I took some of the advice and spiked my power up to 500 W as the countdown approached zero. After the first few seconds at 450 W, I saw my avatar moving through the front third of the field. That’s good enough, so I eased off the pace to 350 W. Suddenly my avatar was dropping through the field like a rock. I went from 20th place to 50th, then 80th, and I realized that I was at the back of the field, still doing 350 W!