Welcome to Scarlet Apex 2953, a distortion damage allowed combat race. Whether you are here to race, stream, officiate or spectate, it is your support that keeps the Star Citizen community racing events healthy and active. Have fun, be kind to each other and thank you for your interest in the Scarlet Apex.

—EchoBit
ANZIA Racing Committee

This racing guide is intended to provide racers and race officials a standard set of technical regulations which will be adhered to. The term race official refers to race officers, checkpoint observers, race timers, service crew, rescue crew, security and camera operators.

1. Introduction

The Scarlet Apex 2953 a heat elimination racing event located 87km and 70 degrees from GrimHEX, Yela, Crusader.

Both the heats and championship are a 1 hour combat race made up of 3 racing classes.

Scarlet Apex Racing Classes

  1. Taotie (饕餮) Multi-Crew Class, a team of 1 Hammerhead pilot + 6 turret gunners.
  2. Taowu (梼杌) Turret Class, a team of 1 pilot + 1 turret gunner in 1 ship.
  3. Qiongqi (穷奇) Duo Class, a team of 2 pilots flying 2 ships separately.

You can fly solo or in a team of 2 or more crew depending on the racing class.

The Scarlet Apex has a detailed set of Official Rules that must be followed by all participants.

Incidents are observed and recorded by Race Officials and may give you Penalties.

If you are signing up to the race please fill out the Sign Up Form and join the race event Discord.

 ANZIA Racing Discord Invite

To help you plan, these are the sequence of events for a Scarlet Apex race:

1.1 T-1 hour, Set Your Spawn and Attend Event Briefing

Arrive 1 hour early to the race (the Discord event time) and have your regeneration point set to Grim Hex Clinic.

The race director will brief the racers and officials on what is expected during the event and will take last minute questions you have on Discord.

At this point you will be given your starting grid position over Discord. If you arrive later than this point in the event you will not be granted entry to the race.

1.2 T-45 minutes, Building the Star Citizen Party

Be ready to receive your party invite from the race director in the main menu of Star Citizen.

1.3 T-30 minutes, Party Launch

30 minutes before the race begins, or earlier if all participants are in the Star Citizen party, the race director will launch everyone into the game. All racers must make their way as quickly as possible to the starting grid at the Scarlet Apex start/finish line.

1.4 T-10 minutes, Formation Lap

10 minutes before the race begins, the race director and safety ship will coordinate the start of the formation lap to give racers a flying start. When the race director says "Green Flag", your speed can be unrestricted and the race begins.

1.5 T-0, Race Start

The combat endurance race will go for 1 hour.

1.6 T+1 hour, Race End

When the racing time is up on the race timer, the overall race leader will set the final lap for the race. This is known as the "White Flag" lap. When "Checkered Flag" is called, all racers crossing the finish line complete their race.

2. Official Rules

All racers are expected to have read and understand the technical regulations of the event. Questions regarding the regulations should be presented to the race officials before the event.

2.1 Ship Modification

All ships can be modified without restriction with the exception of the Ship Weapons.

2.1.1 Ship Weapons

Distortion damage is the only damage type allowed. How that distortion damage is delivered to your opponents is up to you. Race officers will weapon check your ships on the starting grid and observe for any other damage types during the race. Evidence of other damage types will result in disqualification per the Invalid Weapon Damage penalty, this can include accidental fire of a missile with an invalid damage type, if judged to have connected with another racer.

Distortion weapons may only be used once you have crossed the start line after the formation lap. Weapons must be switched off after crossing the finish line when completing your race.

Use of QED devices is allowed in this race.

2.2 Racing Classes

Racers must decide on a racing class to participate in. Race teams are allowed and encouraged to give racers a better chance at surviving through a game crash or in-game crash. All racers, even if solo, must have decided on a racing team name.

2.2.1 Taotie (饕餮) Multi-Crew

The Taotie (饕餮) Multi-crew class is limited to the Aegis Dynamics Hammerhead only. This is a racing class for organizations or groups of friends where the Hammerhead must be fully armed and crewed.

2.2.1.1 Taotie Team Composition

  • 1x Hammerhead
    • 1x Pilot
    • 6x Turret Gunners (5 minimum)

2.2.2 Taowu (梼杌) Turret

The Taowu (梼杌) Turret Gunner class is limited to ships that have at least one player controlled turret or co-pilot seat with a distortion weapon. It is recommended racers sign themselves and one turret gunner crew to this racing class, but you can fly solo if preferred.

2.2.2.1 Taowu Team Composition

  • 1x Whitelisted Ship
    • 1x Pilot
    • 1x Turret Gunner (Optional)

2.2.2.2 Taowu Class Whitelist

  • Aegis Vanguard Harbinger
  • Aegis Vanguard Hoplite
  • Aegis Vanguard Sentinel
  • Aegis Vanguard Warden
  • Anvil F7C-M Super Hornet
  • Anvil Gladiator
  • Anvil Hurricane
  • Anvil Valkyrie
  • Drake Cutlass Black
  • Drake Cutlass Blue
  • Drake Cutlass Steel
  • Esperia Prowler
  • MISC Freelancer
  • MISC Freelancer DUR
  • MISC Freelancer MIS
  • MISC Freelancer MAX
  • RSI Scorpius
  • RSI Scorpius Antares

2.2.3 Qiongqi (穷奇) Duo

The Qiongqi (穷奇) Duo class is made up of any two ships that are not in the other racing classes, piloted by two racers separately on the same team or you can fly solo if preferred.

2.2.3.1 Qiongqi Team Composition

  • 1x Ship
    • 1x Pilot
  • 1x Ship
    • 1x Pilot (Optional)

2.3 Race Location

The race will be held at the Scarlet Apex, a fan made race track 84km out of GrimHEX, Yela, Crusader, Stanton system. It will be held on the latest LIVE patch of Star Citizen. The race will be launched in the AUS (Australia) region. All participants are advised to land at GrimHEX, Yela on an Australian server to minimize issues with spawning into a bad location.

2.3.1 Track Location

2.4 Scarlet Apex

The Scarlet Apex is made up of 4 mandatory cable turns attached to large asteroids inside the track. Racers must fly around all cables as outlined in the track map and will be observed by race officers.

2.4.1 Track Map

2.4.2 Start/Finish Gate

2.5 Race Type

The race type for the Scarlet Apex will be a combat endurance race. Combat endurance races will make use of GrimHEX or if allowed, supporting starfarer crew to refuel your ship mid-race to include pit strategy in the race.

The race will also be multi-class where all classes race together on the track at the same time.

2.6 Race Duration

The endurance race duration will be 1 hour. The overall leader will set the final lap of the race under the white flag, your race ends when you cross the finish line under the checkered flag. Due to the nature of traversing Star Citizen, arrive 1 hour early to your race to ensure you do not miss the start.

2.7 Race Capacity

Due to the 110 player per server limit, races in the persistent universe will consist of the following party composition.

  • 30x racer slots.
  • The rest will be filled with race officers, service crew, rescue crew, camera operators and security.

2.8 Starting Grid Position

Your starting grid position is determined by your racing class. Duo will be placed in front of the grid, Turret class next and the slowest Multi-crew class behind them.

2.9 Flying

Racers must make every reasonable effort to act safely on the track at all times, cause no intentional collisions and may not leave the track without a justifiable reason. Smaller ships must allow larger ships to maintain their racing line and may pass when it is safe to do so.

In the event of a major crash of the racers, the safety ship may be called out onto the track by the race director. The race director will call "Yellow Flag" which means all ships must reduce their speed to 150m/s and overtaking is prohibited due to danger on the track. All racers must fly in single file formation to maintain positions.

Race officers, checkpoint observers, race timers, service crew, rescue crew, security and camera operators must stay clear of the path of the racers.

All participants are required to avoid causing incidents. Incidents will be observed and recorded by the race officers, see section Incidents for more details.

In the event of your character’s death during the race, you must report the cause of death to the race director, you may then respawn, return to Scarlet Apex and rejoin the race by yourself. The ship you retrieve must be of the same racing class you were racing in previously.

2.10 Pre-Race Formation Lap

The race will begin by using a formation lap to give racers a flying start. Racers will be delivered to the start line by a leading safety ship piloted by a race officer. When racers are in their designated grid position and race officials are ready to start, the safety ship will begin a full lap of the Scarlet Apex and guide all racers at a fixed speed of 100m/s.

Racers must be 2 ships flying abreast on the left and right wing of the safety ship. The distance you must maintain from the ship in front of you is 500 meters.

The safety ship will break off just before the start line and the race director will ask all ships to maintain course. When the race director says "Green Flag", your speed can be unrestricted and the race begins. Once again, you can only start firing ship weapons after your ship has crossed the start line.

2.11 Pits

You must call your own hangar every time you want to pit. You may wish to have a key bound for ATC to make it easier to call a hangar.

2.12 Classifications

The ship placed first will be the one having covered the scheduled distance in the shortest time, or, where appropriate, passed the finish line in the lead while on their white flag lap.

All ships will be classified taking into account the number of complete laps they have covered which must be more than 25% of their racing class's calculated capability, and for those which have completed the same number of laps, the order in which they crossed the finish line.

Classifications will appear on the live standings after the race director has approved it, or they will be published at the end of the race.

Live classifications include: (DNS) Did Not Start, (DNF) Did Not Finish and (DSQ) Disqualified.

2.13 Communications

Simply being part of the ANZIA Racing Discord is enough to participate, the only requirement is to be able to listen to race officer instructions during the race and respond to mentions in Discord chat before and after the race.

Race officers will ensure all participating racers are on their in-game friend list before the event begins. 30 minutes before the event begins the race director or timer will add you to their party and launch everyone participating into a new server.

The race voice channel will enforce Push-To-Talk. When the race has begun, voice priority must be given to the race officers. Racers may briefly respond to the race officers, but should otherwise remain polite and respectful among the combined official and racer voice channel.

Should racers want their own team voice channel, we recommend layering in an additional VoIP application such as your mobile phone, Discord alt accounts, Guilded, TeamSpeak or Mumble to be running at the same time with separate bindings.

Unlimited use ANZIA Racing Discord invite link: https://cruxcup.com/discord

2.14 Flag System

The following flag callouts are utilized by the race director:

  • "Green Flag"
    Normal racing conditions apply and distortion weapon use is authorized. A green flag is also called at the start of a race.
  • "Yellow Flag"
    Distortion weapon use is no longer authorized. The safety ship is deployed, overtaking is prohibited due to danger on the track. All ships must reduce speed to 100m/s.
  • "Red Flag"
    Race suspended or stopped due to imminent danger to competitors or spectators, or due to severe technical difficulties.
  • "White Flag"
    The overall race leader has set the final lap, remaining racers must cross the finish line and end the race.
  • "Checkered Flag"
    The overall race leader has finished their final lap, remaining racers crossing the finish line complete their race too.
  • "Black Flag"
    A racer and their team is disqualified and must return to pits immediately.

3. Incidents

Incidents will be reviewed through the combined race official video footage, streamed footage and other material evidence and will be judged by the race director and race officers.

We encourage racers to record their own footage as it will be helpful in determining how desync and other issues affected the incident, but it’s not mandatory.

In the event of any incident that prompts you to press criminal charges, do not press charges against anyone in the event.

3.1 Types of Incidents

3.1.1 Incorrect Starting Location

Any of the penalties will be imposed on any racer who is judged to have broken the formation lap before the "Green Flag" signal from the race director is given.

3.1.2 Off Track

The track is defined on the track map as the "red line". A racer is defined to have left the track limits if:

  1. The race director deems that the racer has strayed too far from the course.
  2. The race director or race officiers are unable to locate the racer on the course.
  3. The racer flies into the infield section of the track.

In the event of the above, the race director or an officer will issue a warning to the racer and direct the racer to rejoin the track limits. Continued violations may result in further penalties at the discretion of the race director and the officers. Details of penalties available to the race director to issue are noted in the penalties section.

3.1.3 Skipping Track

Racers are expected to navigate the course described by the track map. Each mandatory cable must be navigated around in the order specified by the track map.

Failure to do so can result in the following penalties being issued by the race directors and their officers:

  1. A warning to the racer.
  2. The racer will be directed to repeat the checkpoint again and only after safely rejoining the track when other racing traffic has passed.
  3. The racer will be issued with a "pit lane pass through" which means they must serve extra time travelling to GrimHEX and back.
  4. Continued violations may result in further penalties at the discretion of the race director and the officers. Details of penalties available to the race director to issue are noted in the penalties section.

3.1.4 Ship Collision

Racers are expected to fly with care and consideration for other racers. All classes are expected to give enough room to other ships on the racing line.

Please avoid the following:

  1. Not allowing other racers sufficient space to maintain their racing line.
  2. Racing in a manner which forces others into the physical barriers on the track, referred to as squeezing.
  3. Intentionally colliding with other racers.
  4. Maneuvering your ship in such a manner to block the racing line to intentionally force a collision.
  5. Pressing criminal charges against anyone in the race (use right bracket only).

Penalties for such actions will be at the discretion of the race director and will depend on the severity of the incident in question. Details of penalties available to the race director to issue are noted in the penalties section.

3.1.5 Ship Destroyed

During the race, an accident may result in your ship being destroyed. In such an event, you will be able to rejoin the race as long as you can reclaim/retrieve your ship or a backup. The ship you retrieve must be of the same racing class you were racing in previously.

When rejoining the race, fly around cable 4 to rejoin the racing line and then through the start/finish gate. This will count as a completed lap of the previous lap the racer was on.

If you are unable to retrieve your ship and are unable to continue (or do not wish to continue) please inform the race director and you will be marked as (DNF) Did Not Finish. If the ship was destroyed as part of a ship collision incident, penalties will be given to the offending ship at the discretion of the race director and race officers.

3.1.6 Invalid Weapon Damage

Distortion damage is the only damage that can be used during the race and only after you pass the start line under the "Green Flag". All other damage types such as ballistic, laser, explosive etc. are invalid.

Breaching this rule, if invalid damage has been judged to have connected with another racer will result in disqualification. It is recommended to unequip all weapons and missiles except for your distortion weapons to avoid this issue entirely.

3.2 Reporting of Incidents

Racers and officials are able to report race incidents to the race director which may have breached the rules of the event or created an incident. Reporting during the event should follow this format:

  1. The pilot should communicate the incident briefly over the ANZIA Racing Discord voice chat or in the #incident-reports channel.
  2. The report should start with the ship / team / pilot who is reporting the incident then followed by the offending ship / team / pilot and nature of the incident and if possible the location of the incident. If submitted after the race, any of your own recorded footage (e.g. Team A, reports Team B for causing an intentional accident at the start/finish cable).

Incidents are assessed by the race director and officers. Incidents will be assessed during the race and an appropriate action will be taken (details noted in the penalties section). Incidents can also be reviewed after the event. If penalties are applied for these incidents, a time penalty will be imposed on the racer’s final race time.

If it is determined by the officials that no incident occurred or if there is a lack of evidence regarding the incident, no action will be taken.

A log of reported incidents and the actions taken will be made available after the race.

Decisions made by the race director during the race are final and must be followed by the affected participants. If not followed, additional penalties including disqualification can be applied.

Incidents that are the result of servers (desync) are unfortunately not able to be easily addressed and will be seen as a racing incident.

3.3 Penalties

The following penalties are available to the race director and officers. These penalties can be applied at their discretion.

3.3.1 Warning

A racer can be warned regarding their actions and reminded of the rules. If the racer receives multiple warnings, additional penalties can be applied. They are usually caused by small errors or unintentional breaches of the rules.

3.3.2 Repeat Checkpoint

Issued when a racer has skipped a mandatory checkpoint such as one of the cables. If issued significantly after the mandatory checkpoint has been passed the racer will be asked to pass through the entire checkpoint twice (in a circle around that cable). If unable to be completed before the end of the race an appropriate time penalty per class will be applied to the racer’s finishing time.

3.3.3 Pit Lane Pass Through

The racer will be asked to to pass through the pit line and not make a pit stop. If unable to be completed before the end of the race an appropriate time penalty per class will be applied to the racer’s finishing time.

3.3.4 Stop Go Penalty

The racer will be directed to hold position above GrimHEX and will only be allowed to continue the race on the direction of the race director or a race officer. Time for this penalty will be determined by the nature of the incident and at the discretion of the officials.

3.3.5 Disqualification

Only used as a last resort. If a racer has shown a complete disregard for the rules they will be issued with a disqualification (DSQ).

3.4 Server Incidents

In the event of a server crash (30000 Error or "30K") during the race, the race director will call "Red Flag" and the race will be restarted from scratch based on qualifying times. Race restarts due to 30Ks are limited to 3. If the race 30Ks for a third time, the current race will be rescheduled for another time.

4. GrimHEX

4.1 GrimHEX Habitation

These capsules are built for hardened pirates and mining beltas who ain’t going to do any of that room service or fridge stocking ground kissers love. The syndicates of GrimHEX welcome all who embrace true freedom of living, unrestricted betting and endless partying, and will provide free accommodation to all combat racers participating in the Scarlet Apex.

4.2 Green Imperial Medical

Pirates are a different breed of operators, with unrestricted regeneration kindly provided by our favorite space fish clan, the Vanduul, death has become as addictive as drugs in recent times. When you pass that start line, get your red vision on and embrace technological freedom to experience what humans have only had one of until now. GrimHEX Medical is here to reconstruct those leaving a bloody mark around the roids of the Scarlet Apex.

4.3 Dumper’s Depot

Located between habitation blocks B and C, Dumper's Depot is a raw materials and used parts dealer. They advertise buying, among other things, salvage, ore, spacesuits, weapons and artifacts. Dumper’s Depot is a proud sponsor of the Scarlet Apex, providing racers of any background access to modified components and weaponry not typically found in civilian stores.

5. Race Officials

The race official team will be made of the following composition:

  • 1x Race Director
    Track Overwatch/Time Observer
  • 2x Race Timers
    Start/Finish Gate Observers
  • 3x Race Officers
    Weapons/Checkpoint Observers + A Spaceport Observer
  • 4x Race Camera Operators
    Dedicated Streamers, Shoutcasters
  • 10x Event Security
    Fighter and Multi-Crew Race Defense Crew

In addition to this, a couple VoIP only race official helpers will assist with individual technical issues, lengthy guidance and moderation of the main event channels.

5.1 Record of Positions and Times

A minimum of two race officials must video record the event to help track racer positions.

  1. A view of the entire track to observe/record party markers.
  2. On the side of the start/finish gate.

5.2 Record of Incidents

All race officers are encouraged to record their observations.

5.3 Pit Hangar Management

The Spaceport Pit Observer will be there to observe racers and assist the race director with hangar related reporting and incidents.

5.4 Security

Combat and defense minded players may volunteer for the security role and must provide radar intelligence to each other and communications with unauthorized players entering the event space. They must also bring top tier PvP skill and combat meta optimized spacecraft.