Backmarker

When Driver A is ahead of Driver B in net time, and Driver B is driving in front of Driver A on track, then Driver B can be called a **backmarker** for Driver A. This behavior will typically happen when Driver A is about to overlap Driver B on track.

## Importance

Backmarkers are heavily influential on races. It requires a completely different skillset to deal with backmarkers than the skillset required for driving around the track normally.

For higher level drivers, due to the nature of ice boat racing and how overtakes are much more difficult in ice boat racing than racing in other mediums, drivers may be locked in a stalemate, with no overtakes occurring for very long periods of time. Backmarkers provide a large shake up for these situations, as the drivers now have to deal with getting past the backmarkers. Driving behind backmarkers (or any drivers) increase the likelihood of mistakes being made, and mistakes are the main method of securing overtakes.

## How to deal with backmarkers

Generally, there are a few go-to options for dealing with getting past/around backmarkers:

* Capitalize on the backmarker making a mistake
	+ Generally, if the driver is a backmarker, they are at a lower skill level than the drivers who they are "backmarking". They will be more likely to make mistakes, which is when drivers should capitalize and overtake them.
	+ It is a good practice to take alternate racing lines while following backmarkers, so that just in case they make a mistake, the driver will not get blocked by the backmarker messing up.
* Pit
	+ If it isn't possible to get past a backmarker (or any driver), going in for a pitstop is a solid option. It will get the driver away from the backmarker.
* Identify weaknesses in their driving, then set up to take advantage
	+ If the backmarker drives just well enough for the driver to not be able to get past while driving the normal line, but the driver notices that the backmarker consistently drives slowly or off the main racing line, it may be possible for the driver to set up in such a way that they can target that weakness. For instance, the driver can drive wide as set up in order to have more speed at the moment they want to strike.
	+ This is a much harder concept to learn and execute, as it isn't as easily to learn as going in for a pit or taking alternative lines while waiting for the backmarker to mess up. It also requires the driver to be able to identify weak parts of the backmarker's driving, and the driver needs to be able to identify ways they can set up.

## Variables for impact of backmarkers

Different leagues have different numbers and frequencies of backmarkers. The track the race takes place on also determines how impactful the backmarkers are on the more skilled drivers of the race.

For example, Formula Eldham, for the ABG racers taking part in the races, was all about backmarkers and how to get around them. This is because it was a league in a roleplaying (not ice boat racing) server, run by non-ice boaters, for non-ice boaters. This led to the skill level for most of the drivers being far lower than the drivers of ABG. There were also no pitstops during the races, which is one of the most favored ways to deal with backmarkers. The tracks were very short and thin, resulting in large player density races full of low level backmarkers for the ABG drivers to play around. Stinky Cup is a similar league, with the same impact of backmarkers.

Other leagues, like BRWC League A, have less backmarkers, all of which generally make less impact. There is a more refined selection of drivers, with a much smaller skill gap than Formula Eldham and Stinky Cup, and the tracks are generally longer, wider, and harder. This leads to less backmarkers appearing per races, due to the lower player density, and due to the higher difficulty of the tracks, the backmarkers may make large enough mistakes often enough for the more skilled races to find opportunities to overtake.

An interesting case has to do with FC1 and FC2. FC1 is a league where a certain number of highly skilled drivers (normally around 20) all drive on F1 tracks recreated in Minecraft. FC2 is the same concept, except it is open for any and all drivers to participate (unless they participated in the preceding FC1 race). Despite both leagues using the same tracks, and generally around the same number of laps and pits, backmarkers have different impacts on the races. In FC1, only a certain number of high level boatracers are allowed to join, which means there are going to be much less lower level backmarkers racing. Meanwhile, FC2 has drivers of all skill levels, resulting in many newer, less skilled and less experienced boatracers acting as backmarkers for more experienced drivers. This may make the experience of FC1 very different than FC2, despite their similarities.