1 year and 20 seasons of Formula Zero

Exactly a year ago, Official Formula Zero didn't even exist yet. It was just an idea, a thought. Things were starting to move into place and get prepared for the opening day. On the 31st of July Formula Zero was created and after 17 days there was only one champion: Leo Yeo. But this was only the beginning...

Season 2:
Formula Zero saw so much growth, we gained popularity and members in a matter of days. Even I was surprised by the attention we got, all I did was introduce a little nudge in the right direction from creating two fake accounts ;D Can you guess who they are! Sadly pro was still completely empty and rookie was full of mostly mindless players who joined but never really cared about playing the game but I was never going to let this stand on my watch though!


Elite saw the beginning of a long pattern that we'll get into later on but I will mention that I had already taken my first championship against Leo and was preparing for another close fight next season. I was so happy to see that two people had joined us in the top tier, even if it wasn't going to last for long in the end...

Season 3:
I could easily describe this as same old same old. The league was growing but now we were forced to deal with inactivity. For every 3 people that joined, 2 would be inactive. It's likely you won't recognise any of these names but I do, after all they did lead to my league becoming one of the greatest in iGP.

Pro and elite were left with 3 managers. Only 2 of the six are still racing now but it doesn't matter... Formula Zero has changed more than the face of the earth and now we have much more loyal, talkative managers taking part in incredible races everyday! In this season though, I took my 2nd championship in a row. Only narrowly beating Michael but I won't lie and say I was really trying haha! Seeing the first managers finally enter pro and complete a season was a big milestone but it would lead to be just the first of many for our little league!

Season 4:
I think this season taught me a real lesson: don't count your chickens before they hatch. The pro tier was almost completely empty, barring 2 teams who were the only ones who could bother to stick around... This was tough to take in as a new league owner and definitely contradicted my original thoughts on how it was going to be. Rookie easily filled itself up once again but the problem with inactives was still there! Something would have to change to increase the loyalty of my new players.

Elite was literally same old same old. I took another championship leading Michael and Leo. I was hoping to keep Michael until promotion was activated in pro but maybe I was hoping for too much...

Season 5:
Rookie was the only tier to see new champions, Sam took an easy championship to Tony who took an easy promotion from Phill and the rookies were only getting worse. More people joining only meant more people leaving and I was beginning to run out of hope for my rookie tier. But There was one manager who to me stood out from the rest. He went on to become the most successful manager (barring me) in Formula Zero...

Like I said before, pro and elite saw the same champions from the previous season. Pro saw some development from it's original cast of managers with two more joining the fray, this helped to balance out the manager we had lost from elite returning us back to a 4 car grid. It wasn't worse than last season overall, it was only just as bad...

Season 6:
I kind of enjoyed this season: We had finally gone 18 days without losing a person from a tier. We kept making progress in pro and moved from 3 cars to 5 and I went into my second season of creating the championship winners image.

Laszlo from rookie had begun his career in OFZ in 6th last season but after a full season managed to win the championship. This was far from the last time we would hear from him though...

In pro Mostar had stolen his first championship from a surprisngly inactive Kresimir. I really did think he would stay for longer but this turned out to be another "Michael" situation. I think this was the turning point for my opinion and perception of the players in Formula Zero, it obviously took me some time to change fully although with out I'd probably be a very depressed, lazy league host xD

Once again elite was a two way fight between me and Leo. Once again it was I who took the championship (do you understand what I meant 4 seasons ago now? :D ).

Even though there was no real news this season, things were just building up and preparing themselves for what I call the "Rookie" era...

Season 7:
If you were a Formula Zero player earlier on, it's likely you'll begin to remember some of the managers cropping up here and there. The top 4 from rookie are all managers who I can remember vividly as being the best at a certain point. The rookies were really starting make a name for themselves as the focus started shifting from elite and pro to the up and coming new talent from rookie! These incredible newcomers were much more skilled than the rest in their tier but were still becoming inactive.

In pro László had just barely taken his second Formula Zero championship, narrowly stealing it from Deni by 28 points. Pro unfortunately didn't benefit from promotion this season in terms of size (Racer already mentioned Kresimir's inactivity). It really hurt because it was clear that the only way to build up the elite tier for now was going to be through promotion...

And we won't even mention how the championship went in elite... you now the drill by now...

Season 8:
The "rookie era" had finally truly come into effect! Now it's beginning to become very easy for me to recognise names and how each championship actually went... rookie was half dominated by Phil and half dominated by Nitro Nik (who we'll hear from again). Nik was almost able to steal the championship away from Phil after missing half of the season and I feel that this lead to a long term rivalry between the two. Instead of the championship, Nik became the first ever Manager of the Season as a reward for his efforts.
(this season was around christmas hehe)

To see pro stuck at 5 players for another season was a real kick in the teeth. It made me doubt whether we'd ever be able to build the active pro tier we needed to even get an elite tier! László had taken another championship but was disappointed to not have the ability to be promoted and meet with me and Leo. Needless to say, he wasn't going to stay in the tier forever...

Speaking of elite, once again it was I who had taken the top spot! This became my 7th championship in a row although I don't know why I'd mention this as 7 is not my lucky number and I won't give you any clues apart from this, you've already seen it.

Season 9:
The "era" had continued into season 9 with an evident stream of talent now entering Formula Zero. The quality of managers such as Abli Vicky and Unguided Royal was not underestimated and rightly so! These managers made it far into the history books of FZ and would go on to stay there for a long time only to be replaced by the next unbelievable debut season story. At long last these rookies were finally beginning to lift their weight and give the pros a run for their money!

Pro saw an unprecedented gain of four managers instead of zero which was enough to enable promotion and create a fight for elite. Funnily enough it was the newcomers from rookie, Nik and Phil, who followed László to his 3rd consecutive pro championship and 1st Manager of the Season award but only Nik would follow him to elite. They had finally, after 9 seasons of the league existing, become the first pros to be promoted up to elite. It was a proud moment for Formula Zero and proved to be the beginning of another rivalry for Nik who was mildly disappointed after missing out on a championship again.

All the important news was to be found in pro and rookie, elite only saw me take my 8th championship in the league. My luck had run out now that I had 2 win hungry managers to beat; my level overwhelmed there's but their will and determination would tower over mine...

Season 10:
More loyal, fast teams joined rookie this season but it was Unguided Royal who would take the top spot in his 1st full season of OFZ. He completely dominated the rest of the tier and wasn't showing any sign of slowing down into his 1st season in pro. He was the Manager of the Season and deservedly so! M P was promoted behind him and got through with his consistent finishes, Syukri (3rd) and Ross (4th) were both so very close to each other too although there were another two managers who weren't noticeable in their debut seasons but would go on to have an incredibly lengthy rivalry... can you predict who they were?

In pro I had begun to introduce tactics to keep promotion open, the usual choice was to leave some inactives there but I think this lead to pro becoming a bit of a lazy tier in the league. There are many pros in the league today that have never experienced the height of elite! But enough about that, let's not skip over Abli Vicky's amazing championship win in his debut pro season, he beat the likes of PhilAnsell RT (3rd) and Ground F1 (4th) who were much more experienced teams. I was happy to see a person so good at the game give my new elites their next realistic challenge because...

...Leo was too fast. László (2nd) & Nik (3rd) were allowed to get deceivingly close that season and I think this lead to a lot of frustration and misunderstandings of how quick they really were. I was hoping Leo would just let them race like I did but when you give a person who adores winning the chance to win, he'll take it with both hands. It was during this season that I began to make my predictions on when elite would be completely full. I think my original guess was season 15 but was I right?

Season 11:
This time Ross was able to beat Syukri in a slightly close championship. Many of the 2/3 way championships Official Formula Zero would get at the beginning of the season would slowly turn into the domination of one of the managers, the best would eventually distance themselves from the rest of the field just like the top 3 did to Peter who sat at a distant 4th. Robert (3rd) was able to beat the similarly experienced manager but quite a long way but wasn't really in contention for promotion.


Pro provided two incredible battles, one for the championship and one for 3rd. The former was won by the one and only Unguided Royal who managed his quicker driver "Fessler" to lead him to the title, M P comfortably got second place, the latter battle was contested by Kate, Phil and Skull Racer. 3 managers within 40 points of each other after 17 races. I feel sort of sad that the only prize for this was the third place trophy.
John from the new and developing FZW league had begun his debut and had also unwillingly begun a trend we'll see later on as we get nearer to the conclusion of this story...

Elite saw me finally make my departure from the tier. It was time to help FZW develop some more and gain members. Abli left with me but not to the same destination or reason. elite was back to four once again and I could see what happened in pro was beginning to repeat itself. Another thing that happened again was Leo winning the championship and László was behind him but Nik, this time, was far behind and Leo had been voted as the Manager of the Season for the first time. Mattheos was the last of the elites but I think this was to be expected. All of this lead to my prediction of when elite would be full moving back quite a few seasons!

Season 12:
The rivalry between Peter and Robert had continued into season 12 but it was Robert who once again who finished highest of the two. The 100 point gap indicated a clear difference in the skill of the managers or a difference in activity but strangely enough this wasn't enough for to win the Manager of the Season award.

Instead that honour went to Ross in pro who got two consecutive championships, from rookie to pro. Another 100 point lead to the team behind which was Ground F1. Newcomers Ivan, Sak, Winston (from FZW), Darren, Allen joined to help us get a more active tier. Many of these players would be replaced by others along the line though.


And of course who else was going to win the championship in elite apart from Trio Leo Yeo. He had once again taken a championship from Laszlo who was followed this time by Unguided. I remember him almost being on par with the two and could almost beat them even with his far lower level! M P comfortably beat Nik by 60 points and Mattheos struggled behind with virtually no points. Elite had finally gained players! Thank God!

Season 13:
In this season we literally had 50 rookies! Usually bigger means better but in iGP this isn't something you should boast about! Only 2 of the top five in rookie are still racing now and they were the bottom 2 of this particular group. Trident iGP(4th) completed this season 40 points in front of Numnuts (5th), there was a clearer gap between them and 3rd placed team McAndrew and an even greater gap betwixt McAndrew and the championship winner. Jak's team, TTN Motorsport, were looking confident as they moved up to pro.

Pro had given us an incredible 3 way battle for third two seasons ago but this time we had a two way for the championship! This meant that promotion for the two involved was pretty much guaranteed but that did not stop either of them from putting 100% into beating each other. I remember Sak having a difficult start compared to Darren, he had a lot of inconsistency early on but as soon as he had sorted it out he began an incredible comeback which almost saw him steal the title from his competitor! And yet, the manager of the season was no where to be seen out of the names already mentioned...
Ivan (3rd) & Winston (4th) looked ready to make the step up to promotion next season and Peter (5th) & Robert (6th) showed promising signs of being the next to follow them up afterwards. Robert spent another season ahead of Peter but this time the gap had diminished to 15 points! The gap was definitely beginning to disappear!

Elite saw the start of the end of Leo's championship streak, the new elites were finally getting their opportunity to show what they could do against their evenly matched opponents. With that said, László (1st) still showed a clear difference in something when he beat Nitro Nik (2nd) by over 200 points and for that was given his second Manager of the Season award.

Nik managed to get revenge on M P (3rd) but didn't have the chance to do the same to Unguided who decided to leave the tier! 3 new players, Razvan (7th), Luke (8th) and Nathan (9th) replaced him but didn't have enough races to show how quick they could really be. Elite was still gaining players! Thank god!

Season 14:
So, the rookie situation got worse. 54 rookies experienced an FZ race and only 2 are still experiencing them. Sergii finished this season as a champion but surprisingly didn't have more wins than the man behind, even with his 70 point lead! Darren's Numnuts (omfg) went on to finish only 10 points ahead McAndrew who narrowly missed out on promotion. The rest of the field really weren't on par with the managers in the top 3 and couldn't stay close this season.

I was half right last season when I said Ivan and Phil were going to be promoted this season: Ivan won the championship by a country mile but Phil became inactive and was kicked from the league. This only meant that one of Peter and Robert were going to get the chance to be promoted. The season had been a tense one for the pair, both knew the benefits of getting to elite first compared to being the one to stay behind. In the end it was Peter who narrowly missed out on promotion by 20 points and Robert who went on to have the first taste of the top tier. I think it was this season that gave Peter a real reason to show everything that he had to offer in Season 15 of pro...

And finally elite. I think this must have been the most surprising season we had had up until that point. I don't think you could have guessed the champion with one try. It wasn't Leo, it wasn't László, it wasn't even M P. It was Nitro Nik, literally out of no where, taking the championship with eleven wins and becoming the Manager of the Season for the second time too! And because this was our first season of recording the most wins and poles of each tier, Nik got to spend a whole entire season (spoilers) with the record too! Two different championship winners after two seasons! Oh and elite didn't just gain players, it was full! Dammit, one season off!

Season 15:
Nothing from the rookie tier really stood out to me this season. I think we had finally grown used to someone coming in and dominating the tier for a whole season. Vivi Vici was the one who won the championship but to be honest I was surprised to see that the points gap was so big to Scott (2nd), at 100 points this season showed a clear improvement from Vivi's 300 points from promotion finish just the season before. Her 9 wins weren't enough for an OFZ record but Scott's 9 poles allowed him to have a place in the history books of OFZ. Team Khan was 10 points off of promotion (again ffs) and Orlin Burnett finished off the top four with 265 points.

The pro tier was what could only be the described as a complete and utter annihilation of the field by the champion. Only one manager could have been responsible for such a season: Peter Spence. Just over 300 points to the nearest car, 12 wins which was also the most we had ever seen in pro up until that point and Manager of the Season all in one go. It was most certainly a remarkable season to watch and really showcased the potential of the manager going into his first elite season. I'm sure even Robert understood that season 16 was not going to be like season 14...

Oppco from FZW had done enough to get promoted, his efforts weren't that rewarded due to what he was up against this season but we shouldn't forget about his struggle to reach the top tier too. He finished ahead of Jak and Aaron who would learn to love the pro tier a little more than one usually should.

And finally as we move up to the top tier and look back at how season 16 went for the elites, it's obvious that Nik was back to being nowhere to be seen. This season he was down in 5th behind a surprisingly high levelled manager called Nico. I can remember everyone from elite predicting that he'd be the one dominating S16 in elite and that only Leo would be able to compete; I remember hoping that we could actually get a four way championship in elite. Ah, those were the days...
Pavel did reasonably well to finish so closely behind M P who got his best end of season finish since he joined elite. Which only leaves László, only 4 wins compared to Peter's 12 and yet he still managed a gap of just over 200 points. This shows that he mst have had an incredible amount of consistent top 10 finishes compared to rivals but I still can't help but feel how hectic the championship would have been without him...

Season 16:
This season saw the first iteration of what we now call the "Fight for the Talent 20 Driver"/"FT20". The objective was simple, complete the season with the most wins or poles and you'll get a cheap talent 20 driver! The previous season Orlin had finished far of off the championship winner but it only took 17 days for the tables to turn and for him to be the one 1st placed finisher! He completed the season with 10 wins which won him the FT20 award for the most wins and a gap that was very close to 300 points. It was Dan's McDoompy team who would follow him up to pro with 8 poles, this won him the FT20 award for the most poles.

Pro was quieter and closer than last season. The two who were going to be promoted were pretty much confirmed early on with TTN motorsport and Viking both consistently leading the races. What was fun to watch was the amount of back and forth there was to be seen. One race it was Jak leading, the other it was Paul, next their within a point of each other. I think it's fair to say that they were very closely matched (both teams finished with 7 wins) but in the end only one manager could win the biggest prize and it was Jak!

And finally, we reach elite to find a little bit of a surprise. It was one of the newcomers from last season, the one they were all talking about, winning the championship this time. Leo struggled behind not even being able to get within 100 points of his rival after making a late return to racing that season. Nico was able to get 9 wins and took the Manager of the Season in his first full 17 race championship. After two seasons it was Nico 2 - Leo 0. Nik was almost able to beat Leo and be a consistent contender for wins but after losing too much ground he decided to save his resources again, he understood that beating the top 2 was not going to be possible anytime soon. And with that championship from Nico the run of seasons without a consecutive championship winner continued! I was beginning to wonder how long we could keep it going...

Season 17:
55 rookies participated this season but only the top 3 showed some promise. Tomas lead his team to the title but throughout most of the season he had to worry about SK racing's quick drivers. Tomas definitely had more pace but his close rival Antunes would always set up and had a lot of consistency. After a string of mistakes from Antunes and a strangely "Qualycentric" strategy, Tomas stretched an uncloseable gap to him and finished the season as a champion. Antunes' Qualycentric strategy allowed him to take an FZ record of  13 poles which he still holds today with another manager. Connor (3rd) trailed behind, far ahead of Mark (4th) but also far behind of the top two...

Pro was basically a repeat of rookie without the two way battle. Stefabo held a solid gap to Sergii throughout the season and used consistency to bring him the title. Trident had the most wins with 6 but this wasn't enough to beat "Steady Stefabo"! Vivi had the same gap to Sergii that Sergii had to Stefabo so it was pretty much the same story there. Ariyatotle and Aaron were forced to stay in pro for another season, neither of them were ready to move up yet.

And finally we reach one of the most promising elite seasons in ages. The similarity of this championship to the rookie championship were clear. The season started off with Leo taking the lead but he lost it very quickly to Nico. László was always there to pick up the points from their mistakes. It was a season that I certainly enjoyed hyping up and promoting, not as much as a season I'll mention later though. I was excited up until the half way point where Leo started to win, and win, and win some more. In the end he managed 13 wins which gave him an FZ record of wins (he only has the FZ elite record now). Alejandro was almost able to complete the season ahead of László but seemed to be missing something to finish off the job. The rest of the tier seemed normal enough apart from Nik's (10th) 32 point finish, Robert's (14th) extremely low finishing position and Razvan (15th) being demoted. Pro was going to have a familiar season with him around...

Season 18:
Finally we reach the most familiar seasons, ones where I can really remember each and every detail of how the races went. Connor was expected to make the step up to pro this season, he was clearly faster than the rest of the rookies around him but in this season a fairly fast pro moved down allowing us to have a clear comparison between the best rookie and the worst pro in our league. Another manager with talent 20 drivers also controversially joined the tier: Brian used his skill and drivers to dominate this season with an OFZ record of 14 wins, only missing out on the first 3 which went to E.Sloan (2nd). With such a dominant first season Brian was also able to steal the Manager of the Season award away from the elites and bring it back to the rookies. Connor struggled to compete with his inferior level and resources but still managed to obliterate the rest of the tier, it was clear that he was ready for pro.

Elite! Remember the two who got demoted last season? Well, they're back because of this incredible comeback season from the both of them. Razvan was able to complete the season with 13 wins, equalling the elite record set by Leo just the season before. If you were in the league at the time you would know how much he wanted to be back in elite, how much effort he was willing to put into the pro season to compete with the best in the league and his pace still shows now because of this. Phil spent the season following Razvan and keeping ahead of the rest of the pros. His season wasn't as special but at least he was finally going to get a full season in elite with a proper car. Ariyatotle (3rd) was forced to spend another season in the middle tier along with Aaron who could only manage getting the most poles and 4th position.

And finally, for the 18th time, we reach elite. No Leo apart from the first race, No Nico, a little bit of László. That's all elite needed for a complete shake up of the usual pecking order! László still took the championship with the most wins (8) and poles (5) but by a much smaller margin than usual. He finished ahead of his regular rival Alejandro but only by 50 points making this the closest elite season since season 12. Ivan was finally in the top 3 in elite and Peter (4th) finally had an opportunity to win races although he missed out on one leading to both him and Alejandro getting 2. Pavel claimed 1 and Ivan was only able to retrieve some poles.

Season 19:
After two seasons of waiting, Connor had finally gotten his lucky break. His complete domination of rookie was not surprising, I saw it coming last season where he was consistently the 3rd fastest team by a mile. His 15 wins propelled him to the top of OFZ's record books and he earned the Manager of the Season award. Watson was the only other team to win but this wasn't enough to put him past Rion who completed the season in second just 40 points ahead of the two time winner. Considering the results of this season it seemed likely that Watson and Prateek were going to move up to pro just the season after...


This season also saw the return of the FT20 challenge, the winner for the most poles was Sifiso who could also become the last manager to win the award...

This pro championship broke a "curse" we had had in OFZ since season 12. No one had been able to win two consecutive championships in a row. This was the season that Brian broke that curse with an immense lead over all of his competitors and another season with an immense amount of wins (12). His incredible back to back championships weren't enough to get him the Manager of the Season award but at least he still got to move up to elite in the least possible amount of seasons from rookie. Ariyatotle (2nd) was the manager who would be going up with him to elite; he didn't quite have the resources that Brian did but he did have enough to become the surprise winner of the FT20 award for the most wins! Although the most surprising thing was actually how lowly Aaron (7th) finished this season, he could only finish the season with 3 poles to his name.



This elite season saw the return of a mighty ruler. King of Kings, host of all hosts. Of course I could only be talking about myself, R360. The best manager in the land managed to beat FZ legend Leo and comeback kid Razvan. I'll admit that me and Leo tried to spice up the championship a bit by being inactive for a few races which instead just falsified how close the season was and destroyed any tension that usually builds in a tight battle. I'll admit that I wasn't even supposed to be racing that season but seeing Leo and Razvan push so hard for the championship encouraged me to also try. In the end both me and Leo had 6 wins and Razvan finished with 5, Laszlo finished 3rd once again only slightly ahead of Alejandro. The two seemed to finally be matched on pace so season 20 (the finale ooh) promised to be a great one to watch between the two. Some loyal teams and regular faces became inactive this season: Luke, Jak and Robert & Laszlo right at the end of the season. One of the 4 were kicked and replaced by Marc who only got 23 points this season, but with his level 20 drivers this season would only show an inkling of his true potential...


Also we got a new championship winners image this season, look at this beauty: