As the first round of GT Academy 2015 got underway last week, some eagle-eyed gamers spotted a significant change to the rules – putting paid to the myth that no-one reads the terms & conditions. The section in question is near the start and covers who is eligible for consideration to compete at the post-qualification stages of the contest:

1.3 – 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

This has not passed without comment, with a number of people remarking both on GTPlanet and on Facebook, about what seems to be a bizarre decision. We reached out for an explanation of this stipulation and are pleased to report that official word has come back from GT Academy itself.

The first part of the justification is pretty easy to follow:

GT Academy is constantly trying to evolve its programme and in doing so offer opportunity to new talent. As a result we have taken the very difficult decision to no longer include 2013 and 2014 National European finalists beyond the online competition as we were seeing a number of the same faces at national final stage.

GTPlanet has been in attendance at several of the UK National Finals and it’s certainly the case that a handful of the same gamers do return periodically – though the disappointment of missing out the first year has been inspiration to some to radically alter their lifestyles in order to pursue their dream the following year.

However, many gamers have been asking why 2008-2012 territory finalists are still eligible but 2013-2014 ones, even first timers, are not. This boils down to changes in European data protection legislation:

We have set the cut-off at 2013 due to stringent regulations in data protection which do not allow us to keep records of finalists prior to that date.

In effect, under the European “right to be forgotten”, the GT Academy organisers are not allowed to hold any data regarding the territory finalists prior to the 2013 competition, so even if an individual competed at national finals in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012, they must be treated as first time finalists.

We appreciate that some players may be disappointed, but hope this revised approach to the competition will pave the way for new players to realise their dreams. We are thankful for all the ongoing support from our fans and hope these changes will ignite the same energy and passion in even more players.

It’s important to note that these restrictions only apply to the European GT Academy – the International and Asian events are still too new for players to be getting two or three bites at the cherry.

While we doubt that this will give much solace to players who have been training and focussing their skills after their first final in 2014 to find the rug pulled from under them, the notion that GT Academy wants to again unearth a completely unrealised potential is a return to the program’s roots.

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