Professional Mode

Professional Mode is a gamemode added to TrackMania Nations Forever in 2011. It prioritises full focus on the game, as it will punish players for actions that distract them from the game, such as talking. It also patches bugs deemed to be luck-based, such as the uberbug. The gamemode was added due to pressure from the German community for the game, who felt that the game had become too reliant on luck.

Professional Mode is typically played on the 20 tracks that were added to its campaign; these tracks were designed to be as skill-based as possible, and are primarily Technical and German Full Speed. A leaderboard for these 20 tracks is often used by TrackMania members who want to argue about who is the best TrackMania Nations Forever player, or the "GOAT".

Maps
Professional Mode, when played offline, is only available on the 20 maps in the mode's campaign. However, it is possible to play other tracks on the mode when playing on servers. For example, the LoL mapping organisation League of LoL hosts a Professional Mode server with renowned LoL tracks.

Leaderboard
"See also: List of players who have held a 300 score in Professional Mode"The Professional Mode leaderboard assigns 30 points to each of the 20 tracks, with a total of 600 points on the leaderboard. The pointing system is designed to heavily favour higher positioned records. Having the world record on one of the tracks will give the player 15 points; having second place will give 7.5, third place will give 3.75, and so on. As such, the majority of players who decide to start playing the mode quit soon after, as it will give out very little points for anyone but the best; having even just 1 point puts a player in the top 50.

Leaderboards on online servers can be modified to have each map give different amounts of points; the LoL server previously mentioned assigns more points to the most prestigious LoL maps.

Bugs
Most bugs do not work in Professional Mode, as they often rely heavily on luck. In 2010, when the mode was originally being designed, a panel of noted German players decided which bugs would be patched, and the players decided that most, including the uberbug and the bugfin, were too reliant on luck to remain in such a skill-based mode. However, in a decision that was controversial amongst some hard-liners in the German community, the grass slide was allowed to remain, as the players ruled it to not be based on luck. This eventually acted as a catalyst for some of the players to march towards Nadeo's headquarters (many with weapons) to attempt to overrule this. The players would not reach their destination, however, as the French military would deploy soldiers and arrest them.

Skill Features
In addition to patching out the majority of bugs, the panel implemented some Skill Features into the mode, in an attempt to make players use their full focus on the game when playing. The players on the panel believed that these would improve the quality of driving on the records set in the mode. Some of these Skill Features include:


 * The game will reset a run if the player tabs out from the game.
 * The game will reset a run if the player opens up a Manialink or if they attempt to use the ingame messaging system.
 * The game will check a player's tabs on their browser; if there are any tabs playing audio, an acceleration penalty will be applied.
 * The game will monitor a player's microphone; if the player is determined to be speaking, a heavy acceleration penalty will be applied.
 * If the player does not have a microphone, the game will use "experimental methods" to determine whether the player is speaking. This system is known to be unreliable, with it often applying the penalty even if the player is not speaking. As such, it is recommended that the player simply installs a microphone.
 * The mode automatically sets the drift button to SHIFT, as this will ensure that the player has both hands on their keyboard. The maps in the campaign make heavy use of drifting in order to encourage the use of the button.

CIA Involvement
According to some former members of the Professional Mode panel, the CIA got in touch with the members of the panel after hearing about some of the Skill Features. In particular, the CIA was interested in the experimental methods used to get a person's voice even if there was no microphone. Despite the fact that the method used in game was very primitive, the CIA reportedly paid the panel millions of dollars for access to the method, which they gave. According to at least one member of the panel, the method was based around the vibration of the disk in hard drives. They went on to further state that although the version used in the mode often could not even work out whether someone was speaking or not, the version developed by the CIA could interpret speech. Many in the TrackMania community feared that this was being used to spy on them.

Unfortunately for the CIA (if true), this method is likely to become increasingly less useful, as many people are now starting to switch over to Solid State Drives, which do not have any moving parts which could be used for such purpose.