Championship Update

The Championship Update (v2.8.1) is the eighteenth update of Asphalt 8: Airborne. It was released in mid-December 2016 and added the Championship special event.
== Announcement ==
Enjoy your winter holidays with amazing new content!
McLAREN CHAMPIONSHIP:
We will introduce, for the first time in Asphalt history, McLaren race cars! Take one of these beautiful high-performance racers for the ultimate test run around the world! Rack up trophies as you beat challenges and earn big rewards to ultimately unlock cars.
NEW CAR LINEUP:
A total of 8 new speedsters are coming, including the Aston Martin Vulcan and Mosler Land Shark. Look for them to come out one by one in the shop over the coming weeks.
JOIN THE HOLIDAY RUSH:
Dashing down the course, on a holiday racing spree... Unlock a GIFT from all of us if you play this Cup daily! Get the BMW M2 for FREE just for racing in the Christmas Cup every day! Stay tuned on our Facebook page for the dates!
NEW EVENTS:
Get ready for new Enduro and R&D events! Participate in them to get a chance to make the Chevrolet Impala and Arash AF10 yours!
== New cars ==
*Class C
**BMW M2 (Elite Car)
**McLaren M14A (Championship Car)
*Class B
**2010 Bentley Continental Supersports (Elite Car, returning from Asphalt 3D)
*Class A
**Chevrolet Corvette C3 - originally from the Multiplayer League Update (Multiplayer League reward - later released in the Lunar New Year 2017 Update)
**McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 (Championship Car)
**Chevrolet Impala (Enduro Car, Elite Car)
***NOTE: This car was later postponed to the Lunar New Year 2017 Update, this time with greatly reduced stats and as a Multiplayer League reward. The Impala was finally released in the Car Blueprints Update.
*Class S
**Mosler Land Shark (Elite Car)
**Aston Martin Vulcan (Multiplayer League reward)
**Arash AF10 (R&D Car)
The new cars will need the following Engine Cards:
*
**1967 Chevrolet Impala (×16)
**Arash AF10 (×60)
*
**McLaren M14A (×40)
*
**Mosler Land Shark (×28)
*
**BMW M2 (×4)
*
**2010 Bentley Continental Supersports (×8)
**Aston Martin Vulcan (×32)
*
**McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 (×40)
== Game Changes ==
=== Championship ===
Similar to Research & Development and Enduro Double Down, the Championship lets you "test drive" a car without owning it. It is a series of races with given objectives using the car at stake, much like R&D. Each time the user participates in a race of the Championship, a Tire is used, and every eight hours all five tires are restocked, as do all three Proto Keys every three hours. However, some events have a tire-refill duration of 12 hours instead of usual 8 hours. Number of tires in a set still remains 5. Each qualifying race has a primary goal, and two secondary goals, which are unlocked when the primary goal has been fulfilled. The primary goal still has to be fulfilled while achieving the secondary goals in subsequent attempts.
The Championship also features new race types, Auto-Start (Time Attack) and Warm-Up. In Auto-start, you're dropped in the middle of a race and have to take over the wheel at some point; in Warm-Up, you need to keep your engine revs in a certain zone in order to get a good start into the race.
Completing all Grand Finales unlocks the car.
With this update, the currently established pattern of special events is: Championship → R&D → EDD.
=== Gameplay Changes ===
* The McLaren M14A and McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 don't have the usual 5 levels of Upgrades plus 5 levels of Pro Kits, but 10 levels of Pro Kits instead; the same upgrade system in Asphalt Xtreme.
* 2 new Engine cards added: Serial Racing Engine (pictured), needed for the McLaren M14A; and Custom Racing Engine (also pictured), for the McLaren Mercedes MP4-25.
* A new season appears after the Exclusive Metal Events (or Season 9: Beyond for non-iOS users) called McLaren Legends Season/Season 10: Future, which requires the user to own a McLaren Race Car (McLaren M14A or McLaren Mercedes MP4-25) in order to play it.
* New Collections "Mercedes", "BMW", and "British Gentlemen" added.
=== Other Changes ===
* This is the first update to require iOS 8 for all iOS users, this means that the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation are no longer compatible.
* The Chevrolet Corvette C3's Car Mastery Challenge 10 no longer awards and now awards a much smaller Token payout in addition to a Credits payout ().
* New loading screen of two McLaren Mercedes MP4-25's in San Diego Harbor.
** This update is the first update since the initial release of the game up to the The Great Wall Update back in early 2014 to feature more than three loading screens.
* New sound effects sequence for Engine sounds.
* With this update, the first open-top vehicles since Asphalt 7: Heat are reintroduced into the mainline Asphalt series.
** Open-top vehicles, such as the Ariel Nomad, also exist in offroad spinoff Asphalt Xtreme.
** The driver now also appears in the car for the first time since Asphalt 7: Heat. This is currently only for the Formula One cars & Motorcycles (as of the Motorcycles Update). The fully-dressed race driver is, except for the wheels, the only animated part of the car: he turns his head when the car turns, or moves sometimes a bit up and down. When the car is wrecked or knocked down, the driver disappears instantaneously.
*** In Infected races, should the car become infected, the driver also becomes fully rendered in green.
*** The driver's appearance depends on the Formula One car that is being used.
* Monaco has been renamed to Azure Coast, possibly because the track is based on the real-life French Riviera/Côte d'Azur, whose name translates to "Azure Coast".
* The logo for nanoFlowcell has been updated.
* Starting with this update, it is now possible to watch video ads to gain free Pro Boxes or Double Credits for a race.
** In the latter case, up to can be earned for an optional Double Credits offer, after which the offer to get Double Credits disappears.
* The reward for completing all 3 Daily Tasks was initially reduced back to from but has been restored as of December 21, 2016.
* For all cars, the amount of credits awarded for completing Car Mastery the first time has gone down for Challenges 6 to 10 and up for Challenges 11 to 15.
* Chinese New Year 2017 decals added for the Chevrolet Corvette C3, Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupe, and Mercedes-Benz CLA 45 AMG Racing Series.
* Credits and Tokens awarded in Events are now in one combined sum instead of the separate amounts listed as a reward.
** This still doesn't apply to Pro Boxes though.
* New sound effects introduced for Enduro Double Down.
* The Multiplayer League ticket count has been extended to 4 from the original 2 as of January 12, 2017.
* The waiting duration for Multiplayer League tickets to be restocked has been reduced to 3 hours for 2 tickets from the original 6 hours.
* When using an Elite Car in Multiplayer League races, should the player's Elite Car's condition drop into the "Tune-Up Recommended" stage, the player will be given a notification that will prompt the player to retune the car.
* Traffic in Iceland and London has been permanently removed.
** This change would later be reverted as of the Fifth Anniversary Update.
* The banners of all vehicles released from this update onwards are of a higher quality.
== Events ==
#McLaren M14A Championship December 14, 2016
#Holiday Rush Multiplayer Season December 22, 2016
#Arash AF10 R&D December 23, 2016
#Aston Martin One-77 EDD January 6, 2017 
#Winter Wonder Multiplayer Season January 11, 2017
#McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 Championship January 13, 2017
== Trivia ==
* This update marks the firsts of the following:
** The first released in December of any year since 2013 to not feature any new tracks and also the first update released in December of any year to not feature the Alps in any promotional images.
** The first released in December of any year to not add any new Class D vehicles.
** This first since the Santa's Gift Update a year back to feature a new vehicle in the icon used for the update; in this case, the McLaren Mercedes MP4-25.
** The first released in Q4 (October, November, or December) of any year to not add any Renault vehicles.
* Due to the 1967 Chevrolet Impala being postponed to the Lunar New Year 2017 Update as a Multiplayer League reward and the Aston Martin One-77's Enduro Double Down event being revived in this update in place of the Impala's EDD event, the Championship Update marks the first and only update since the Elite Cars Update to not hold any new Enduro Double Down events.
* This is also the first update since the Santa's Gift Update to not revive any past R&D events.
== Bugs / Glitches ==
* Bugged Button-based Control Schemes and Slightly Unresponsive Buttons: All control schemes that involve on-screen buttons were bugged, now taking slightly more than one second to fully load upon the end of the countdown. This resulted in time penalties for many players, leaving Tilt to Steer the only viable option. This issue was fixed in the Lunar New Year 2017 Update.
** Unfortunately, even with Tilt To Steer - Auto accelerate, the nitro trigger and brake buttons would sometimes not respond even if tapped very hard. The only ways to get around this problem were lowering the graphics settings and/or using an external keyboard/controller.
** A workaround to this was to pause the game as soon as the race started and resume. While this would still result in a loss of time, only approximately 0.2 seconds would be lost instead. However, this didn't work in multiplayer, as bringing up the pause menu does not pause the in-game action.
* Bugged Engine Sounds: The new engine sound effects sequence will not always match up with the car's speed and location. It is possible for the game to switch to a low RPM sound effect just from a small bump and stay with it even if the car is back up to top speed. Going into a drift and out of it may fix the problem. This bug was fixed in the Car Blueprints Update.
* Incorrect Tuning Kit Increases: The McLaren M14A and McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 are stated to have a maximum rank of 1550 and 1766, respectively, yet even when fully upgraded, their Tuning Kit increases became much lower than normal, becoming only +10% (when MAX upgrades are all Level 0) instead of +27.5% (when MAX upgrades are all Level 5) like with all other cars. This bug was eventually fixed in the Lunar New Year 2017 Update.
* No R&D Professional Kit Box in Arash AF10 R&D: Instead of the usual R&D Professional Kit Box that is awarded at the end of an R&D, the Arash AF10's R&D event instead gave out a McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 Championship Pro Box at Test 056, this bug could be beneficial in PROing the McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 in the upcoming Championship event (if the player has at least 60 V8 Engine Cards). Despite this, the R&D still offers a chance for the player to purchase an R&D Professional Kit Box for . This bug was fixed in the Car Blueprints Update.
* Error 3000x: In Championship, upon using restored Tires, a race cannot be started because of a message called Error 3000x. See this page for more info.
* Cars Rolling Down: On tracks that start on a steep incline (e.g. Alps), the player's car can be seen rolling down during the race countdown. This does not affect the starting position as the distance covered is minimal. This was fixed in the Lunar New Year 2017 Update, with the required slope angle for cars to roll down being increased.
** This feature correctly persists in the Patagonia tracks Crystal Lake and Ice Cave due to those tracks starting at a very steep upwards slope. This only shows on certain cars like the McLaren P1™ GTR and Arash AF10, though.
* Improperly Rendered Decals: On the Android version of the game, some decals (e.g. the Hex Edition decal for the BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage) do not render properly.
* No Horizon Tilt: On the Android version of the game, the Horizon Tilt setting does not work on certain devices. This bug was fixed in the Munich Update.
* Missing Cars: A few cars like the Lamborghini Asterion and McLaren 570S reportedly became completely unavailable for purchase.
* Infinite Multiplayer League Races: With the reduced waiting duration for a ticket to be restocked, if the player joins a race when the ticket count is at 1/2, the game will not deduct any tickets, effectively granting an infinite number of ranked races. Leaving a pre-race lobby or rebooting the game will temporarily fix the glitch until it is attempted again.
** With the 4 tickets count extension, the effectiveness of this glitch is reduced as the game will grant another ticket once its waiting duration has passed. Subsequent races will restore the ticket count to 4/4, forcing the player to use all 4 tickets and wait 2 hours before using the glitch again.
** This bug was fixed in the Lunar New Year 2017 Update.
* Impossible Required Rank: The McLaren Mercedes MP4-25's final Mastery Challenge required a rank of 1767, which is impossible to achieve by any legitimate means; when fully upgraded, it is only ranked at 1766. This ultimately made it impossible to claim all Car Mastery rewards from the McLaren Mercedes MP4-25, with and inaccesible. This was fixed in the Lunar New Year 2017 Update.http://tieba.baidu.com/p/4938618082 大F1技巧赛最后一关门槛1767？？？
* Incorrect Grand Finale Quote: If the player has a Grand Finale uncompleted, all subsequent Grand Finales will show the same quote until that race is completed.
The following bugs/glitches have been fixed:
* Unusual token reward in Chevrolet Corvette C3 Mastery Challenge 10
* No Daily Tasks Notifications
== Post-Update Info Screen ==
Championship Update Screen (1).png
Championship Update Screen (2).png
Championship Update Screen (3).png
Championship Update Screen (4).png
Championship Update Screen (5).png
== References ==