Introduction

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has participated and supported me throughout the Cup. There were many experienced and prominent players, such as Asserich, Frostbeule and Oli who helped me before and during the race, attracted players, spread the news about the cup and invited friends to participate.
It was a pleasure to cast and host such an Event. For me it was a total new experience, because I've never done, something like this before. Many hours of preparing, many hours of streaming and many hours of editing have paid off. In those 10 races, over 100 different people finished and more than 300 players have participated in the cup. For me, this is an enormous success and I am overwhelmed with the positive responses I've got from the players.

About the Cup

It's a cup, split off in 10 Endurance races, which have each lasted 21 minutes. The races have taken place from 19.September until 21. November every Friday at 8PM CET.
At the end of the race, the players have gotten points for the amount of players they've beaten. For example: If a player finished first and 30 players have competed, he gained 29 points.
At the end of the Cup, there were rewards from a 100$ price pool. The player with the largest amount of points has won 30$ and 3000 Planets. For the 2nd place there were 20$ and 2000 Planets and for the 3rd there were 15$ and 1500 Planets. Place 4-10 also got rewards ($ and Planets).
While the races were going on, I was streaming the race.  Each Saturday, I uploaded the VOD (Video on Demand) of the race to YouTube, where everybody can watch the race from a different angle and also hear my commentary.

Results

Shark has shown a dominant performance throughout the cup, with the largest amount of podium placements, wins Dave's 21' Cup and is rewarded by 30$ and 3000 Planets!
Tom3y was consistent throughout the cup, has shown many good races and gets the 2nd Place in the cup, with the reward of 20$ and 2000 Planets.
Third is DeDe, mostly ranked in the top10, and showed that you should never give up during the cup, as he takes the third place in this cup, and is rewarded by 15$ and 1500 Planets.

Further placements:
4th         Nexxor
5th         Sers
6th         Luuke
7th         Kinch
8th         Xadlik
8th         Speedy
10th       Mayhem
 

Up's and Down's

Throughout the cup, there were some up and downs. Mostly there were technical issues, which couldn't be fixed in time such as in race °3, my broadcasting software wasn't working, because of a corrupted update file and in race °6, there was an audio problem. Beside those two issues, the streams and VODs went mostly fine. I was also very surprised that so many people accepted my rule of not chatting during the race. Luckily, only a very little amount of players chatted throughout the race, which made the race more tensed to watch and drive, since the players didn't get distracted by it.
In general I was feeling very comfy during all these races and it felt to me, that I've created something, which many players could enjoy. It was my intention to create a cup, where many players can gather, fight for the first place and most important: Having fun!
 Many players liked how I presented the cup, not only by the maps, where 6 out of 9 maps were made by myself, but also how I talked to them. Since there were mostly around 40 People starting in each race, I have made new friendships with many players. I guess this was only possible, because many players returned to the cup in nearly every race. A lot of players came back, only because of the special atmosphere of the cup.

Duo-Stream

On race nr °9 I had a surprise guest in the stream, Nelkey, who made the map for the 9th race. We held of a Duo-Stream, which was also a very nice in many ways. Initially I was a little anxious about how it will work out, how we would synergize and how we would split of the talk time. Fortunately, we synergized very well, there were only a very little moments, where we both talked, but I guess it was fine though. I've learned a lot from this Duo-Stream and I think, I will make more of those in the future, maybe also with Nelkey - only the future knows.

Interviews

Further, I've talked to the top 3 ranked players, in a short interview where I asked them about how it felt like to participate in the cup and what their thoughts on the cup were. Below, I'll post a short summary of the Interviews, to make the post less repetitive. You can find the whole interviews here http://www.pastebin.com/u/fadave93

Shark (1st Place)

Shark was very happy with the first place. The things he most liked about the cups were, that the maps were short and the laps driven were not too many.
Since he discovered the cup only by chance and nearly missed the cup, he was very satisfied with the cup and also with his placement. The only thing, that he wants to have changed is the bandwidth of the competition. He would have liked it, if more players participated from the beginning, so that there would have been a more intense fight for the first place.

Tom3y (2nd Place)

In general, Tom3y has liked the cup. In his opinion, the maps were good, not too easy not too hard. Also interesting to read was, that Tom3y prefers my Cup over "fB's Weekly Race", because he usually prefers the longer endurance races over the shorter races. Interestingly, in this cup, he hasn't felt the "odd feeling" which he usually has during "fB's Weekly Race ".
He also pointed out, that he liked the atmosphere of the cup. He referred that feeling to the amount of players, usually around 40-50, who are driving the race and that this might be the reason which creates a more comfortable atmosphere in this cup.
Tom3y would be very happy, if there would be a 2nd season of this cup, and the only thing he didn't like about the cup was, that he had a disconnect during the 2nd race of the cup.

DeDe (3rd Place)

DeDe was very satisfied with the cup and also with his placement. He liked the funny atmosphere before the race and also found the cast very enjoyable. The fact that he could compete with professionals and very experienced drivers, was a pleasure for him.
DeDe has used the VOD's (Video on Demand), which I uploaded each Saturday, to review the races. He said that it was always enjoyable to see, where he made mistakes and when he overtook some other players. The watching of the VOD, as he says, has had turned into a Saturday evening ritual.
The only thing, where he sees a possible improvement, is the point system. He says, that it is very hard to attend every race and if you can't participate in a race, you'll lose some important points and places in the ranking. He referred his good placement to the point system which has been used in the cup. He only missed one race, and because of that he gathered a lot of points. This strategy really paid off for him, as he managed to get the 3rd place in the cup. That's why he is actually happy about the point system, but at the same time he sees the most improvable point here.

Future Cups

The fact, that so many players and also the top3 Shark, Tom3y and Dede, wanted to have a second edition of my cup, made me happy and convinced me to the following words:

Since so many players have liked the cup, showed me their support, and had fun, I am really thinking about a second cup.
But as much as I liked to organize the cup, it has taken a lot of time to organize and I can't see me hosting another cup in this year. Currently, the most of my time, I am studying and don't have so much time for other time expensive things, such as organizing a cup.
If there would be a second season of "Dave's 21' Cup", it definitely won't be in this year. Also, I am thinking to modify the cup and also the stream in some ways. One Change will be, that I want to reduce the time that it takes to prepare for the race. So my solution for this problem might be, that I'll be streaming the races in a Duo-Stream format, where I will be casting the race with another person, so we can split of the tasks. A little change to the map submission will also follow: I will post a map request in advance, so people have enough time to submit their maps. That's because I had a lot of pressure to get the maps on time. Some players just didn't respond or sent the map way to late, so I had to built a "emergency Map".
Other changes will very likely happen, but I just haven't made my thoughts complete, to say more  about it right now. Especially because I don't know, if and when I'll be hosting a second edition of my cup.

Conclusion

I am totally happy how the players liked the cup and how many players attended. The players liked how the cup was organized and also knew where to inform themselves. The fact, that many players liked, that there was also a reminder before the race, where the map was already shown from above, shows me, that people were actually using the platforms which I provided. In general, there was a good mixture of drivers. There were many experienced players and also a lot of players who were new to the game. Many players have take advantage of this situation and learned a lot during these races.
On November 21st, the last race has taken place. 64 players participated in this race but this was not the only thing what made me happy, but also that so many players thanked me for hosting the cup and they wished a second season of it.
This has shown me, that all my preparation has paid off and I have provided a Cup where everyone could have his shiny moment. Surely, there is some space for improvement, but I can fairly say, that I have reached my goal of providing a race/cup where players can gather, fight for the first place and most important: Having fun!

That's more or less everything I had to say about my Cup. I hope you liked it, and as always:
Thanks for participating, thanks for watching! I'll see you guys next time :)

Best Regards

Dave