The bigger the field, the smaller the ZRS movements. No one (including anyone at ZHQ) knows why.
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it’s more the fact i’m showing a drop in score when my score never actually changed, they haven’t factored in no change to scores
it is likely a rounding error, 505.4 to 505.1 or something like that?
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I noted previously that no change still got an up arrow.
It would be good to know if the closest up arrow was 1 point or no change.
I just saw the routes for the April ZRacing series and now I am just a but puzzeled what to do.
I did very well in the January and February races and got promoted to the next cat, which was fine since if I am honest the cat I was in wasnt the hardest for me. In my new cat I have a chance on flat but struggle on anything with hills or even mountains and thats fine.
But with the new month all finishing up an hill it will mean my ZRS will get me back in my old cat withgout any problem since I suck a climbing and will finish in the last in every race I do.
So the only way to prevent this is not race for the whole month …
I reallt like the ZRaces and have missed only a few since the start but this ZRS thing is worrying me a bit.
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however, you are allowed to enter higher cats so even if your score drops you don’t necessarily have to go down to the next lower cat next month and can just keep racing “up” until your score increases again.
Surely depends how you have raced previously and where your score is?
Race hard and dont hold back on your 5 min power on those climbs when being dropped and your ZRS floor will increase - That might mean you ZRS doesnt fall. You might even do better than expected 
Obviously, if you hide you true 5 min power you will have a lower ZRS floor to fall back to.
I was at 470 something (where seed is 445 I believe) but the last three races of the Zwift Games have put me back to 431 at the moment.
I know its just a number and I can race higher up, but it feels so weird seeing my ZRS drop when I do races which are not on my favorite terrain. But the only thing from not letting that happen is only do races where I do well … that feels not right. I dont mind coming in last minutes behind the leader but seeing my hard work on ZRS go down so fast kinda bugs me …
I know, I am weird …
They will give you a badge for completing all of them, so you must race, come what may. 
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This seed score calculator is not accurate for me. It predicts that my ZRS seed score should be 294, but my actual ZRS score is only 240 (which is 85% of 282). I suspect that the actual ZRS seed score calculation takes height into consideration and gives me a discount.
Prior to this morning, I had never done a true max-effort paced for 5 minutes while fresh, and doing so added about 30W (10%) to my old 5min best. This highlights an inherent unfairness with basing categorization off of bests from all activities: it penalizes riders who do max efforts while fresh in workouts relative to riders who only race and only give true max efforts at the end of races while fatigued.
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Exactly so. And then when someone who has an artificially low seed score, whether by ignorance (not in the negative sense but in the not knowing something sense) or design (a common cheater) starts placing well, the score rises slowly so they can continue causing trouble in the lower pens. Like this guy with a ZRS of 394 beating guys/gals with 100 points more:
And part of the problem is many people don’t know how hard racing is supposed to be. Yeah this is a thing: If you’ve never done anything to maximum effort then you don’t know really how hard you can go. Whenever I put my Avatar in the pen or at the start of IRL race, I go as hard as I can go to the point that when the race is over, I’m blown. If someone isn’t putting out that effort, then their power rating is going to be low and then we know what happens.
I get it that Zwift needs to start the categorization somewhere but I believe it leans too much on one metric when there several available to use and would give a better snapshot of an individual’s capabilities.
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Maybe I don’t understand how this works but the ZRS calculator will only predict the seed score.
My actual ZRS started there but now has changed significantly based on my race finishing position.
If I have not set new 3,5 or 10 min bests, won’t the calculator still show the same seed score?
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Only the 5 minute is used for seed score. If you set a new 5 minute in a race your score will change to reflect that. Happened to me in a Tiny Race a coupla weeks ago. The Tinys are good for that since they’re not much longer than 5 minutes and the first couple are pretty much Full Gass for the entire event. Races 3 & 4 are usually a bit more subdued…
Thought a new 5 min just changes the seed and floor values that doesn’t affect score?
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It gave my ZRS a pretty good bounce when the 5 minute went up a coupla points so I think it does.
You’re right that it doesn’t directly affect your score.
Only if your new floor is higher than what your score would have been.
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It doesn’t take height into account. As a fellow tall person I believe that it should, as height is a significant factor in zwift physics. But it doesn’t.
The discrepancy between the calculator and the floor you got on zwift is likely due to your weight.
Zwift use an average of 8 weights to determine what weight to use for categorisation calculations. They are the weight you had when you set your raw watts and your w/kg PBs over 4 different intervals in the last 90 days. So if any of those PBs was set when you had a higher weight entered then a higher weight would be used for the calculation, and you’d get a lower number than the calculator shows.
This was introduced as a measure to make it harder to manipulate your weight to stay at the top of the old w/kg based pace groups, but I believe makes things worse for the ZRS seed.
I believe there is at least one notorious user of alternate accounts who is demonstrating how this weight calculation can be manipulated.
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I see it different - only racing without training makes no sense for me.
I believe this is a difference between two users groups - Zwift is (mostly) a training platform in winter for me, a racing game for others.
Your score must have been below the new seed and raised to meet the new value, I set a new 5m during the wtrl race on the ny course and my score didn’t drop or increase
I wish they would finally implement showing your seed score and your ZRS history in a nice graph, somewhere. How hard can it be??? Again something that ZR.app does sooo much better.
It looks like ZRS development has come to a complete standstill…
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