Thousands of people across the world take part every year in GT Academy, the competition designed to turn the fastest Gran Turismo players into real racing drivers.

In the week leading up to the start of this year's competition, many previous territory finalists from Europe were looking forward to competing again this year, at least until the terms and conditions for the competition were released on the 21st of April. The following is under rule 1.3, eligibility requirements (link):

"To enter this Competition, each Entrant must:

(j) not have competed at a GT Academy Territory Finals (or equivalent or similar stages in any jurisdiction) in the 2013 and/or 2014 GT Academy competition;"

Many of us are previous territory finalists from 2013 and 2014, and we feel that it is immensely unfair that we are not being given the chance to compete this year given that we have dedicated much time and effort preparing physically and mentally for this competition, and we are also concerned about our eligibility in future GT Academy competitions.

In previous years, it was generally accepted that entrants would be able to keep entering GT Academy until they qualified for Race Camp, at which point they would have one shot at winning the competition. There have been many stories of participants competing at the territory finals multiple times before finally making it to Race Camp, with much support given to said participants. Under the new rules, similar participants no longer have this opportunity.

We also feel that the standard of competition will be substantially lower than in previous years, with many of the most experienced and best-prepared entrants having being ruled out. Participants that made it to Race Camp in past years have generally been the best candidates among those that competed at their respective territory final, regardless of the number of attempts required to actually qualify for Race Camp. At least two GT Academy champions, Nick McMillen and Florian Strauss, failed to qualify for Race Camp on their first attempts.

For the reasons above, on behalf of all of the European competitors in the GT Academy Territory Finals in 2013 and 2014, we urge SCEE, the promoter of GT Academy in Europe, to reconsider the addition of eligibility requirement (j) to this year's competition.