer of 2003. A flourishing community, great competitions, incredible replays. But what was the most important? The community. And we are not speaking about lots of newbies who come, race and go away, but about some racers. who are residents" they check the forum daily, and appear often in the chatroom too. Of course in such a community friendships are born. It was time to step out from the guarding ligths of the monitor. That summer I had a short visit in France. As we slept in our car, I have previously asked Krys Toff, who is living near Paris, if we could meet and maybe spend a night at him. And it happened. :) The first . relatively small- meeting of two stunts racers from different countries. An unforgettbale memory, which resulted in planning the 1st world Stunts Meeting for the summer of 2004.
However, this is still far away. Let's look at the scoreboard a bit. Dual-League is running, nobody understands the point system, so racers spend their time rather with racing :) Races are mostly dominated by Alain and Orion, with the eternal second, Akoss Poo. But they don't have an easy job, as the battle is harder than ever. Which is a good thing from one side, but on the other side the times scare away the new racers, and the dual-league system isn't helping them enough. Not suprisingly, Alain and Orion wins the hardest season ever. Will they continue their domination in 2004 too? We'll see
Outside ZakStunts an incredible happening takes place - The Kalpen Contest Revival. A special three-course race with the old rules, possibly the hardest competition track ever - scaring away racers, and a special dream-price: a boxed copy of the original Stunts. The eternal second showed us he can be first too - Akoss Poo won this event.
IRC was shutting down iwth the end of 2003 - start of 2004, leaving us without a widely popular Indy only competition.
The Fifth Generation - The Strange Couple
The new year has started. He came with it. Who? Later, dear reader. :) Let's take a quick overview before that. The most suprising thing was Orion breaking up. Why? - you could ask - they were so succesful! Maybe they got tired in racing, maybe the team set too strict boundaries for them. It was somehow easy to guess, with Argammon -the oscillating racer :) - quitting end of last year. So the best team broke up. Damage Inc. was their spawn, with Krys Toff behidn the idea. He wanted to build a stress-free team for the quitters from Orion and for others. They didn't aim for great results but great fun. Opponent Near also broke apart, Looping Warriors was back, with Akoss Poo and Usrin as main drivers. However, if someone should have guessed on the winning team back then -he probably would have said Cork's Crew. Yes, teams were more and more important. But If you'd have put your money on Cork and his team - you would have lost. Because he came.
Alan Rotoi turned his coat around, and a beutiful lady appeared from the mist - the Stunts Oracle. Alan was managing his own competition 4DSL this time aimed at South-American racers - with an incredible amount of racers - sometimes even 50. So that's why he didn't race seriously at ZakStunts. He merely helped a newcomer Argentinian - Gutix. Sounds unfamiliar? You'll learn his name soon, my friend. Because from march he dominated nearly the whole season.
I must mention though, that depite the easier system and the high number of racers, the competition level was maybe slightly lower than in 2003. The chatroom was more silent, but the forum still active, and racers could post news and messages directly to the main page of ZakStunts. ALso the live update was working flawlessly from this season - this means that racers submitted their replays directly to the scoreboard thorugh a web form. This resulted in really fierce battles for the leading time. Sure, this system worked back in 2003 too - but it became adult here.
Not many could win a race in 2004. Gutix won half of them, Alain and Bonzai Joe and Argammon was there sometimes, and CTG once. But the races were fun and entertaining as always. The relative silence at ZakStunts strengthened other the smaller competitions. Unskilled Championship was a popular alternative, managed by CTG, and Krys Toff organized us cups with unique rules and atmosphere.
The months went by, and while the usual summer silence struck the scoreboards, the preparations went wild behind the scenes. The First World Stunts Meeting took place in Budapest, in August If I'd categorize generations by the community life, not the dominating racers, I'd definitely start a new era here. It was an unforgettable and unbelievable event. Unfortunatly from outside Hungary only Danish and German racers could came, but they were there: Dinmor, Bonzai Joe from Denmark, KHR, JTK from Germany and Akoss Poo, Usrin, CTG, Zak McKracken from Hungary. We had lots of fun, introduced live stunts, had our own Stunts shirt, and had a few live races. After the meeting we definitely agreed that this must be repeated each and every year as long as the stunts community exists. But its not about the community anymore - it's about friendship.
Well in the end this strange couple Gutix in the car and Stunts Oracle (Alan Rotoi) in the pits won the season. A two-man team beat, MeganiuM Aces High beat all the others. No one would have guessed it in January, eh? :) There wasnt as much team movement with the end of the 2004 season as last year. I prepared a lot for this season. I wanted to make it perfect. Re-wrote the whole site and simplified even more the pointsystem. And yes, a new generation came along with the changes.
The Sixth Generation - The Aces High
Strange changes with the new year, and even more with the spring. Alan Rotoi came back racing under his name, and won the first race in that second. But he disappeared after that race. Akoss Poo disappeared in February because of woman affairs. He fell in Roy's trap! Bonzai Joe also couldnt avoid it. After 2 great show-ups he also went passive for several months. The remaining rest had to battle against the new-old enemy: MeganiuM. Partly it was the same - a team under the guidance of Alan Rotoi. But it was so different! Not one active racer like last year - they filled the member limit, and there were plans to ground a second MeganiuM team too. The southern hemisphere strengthened a lot - great talents and drivers like Ayrton and Chulk came. Gutix also showed great results when he raced - unfortunately that was a rare occasion. But not only in Meganium did the southerns come! Dark Chaser in Damage Inc. was more a leader then a chaser as time passed by, and vamologocomisso, another great Brazilian driver joined Orion. What??? Orion? Yes, you heard it correctly. The team which invented team strategies was back, but only with two serious active racers - Alain and vamolo.
Lets mention one good and one bad thing which was important in this season. First the good. Racer number was at an all-time high. And not only visitors. Lots of new faces, new active racers who came - mainly during the second part of the season, joined the community life, and had better and better results, like Dottore, Navras and Mislav. And the bad. Some racers just couldnt believe the power of the new MeganiuM drivers and endlessly accused them with cheating. This was the second wave of ghost scandals, follwing the first of the TDC 2002. The mood was sometimes bloody, and several wars started, the community was too strong than to fall apar from such a thing.
And of course the second meeting also took part. It was nearly cancelled due to KHR's unfortunate family affairs, but in the end we moved 500kms up to the north, and Bonzai Joe hosted the second World Meeting in Arhus, Denmark. Again, I don't have the words to describe this meeting. The participiants were more versatile now, and we had more opportunities, this meeting was a bit more centered around Stunts than the previous (what? you say the meeting was only about food and fisse songs? who said that? I disagree! :)) We invented a very very enjoyable way of live racing, so we could compare our skills, and of course we had a fabulous great time - too bad the days passed away fast. Who were there? Bonzai Joe, Dinmor and Aignur - representing our host country, Krys Toff - finally someone from France, JTK and Diesel Joe (who is still drinking) from Germany, and Akoss Poo and myself from Hungary via Hannover, because our plane ticket was already bought :)
With the autumn coming I was much more satisified with the competition too. Lots of racers, hard battles, lots of newbies. And the Aces and their top driver Ayrton won the championship silently months before the end of the year
We are getting closer to today. As the point system was great, it was only slightly modified, everyone could concentrate on the upcoming season. The best newbies were quickly signed by the big teams, and there was some team movement too - CTG and Dark CHaser left Damage Inc. CTG left to Looping Warriors, which maybe this year will finally show great results. Mislav was signed to Cork's Crew, and the mystery talent of December, Renato Biker joined Orion. So almost all the teams are stronger now. Will they bring the MeganiuM Aces down this year? Only time can tell.
But until we find that out, we race at the reopened nostalgic Kalpen competition, and of course plan and organize the third Stunts Meeting - in Budapest, at my place again. Can't wait! Let's all keep it in mind - this is an unique and incredible thing we are being a part of. Lets admire the game which made us this possible even after 15 years from its creation. And lets keep and never forget our friendship.
Zak McKracken Budapest, 10.01.2006
