I think causing a negative effect on another rider is not a good sentiment for riding/racing. I’m all for using fun powerups for a positive effect for yourself, but when you use a powerup that has the sole intent to slow others down - it feels badly spirited.
I put it in the bin within seconds if I get one. I’ve used it twice in races, and it’s really dumb watching those around you slow down, while the ones in front edge away. Riders caught in the depressing burrito aura have no idea why they are dropping back. It’s also not very clear at all what it actually does, as a lot of the commentators have only recently explained its full effect.
The thread title is purposely inflammatory, but really it should go back to what it was originally: the “Breakaway Burrito” - not the burrito stink cloud that it currently is. The experiment should end.
if they need to get rid of any powerup, it’s the ghost
the burrito can be used to your advantage when deployed correctly especially when it causes other people to shout ■■■■■■■ burrito ■■■■ at the screen like some eh @Michael_Sparshatt
The way Zwift races work, I’d say the burrito is on the balance a net negative even for the racer who uses it. You might for instance drop a teammate in the process or inspire someone in front of you to use one as well.
The anvil, on the other hand, is a definite negative except for very few situations which may or may not occur at all on a specific race course so it is more of an IQ test than a power-up. But at least there will be no collateral damage.
It’s absolutely negative racing! But Swift is pretty clear that this is a game, other than the physical effort required, it’s Mario kart on bikes. I’d be more concerned about properly implementing the declared power ups. For example Zwift Insider says this week it is the arrow power up, the draft power up, the negative burrito power up.
The first two opportunities, I got +10 exp points. Mind you I’m already level 50 so this is really just insult to injury on a sprint heavy race. Finally when I did get a power up it was a feather, then another feather, and only after the broad street sprint did I finally get a declared power up, sadly it was the draft which did little help on the finish climb.
I agree we should replace it with a Snowflake so whenever someone ghastly did something that offended you, we could release the snowflake which gave the offended rider a reach-around.
I would like to see a Port-A-Potty Power Up added to Zwift. Available only in group rides (not races) of >40 miles and allow the rider to remain in the group for some amount of time while they tend to some business.
My wife is doing a head to head elimination race. It’s the only time I thought a ghost power up could be useful, especially with their unusefully short duration.
The steamroller can be beneficial for mixed surface courses but this relies on the event organizer selecting it correctly and Zwift correctly implementing the power up as the race director has requested it.
It appears that Zwift is still using a manual race creation/selection process and they really struggling the make the correct power up selection for the events. Maybe it’s an appropriate time to shut down the power ups temporarily and build a better back end platform for event creation.
It’s not a default which is another reason why hardly anybody knows what it does.
Just because it has to be selected by event organisers, doesn’t escape the fact it is a bad powerup.
so whenever someone ghastly did something that offended you, we could release the snowflake which gave the offended rider a reach-around.