Anti sandbagging and other areas that need development and communication

Yeah, I can’t say I’m the least bit surprised. Racing seems to be seen by ZHQ as a source of marketing content and otherwise something between a necessary evil and a nuisance. Fun is fast (but not too fast), you know.

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That’s the weird thing about the lack of racing development to this point though. Racing IS Zwift marketing. Look at GCN, Ed Laverack, Cameron (ahem) Jeffers, Cycling GK, Virtual TdF, etc etc. The return (and therefore Business Case) from developing the racing part of the platform is crystal clear.

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Most of you have been here a lot longer than me, so it’s surprising you don’t get it.

Zwift doesn’t want to be a proper e-sports platform. Sure, some of the employees might think that’s an interesting idea, but it’s simply never been part of the corporate plan. Corporate Zwift is actively hostile to the idea of it being used as a serious racing tool.

I really don’t know why this is the case, indeed I find it pretty baffling, but when you exclude all the alternatives, whatever you are left with, however unlikely, must be the truth.

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… To each their own, but in my world if one’s goal in Zwift racing shifts from fitness gains to not breaching artificial boundaries, one needs to reflect on the purpose of stepping on that bike. Or sports in general. While the one person may rack up virtual trophies in a video game, the other racks up PBs and reaps actual fitness benefits. What is funny is that the official Zwift reading of race categories is FTP/weight(kg), which obviously can be very different from 95% of 20min race power. On the side, in my world, 18th/20 in 50 minutes also wins from 1/42 in 52 minutes. Cheers to more racing and more PBs in 2022!

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With regard to community racing maybe that’s true, but the top brass consistently state that the aim at pro level is to get racing on Zwift into the OIympics. Why would that be an aim if not to attract users to the platform, with racing literally the reason why? Likewise the sponsorshop of the women’s TdF. I agree, it’s totally baffling.

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When they banned the two ladies a while back from premier races for dodgy results but let them continue to ride/race non-premier events, that was a telling sign for me, though I must say the hypocrisy demonstrated by Zwift with statements in this thread and that promotion is mind boggling.

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Well, they have developed parts of the racing part of the platform that are actually useful for marketing, like better graphics and live scoreboards (of sorts) for the TV broadcast specifically. Addressing the demands of the infamous vocal minority are a different matter altogether, as is its ROI, though.

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Getting big names on zwift for marketing reasons, sure.

Racing as an actual activity for the plebs, not so much.

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pro eracing is the crossfit business model of having the racing be a billboard for the regular app sub fees. buy a gym contract and do turkish getups and box jumps and you too can be like the SARM riddled suckers competing for, realistically, negative profit in the crossfit games. although obviously the actual crossfit athletes are just doing regular s+c training

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They give Lance a platform, as bad as Ben Foster is for Sandbagging, giving Lance a platform means Zwift obviously has no morals or concerns over who they promote.

And no it’s not a drug thing… it’s the bullying non cyclists who put his drug thing at risk and never apologising for ruining their lives on purpose. Lots took drugs at the time, only one of them took pleasure in ruining people who weren’t cyclists lives.

Zwift HQ don’t get to take any moral high ground whilst being in bed with Lance/Wedu

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And just when Youtube has removed the downvote button.

Zwift has a bad reputation for cheating amongst non-zwifters and Zwift don’t seem to care to change that one little bit.

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Is this not sorted as of yet??? We might as well get rid of race cats. Completely pointless. Just like having a speed limit but don’t worry you can go as fast as you like.

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That’s basically how I found Zwift.

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Hey come on now. Zwift recently became an open beta to the public in May of 2015. Do you expect them to drop everything they’re doing to make some racers happy?

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I have done some open races lately and I have to say that I really am surprised over how many strong b riders there are. Raced against a guy with a 5,62 W/kg 5 min today, of course this guy goes ahead and wins the race. The other races I’ve raced before and after Christmas has had some superhuman b racers as well. I really can’t see the point of having categories when it’s so easy to cruise in them

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Of all people Ben Foster should really be able to grasp what promotion and relegation is.

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His goal was to graduate to cat B
:joy: :joy: :joy: :joy: :joy:

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I also saw the interview and thought “dude you were a B since Desember 2020” :thinking::thinking:

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I think his FTP would need to be 5wkg before he graduated to cat B.

BTW I hear Zwift is changing their motto from “Fun is Fast” to “All the kool kids cheat”

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he only won two races out of his last 20-30, not really seeing what the problem is