News / RCT Olympics Results!

Well well where to begin.

First of all to Ron Starr, who has stayed pretty much respectable through all this. I think you made a lot of mistakes judging, and I don't think you should have been asked frankly (due to your lack of LL expertise), but that's neither here nor there...I can't blame you for accepting since you did their site a service by doing so.

If they had just included a text file stating that it needed the Drexler patch or access to a specific scenario, then I could have taken the time to try to rectify that issue. As it was, there were 70 files to examine. Most being park files that loaded objects. I certainly won't argue that I don't have LL expertise, I still haven't gotten into creating parks yet.

Now...to the matters at hand.

The anonymity rule. First of all, nobody said that ride6 was the only one who worked his ass off, so whoever implied that I said that should just shut up to begin with. It is worth noting that ride6's park was easily one of the best (imo easily THE best) and without a doubt would have warrented a medal, being the most complete and well-rounded entry of any round in the entire "Olympics", but that's not even the point I'm trying to make. You people need to stop being all high and mighty with your 'rules are rules' bullshit. The thing is...if ride6's name was in the filename, then send it back and tell him to change it. Would that have really been so hard to do? With all the time and energy he spent on this, especially in the midst of Head2Head, probably the most time consuming event New Element has to offer, you guys couldn't take a few courteous steps to make sure his work wasn't in vain? Again, nobody said that the other contestants didn't work their asses off as well, which is makes my point for me. They all did, and they all should have been given an equal opportunity to place medals, since they all put forth the proper effort.

If the person who had originally received the emails [OJ] had done that, ride6 probably wouldn't have been DQ'ed. Like I said before, I scored his entry. I'm not the one that made the call to DQ him.

Now for Toon's latest point about H2H3 being anonymous, and having the makers of two separate parks being eliminated, there is a very big difference in my opinion. H2H is a publically voted, and debated poll where names and influence have a huge part to do with how things are voted. Now, I know you may be saying the Olympics aren't much different. The difference is, if someone sends me a park with the name in the file, I send it back and tell them to finish it. It's common fucking courtesy. The only times that parks were submitted were on some pretty obscure areas of the park to have names, on a banner sign and on the actual park tag (which I never look at). Whoever recieved ride6's park should have immediately talked to him and warned him...made him resend a truly anonymous version. Not vindicitively hand it off to the judges anyway knowing full well that it was going to be disqualified. Whether rules are rules, or whatever corny 'toughguy' cliche you throw my way or not, that's just simply called being an asshole or not.

I have no idea if Hawk even opened any of the emails other than to download the .zip file, rename it and make it available for judging. As it was, the judges had to download all of the entries in chunks. Each .zip file contained the .zip files for the specific event, some of which weren't clearly identified as to which event it was for. Whether Hawk even looked at the old boards when everyone was making comments about the issues the judges were having or not, I have no idea. The judges never saw any of the emails, so none of us could contact any of the entrants about any problems we were having.

Next for the custom objects problem. Never did I say that the judges should go around and hunt down these obscure objects all over the net. That'd be completely unreasonable, and I assure you that I have not been unreasonable during my entire multi-post rant here on this topic. All I was saying was, how much effort does it take to do what Corkscrewed suggested? (I thought it was pretty obvious that what Corkscrewed said was already a blatantly obvious option, but I guess not). If the person who recieved the park couldn't open it, what stopped them from responding to the e-mail, and informing the parkmaker? Like I've stressed throughout this whole course of events, the parkmakers are the ones who have spent agonizing hours working on this shit, so a little time and effort the other way would be nice.

Same as above, Hawk was the only one who had access to the emails. You need to ask him if he even tried to contact any of the entrants regarding any of the issues the judges were having.

As for me being respectable, I try, it doesn't always work though.

First off, Rohn, I wouldn't let you be a coordinator in the next RCT Olympics if you tried. You may think I have no say, but trust me, I'd fight it without end.

You run around calling everyone around here children and you try to constantly assert your authority. How iris could say you are respectable I will never know... But you're definitely one of the most arrogant men I have ever spoken with. If you couldn't judge LL entries because you didn't have Drexler (something almost all LL parkmakers have) and were too lazy to ask around for it, then you shouldn't have accepted the position. Trust me, it wouldn't have been hard to find an LL person to judge.

You refuse to accept responsibility on this matter and that is just pathetic! 70 entries is a lot, but if you know ahead of time that you're judging LL, go find the tools needed to judge them! 72 hours is plenty of time to fairly judge these entries, even if you are working around an 8 hour day!

And don't blame Hawk for the e-mails thing. It wouldn't have been hard to any judge to simply ask...





-----






Next year I can guarantee that the games will be much better organized. This won't happen again, and it is OJ's fault. Hawk and MidwestboyInLA worked very hard and I applaud them.

I don't know if this is late, or whatever, but about that anonimity rule. I never even knew about this thing. If someone could kindly point out where it said that the entries should be anonymous, I won't bitch about it. I mean hell, I thought we were supposed to include our name in the park file. Because I'm a little pissed that I never knew about it, and my entry was automatically disqualified. Even if it was only half done..

EDIT: WHAT THE FUCK WITH THE DREXLER?! How the fuck long has that thing been out? it's common fucking knowledge that just about ANY LL park needs it. you said we could use hacks and shit. At least be fucking prepared to look at the parks with hacks. jesus tap-fucking-dancing christ. You knew there were gonna be hacks. HACKED PARKS NEED THE DREXLER PATCH. unless you are too stupid to know anything about LL, you would have known that.

I apologize for looking immature, but you really should have been prepared to look at them. even so, it's a small file, and you could have deleted it after you were done. not too hard to do.

yeah, CedarPoint6, your coaster puts my ran-out-of-time piece of crap to shame. Ah well. I like the part that says I got 2 for my team...

This whole thing did get messed up big time, Ride6, yours looks amazing. Too bad this all had to happen...Now back to studying for midterms...

Well.........

Well it's all settled for me. I'm talking to Iris about a proper NE release and that'll be enough for me. I didn't really expect to win because my park was so overly detailed and such, however I expected a credited release. Even if I was DQ'd it should still get released, even without a medal.

Whatever rule I broke was very hazy and my name probably ment little if anything to any of the judges. Frankly though when a park comes from a big name I tend to judge it even harder since I have high standards to hold them to.

Anyway I believe it'll get a proper release and that's enough for me. Ronn, personally I'm finding you to be quite a moderater here, even if a bit self defensive with the "it wasn't me" statements. And I also must than my fellow NE'ers for their support, both in the constuction and now in the shockwaves.

ride6

Well it's all settled for me.  I'm talking to Iris about a proper NE release and that'll be enough for me. 

Good.

I normally don't stoop to this level of childishness, but it seems to fit in here, so let me add my $.02 worth...

First of all, everyone just relax and take a deep breath. This is a fucking game, and was a seriously fucked up contest to begin with, so cut us some slack, ok?

And don't blame Hawk for the e-mails thing. It wouldn't have been hard to any judge to simply ask...

Actually I've been asking Hawk for a lot of things since he and I took over, and he's been rather busy with real-life situations that have not made him available to us since he submitted the files to the judges. It wasn't until today that I actually gained access to the official Olympic email account, and then only because I could figure out OJ's "secret word" to recover the password. How messed up is that??

When I did get into the email account, I found everything had been deleted. Nothing in the inbox. Nothing in the sent folder. Nothing.

Maybe now you understand what I've been up against. One person organized all this, then disappeared. Another person was in charge of organizing the downloads, then real life intervened. Now another person is trying to figure everything out, and there's no trail of breadcrumbs to anything that happened before.

I wish I had answers for you guys, but I simply don't. The old forums are gone. OJ is no where to be found. Hawk doesn't know what happened to the emails after he downloaded the attachments.

And where's that leave us? Apparently bitching and complaining and yelling at one another, but no where closer to a resolution.

I understand that the idea was to release all of the entries at the official site. Personally, I'm exhausted and can't even think about the best way to go about doing that given the mess that still remains. Information I'd hoped to release with the runner-up downloads was lost at the old forums, and I'm not sure if we'll ever get those old forums back. So where's that leave you?

Personally, I think it's well within your rights to release your own entries at your home site. I can't even begin to give you an estimated time that we'll be able to get them up on the official site. Maybe Hawk can work on that tomorrow, as I've already spent 2 days of my life ignoring my real-world job for what now apparently amounts to a thankless effort to try to do the right thing for a bunch of ungrateful children.

Well fuck me for trying. No... please. Here, let me bend over for you.

Thanks to those who've been supportive, but the rest of you can blow it out your asses.

P.S. Ride6... none of the Official Rules for the park making event on any of the sites say "at least 75x75." If your park was 78x78 as you said, that's probably why it was disqualified. I did see something here where Corkscrewed made "some clarifications" stating "The map must be 75x75 squares at least, meaning you can go bigger (though unless you work at JKay speed, I don't encourage it)." though he then directly contradicted that with:"If you get rid of the border fence and own all land, the total map size can be 75x75, but if you don't and choose to keep the border fence, your map must be 77x77." So I'm not sure how "clarifying" that was, nor where he got that information.

However that was not part of the Official Rules nor was that information made available to any other teams competing, so I'm not sure where he got that from. Our judges certainly weren't aware of it either.

Thanks for letting me vent. Felt fucking fantastic!

One other thing... since you guys are such stickler for rules, how should we handle the fact that Magnus's objects he submitted were not his creations, but modified versions of something Toon had previously been working on (though unreleased)?

While not explicit in the rules, I think it's safe to say your entry for any event should be your own original creation.

Glad you feel better

I don't think anyone ever blamed you tho. I think that all the blame lies on OJ, whoever he is. This was a disorganized mess from the get go, and I really feel for anyone who's put any time into it whether it be organizing, judging, or parkmaking. I just think the parkmakers want some answers as to what happened and how things panned out. Unfortunately, I don't think there are any answers to be had...maybe just lessons learned.

One other thing... since you guys are such stickler for rules, how should we handle the fact that Magnus's objects he submitted were not his creations, but modified versions of something Toon had previously been working on (though unreleased)?

While not explicit in the rules, I think it's safe to say your entry for any event should be your own original creation.

Does it really matter? There was only one entry anyways and who really cares about it all at this point? Shit, almost everything I've created is a modified version of something from the game anyways.

Congrats to all the winners.

Anyway, I have a feeling that this event was a complete disaster. Firstly, I didn’t like the rules (limiting the map size, number of objects/themes – its like telling the runner not to run too fast coz the others cannot follow him), and secondly, if we have RCT Olympics style competition, I would expect the absolute best talent people from RCT community to participate (no limit on the number of people).
And finally seeing ride6’s great park being d/qed is a huge mistake. Anyway, the stupid rule of being anonymous is wrong and against the meaning of the OLYMPIC GAMES.

On the other hand, this event can be great and fun. Personally, I love ride6’s park, those spiral steps and the latest Amazing Earl’s ride.

Midwestboy,

I want to thank you and hawk for the hours spent trying to salvage this but looking back, this was a no win situation for everyone involved. OJ came up with a great idea and now no matter how much effort goes into it next year, the participation is going to be effected because of this abortion. First impressions carry so much weight in real life that I'm affraid that the RCT Olympics is now dead.

Given the time and resources that Midwestboy, hawk and the judges had, they did all they could do and then to give them a ration of shit for attemping to get it straight when no one else wanted to touch it with a 10 foot pole is really fucked up. They did not right the rules but since that is what was given to them, they had no choice but to follow them. Personally, I don't care at this point who won what, I just look forward to seeing the creations and enjoy them for what they are.

Lets please remember who really dragged this to the levels it did and lay off those that tried to save it.

James

Does it really matter?

No, not really... though none of this should really matter like it apparently does to some people's lives. As for Magnus, there's no medal to strip so that's why we haven't done anything about it. But no one batted an eye earlier when it was brought up here. I just wanted to point that out. People weren't upset with things except when things didn't go in their favor.

I agree, the events weren't well thought out. They weren't very creative either. The rules weren't either. Unfortunately I tried to point that out to OJ in the early stages of planning, but he did whatever he wanted to regardless of suggestions others made. It's no wonder he didn't have any help; anytime someone offered help he just did what he wanted. That came back to bite him in the ass.

Hopefully with better planning more interesting events can become staples of the competition.

I'm sorry not everyone's happy with the outcome this year. I'm sorry I don't have the energy tonight to put up the runner-ups downloads. Truth is, I don't have your original downloads (that's why I was trying to get into the email account, referenced above), so I can't even put the downloads up if I wanted to. Hawk will have to do that when he has time.

Unless you guys want to email your entries to me. If you do that, be sure you include your username, your home site, and what event your entry was for. If you guys take the time to do that, I'll take the time to make sure they get added to the Official Site for download. That's the best I can do with my limited resources right now.

Use the original email of RCTOlympics@gmail.com. I'll check it daily.

No, not really... though none of this should really matter like it apparently does to some people's lives.  As for Magnus, there's no medal to strip so that's why we haven't done anything about it. But no one batted an eye earlier when it was brought up here. I just wanted to point that out. People weren't upset with things except when things didn't go in their favor.

I think it was overlooked, because I gave him a 'free pass' on it. If I didn't care, why should anyone else really. If I'd wanted him crucified for it, I could have led things in that direction. For the record, he did do a reasonable amount of work in transferring textures and shading. The original object he worked from was this.



We just happened to be doing the same castle texture simultaneously. Call it parallel evolution.

ride6, why the HELL would you make your park 78x78? What convoluted system of logic were you following when you made the decision to make the park that size?

And why is a RCT2 ride automatically better than an RCT3 ride on this site? What kind of crack are you smoking if you just throw RCT3 right out off the bat?

And anyone who criticised Brad, Hawk, or any of the judges is just stupid, and a JERK.

And who the hell do you think you are saying you should get 100% of the medals?

What a bunch of punks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ride6, why the HELL would you make your park 78x78?  What convoluted system of logic were you following when you made the decision to make the park that size? 

And why is a RCT2 ride automatically better than an RCT3 ride on this site?  What kind of crack are you smoking if you just throw RCT3 right out off the bat?

And anyone who criticised Brad, Hawk, or any of the judges is just stupid, and a JERK.

And who the hell do you think you are saying you should get 100% of the medals? 

What a bunch of punks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why don't you paint a bigger target on your forehead?

Thanks to MidwestboyinLA and Hawk for carrying this on, and why do you people always have to disagree with things if it doesn't go your way? I entered 2 of the events and either of them got placed, am I complaining? No, because I know it's only a game and whatever the outcome, I did my best.

^ thank you trav, you have a good head on your shoulders. apparently some other people here dont.

And how many times do I have to read "you could have emailed me and asked for my entry?" or something along those lines...

How many times do you people need to be told, the judges didnt have the email addresses!!!!!

DUH!!!

Man, i've never read a longer "rant" in my life...
talk about whining...


oh and Toon, I take a size 7 3/8 hat, could you sow that target logo onto one for me?

JUDGES:
- At least one judge should be selected from each participating site

all sites were asked to submit judges, why didnt NE take advantage of this?

it's almost like everyone tied, which shouldn't be the case.

you can't "almost tie". take a math course

First of all congrats to all the winners, and thank you to all those who stepped in to save a sinking ship.

Secondly, anyone who entered completed work and feels "cheated" or "overlooked" . . . let it go. One way or another your work will indirectly pay-off eventually. So if no one said it to you, let me say it, ... "Thank you and well done."

Third, IN GENERAL, in regards to people's posts and their replies, I think a lot of us need to be more careful with the choosing of words. Without the sound of voice inflection and the sight of body language one can only imagine what is/was said or rather typed, and most of the time it's our insecurities that respond first unfortunately.

On the internet words are all we have, so use them wisely. Peter O'toole (sp?) once said: "If you can't say what you mean, how can you mean what you say."

I'm aware that some of you express your feelings clearly and some of you exercise your self-honestly, and I applaud that.

Lastly, on a lighter note, wouldn't this be funny if "OJ" was a 14 year old who got his computer taken away by his parents as part of some diciplinary action.

As far as the next Olympics, I can tell you that I will only participate if NE organizes it. Congrats again to all those who received metals. I can hear the anthym playing.