Hi All,
This morning I’ve raced Zwift Unlocked Stage 1.
Pre-race my score was 484, so I joined my usual band of 390-510.
Looking at the results in the Zwift App, the winner is reported as having a ZRS of 520, down 50. Second place is 547 down 20. I’ve always taken the ZRS change in the results table as post-race (mine shows up 7 to 491), so how did they manage to start in a 390-510 category?
Is there another factor I’m missing?
Thanks!
Hi Chris,
Do you have the event ID would help to understand what is going on?
Hi Gordon,
I think it is 5128979
Cheers,
Chris.
It is called Decay and it’s the cancer of ZRS.
You don’t see Decay in results cause they are showing movement from previous race to this next one.
Another change is that when you hit a new 90day 5min PB you score is moved to Seed. Many racers coming back are doing new 90day 5min PB in a cat lower than there ability cause of Decay.
Decay should be removed along with floor.
@Ryy and @TimHanson you are tagged cause the ZRS Update Post is closed since yesterday 
I don’t think that answers the question about how they were allowed to start in that group. I noticed the same in the results of my race. If decay has only been applied after they raced, then their pre-race score should have excluded them from that category. If decay was applied beforehand, then the post-race score reduction should not include all of the score decay that allowed them to start in the first place.
Let’s say this was Range 1 Cat C equivalent, topping out at 390. If the rider’s score after their last event was 400 and after this event 350, a drop of 50 points, then the only way they could start is if decay has already wiped off 10+ points. Let’s say they were on 380. If the final score is still 350, then its a drop of 30 points. The starting score is not what it was at the end of the last event, so don’t measure it from that.
Alternatively there’s a whole bunch of people getting into categories they shouldn’t be.
according to Tim, that will be fixed soon, so you will see the post-decay score not the pre-decay score in the results and that should clear this up… better if they just turn off decay
The UI can’t deal with the change in decay so displays your new score against your last race score. Not, your new score against decayed score.
This is entirely accurate. This was a decision @Ryy is responsible for implementing that diminishes the experience of paying customers on the platform in favour of those returning customers - it’s taking the existing users for granted.
Then there is the whole other conversation around once in a lower category a strong rider won’t need to exert themselves to win, or set 5 min pb so can ruin many many races for those in the ‘right category’ as they never left the platform (and yes it needs repeating - continued paying their subscription - yes that’s the way Zwift HQ treats existing customers)
They have done their yearly ZRS thing and are probably doing other stuff for the next 8 months …
a better place for feedback and answers is the ZwiftRacing.app discord server, there is a channel for ZRS feedback that Tim regularly responds in. The work is ongoing, it hasn’t stopped.
Sure hope so. After 15 months it is still broken and the recent changes have only made it worse.
Well, the one change to let your seed reset with new PRs is a good one. What I don’t understand is why they prioritized the decay ahead of making ZRS movements make sense (as discussed in the now-locked thread).