Tsuiso Battles during competition

Tsuiso Battles

Tsuiso is the Japanese term for ‘Twin Battle Drift’.

Format
The Tsuiso battles will be run using the top sixteen qualifiers (the top eight qualifiers will be used if entrant numbers do not allow sixteen) fighting their way to the number one position. The first placed qualifier will be placed against the sixteenth placed qualifier; the second placed qualifier will be placed against the fifteenth placed qualifier and so forth up to the eighth and ninth placed qualifiers going against each other.

The pairs will embark on a single practice run followed by two judged runs where each car will take it in turn to lead and once a winner of the pair is announced, he/she will continue onto the final eight. Once winners have been decided out of all of the sixteen drivers, they will then create four pairs. The winner of the first battle in the final sixteen will face the winner of the second battle of the final sixteen and so forth. These four pairs will then, again, battle in the same process as before to produce four winners which continue onto the semi finals. The same pattern follows as to who faces who and then the battles are run again to produce just two winners that progress onto the final. The final two drivers will face each other in exactly the same process so that an overall winner can be announced. It is normal for the losing drivers in the semi-finals to battle for 3rd place honors.

In the multi-final Euro Cup, the final winner will progress into the next level 15 driver final to make up the 16.




How is Tsuiso Battle Judged?

This head to head drifting is judged on the same aspects as the solo qualifying was based on; however there are a few more principles that come into play. Strategic drifting has a role in Tsuiso and the high level of competition and energy gives a good show to the spectators. The precise judging of this type of drifting is hard to explain but there are some outlines to go by.

Scoring -
When scoring a Tsuiso battle the judges allocate each driver 5 points before the run starts and then depending on what happens in the run, they then add or subtract points from the competitor’s totals so that when added together they still total at 10. For example, one driver could be awarded 2 points for superior drifting whilst the other would then loose 2 points. This would make the score 7 to 3 and the first driver would be winning by a margin of 4 points. After a first run, the loosing driver can try to make up his points in the second run to win back the lead so that they advance to the next round whilst the winning driver would try to defend his points lead. Point scores can range from 0 - 10 to 5 - 5 and even a score of 5.5 - 4.5 can appear if the judges feel that one driver had a very slight edge over the other. If one driver spins, crashes or goes off track in a Tsuiso run the other competitor is most like to get a 10 - 0 advantage. If the judges still have a 5 - 5 score after both runs, they will ask the drivers to run again from scratch.

The Offensive Car -
The offensive car when Tsuiso drifting is the chasing car. A good way to put it would be that the chasing car has to ‘hunt’ down the leading car. Drivers have to use their drifting ability to try and get as close to the leading driver as possible as to put immense pressure on them so that a mistake is made. The chasing driver must demonstrate better drifting in order to keep pressure on the leading driver whilst still keeping good angle and speed. The driving line is not as important for the chasing car as it is trying to follow the lead car and keep with it as much as possible, unless the lead car displays a bad driving then and then chasing car can continue to hit the clipping points and show a good drifting line. If the chasing car cannot keep up with the lead car whilst drifting this is to be looked at as inferior driving and points will be deducted for letting the lead car get away. If this is due to not having as much power as the lead car, there are certain measures you can take to increase your speed such as decreasing your drifting angle although this may play against your point scoring. Under no circumstances can the chasing car come in contact with the lead car in a way that disturbs the lead car’s driving. Any crashes of this manner will result in a Judge’s decision as to whether the Tsuiso is to be run again or the ‘victim’ car going through to the next round automatically. Overtaking is allowed but not necessarily supported by the judges and under no circumstances must the cars start ‘racing’ as this is going against the fundamental idea of drifting.

The Defensive Car - When a driver takes the lead in a Tsuiso battle the idea is to perform their drifts faster with a good line and a bigger angle to try and shake off and distract the car behind them. If the leading driver does mange to pull away from the car behind and still manage to display good drifting technique then they will be awarded more points. Attempts to distract the chasing car whilst still maintaining a good line will also be looked at by the judges and could affect the final score in a positive or negative way.

It’s important to understand that the concepts discussed in this article are general guidelines for scoring the drift events and are meant to educate the competitors and the general public. They do not provide a guarantee of results and should not be used to compare to results from drift competitions. Drifting is still a subjective competition and the judges at an event are the final authority. Their decision is therefore final and all good competitors should accept this without qualm.