We’re excited to release improvements to our decay system that was enabled in September as well as some updates on the 30 day max racing score categorization.
Decay will now stop after achieving a new seed score or completing any race (not just ranked races). With these changes, active Zwifters will no longer have decayed scores, preventing them from entering categories below their ability level. Some Zwifters may see higher scores today if they met either condition but haven’t recently participated in a ZRS event.
30 Day Max Racing Score categorized races are now live! The Zwift Crit Racing Club series is currently using 30 day max ZRS for its categorization, which will help to reduce churn between categories especially for racers close to the category boundary.
As always, thank you all for your feedback as we continue working to make Zwift racing a fun and fair experience for everyone.
Can this be seen anywhere other than your profile on zwift.com (I doubt anyone actually looks for it there). The companion app would be a great place for it.
The last time when they implemented the decay my score went up 50 points (not down at all), and I hadn’t set any new PBs within 90 days, so one theory is they might have changed how far back they go for the best 5 min seed score. Maybe that has been tweaked again too?
I went and set a new 5min PB today (not all-time PB, but PB since I messed up my knee a few years back), and my seed score correctly went up again, which is good. Now my 5min PB is relatively fresh either way.
I just checked my wifes account and she was at 80 for many months, then it decreased down to about 70. Now today its 100,.. how is this even possible when she doesn’t race and pretty much does group rides. She doesn’t set PB’s that would account for any increase as far as I am concerned.
What’s happening with fixing tiny movements from large fields, and properly taking competitor strength into account? Decay isn’t necessary if ZRS movements are working properly.
Strange how my ZRS went from 333 to 466 after a Cat C 100k group ride today. We just rode together most of the way. No fast 5 min sections or anything of note. My ave HR was 92 bpm and max HR was only 120. Z1 ride and I went up 133 points???
There are still things about ZRS that do not make a lot of sense. For it to be intuitive a few things have to happen.
Points movements should make sense based on the ZRS of the people you beat or lost to: If you beat expectations and thus beat people who have a higher ZRS than you, in general your ZRS should go up. I am aware that ZRS is not specifically elo, but it should be able to know the skill of those you beat, and those who beat you, and adjust your ZRS accordingly.
Field Size: Today your score can vary more widely if you race in smaller races, and beat fewer people - you can gain a lot of points winning in a small field even if the people you beat have a lower ZRS than you have. You can lose a lot of points even if the people you lost to had higher ZRS to begin with. This intuitively does not make sense.
Mass start races: ZRS should be able to work with mass start races. Today if you join a mass start race and are in the lower half of the field your score will go down even if you’ve had a great performance and beat many above your ZRS. Someone who had a very low ZRS in a mass start race is expected to be lower half in that race. Someone with a very high ZRS is expected to be upper half in one of these races.
Displaying ZRS changes: What you see in terms of movement (+10 etc.) after a race should be the movement due to position in that race, not the movement since last time you had a race, for some people that will be months. This will make the results more understandable to people.
