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Nascar driver stuns to qualify for championship with GameCube move

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Re: Nascar driver stuns to qualify for championship with GameCube move

#351

Post by houtanb »

jefftk wrote: post #56

Reminds me of another example of video-game inspired tactics: Just before he reached the end zone, with 17 seconds remaining, Stokley cut right at 90 degrees and ran across the field. Six seconds drained off the clock before, at last, he meandered across the goal line to score the winning touchdown. For certain football fans, the excitement of a last-minute comeback now commingled with the shock of the familiar: It's…

Here's a video of the Stokely touchdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fPamV6LsV8

Re: Nascar driver stuns to qualify for championship with GameCube move

#352

Post by Shocka1 »

lisper wrote: post #170
QuadmasterXLII wrote: post #2

Of all the forms of immortality, my favorite is participating in a competition in such a brilliant, incorrect way that a rule is permanently added just for you.

When I was in high school a local science museum had an annual paper airplane contest. One of the events was duration of flight. The launch platform was a second-story landing. One year I won with a simple piece of paper the size of a dollar bill that was bent into a S-shape profile so that it would twirl as it fell. It turns out this is actually a legitimate way to produce lift, and actual human-carrying aircraft ha…

You are basically the Smokey Yunick of paper airplanes:

https://web.archive.org/web/20060323051213/http://insiderrac...

Re: Nascar driver stuns to qualify for championship with GameCube move

#353

Post by banannaise »

jaywalk wrote: post #344
itsoktocry wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think anyone considers it gaming the rules. Explicit clock management is part of the game. But if you start messing around when the other team has ended pursuit, you are definitely breaking an "unwritten rule" (of which there are many in sports).

A good example of this is when defenders try to "blow up" a victory formation. It's perfectly legal, but generally considered bad sportsmanship.

This, and many other "bad sportsmanship" behaviors, are taboo because they are far less likely to affect the result of the game than they are to injure someone.

Behaviors like this will typically result in some variation of an on-field fight, which honestly seems like a pretty fair means of enforcement.

Re: Nascar driver stuns to qualify for championship with GameCube move

#354

Post by banannaise »

mnd999 wrote: post #248
discardedrefuse wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The incentive to pull off this kind of move, running the clock down a bit, that was already present. But there's a certain social expectation that you won't game the rules so blatantly, so that's a disincentive. Clock management is a pretty big aspect of (American) football strategy and very much expected. I don't think anyone considers it gaming the rules. Just off the top of my head: - Teams with comfortable lead…

Even victory formation, this is an ultra cautious time waste. It’s also a thing in association football (soccer). Teams are praised for passing the ball around aimlessly denying the opposition possession to defend a lead. It’s boring to watch, unless it’s your team.

An interesting note is that basketball was like this until the introduction of the backcourt violation and shot clock.

The difference, of course, is that basketball is a fast-paced, high-scoring game, and the entertainment value suffers mightily when it is slowed down. Soccer is about deliberately building to a scoring opportunity, so forcibly speeding up the game would simply ruin the structure. Obviously, "turtling" can be a bit of a problem as a result, but it's not hard for a team to sacrifice some defensive structure to press for a turnover.

Re: Nascar driver stuns to qualify for championship with GameCube move

#355

Post by banannaise »

afarrell wrote: post #129
lostlogin wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> an environment where social expectations and pressure don't really exist. It’s almost inverted. The expectation is often for gamers to be as exploitative as possible. There is a lot of hilarity to be had by all with a play that gets a win in ann unexpected way, and it has quite a culture around it. It can go too far to be sure, but in good measure it’s often what is best about multiplayer games.

A video game is a puzzle and it is fun to watch someone successfully manipulate a puzzle. Live sports are with people and people don't like watching others be manipulated.

It's not about manipulation. It's that if you die in football, you die in real life. If you do stupid stuff, players can get hurt. Whereas in video games, all that can really happen is a win or a loss. A bizarre play where someone gets hurt is funny in a simulation, and tragic in meatspace.

This is part of why the NASCAR move is so interesting. The driver himself notes that he was putting himself in real actual danger of crashing his car and possibly hurting himself, but he was willing to take that risk.

I would not be surprised to see this outlawed in the very near future before someone can cause a major crash trying it.

Re: Nascar driver stuns to qualify for championship with GameCube move

#356

Post by dugmartin »

lisper wrote: post #170
QuadmasterXLII wrote: post #2

Of all the forms of immortality, my favorite is participating in a competition in such a brilliant, incorrect way that a rule is permanently added just for you.

When I was in high school a local science museum had an annual paper airplane contest. One of the events was duration of flight. The launch platform was a second-story landing. One year I won with a simple piece of paper the size of a dollar bill that was bent into a S-shape profile so that it would twirl as it fell. It turns out this is actually a legitimate way to produce lift, and actual human-carrying aircraft ha…

That reminds me of when I carefully built a "lightbulb drop" challenge container that looked like the moon lander in high school art. We were given two pieces of construction paper, two straws and two large rubber bands. I spent a week I think building and testing my design so that it would use the straws and rubber bands like springs and the paper like fins to ensure it landed in the right position and prevent the lightbulb from breaking.

Cue "demo day": my friend forgot about the project and took the straws and wrapped them around the bulb and then crinkled up the construction paper roughly and wrapped it around the straws and bulb and then took the rubber bands and secured the paper. I think he spent maybe a minute on it.

I think you maybe know how this ends. The teacher sneered at his design but then proceeded to drop it several times from the top of a ladder and the bulb never broke. He then took my design and dropped it upside down (springs pointing up) and the bulb shattered. I still think about that and laugh 30+ years later.

Re: Nascar driver stuns to qualify for championship with GameCube move

#357

Post by banannaise »

BadOakOx wrote: post #266
daguava wrote: post #81

This is one of those events that I'm of several minds about: 1) This is what keeps people outside the scene interested and taking note - NASCAR absolutely should publicize and play up this moment, it brings a lot of folks to the sport. It was incredibly awesome. 2) A lot of times something like this is how you form some new regulations - it's truly one of those "You know, this was excellent but we can't do it again"…

> 2) A lot of times something like this is how you form some new regulations - it's truly one of those "You know, this was excellent but we can't do it again" situations. I don't watch Nascar, but as from comments from other places, there is nothing new with it. It has been known and attempted by others now and then [1]. It is a high risk high reward move and this time it turned out good. If it wasn't regulated so fa…

Interestingly, this weekend's wall ride had a similar result - a car ahead stayed high, forcing him to slow down and preventing the pass. The difference is that in this case, he had already passed five cars, and passing the sixth was irrelevant in the standings result.

Re: Nascar driver stuns to qualify for championship with GameCube move

#358

Post by arwineap »

wiredfool wrote: post #346
BadOakOx wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2) A lot of times something like this is how you form some new regulations - it's truly one of those "You know, this was excellent but we can't do it again" situations. I don't watch Nascar, but as from comments from other places, there is nothing new with it. It has been known and attempted by others now and then [1]. It is a high risk high reward move and this time it turned out good. If it wasn't regulated so fa…

There was the 3" fuel line issue a decade or more ago. When limiting the size of the fuel cell to x gallons, they neglected to specify the size of the fuel line. More fuel capacity is an advantage late in the race, allowing for the potential to not have to pit for a splash of gas or have to drive as conservatively. Well, a 3" line has a couple of gallon capacity if it extends the length of the car, and at one point,…

You're thinking of Smokey Yunick, and that's just a taste of his antics

Check out the "reverse torque special" where he reversed the direction of his engine, so the tq pull would naturally turn him in the correct direction for nascar

Or when he modified the roof and raised the floor to get a more aerodynamic car

Or when he qualified with wheel covers, and cut them out before the race ( rules didn't stipulate you had to cut them before qualifying )

The guy was a legend, and I think racing would be much more interesting if we had more of him

Re: Nascar driver stuns to qualify for championship with GameCube move

#359

Post by JohnBooty »

zeckalpha wrote: post #331
JohnBooty wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure the Wired writer is a football person either. I can probably best explain it this way: that play does not have a name, because it's pretty basic and that guy didn't invent it. Clock management is so integral to gridiron football. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_out_the_clock#American... You probably see that move a little bit more in video games. In real life there's more that can go wrong; you hav…

First down lines were súper imposed before video games could do that. It just was the classic yellow straight line.

Huh! It seems so. The TV technology debuted in 1998. I was certain that games were doing it before that, but I couldn't find any evidence. I must have been mistaken - I guess TV did it first.

http://insightreplay.com/the-story-behind-nfls-magic-yellow-...

Re: Nascar driver stuns to qualify for championship with GameCube move

#360

Post by aeneasmackenzie »

eCa wrote: post #37
QuadmasterXLII wrote: post #2

Of all the forms of immortality, my favorite is participating in a competition in such a brilliant, incorrect way that a rule is permanently added just for you.

My favourite of these is probably Graeme Obree[1] who managed to get not one, but two very different bike positions banned in the ’90s after setting the hour record using one of them and winning the world championship using the other. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeme_Obree

1930s: going fast by leaning backward, banned

1990s: going fast by leaning forward, banned

I look forward to 2100 when they will simply ban going faster than a specific speed.

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