Leagues

What is this about?

LFS has a built-in server browser to find public servers. There's nothing wrong with racing on these servers, but this guide is mainly for people who want to try something new. Besides these servers, there are some groups of people who organize races and championships at set times. This guide is aimed at those LFS drivers who already have some experience in single player or public servers, and now want to join a league. It explains finding such servers and tries to answer some frequently asked questions.

Why organized racing?

Everyone has their own opinion on that. Some reasons can be:

• better driving standards (no crashers)
• championships
• longer races are more fun and challenging
• time to practice because the tracks are known in advance
• more similar to how real motorsport works

Finding a suitable league/event

There are different ways to find a league or event. First of all, you can check out the Leagues & Events subforum. However, over the years there are now so many sub-subforums and threads, it is like finding a needle in a haystack. The easiest way is looking at the race calendar: https://www.lfs.net/leagues/calendar . Be aware: the racing calendar is not always complete. Some league organizers forget to add their dates to the calendar, or just never do it because they organize them on TeamSpeak or via their own sites. Despite that, you should find some great events there to participate in.

You can also check the News section where special events or start of a new season are announced. Some races are long or short, for new or experienced drivers, and so on. Describing all the different types of leagues or events is impossible. Just pick something that looks interesting for you.

Before joining

• Make sure you own the required LFS license for the event (S1, S2 or S3).
• Most races are open for everybody and are free to join. (Although for popular leagues there might be pre-qualifying or a requirement of a minimum laptime)
• Mind the time zones!
• Visit the forum/site of the particular league and read around a bit. If there are specific rules which drivers have to abide, make sure to get familiar with them.

Signing up

• Some leagues require registration of some sort. That might be as simple as posting "Hello, I want to race" in the forum.
• Sometimes that post has to be more formal and include some extra information. Leagues with more sophisticated signup forms might require you to: pick a racing number, pick a car to race with, include your team name, your real name; leagues with driver swapping often need all drivers to be named in signup, using their LFSW usernames. Always check the proper signup format in the first post of the thread, or just copy others' signup forms and edit to your liking.
• It might also be that you have to create an account on their site or forum, though this is rare.
• Some leagues (especially officially broadcasted ones) might require you to create and use a car skin with required elements. The required elements might include organization logos, or including your race number on the car skin. This is also rare. If you do not see a forum thread that collects the skins of the drivers (for example "League 2023 - Skins"), the usage of custom skins is probably not required.
• Some leagues with a specified number of rounds and proper schedule might require you to confirm your attendance for every round. This is usually done in a distinguished thread for each round, with drivers confirming attendance or absence with a "yes" or "no". The purpose of this confirmation requirement is to ensure there are enough free spaces on the server (to avoid overfilling the grid, LFS grid is 40 cars maximum), to make sure the organizers get to know the approximate amount of drivers to be present in that round and to make sure all the data tracking software and championship documents are set up properly.

Preparation before the race

• If it is your first race of this kind, sign up early enough so that you have time to practice.
• Speed does not matter – but rule of thumb make sure you can do at least half the distance without spinning.
• Do some long stints as practice too, so that you know what tire temperatures to expect.
• Look (or ask) if the server is open for practice in days before the race, or if there is another place where people practice. It's much more fun to practice together with others. You can always practice offline, though.
• Make sure you know how pit stops work: how to enter pit lane, speed limit, pit-menu (F12).
• Make sure you know how much fuel you need.
• Acquire setups: build one yourself, get one from the Car Setups page or ask other drivers. If they send you a setup in-game, you can save it by opening the connection list (N) and clicking on the green S (as for "save") next to the driver who sent you the setup. Name the setup tellingly (for example: KY3R_sender_r, or RO7_sender_q), so later on you know which track and what kind of session it is made for.
• Keep in mind, setups have two kinds: a setup made for hotlapping/qualifying is fast, but usually only lasts 1-2 laps, before the tyres overheat. A race setup, compared to a hotlap setup, is slower, but is much more forgiving and lasts much longer. You should use a hotlapping setup for qualifying, and a race setup for the race. After a qualifying session, do not forget to change your setup to a race setup, as starting the race with a hotlapping setup will hinder your race massively.
• If you have any questions, ask them as soon as possible, before lights go green. ;)

Racing

• It's your first race in a new environment: better be careful and instead of winning, concentrate on getting familiar with rules and behaviour of other drivers.
• Take no risks and just try to finish the race – there will be more laps than on a public server. Later there will be plenty more races to push harder.
• If you are out, you are out: no automatic restart or "second chance".
• Obey whatever racing rules there are – otherwise it might gain you a penalty during or after race. Usually following the rules of clean racing is enough.

After the race

• Wait a few days then check on the site/forum for official results. Read the race report (if there is one) or the comments by other racers. Post your own comments, if you want to.
• If you caused a crash it might be good idea to apologize. Watch the replay and learn from mistakes.
• Prepare for the next race. :) Repeat until champion.

Questions

Looks very hard. Am I good / fast enough?

If you have enough interest in LFS to be reading this, then you are probably fast enough. There are leagues aimed at casual or beginner drivers. Often one can race in mid-field even with lap times some seconds of the world record. A minimum of car control is always required to finish the race, of course.

Is this only for dedicated hardcore drivers?

It's for everyone: the tracks and dates of race are known in advance, so there is plenty of time to prepare. (When you join an open server there is usually no time to practice at all.)

I am scared of so many cars. What happens if I cause big accidents?

If you are really scared of racing in a crowd, there are races with slower drivers or small grids, start in those. After a crash you can always explain the situation in chat (wait until race is over so you don't disturb others in the race) or in forum. Usually it is solved after that. :)

What league is the best?

Depends on what you expect: ask in LFS forum what league is suitable for your preferences and skills.