The Nearest FarAway Place Rally 2017

Internet Table-Top Rally Championship 2017/8
Round 1 - The Nearest FarAway Place Rally

Well, that's the first round over. bet you are not as relieved as I am. No more pinging from my TTR email alert - silence is golden.

There were 226 entries, 182 paid to compete and 137 were classified as finishers, so 45 were plotless - too busy Christmas shopping? I hope their excuse was better than that. Most importantly your entry fees have raised over £4,500 for the MNDA. THANK YOU.

An ideal on any rally is that just the winner gets round without penalty, To have 8 is pretty satisfying with six Masters, one Expert and one Novice crossing the line with (by virtue of dropping their two worst scores) a big (or rather little) ZERO.

I've received some criticism from those that had to give up or had large penalties on some route cards, complaining that it was too difficult. But put yourself in my shoes; if we had dozens of zeroes there would be complaints about the event being too easy. In the past I've had different sections for different classes which was (more of) a nightmare on workload to create, mark and get the right levels. The idea on this event was that you do as much as you can and have fun.

I know quite a few of you were frustrated in learning or re-learning how to mark a route interactively. There were many instances of competitors not reading instructions correctly or at all. Lots of queries could have been self-answered by reading "Marking a Route", the "Q&A", Bulletins and Forum topics. Yes, it's a lot to digest, but then proper rallying has books of rules and regulations you have to follow. You'll definitely find it more routine next time I hope.

The route cards were thankfully error-free (always a worry despite the repeated checking) bar a free minor glitches which were corrected and notified, or were benign in plotting a route. Favourite route cards were the ReDos (no surprise) and RC8 - Junctions (a surprise with all the London traffic!) - so more like that in the future. You didn't like RC9 - Originality, disorientation prevailed I think. And you hated RC12 - Arrowing Experience, I knew you would but there had to be a "sting in the tail". Two cleaned it!

There were a few system problems, the biggest early-on when Google capped my/our access to their route planning system, now resolved because I now have to pay for the privilege. Interestingly there have been 150,000 accesses (one access for every click or drag on your map), but the cost isn't great enough to stop me affording a glass of red wine in the evening to reflect on the day's table-top rallying.
Non-PC users have had some difficulties in using the route-marking tools, but I introduced new tools/workarounds which seemed to have helped. In fact one of the zero penalty competitors has been using an iPad!
"Off-routers" has to be down to you to mark your route accurately and check before you submit. The occasional "straight-liner" also needed to be eliminated by you, but I am pleased to report that his won't happen in future because of some newly incorporated Google features. You'll find the "tramline" drawing a lot quicker on the Panglossian Rally, plus there are some visual/ergonomic changes which should please.

There have been requests to access and solve The Nearest FarAway Place route cards now the event is over. I will make this facility available in the future but it does require a bit of thought and programming - maybe after the Panglossian Rally.

There's a new topic in the forum called YOUR UNCENSORED VERDICTS HERE PLEASE. Please read and post some thoughts.

Prizes: I'll update you when the results are final.

You have two ways that you can view route card solutions and master maps.
1) Follow the links below for the old way. Each route card and map will open in a separate window. Click on the icons on the map to display additional information.
2) Login (now open) for the new way. This shows the new Route Card Status screen from which you can do most things including view your own solution. Hover over icons and additional information will be displayed above the map. This method will only be available until the Panglossian Rally starts.
While you are there, ReDo route card 0; you should notice an increase in plotting speed and lack of "straight-liners".

I was hoping to roll out a means of overlaying your route on the master route but this won't be available until the Panglossian Rally. So this time you'll have to judge by eye where you possibly went wrong or refer to your paper map solution if you have one.

There's a new topic in the forum called RESULT QUERIES HERE PLEASE. Please read and post genuine queries about results there. I'll only consider queries posted before 10pm (London time) on Saturday, November 25th. I intend to open the Panglossian Rally on November 29th to give you a couple of days on the practice route card before the full event is available on December 1st.

"Crow"
November 22 @ 18:00