User:Vish/Sandbox

"Listen closely! True failure is forgetting the pioneer spirit! And staying away from challenging hardships! There is no such thing as failure in this race! There are only adventurers! This Steel Ball Run race will be an event the likes of which the world has never experienced before!"

- Steven Steel,

The Steel Ball Run (スティールボールラン) is the race that drives the plot of Steel Ball Run. It consists of a series of checkpoints and routes on a rough course between and, USA.

Summary
Steel Ball Run is named after this event, hosted by Steven Steel and the President of the United States, Funny Valentine.

The concept of the Steel Ball Run was conceived by Steven Steel and a young Lucy Pendleton at some point between 1884 and 1888. Listening to Steven's ramblings about organizing a long distance horse ride, Lucy proposed that Steven make it a race across America instead with an enormous prize. Steven first found the idea ridiculous, but talked about it anyway, which caught the attention of numerous sponsors ready to gamble on such huge event. At one point, the president of the United States involved himself in the organization of the race, structuring the route around a map created by and secretly turning the event into a front for the search for the Saint Corpse Parts.

The race takes place in the USA, starting September 25, 1890 at 10 A.M. on and concluding at the final finish line in front of New York City's. The total distance covered is estimated at around 6,000 km, which is divided into nine stages separated by known landmarks. The racer who crosses the finish line of a stage first is rewarded with $10,000 and a one-hour time bonus to be applied at the end of the penultimate stage. In cases where the stage's order of arrival is not clear, five judges are able to examine a photograph of the racers as they cross the finish line in order to determine their placement.

At the end of each stage, points are awarded based on placement; the one who completes the race with the most points is declared the winner and receives 50 million dollars. The racers who finish in second, third, fourth, and fifth place will receive $1,000,000, $500,000, $250,000, and $120,000 respectively. Special prizes up to tenth place such as the checkpoint award are also available.

Points are awarded based on placement in a stage, following this table:

As an open invitation to adventurers, the rules of the race permit competitors to use horses, camels, newly-invented, and even their own two feet, as long as they use the same method of transportation across the entire race. Different kinds of hazards and climates await, from the dryness of the Arizona desert to the harsh cold and unstable terrain of a frozen.

The race concludes on January 19, 1891, with Pocoloco declared the winner on account of Diego Brando's unexplained disappearance. Though the race was initially heavily criticized for the deaths of numerous competitors, the news that Steven Steel had donated the seventy trillion dollars it raised to various causes satisfied most of the dissent.

Trivia

 * The grand cash prize of 50 million dollars is estimated with reference to modern values, and is not to be confused with what $50 million would be worth in 1890 (which would approximately equal to 1.5 billion USD as of 2021). In actuality, the prize is said to be closer to 6 billion yen.
 * According to the overall results of the Steel Ball Run, out of 3,652 initial competitors, only 39 managed to complete the entire race.

Other stuff
Prizes:
 * 1st Place: 5千万/60億 ($50 million)
 * 2nd Place: 100万 ($1 million)
 * 3rd Place: 50万 ($500,000)
 * 4th Place: 25万 ($250,000)
 * 5th Place: 12万 ($120,000)