Quote from TFalke55 :

as long as you have a group stage in a fixed tournament with multiple spots to advance you cannot avoid it. There can always be the situation that you have qualified already and with a draw or a lost match would bring you easier matches. If there was only one spot open or if there was another draw of matches afterwards it could be stopped

We were just debating this at home, and yeah you can't do it purely for the qualification places (e.g. if you have 2 teams on 4 point and 2 teams on 1 point, and they play each other then the teams on 4 will play for a draw) but I don't think in a group with just 4 teams you can end up with a situation where both teams can afford to play for a loss or draw :| But yeah the World Cup changed to try and avoid it. I've not seen it since I've been watching football

Bit of a stupid system really - used to do it like this in the football World Cup but stopped after one match ground to a halt after both teams needed a draw to qualify (can't remember when, will try and find it). But yeah it's disgraceful, particularly when people have paid a small fortune to be there.

Sounds good

Quote from TFalke55 :

Thought I saw Skodas at the road races. Cars are too similar these days especially when they are not in the focus. Didn't know about the Olympic Park though.

Yep definitely BMWs - I'm sure German TV will have lots of highlights of it as you won silver All the "taxis" for the competitors are 3-series. And the posters are all over the park with "Thanks to our sponsors......" with them all on it.

Have this saved and watched it the other day - great video and great series.

Quote from TFalke55 :

Well, it is this Olympic hypocracy. Since they are not calling them sponsors but supporters they don't have their logos at the venue. At the venues only the logos of the timekeeper (which is Omega), the organising body of the dicipline (e.g. IAAF in athletics, FINA in water sports or FIFA in football) and the logo of the clothes supplier on the clothes may appear. You can see it best in
football when you compare the adboards at the olympic competition to the one at the EURO or the World Cup. This also caused trouble in Vancouver 2010, where Adidas had a too big logo by some milimeters. Teams supplied by Adidas had to tape it over. Adidas shipped over new clothes with tinier logos.

BMW for example is not a worldwide supporter. Germany is supported by Audi, for example. It differs from nation to nation.

And yet if you watch the cycling time trial (like I am at the moment) all the cars are 3-series estates without the BMW badge taped over or anything. And IIRC there's BMW logos on several posters at the Olympic Park.

(Not disagreeing with you, agreeing your point about stupid hypocracy :P)

Quote from TFalke55 :

Also it is very problematic with motorsports because of the fact that it is a rolling advertisement show, but at the Olympic games there is a strict advertisement ban at the sport venue itself. Remember the opening ceremony - the logo of the Mini was painted over

Don't understand that - BMW are a sponsor

Finally a gold.

LOL @ this, about NBC's coverage of the opening ceremony:

Quote :

There was also criticism of the apparent belief of Today Show hosts and commentators Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira that the Queen had, in person, jumped out of a helicopter. There was also an indication that Vieira did not know who Sir Tim Berners-Lee was, stating during commentary to the television audience, "If you haven't heard of him, we haven't either", before co-host Matt Lauer told the audience to Google the inventor of the World Wide Web.

Quote from Racer X NZ :

Sounds right, 8% of the seats, venue is 40% empty.

But if their sold, then why the need to draft in your 50 thousand troops to fill the empty seats.

Or do the VIPs know that staying away is a good idea ?

It's not the sponsors (at least that's what the sponsors are saying) - it's the "Olympic Family" not turning up to events, i.e. athletes/coaches/support staff watching other events in their own discipline. By agreement in the bid a certain % of seats have to be left free for these people.

Quote from dekojester :

Anyone know where I can find a nice torrent or web replay of the opening ceremonies? My power went out sometime just after the 70s bit, while I was watching on BBC stream. I couldn't stomach the NBC feed, they yammered too much, dozy yanks. PM me if you have something.

If your computer is still uber h4xxored, watch it on iPlayer

Quote from Storm_Cloud :

Otherwise, mostly well judged. They had to make it British rather than trying to compete with China's generally incredible mass choreography. I'm sure parts would have baffled the world audience, but not bad at all.

Yep I agree with that. Had to explain to Deko a couple of times what was going on but it was good. Not quite sure how the Arctic Monkeys got in there but they did a good job. Crowd were excellent.

Can't quite help feeling it perhaps wasn't worth the £2,000 top price ticket though :P

Quote from DevilDare :

Cauldron is epic.

Yes what a brilliant idea. And yes, they're moving it before the hammer competition starts

Well I think Paul McCartney and Mr Bean stole the show. Probably the only time I'll ever say that.

No surprises that Redgrave is lighting the torch. Looking forward to McCartney's bit next!

Quote from ACCAkut :

I wonder why they choose that stop-motion style for some short scenes, and quite a lot of (bad) cgi. And the political correctness level is set very high, black, brown and handicapped people everywhere (not that its a bad thing, but it can feel a bit forced).

Have you ever been to Britain? There's so many ethic people because so many of them live here.

EDIT: But yes, all of us expected it to be like that really

Last edited by J@tko, Fri 27 Jul 2012, 22:47.

Yep - it's good but a bit disjointed. Probably struggling to fit all the stuff we're amazing at in one ceremony

Comedy elements and music are the best bits so far

Loving this quote from the iRacing forum:

Quote :

Well done on the update, iRacing team! Lots of unexpected updates.

Yes, and none of the ones we are expecting i.e. the ones that are needed.

Quote from carfetish :

Can you confirm which cars are still OTM after the update?

Sorry I've no idea. But there's lots of people here more knowledgeable than me

Quote from Update :

11M Pontiac Solstice v2012.07.24.02

Oh good, looks like they've ruined the Solstice with the NTM.

Quote from Yuri Laszlo :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review ... D=&tag=&linkCode=

Best. Review. Ever.

Quote from J@tko :

EDIT: Can't be there

Edited confirmation, can't make it.

Quote from kart-36 :

But then it's basically just GT3WS... Since iTCC runs pretty much a GT3 restriction. Keep it as it is, it's awesome

Agreed. The insanity is what made it so good. Just ban the people who cause all the wrecks if needs be.

Quote from CSF :

1994 was probably the worst end of season review of all time. Utterly awful attempt at a season review.

If it was the one they showed on SS F1 the other day, then yes, it was truly terrible.