MCRO - The Story (pt.2)

Season 1 would proof to be a great opener to what was supposed to be CDT's most competetive racing server. Season 2 would include a revamped GT class with a longer race calendar, a brand new endurance Hypercar class, based on LMP1/LMH cars and a few new rules. Today we are contiuning the 3-day marathon of MCRO's articles about the story of Season 2.

Something Fishy was coming

During the mid-season break, we saw a few drivers join MCRO - one of them was fish_br, who at the time was known as the server icon competition winner. Fish seemed decent, as he posted a time which was fast enough for him to be signed for Pagani Corse for the first season of Hypercar. During one of the team's testing sessions he had even managed to beat Avith, who was known as one of CDT's fastest drivers and was promoted to the main driver position. That made Avith really mad as he was dropped to the reserve spot only because he was slower than a promising rookie. Fish has also signed up with the struggling Scuderia Ferrari team, who used the SF90.

The first race of Season 2 was GT S2 R1 which took place at CDT's Circuit. Fish came up here as a rookie, racing agnaist the GT S1 champion, John and other great drivers like Egg, Sky, Obli or Lio. However, he was in one of the slower cars which took him out of contention for the win. But he had somehow managed to get pole position and started leading the race, lapping all of the drivers, including John. Fish then won the race and seemed like MCRO's best rookie yet. However, it also seemed like fish was using some sorts of cheats as he was really fast on straights.

A few people, including Avith and Jeno started some research and asked Fish to do some lap times in the Zonda R. His best time was a 2:42 minute time (5 laps) which was almost as fast as the Bugatti Bolide, which is faster than the Pagani. Avith could only do 2:44/2:45 minutes, and he pushed the car as much as possible. Proof was later sent to Mat, who Race Blacklisted Fish - he had 24 hours to confess himself, which he didn't do. He said that cheats usually add big power upgrades, and his car didn't have a "big power upgrade" (according to him). After that he left the server and eventually stayed blacklisted - and then banned, as during one of F:RP's sessions he said that he had used cheats and even did a 2:10 minute run on Circuit with a Toyota Yaris, which was impossible.

Fastest Series yet

After the very controversial GT race, the first race of Hypercar started on The Ring. Pagani started it really well with them getting pole position, however later in the race Mercedes-Benz CLK team had managed to do better and eventually won the race - but it wasn't without problems. Avith after the race had blamed the CLK team, more specifically Jake, who had cut a lot to gain advantage. That resulted in him getting a verbal warning, which made him quit the Hypercar series after just 1 race.

The 2nd race of GT happened and it saw a rookie get a pole position - this time it was Lio in the RSR. It was also the race where Mat had to quit mid-way through due to a birthday party (the race was continued by Vark). It was won by Avith, with Lio coming 2nd and Egg coming 3rd. It was also the first GT race since GT S1R4 where John was absent. During the next race, we saw Vark's return as a driver and the introduction of the Sprint Quali format - with Avith getting pole and eventually the win. In the same race, Disortion got his first podium finish.

After that, there was the 2nd race of the Hypercar season on The Nur Long. It would be MCRO's longest race for the time, lasting 90 minutes. Aston got pole position and started well. Unfortunetaly, due to somebody disconnecting the race had to be red flagged. Then, the race was restarted, however due to a team disconnecting, it was red flagged again, and it happened twice. Due to many red flags the race was shortened to ~70 minutes, making it shorter than the first race. Hypercar S1R2 would go down in history as "MCRO's Most Red Flagged Race".

After Dodge's struggles in GT S2R3, it was revamped into the McLaren GT Racing team, which used the brand-new (at the time) McLaren 720S GT3. On the same day (22nd September 2022), kingkostas, who was usually very inactive left the Lamborghini team and MCRO, making Jeno, who was the RSR team leader at the time the leader of that team. A few days later, that team had a "new" car - the Lamborghini Huracan Performante. While it isn't exactly new, it was decent enough for that GT season.

The return week

The next race of GT saw the return of Jake, John and the Huracan Performante, a debut for the McLaren Racing team and the first race for iliart. Jake was trashed on during quali, causing him to not only leave the race, but MCRO as a whole. He wouldn't return until Season 3, where he became a Race Hoster/Helper. The same race saw Obli's first podium and John's first win after a photo finish. It was also John's 5th race win.

Hypercar R3 happened, and it saw the first win for the Aston Hypercar team and a decent comeback from Pagani (P4 -> P2). But what happened after the race was more interesting - SorJarwai would come back to MCRO after a 2 month absence, driving for Porsche RSR in GT and Pagani Corse in Hypercar. Unfortunetaly only a day later he had announced that he will not race at all, which was a suprise to many.

On the same day, Vulcan Racing got a new car - the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, which was a lot faster than the previous car. Its debut was at the 4th Hypercar race, however it didn't help as the team finished dead last, miles behind Aston, who was 3rd. Pagani won and dominated that race.

In meantime, MCRO would host a Gokart series, which originally had 5 races and was open to everyone. The first race was at the Gokart docks circuit and saw a battle between Avith and John. Eventually the race ended with a photo finish, resulting in John winning and Avith coming 2nd. Also, F3 was announced to come in Season 3.

A Crazy week

The next race was the GT race at the Docks Circuit. It saw a debut for Daanish, a CDT content creator, who raced for the Mclaren GT team. The race was paused on lap 2 due to a game update, but was later resumed. Sky dominated the race while there was a battle for P2, mostly between Egg and a rookie, Syrz. Egg got 2nd being only 1 corner cut away from a penalty causing him a position and Syrz finished P3, making it a podium on debut. A few days later, the Star Driver role was introduced which would be awarded for winning 4 races, having 8 podiums and 88 points in GT/F3 etc. John was the first person to get the role at the end of Season 2.

Next GT race had happened on CDT Circuit Reverse and it saw Syrz win his first race and Agg get his podium on debut. But after that there was a Hypercar race, also on circuit - and it saw a suprise from Lamborghini Hypercar, who had managed to get pole position. The race started, and Lambo got really well - Mercedes wasn't doing exactly well and Pagani was doing OK, mostly sitting in 2nd. The race was also red flagged once due to a disconnection from a team, possibly Mercedes. After the red-flag, Mercedes was not doing good - Daanish, who was behind the wheel at that time was lagging hard and was getting lapped often. In meantime we saw a battle between Aston and Pagani, which lasted until the final laps of the race - where it intensified. Both cars were really close and nobody knew who would win. The race ended with Lambo getting their first win and Pagani getting P2 with a photo finish. Hypercar S2R5 would be voted as MCRO's Best Race in MCRO Awards in December 2022.

After that race it was announced that Porsche RSR had won the S2 GT Constructor's Championship with 2 races to go.

The next GT race would proof to be OK, with John winning and Egg winning the GT Driver's Championship without a win. However it was later announced that Egg would not win the championship, as John could still win it - he had to win the next race and Egg had to finish 5th or lower. The next race would take place at the FoxCity Street Circuit. It was the 2nd season finale not to be hosted by Mat. It was John win the race and Egg come 5th, which gave John the championship, even though he didn't appear for half of the season. Then, Hypercar S2R6 would be hosted and it would be called MCRO's Most Boring Race. Pagani won the race and the championship, with Aston doing a decent comeback (P4 -> P2 again). After that race, Jeno had announced he'll be stepping down as a Team Leader of Porsche RSR and Lamborghini GT. During his first season, as a team leader, he had managed to win his first and (possibly) last Constructor's Championship. It was also Oblivious' last race, however he'd come back in Season 3.

Preperations for Season 3

Season 2 was concluded and on 4th November 2022, there was a vote between GT and Hypercar. It was GT win the vote with 24 votes, as opposed to Hypercar's ONE vote, coming from Vark. Season 3 would be GT and F3, with F3 having user-submitted teams. There also was a vote for the GT1 class, however most of people seemed like the current GT was decent enough. Mostly due to lack of motivation, Season 3 was delayed from November to December. It would also saw a few important changes - Pitting, which required drivers to change tyre compounds mid-race, Sprint and Feature format for F3 and new Team Regulations, which didn't allow people to switch teams mid-season, preventing chaotic and crazy driver swaps.

Season 3 is a story for tomorrow's article, and it'd be a lot more controversial than S2. Stay tuned, as this is going to be one of the longer articles.