04/11/2010
NEWS STORY
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We are afraid to have to report that we have been forced to drop our end of season competition with immediate effect.
Sadly, a number growing number of entrants were unable to understand the format and it was in danger of getting totally out of control and thereby causing us and our partners further embarrassment.
Having failed to keep a record of the drivers they'd picked in the first two rounds, some entrants were therefore unable to work out how many points they carried forward into this weekend. Therefore, while some underestimated their points total others went the other way.
The latest round went live on Tuesday morning and it wasn't long before we realised that we were facing a massive problem with readers either making up their scores, only carrying them forward from Korea or even failing to understand what points we referred to.
One reader, who had picked Webber and Vettel in both Japan and Korea yet claimed to have 80 points in the bag, when contacted by us to say his points total was incorrect replied: "I just took a wild guess. I couldn't remember. "
With over three-thousand entries in the first round, and a similar number in the second, it would be impossible for us to go through every single entry from each round to check the points totals. Consequently, we are left with no alternative but to pull the plug, a move which disappoints Pitpass as much as it does Amalgam and those readers who clearly did understand the rules.
The latest round had only been live for around for about thirty minutes on Tuesday and of the entries received in that time only five carried forward the correct amount of points - of that five one had picked the highest scoring drivers in both Japan and Korea.
Consequently, though we are scrapping this competition these five will get something for their efforts with Amalgam graciously offering a choice of 1:4 scale steering wheel or 1:12 scale nose cone to each of them. The same goes for those five readers who had perfect scores (86 points) going into this week's race.
Furthermore, the prize that was on offer - a 1:8 scale model of one of the three cars challenging for the 2010 title, or a 1:8 scale Mercedes W01 - will now be offered again in a competition based on the results of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. We will endeavour to make it as easy as possible.