The August game update has a new enhancement called Active Category Enforcement. It is the next step in the evolution of community bike racing on Zwift to make competition more equitable.
You might see this “Out of Category alert” when you register for a race so you’re aware.
If you click “I Understand”, you’ll be given the choice to re-register for the category that better matches your power (w/kg) abilities.
If you continue in the original category, your avatar will wear the green “cone of shame” for the remainder of the event, and your power will be ratcheted back for the remainder of the event to keep it fair for riders that in the correct category for their power (w/kg).
If you have questions about why you were shown this alert - please email support@zwift.com so we can examine your specific case offline.
What’s the basis of the category Zwift believes you should be in?
Also, the support page says you only get the green cone if you break some metric (what’s the metric?), but the OP here says it’s just there for the whole race. Which is correct?
Your post says they get the cone and power restriction if they stay in the event despite the warning, ie immediately. The support page states that only happens if they break [undefined] power limits.
How does this affect ZwiftPower results and categories? I am Cat C on ZwiftPower due to my very low outright power, whereas by W/KG alone I would be Cat B. Does Zwift make any allowance for outright power or is everyone that doesn’t currently exceed both ZwiftPower boundaries expected to move up?
Pet topic for me too, glad to see this, it’s another step in the right direction to make racing better.
However, it seems like this means the “cone of shame” concept/algorithm has worked in the Crit Beta races, so isn’t it time to spread that over into all races, not just the Crit City Beta’s?
(BTW, I still think this is only a band-aid for the real problem, which is the watts/kg-based categorization itself…)
I took this announcement to mean just that; the Beta Crit City concepts will now be available in all races.
Just need to know what those concepts actually are, whether they’ve changed from the Beta races and how they fit with Zwift taking ZwiftPower in-house.
Hmmm, Shuji’s reply to Mike makes it sound like for now it’s only on the Crit City Beta races. I’ve been riding on real tarmac since the weather warmed up, maybe I’ll have to pretend-join some races to see what’s what.
@Justin_Thackeray Automatically/consistently applied now in only Crit City Beta races, but potentially applied in any race from now on, if the particular event organizer chooses to apply it. Presumably each race description will indicate if it’s being applied.
I’d go do a quick test of the cone application (purposefully enter a too-low category and see whether you get the cone from the start or only after actually breaking a power limit in race), but the next Beta Race doesn’t seem to be available until Monday am
For transparency sake we need to know what the power limits are for each cat that will trigger the cone of shame. Is it 1 min power or 5 second or 20 min? Or a combination of two or more?
I believe, based on earlier discussions about the beta races, that the idea is to not make the limits public to avoid people deliberately riding within the limits to exploit the system.
(Sorry this is my pet topic so I am exited)
Hooray!!!