I’m not sure how many PGR matches you’ve seen, but they’re not too bad. Personally, I’m a fan of the collisions. Never liked 'em in real racing, but it adds a little spice (not to be confused with Baby Spice) to the online competitions. Having them on ensures that the beginning of the races look like a cross between auto-racing and bumper cars.
To be fair, position is incredibly important because of the point system. There are four racers in each match, two per team. First place is awarded five points, second place gets three points, third place gets one point, and whoever finishes four gets a blue participation ribbon. Basically, you can beat your opponents 8-1 if your team captures the first two spots, and that’s a huge margin. In CS, that’d be beating somebody 12-6 or 13-5. DoA can’t even have a seven point differential because the match stops (mercifully for some players) at five. Even a 1st/3rd place finish nets a team a 6-3 advantage, which is pretty good.
So, with the disparity in points per finish and collisions on, here’s an interesting question: should a person stuck hopelessly in fourth intentionally stop/wait so he can get in a collision with the other team, giving his teammate a chance to take the lead?
The thinking goes something like this: if you’re in fourth place and you’re closer to Never Never Land than 3rd place, it doesn’t matter if you finish ten seconds behind somebody or twenty. You’re still getting as many points as I’ve scored in my NBA career. If you help your teammate by crashing into his opponents on purpose, he could go from third to first. Essentially, if that happens, you’ve turned a seven point defeat into a one point victory.
Granted, there’s no guarantee that he’ll be able to take advantage of the collision, or not get caught in it himself. And the whole thing sounds dastardly, I know. But I looked in the rules, and I couldn’t find anything preventing it. That doesn’t mean it’s not prohibited, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s part of the “unwritten rules” of PGR, just like A-Rod got blasted for distracting an opponent trying to catch a pop-up.
At the same time, these guys are competing for thousands of dollars in prize money. If it’s not in the rule book and it gives your team a chance to move on in the playoffs, or even win the championship, would, and should, a competitor do it? Going strictly by points, sure. But, the other competitors might be ticked when you cost them a bunch of prize money, so it’d probably help if you’re the only 6’6” PGR player with muay thai, jujitsu, and extreme nerd-kick training competing in the CGS.
If you're wondering: yes, you should add this whole idea to the list of reasons why I’m not playing PGR in the CGS. Although, if somebody wants to draft me to run into other cars, I’d be more than happy to accept a smaller salary. I’ll be the PGR version of a defensive specialist.
Then I just need some MMA training and I'll be ready to go.
