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Tópico: Interview with Rimantas Sagatas - The Tiger King |
10 respostas
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#1 colocada 26 Jan 2021, 16:57:07 (Editado em 26 Jan 2021, 17:26:20 por Jun Ho)
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Jun Ho (JH): Hello! For those who don't know you, what is your full name, occupation, and do you have any sports you currently play? :)
Rimantas Sagatas (RS): Hey Jun! Rimantas Sagatas, vice president of Tiger Racing here :) In real life I'm senior network engineer working for Danske Bank, one of the leading banks in Scandinavia. Oh, I have many sports which I enjoy playing unprofessionally, my wife would even say too many. Of course like ordinary Lithuanian, I mostly play basketball - with a team we participate in one of the local Vilnius leagues. Also I'm part of Danske Bank Racing team with which we fight for companies kart title every summer season. Apart from that I also enjoy skiing when we have proper winters with snow, plus as F. Mercury would say - I want to ride my bicycle... I will probably stop myself here :D
JH: Basketball is a great sport, and one that is hard to find a club here in the UK (well, Cambridge at least!). The annual karting within your company sounds really awesome too! Any victories during your participation?
Also, what NBA team do you support? :)
RS: We were champions a year before, but last year we had to settle for 2nd. So it's not only for fun running around the track just for the sake of it, but we try to perfect it while having fun. I guess same attitude works in GPRO :)
Honestly I prefer European style of basketball rather than NBA, but if I had to pick one this season I would go for Pacers, since Sabonis plays for them.
JH: Definitely, for sure! I actually haven't really watched European basketball that much, but you got me intrigued :)
So, let's start on your GPRO career! How did you find GPRO, and what was your first impression of the game?
RS: Well, if you are a true basketball fan, you should definitely try watching few matches to understand the difference. Suggest by starting with the one I watched most recently - Lithuanian Zalgiris vs Olympiacos on Jan 22nd, Euroleague game. I'm confident you won't regret it.
As for very beginning, it goes back to 2007 when I was actively playing F1 Challenge 99-02 and few guys from the Lithuanian game community suggested trying GPRO. I remember registering just before season reset at the end of S2 and it was so frustrating to wait for the reset and first race of my career. IIRC back in the days season break was like 2 weeks instead of current 1, so it really tried my patience :D Then after first race I fell in love with the game immediately and haven't missed a single race since.
JH: Ahh yes, the old days of long season resets (I think the week reset were only live for the last couple of years?). Looking through your career, you blitzed through the divisions to get to ProElite, and along the way, you joined arguably one of the biggest teams in Fastline Racing Team. How did this come about, and did you find the game... easy?
RS: Pro or Elite? :) As you can see I struggled in my first few seasons and it's basically only when I joined Fastline I managed to get my game up. It wasn't easy at all, back then there were no fancy tools, no tools at all, so it was hard to predict even basic things like tyre wear, fuel, not to mention parts wear. It was more of a noting down last race data and estimate-guessing next race data on a paper game :) This is how my excel based database looked in Season 4: https://ibb.co/1qQsQSw
I'm really glad I managed to get into Fastline, where with more people (including champion Gatis Laugalis) we got 10 times more data compared to running single and we could all start cracking down the game mechanics bit by bit, improving our knowledge about the game and also our season planning sheets a lot faster :)
JH: Bah, note to self. Never write questions when you are tired as hell. :D
Was the deciphering of races easy enough for you to try to create a so-called tool? At what season was a good understanding of the game achieved by not only you, but also your team as well?
RS: To be honest, we never got to a point in Fastline Racing where we would have a proper tool that calculates exact tyre wear or fuel. It took us fairly long before figured most of variables and mechanics behind the game, mostly because we had no data analysts or mathematicians in the team. Yet, we were able to estimate things quite accurately by knowing most of dependencies. Can't remember exact season, but I think by the time tyre suppliers were introduced we already had a decent knowledge and experience about the game, so tyre suppliers was a nice addition for finding out new things. I think it is important that new features are introduces every 10 or so seasons so that long term players, or dinos, would be forced to find out new things and rethink settled strategies and understanding of what is the most optimal or convenient strategy for one to play the game.
JH: That is fair enough! I can only imagine how boring a game would feel if you have found out all of the secrets of the game and you just type the exact numbers in with you knowing full well about what is about to happen.
So your first couple of stints in Elite did not go very well (best finish of 10th in a season). Why was this?
RS: I guess a bit of everything. First of all back then the step between Master and Elite was way bigger than is now, especially with hugely over experienced drivers in Elite. Later experience was tweaked and also with tyre suppliers introduced, the gap become smaller. But I myself didn't have proper package - poor sponsors, lack of testing and thus lower CCPs than most of big guns in Elite. Simply there was no money to invest into the package to make that additional step from mid-field of Elite (which struggled with getting any decent Elite sponsors) to the top of Elite. The only chance I saw was going back to master for a quick rebuild.
JH: Sometimes, a rebuild is what you need in order to go stronger and better in the future.
In between your first and second stint in Elite, you changed from Fastline Racing Team to Tiger Racing. How did this change occur? What made you want to jump from current teams champion to a team in rebuilding?
RS: We had a small revolution within the team :) Even though we were reigning champions at the time, few of the guys were not happy with existing situation or performance of other managers in the team (likely myself included :)) and was planning on leaving Fastline after the season to create new team called THE10. Thus I decided that it's time to look for new pursuits in another top team myself. Luckily free spot appeared in Tiger Racing and I become roaring manager.
JH: Did you feel as though your change from FRT to Tiger made you a better manager?
RS: Well, not easy to answer, but likely yes, due to extreme knowledge and experience which I found in Tiger Racing. I tend to think I already had the right attitude for the game but the addition of titles winning experience from other Tigers was exactly what I needed in order to step up.
JH: That's fair there!
With your addition to Tiger Racing, you were managed to win not one but two Elite championships! How did it feel finally winning that championship, and what made you (as well as 20+ other managers) select Badyears as this was one of only two seasons in which Badyears had won an Elite championship, while all others previously were dominated by Michelinis and Bridgestones?
RS: I was shaking watching the last laps of title clinching race :) I remember camping near the leak during summer holiday and trying to catch a poor internet connection that took ages to load each lap. So the tension was big and when it happened I just couldn't believe it. Even though it was quite cold late evening I went for a swim and remembered about all the seasons of data gathering, analyzing and planning just to lead to this night when my young dream come true. It was superb experience :)
I knew I will be strong that season due to driver pace cap being set back to 250 experience and I was ready to push all in (up until then, pace wasn't limited to 250exp, so 350+ exp drivers were unbeatable. My developed driver had a lot less). The main reason why I picked Badyears was that I simply couldn't afford 3.5mln more expensive tyres without compromising my package. Thus I picked safest option allowing me to have high car level during most of the season instead of relying on weather.
JH: It must have been exhilarating for sure! I would imagine I would have felt the same! :)
Did the second Elite championship feel easier to win, or was this win a lot harder than your first one?
RS: Yes, second title was a lot easier, mainly because I was able to afford premium Michelini tyres while competition went for cheaper brands.
JH: That's fair enough!
A few seasons after the second Elite championship win, you seem to have wanted to rebuild via relegating to Amateur and building your way up there. Why did you opt for this route, rather than resetting in Rookie?
RS: Indeed, I lacked motivation for the game after a series of tech. problems, so decided to do something new which I havent done before - develop and bring driver from amateur to elite. I didnt go for a reset only because it takes ages to increase untrainable staff skills and they are important in Elite.
JH: That is a point that I didn't take into consideration there!
As time and seasons progressed, your stay in Elite didn't seem to end with an Elite championship, even after you second rebuildat around Season 68. Do you feel that competition in Elite has significantly got harder since your championship era (along with the Lithuanian duo of Edvinas and Justinas, plus Leandro's and Toygun's domination era), or do you feel there are changes within the game which has brought struggle to winning a championship?
RS: I don't think Elite become harder in terms of winning Elite title. Actually vice versa, it's now easier to win for everyone, not only long term Eliters. Also now it's harder to win back to back or many titles in several seasons, especially if you stay in Elite for very long time. Coming from Master with many promotion sponsors stacked gives a decent chance to align ones package for one season push. We have seen such strategies from recent champions lately. Another game changer is surely increase of PHA importance - now you have to spend a fortune if you want to perform in most of the races and usually that is only something that only title contenders can afford. Path to success is quite clear nowadays, save up, develop driver and push for a season or 2 by spending most of the money (from stacked sponsors mainly) on Bridgerocks and early part replacements to better match your car for specific track. No surprise we see so many premium tyres in Elite recently - people simply started using their sponsors.
JH: Will we ever see this thread used again? :)
/gb/forum/ViewTopic.asp?TopicId=20474
RS: That's the goal, yes :)
JH: In your opinion, will we see the old champions (such as Leandro Sereno, Vladimir Islentiev, Maxim Kotov etc) back up in Elite challenging for titles? If not, why so?
RS: I don't see a reason why not. Sure, game is totally different now, but if they have motivation, strong team behind them and are able to change their game style from their championship winning seasons, then they can surely be at the top again. Now that I've wrote that I need to check where they currently are.... :D Ok, so they are all in W&C and majority of their managers are on Avonn. Well, in that case I would like to change my answer to - this is likely not going to happen before we enter into 3 digit season count :)
JH: Haha :)
Thank you for taking this interview with me, really appreciate it! One final question. Who do you think will be the next new Elite champion and new team championship winner?
RS: Joachim Rang and Nuvolari Pirates.
Thanks for the questions, Jun. I enjoyed remembering the past ;)
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#2 colocada 26 Jan 2021, 16:58:32
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#3 colocada 26 Jan 2021, 16:59:46
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Quote ( Mark Pinnick @ January 26th 2021,16:58:32 ) Nice formatting!! :p
First time, bare with. :D
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#4 colocada 26 Jan 2021, 17:04:32
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Quote ( Jun Ho @ January 26th 2021,16:59:46 ) Quote ( Mark Pinnick @ January 26th 2021,16:58:32 )
Nice formatting!! :p
First time, bare with. :D
Jun, I'd love to read it, but that purple is hurting my eyes :-)
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#5 colocada 26 Jan 2021, 17:07:30
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please change that color, please :(
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#6 colocada 26 Jan 2021, 17:09:02 (Editado em 26 Jan 2021, 17:11:39 por Jun Ho)
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Quote ( David Rolleston @ January 26th 2021,17:04:32 ) Jun, I'd love to read it, but that purple is hurting my eyes :-)
I put a much darker purple, will that work?
E; It's a little bit bareable now?
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#7 colocada 26 Jan 2021, 17:11:04
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#8 colocada 26 Jan 2021, 17:20:26
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Quote ( Jun Ho @ January 26th 2021,17:09:02 ) Quote ( David Rolleston @ January 26th 2021,17:04:32 )
Jun, I'd love to read it, but that purple is hurting my eyes :-)
I put a much darker purple, will that work?
E; It's a little bit bareable now?
much better, thanks for the interview :)
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#9 colocada 27 Jan 2021, 00:05:25
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Great interview - really interesting read; thanks both :)
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#10 colocada 27 Jan 2021, 01:00:08
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Thanks for the great interview Jun and Rimantas, I realy enjoyed reading it. :)
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#11 colocada 28 Jan 2021, 12:03:36
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Nice reading, felt like a long one, but answers made it quick.
Hope you can make some surprises soon again Agas!
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