MCRO - The Story (pt.3)

After the end of Season 2 in October there was a month-long break between seasons. Many people wanted the F3 and GT calendars to be revealed, however they had to wait until the end of November to finally see the calendars for both F3 and GT.

Fun beginnings

Before the season opener of GT S3, there were some changes: for starters, all drivers now had to pit at least once to change tyres. This would add a risk factor to the races - as people would now have to decide when to pit. To prevent from people pitting on lap 1, pit windows were introduced - these usually lasted around 6-8 minutes of race time and after the pit window was closed, you couldn't pit again. Secondly, you couldn't change teams mid-season - this was to prevent people from switching teams very often during the season and causing big confusion.

GT S3 R1 was initially supposed to happen on CDT's Circuit, however before the race there was a big problem: the Lambo Huracan Performante would dominate the circuit so much, that not even the RSR, the fastest car in the series could catch it. This made Mat change the circuit - the new circuit was Foxring, which was made by Vark and was "decently balanced".

The race has finally happened on 3rd December 2022. During quali, john got pole position, but quack, who has recently returned after a long break (he returned in GT S2R7) got really close. We also saw Khangvette do his first race since S2. The race started and quack was battling john for the lead. Eventually, he got ahead which gave some hope for MCRO's next race winner. However, he disconnected mid-race and john was left alone with a huge lead, which he kept until the end of the race. Also, McLaren GT's 2nd driver, AGGELOS_8, disconnected as well, making it 0 points for the team. However, both Lamborghini drivers have managed to get onto the podium - Alex came 2nd and Syrz came 3rd.

The next race was the first F3 race and even though it didn't get as much interest as GT, was really fun to watch with close competitions and suprise winners. Setting up the grid was quite confusing, as not everybody got the idea of reversing the Top 5 for the Sprint Race. But the races themselves saw many close battles between the top 3 lasting multiple laps. The Sprint Race was won by quack, which made it his first win ever in MCRO, and the Feature race was won by Obli, after a battle between Avith, John and Syrz. With all cars being the same, F3 seemed like the best MCRO series so far.

The dominance starts

GT S3 R2 was the next GT race, which was on the Ro-zebajain GP Circut. It saw the introduction of the new Ferrari team, which used the Ferrari 599XX, which according to testing was close to the RSR. In quali, John got pole again. During the race, John started to do really well and was keeping the lead. However, the McLarens and Ferraris were close and started to do a small battle for the podium positions. But in meantime, John was leading the entire race with no danger of losing the position. He won the race, with McLarens of Obli and Agg coming 2-3. Both Alex and Syrz who were on the podium last race were out of points this time around.

F3 was next on the same circuit. This time it was Syrz who got pole and eventually won both races. The race wasn't as exciting as the first one but it was OK. The track would be called boring by many drivers, especially for F3, as most of the corners were flat out with no needing to brake.

Next round of GT was on SorJarwai's track, CDT High-Speed City Race. It was also the first race of the season with a Sprint Quali. John got pole, with DisortionJayden, the 2nd RSR driver coming behind. Despite John starting about 2 seconds late and forgetting to turn on the final turn, leading him to crash into the fish store he got back in the lead and won by over 30 seconds. The RSR of John was unstoppable. After the race, John's crash into the fish store was made into a "john fish" meme. F3 happened then on the same circuit and it saw Avith get pole and win the Sprint race, however Syrz eventually won the Feature race, with Avith coming P3. Also, John came P2 in both races.

Problems arrive

Before the next round of GT had happened, there was a small scandal of Dhen "stealing drivers" from other teams. The Audi RS team, which was eventually transformed into the Ferrari team was given to Dhen, who would use a controversial strategy of taking other team's drivers into his team. One of them was Sot, who drove for the Nissan team. Dhen contacted him and asked if he would like to drive for his team, which Sot decided to agree. Mat, the team owner was forced to release Sot. It doesn't seem like a big issue, however Dhen did the similar thing to many drivers, with some of them disagreeing. This strategy has caused changes in the rules to avoid the similar situation in the future, however Dhen wasn't penalized for his moves.

Next up was GT S3 R4 on Chicken Cup Road Course. Before the race, there was some testing on the circuit, which showed that the RSR was a second faster than the 2nd fastest car, the McLaren (on 2 laps) and that the GT-R was 11 seconds slower than the RSR, which was way too big. The race started without any changes, as they would be introduced later. John got pole and eventually led most of the race. However he had struggled after pitting with Sot catching up very quickly. Eventually, John was overtaken by Sot on the final laps. Sot kept the lead until the end of the race and went on to win it. Right after crossing the finish line, John wasn't really happy, as he thought he lapped Sot and that he won the race. The win was initially given to John, however after some footage review it was clear that Sot wasn't lapped and that he won the race - it was his first ever win after many struggles in the Nissan team. John didn't react to this information well, however he had accepted the defeat some time later. Then the F3 race happened, where Sot got his first F3 podium, syrz won the sprint race and john won the feature race.

Before the next GT race it was found that one of McLaren's driver had stolen some "strats" from the RSR team - basically, he was signed for the Porsche RSR team for a moment but then changed teams to McLaren and that's what caused confusion. After finding that out the McLaren team was penalized with -20 constructor's points and a ban from the next quali race. The team leader Vark didn't react to it well, as expected, as he didn't get any verbal warning at all. After hearing that Mat reduced the penalty to just a ban from quali. Also, the last race winner, Sot was fired from the Scuderia Ferrari team due to teammate agruement.

The next GT race was at Syrz' track, the River Stretch Circuit. It saw KarlplayzRoblox's supposed return after a long time, however he didn't even join the quali and retired after the race, even though he said that he'll return soon. The same race also saw a new MCRO rookie - Ash. Syrz got pole to a suprise and got well in at the start of the race and got quite lucky after john had crashed into the highway enterance. The RSR driver eventually caught up to Syrz and led the race since, but Syrz was still 2nd. During the final laps, Sot was close to Syrz in 2nd, however he failed to get P2, as Syrz got it. Also, it was the race where Dhen has hit the infamous "WOC"/"Wall Of Champions". Despite that, he still finished in points (P7).

It seemed like the RSR dominance was back, even though the last race was won by a Ferrari.

Controversial changes

Between races, the new class was teased with a Pagani Huayra R in it and a text saying "28/01/23". It hinted a new hypercar class which would eventually be in a vote for Season 4 racing series on that day.

However, there also was one thing that would cause many controversies - tyre limiations for the Porsche RSR. After testing, it had seemed like the Porsche RSR was too fast on race tyres, being over 1.5 seconds faster than the likes of McLaren or Ferrari. The solution was to run the car on normal tyres, which slowed it down. It sounded promising, however after the idea was showcased to the RSR team, the drivers were not happy at all - especially considering they have also tested RSR with race tyres and the McLaren and the latter seemed faster. Mat re-did the testing and the RSR with Race Tyres was still too fast - so the changes were kept.

GT S2 R6 was the next GT race on the Docks Circuit and was hosted by Vark as Mat was busy. The race was delayed by 30 minutes, as the CDT Season 3 update was still about to release and the hosters wanted to avoid a server restart mid-race. During quali, Obli got pole position with the closest McLaren driver, Agg, qualifying P3. The race started and it went pretty well for both Lamborghini drivers, as they were leading 1-2 after some time. Later in the race however, the roblox chat was completely broken, blocking any sort of communication between hosters and racers. The issue became so bad that the race was halted on lap 17 and resumed a week later (funinly enough, on the same day as the halted race roblox went down).

The race has restarted and it saw MrMouse, an MCRO rookie race for Sot and Sky race for Disortion. There was a long battle for P1 between Syrz and Agg, which lasted quite long and resulted with Agg taking the lead. The RSR of Sky did a comeback from P8 to P3, but was staying at that position for a long time. In the same race, Nissan had recieved a new car - the new McLaren-Mercedes SLR. They didn't do well, as they were out of points all the time. MrMouse did really great on the other hand, as he battled with Alex/Blaze for P4 and eventually got it. The race ended, as Agg crossed the line first, winning his first MCRO race and Syrz came 2nd. Sky "only" managed a P3 finish after the RSR nerfs. MrMouse finished P4 and the 2nd RSR driver finished P6. After the race, both RSR drivers were frustrated about the nerfs, as the car was really slower than the McLaren and that the testing was very inaccurate (Mat did 2 laps per car, 1 fast and 1 from standing start). The F3 race happened then, and it was interesting, as Sot was disqualified for not pitting for the first time ever in MCRO, Avith won his first race (Sprint Race) since the S2 GT days, and Syrz got the F3 driver's championship 1 round before the season finale. John also had a double podium weekend. After the F3 race, the Season 4 series were revealed - GT-B (Slower GT), GT-A (Current GT), Hypercar, F3, F1 and EV series. GT-A, Hypercar and F1 would eventually go into the 2nd vote, where Hypercar and F1 got picked.

Round 7 came on Avith's track, The Eagle's Nest - and it seemed like the track was too biased towards the RSR as it was over a second faster than the Ferrari, which was 2nd fastest. The track was changed into Vark's track, the Van Circuit, which was a lot more balanced. Also, the RSR recieved the same race tyre ban as in the previous race, as the normal tyres seemed balanced enough. In the quali, John got pole after his absence in R6, with MrMouse coming 2nd. It was also Egg's first race in the Ferrari team - he got P5 in quali. To many people's suprise Egg was coming close to the RSR of John, however John seemed to keep the lead, but the gap between him and P2 wasn't really changing. The battle for P1 was getting really interesting, as both John and Egg still haven't pitted, and the end of the pit window was coming close - eventually they have both pitted at the end of the pit window. The race ended with an another photo finsh between John and Egg, with John winning the race, Egg coming 2nd and Agg closing the podium with a P3 finish. In the same race, John won the GT S3 driver's championship 1 race before the end of the season.

The incompetence begins

After the race it was found that john had cut a lot of corners, but at the same time wasn't warned during the race, and that he had used race tyres despite the ban. He also forgot to change tyres while pitting. The penalties would eventually add up to an over 60-second penalty, however it was decided that a disqualification would be a better option. This didn't really make John mad, as he still won the championship, but it made Jeno very mad, despite him not leading or driving for RSR anymore. The proof shown wasn't enough (according to others), and Jeno started to complain to both Vark and Mat, trying to get the disqualification reversed. The penalty stayed after many re-investigations, however the RSR team was overall not in a good mood, especially after the race tyre bans. The final F3 race happened then and it saw a decent battle for P1 between Lio, Agg and Alex/Blaze in the Feature Race, with Agg winning that and Feature Race, making Zeinth Racing ahead of MFC Racing by 21 points.

Between the final F3 race and the final S3 GT race, the hypercar teams were revealed - with some being brought from S1 Hypercar and some being new - GMA Racing and DeTomaso Racing. However, after that one of the most controversial changes of MCRO have happened - the final track seemed very unbalanced and required a change - the track was changed into a modified version of Sky's track - City Trip.

The track had chicanes added for "balance", which made many drivers angry as they were annoying to drive on. This race was important for the RSR team, as they were really close to McLaren in Constructor's Standings, especially after John's DSQ. The McLarens looked strong, so the battle was on. The quali happened, with Sot getting pole. During the race, Agg started well, but John was P2 and Avith was P3, and they were still losing the championship. As the race went on, John got closer to the McLaren and eventually overtook him for the lead, which he had to keep to get the championship. However, Agg got the lead back quickly and RSR were losing hopes of the championship. The hopes were completely lost after Avith disconnected, promoting Syrz to P3. Race ended with Agg winning for the 2nd time this season, John getting 2nd and Syrz getting 3rd. Despite John's good finish, RSR did not win the championship, which made some of the RSR guys mad, especially Jeno, who called Mat a "monster", mostly because he made changes to RSR which apparently made them lose the championship.

Lessons learned

The City Trip track with chicanes was dropped, Tyre Bans were dropped and the F1 2012 signups have ended. Lessons were learned for S4, as the testing now was taking place on every track that would be in the both racing calendars. As F1 2012 used the same cars, the testing was pretty much useless, but for Hypercar the testing was needed, as the drift update had ruined the balance of these cars - before the update the biggest difference between the fastest and the slowest car was less than a second. After the drift update, the difference was much bigger and testing had to be re-done. The testing took so long that F1 has been started before Hypercar, in April. Hypercar S2 would eventually see it's daylight at the end of the same month with 1 car change - Lambo Sesto Elemento -> Mazda Racing. The 4th Season is a topic for a different article, though (which won't be a part of the 3-part anniversary history).

And there we are - MCRO proved to be a decent racing server, after falls of The Racing Hub, Origin's Ice Race Leauge and more. The racing was at best really close and intense. This server was also a place where many people have founded their reputation, especially John, Agg, Sot and Syrz. Unlike any other CDT Racing Server (except The Racing Hub) it has survived a full year, and who knows, maybe it can survive an another year? Thanks for reading, and see you soon.