July’s SHIRO! Community Challenge Sees Second Most Submissions

The big winner in SHIRO!’s Community Challenge Event for July, which saw the nearly two dozen participants chasing the fastest times in a combination of Sega Saturn racers “High Velocity” and “Touge King 2,” summed up the spirit of the community-driven series in a post-podium interview.

“I’m relearning something I knew implicitly as a kid in a more explicit way — that most games can be fun when you spend some time with them,” longtime SHIRO! Discord server member SegaRPGFan said.

SegaRPGFan, who occasionally goes by Joe, paced the field in eight of the 12 races spread across the two games.

In the four races that Joe did not win, he finished second three times and third once.

Throughout the challenge, he maintained an average time differential of nearly -1.5 seconds.

“We continue to have good participation, and it’s still really fun to see people experience and appreciate games they may have overlooked for years,” Joe said.

In total, 242 times were submitted from 22 competitors, the second largest submission total in the series’ brief history — it started in February.

Challenge co-organizer and Discord server member Gregori Rasputin, no stranger to SHIRO! tournament and challenge hardware himself, called July’s tilt “the most demanding challenge we have organized yet.”

He said what was planned as a six-course affair, “really translated to 12 courses with an entirely different driving skill set needed for 50% of them.”

“We are going to think ‘smaller’ for the future challenges,” he said.

Joe, also part of the organizing committee, agreed.

“Regarding the multi-game format, to be honest, doing two games was too much,” he said. “There was internal concern that High Velocity wouldn’t have enough content for a month. We really underestimated two things: how different driving the courses in reverse could be and how completely different the driving models in both games were.”

The experimental format, like the series itself, was intended to keep participants engaged, and Rasputin said while it still needs some optimization, much was learned for future iterations.

“I hope that we can continue to mix up things up and keep people on their toes, while fueling that competitive drive present in the community,” he said. “I hope that we don’t just settle and leave the Challenges to feel ‘samey.'”

As the organizers continue to grow the bi-monthly challenges, Rasputin echoed Joe’s sentiments about the real reason for all the effort.

“The challenges have seen me branch out into some genres that I do not usually spend a lot of time in (racing, sports, and pinball games are not ones I usually play),” he said. “These challenges have given me a reason to explore these genres and games in more depth, and this has really been a great time. I hope that the same can be said for others as well.”

Rasputin shared that his family recently brought home their newborn baby, but the past champ said he still managed to shoehorn in some practice time for the challenge.

For the first time, the challenge also featured “community awards,” Rasputin said he hoped would offer more balance to the events and “ensure that it isn’t only the ultra skilled/sweaty try-hards who receive all of the bespoke patches.”

Among those, community members SegaSteve won for most submissions and kuri_kuni won for lowest combined time across all 12 races using a digital controller, the latter earning the title “King of the D…Pad.”

Rasputin said the community awards will return in September.

Fellow SHIRO! community members EvolutionOfChs42, DoubleDime and SegaSteve each took first place in one of the 12 races.

The SHIRO! Community Challenges are currently on an every-other-month schedule and are free and open to SHIRO! community members.

Rasputin said to “keep an eye out for news on September’s Challenge!”