Grands Prix Events (GP)

Rounds
Grands Prix Events (GP) are held on a regular basis (generally weekly). They are competitions which offer prizes of Crates, Coins, Badges, and Boosts. They consist of a Qualifying Round, an Opening Round, and a Final Round.

Qualifying Round
This consists of five races. There are three separate days of Qualifying Rounds. If you fail to qualify on the first or second day, you may attempt to qualify on the second (or third) day. In order to qualify, you need to score in the top half of all entrants who attempted to qualify on that day.

Opening Round
This consists of ten races, which are most often not on the same tracks as the Qualifying Round. To make the Final Round, you need to score in the top half of all entrants who are in the Opening Round (often 100).

Final Round
This consists of the same ten races as in the Opening Round. All entrants who are in the Final Round win a prize of Crates, Coins, and Badges.

Levels of Events
Currently there are four levels: Junior, Challenger, Contender, and Champion. In order to compete in a level, you must be in a weekly League at least as high as the GP level you want to enter (e.g., if you are in Challenger 3, you may not enter at the Contender or Champion levels). You may enter a GP at a lower level than your weekly League level (e.g., if you are in Challenger 3, you may enter a GP at the Junior level).

Prize Levels
If you consult the online help pages, the Junior level currently awards series 4 GP crates, Challenger awards series 5, Contender series 6, and Champion series 7.

Tiebreakers
This is a confusing subject, and is somewhat controversial. If two or more players are tied on points in the Final Round, the average of all races each player competed in is compared (Final Round, Opening Round, and Qualifying Rounds). Note that this means if a player entered a Qualifying Round multiple times, all their Qualifying Round races are included in this calculation. If the average (to 4 decimal places) is the same, then the player with fewer total races will be ranked ahead.

Examples:
Player 1: Final 400, Opening 400, Qualifying 200. Total is 1000 / 25 races = 40 points/race

Player 2: Final 400, Opening 300, Qualifying 200. Total is 900 / 25 races = 36 points/race

Outcome: Player 1 is ranked ahead of Player 2

Player 1: Final 400, Opening 400, Qualifying Round 1 200, Qualifying Round 2 100. Total is 1100 / 30 races = 36.6666 points/race

Player 2: Final 400, Opening 375, Qualifying 200. Total is 975 / 25 races = 39 points/race

Outcome: Player 2 is ranked ahead of Player 1, despite having fewer Opening Round points than Player 1, and thus appearing to have fewer total points than Player 1. It is because the extra Qualifying Round(s) are not displayed that there appears to be a discrepancy.

Event Boosts
Many GP events have a Boost associated with them. These are often only available if you pay for them.

Disconnects
Many players have reported an increase in the disconnect rate during GPs. Since this means you only score 3 points (as though you finished in P23 and P24), it disrupts a player's GP experience.

Sandbagging
It has been theorized that your position in the Opening Round has an effect on the Final Round. If you finish in the top half of the Opening Round, it is believed that your opponents in the Final Round will be of higher quality than if you finish in the bottom half. This belief means some players who they hope have safely made it into the Final Round (and are in the bottom half) will not complete all 10 races in the Opening Round, or will deliberately score poorly in the last race(s) of the Opening Round. This has several potential consequences:
 * By scoring fewer points in the Opening Round, the average may be affected, especially if the last race(s) had a much lower score than the other races.
 * If one or more races are skipped, then the average will be affected, as there are fewer races to calculate the average from.