YogiUK:..... for the weekly tournaments then not bother racing in the first heat? I can (sort of) understand if someone can't make a later heat because they a: didn't expect to get that far, b: messed up their schedule etc, but the first one?
Wouldn't it be possible for Turn 10 to ban people from tournaments for non attendance?
For most services that you pay for, and XBL is such a service, banning is reserved for intentional actions. Do you know for sure that those people intentionally missed the race?
Real life can get in the way, even for the first race of a series. And real life has to come first. If a person qualifies Friday for a series that is raced at 8 AM his time and then finds out work wants him there at 8 AM when normal work time is 9 AM, then there is nothing for it but to skip the race. Unless, of course, you are really hooked, and call in sick ... lol.
In my opinion missing a later race is no more "acceptable" than missing the first race if it is intentional, if you don't expect to get to the end then don't bother racing the qualifier. That is why there are Gold, Silver, and Bronze levels, to get the people who qualify the same in the same race. Of course, I have seen a couple of sandbaggers.
And, if T10 banned for non-attendance the tournies would turn into the same 10 people in a given class each week, and that is it. People would be afraid they might not be able to make it one race out of 5, and never qualify unless it was a sure thing, and most people have real life to deal with, so online play has to take a back seat.
What I would like to see is the tourny times rotated around a little. For example, the D class races are always starting at 8 AM local time for me, and always during the week. So it means I can never race them.
Z!