To many Zwifters enter the wrong Race categories?

I have been recommend to post my concern in the forum in order to find out if other Zwifters feel the same as I.
I see a tendency in Zwift where way to many Zwifters sign up to races in categories where they don´t belong, meaning they are racing in categories which are under their niveau.
After the race they are then Disqualified in ZP, but I think it is a shame for those of us who are in the right category since we dont have the chance to race for the victory. I have recently been at a race where almost top 30 was Disqualified after the race ended…
An idea could be that you set up Zwift in a way so you are not able to enter races which are lower then the category you are in. What are your thoughts about this?
Best
Jesper

This is a commenly discussed topic on this forum.
Just search for it, there are multiple threads.

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Cool that sounds great. I’m glad it gets attention.

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Attention. Yes. Resolution. Not yet. It’s still an honour system implementation. Keep in mind, there are valid cases of mistakes (i was DSQ in my first few races, whilst i (and Zwift Power) were sorting out the Cat i belonged in.

However, 30 DSQ riders in one event? Highly unlikely it was accidental! :slight_smile:

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Who recommended this? If it came from Zwift support that would be hilarious!

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Look at this thread and please vote: Auto-Assign Race Categories

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Yup it was.

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Nice thanks!

I recommend that Zwift support read the forums once in a while… This topic is CONSTANTLY discussed here, with hardly any input (actually probably zero input) from Zwift HQ.

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Zwift cannot be bothered to implement anything of the sort… :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

Rather they leave it to WTRL to implement. Who, I have to say, are doing very well for only 2 guys trying to sort thousands and thousands of riders.

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No problem. Zwift can ride on the wave of being the biggest player now. But I’ve said it before; as soon as the big players like Bethesda, Valve or EA thinks that it’s worth the effort they can put Zwift out of business in no time. They know game mechaincs, gameplay, UI and listening to the players. Zwift won’t know what hit them.

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It doesn’t even have to be someone that big. If one of the current competitors introduce race ranking and enforce it they will pull the Zwift racing community. The Zwift racing community may be seen as small by some but they have a big reach and a loud voice.

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Which will pull other users and non-racers even.

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Cheaters and sandbaggers will find their way to the other platforms, too. With more users there will be more of them.

Please do not misunderstand me - I do not write this as apology for Zwift doing nothing…

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Key word ENFORCE

:ride_on:

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The big platforms like Steam have their way of dealing with cheaters. They get exposed and get their accounts suspended.

The big players understand that people get their experience ruined by cheaters and trolls and know that if they don’'t keep the mess down people will move to someone that does. Zwifts only cause for dominion really is the lack of competition as of yet.

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The ‘it’s just a game!’ crew tend to pipe down for some reason when you point out how much time, effort and money actual games companies spend on trying to prevent cheats damaging the experience for other paying customers. There will always be cheats and people trying to spoil things, but that’s no excuse for Zwift literally doing NOTHING.

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O I agree there will always be those in any sport IRL or virtual. But if you have strict rules and you enforce them then you will weed them out. There will always be those that don’t agree with the rules but if you have the rules clear they know what they get into.

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I’ve never understood Zwift’s stance (or lack thereof) on this. Simply enforcing the correct W/kg category on sign-up would be a great first step. But they refuse.

I get that Zwift HQ would like to have everything open to all users, but if Zwift racing is in such a minority like has been said, then surely it would be OK to have some rules (and enforce then) for racing and keep everything else (workouts, group rides, etc) open?

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It’s coming up to six months since they began taking over Zwiftpower, and they’ve been involved with it for longer than that. They could simply enforce those well-established categories in lieu of a long term solution. There are tons of other smaller things they could do to actively discourage sandbagging (or even just make it obvious to those who don’t realise) but they don’t. I believe they’re hoping clubs will fix it all for them, and putting all their eggs in that basket.

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