Whatever happened to using historical 5min power data going back to the previous season, where available, to give ZRS seed score?
Yet here we are, with a ridiculous decay feature re-introduced, rewarding riders who haven’t raced for 30+ days with huge ZRS score drops.
While it no doubts affects other events, I’m expecting some very dodgy Tiny Races results today.
That never got implemented AFAIK.
I wonder if the decay was intentionally designed to reward new/returning racers at the expense of consistent racers, or if that was accidental.
It’s very much taking existing customers for granted.
Existing users who remain on the platform (and continue paying) have a poorer experience just so Zwift can provide an easier race for returning riders by placing them in a lower category than they should be..
The rider who only races once a week or once a month has their experience ruined to support a returning rider. That returning rider could potentially ruin any number of races whilst ZRS scoring fails to move them to the correct level - and by placing riders into easier races, theres no need to set a 5min pb whilst racing so it takes that little bit longer to move them and therefore impact more races.
Add in the diabolical UI impact of this change and HQ have outdone themselves with this change.
Is there any timeframe when that next round will be ? We dont have to wait another 8 months for the next do we ?
My race yesterday shows just how bad it can be when racers end up in the wrong category. I was in C (270-390) cat for the race and we had a solo breakaway go on the first climb a few KM in and then stay away from the remaining 18 or so KMs. Looking at Zwift Power, what makes it even crazier, is that ride managed to beat not only all of us by at least 24 seconds but he also was 18 seconds faster than the winner of B (390-510) race according to Zwift Power, even though Zwift Power lists 4 more riders only seconds back so those riders were probably drafting off each other most of the race.
To say it more simply, it looks like the rider who won the C race would have even handily won the B race (though it might have ended up more tactical).
Instead of decay for those who haven’t raced in a while, I’d back greater flexibility in scores based on how long since someone raced. (I think I saw that suggested somewhere in this or another thread, but I can’t find it immediately). So racer scores only change after a race, but if after 9 months they’re worse, the score moves down a lot more than for regular racers, but on the other hand if they’re better their score increases more.
That also might help even out scores for racers who race more or less frequently, e.g. multiple times a week vs once a month (though please fix the problem where more racers will see their scores increase than decrease after a race, even those who were in the lower half of the race, and all the other things that ensure that those who race less often get to be in easier categories).
Looks like the rule resetting the decay clock for any race result is in place and also recalculated everything with that going back however long. I went from 438 to 498 without any 5min efforts today. I was 504 before the decay started and did have a couple month period of no races over the summer.
Not racing for 30days my zrs went from 377 to 375 which seems pathetic really considering others, but does this mean I have to race for it to reset again?
Decay starts after 30 days, then goes at something like 2 points per day until it bottoms out or you do something to stop the decay.
A two point drop after 30 days is what is expected. The bigger drops are for people who were away from racing longer.
Yeah, something changed. I looked back on the one and only race I did this season so far. I started at 399, after the race it showed 390, now it shows 454 for the same race (updated score for some reason) with no new personal best power. Not exactly sure what is going on since I didn’t hit 454 race score last year, my result was not stellar and my power lately has not been super great either.
Here’s the screenshot I took Friday and the updated screenshot for the same result:
Something changed again overnight, I went back to 504 before the ZRS race I did and then +9 from the race. I checked and had a month and a half of no races but still no decay, they must’ve added workouts as a stop-decay trigger. Would be nice to not have to just guess and assume at what’s happening though.
my ZRS just keeps going lower, now at 413… was over 450 before the decay went into effect. My last ZRS race was Sept. 19th.
Sept. 19th is not 30days. Are you sure it was ZRS Enabled Race?
19th September was not ZRS enabled, the ZRS plugin shows no changes for Friday Night Fun Race.
Looks like 22nd August was your last ZRS enabled race…
Which moved your score to ZRS 450. You have ~13 events listed on Zwiftpower since 22nd August, so why is your ZRS decaying at all to 413?
Please tell me ZwiftHQ aren’t discounting any Zwift activity in the last 30 days that isn’t a ZRS enabled race, to start the decay!
yeah it was one of those Friday night fun races, and the scores were all messed up… might have been bugging out. After the race it said my score was 290… but going into it I was over 450 I think? Everyones scores were super low for some reason in the results, didn’t make any sense?
They’ve said in black and white in this thread that is what they’re doing. They’ve said they’ll change it in the next update.
I’m wondering why this thread is set to lock in 2 days given we’re still seeing updates to how the racing score is calculated, so I imagine there will be more feedback after the next 2 days on this change.
I’m still intrigued how my score went up well above the max it was at last year (399) with one race on a 6/9th placement with no power PBs either from workouts or that race. This could not have been due to decay since the score went up above what it was last year… I’m wondering if the seed score calculation has changed to use different part of the power profile?
So from my last race waaaay back in the spring last year I was at 399. At that point I had a pretty solid (for me) 5min power - I forget what it was but it was well above my most recent 5min efforts.
On Friday I did my first race, got 6/9, and the score went down 9 to 390.
Yesterday I saw my score changed +55 (instead of -9) on that same activity to 454 (well higher than it was at the end of last season).
My best 5min power in a workout is probably around 320ish. My best 5min power on ZP is just from that one race which was just 298W. Both of which are lower than my 5min power back last year when my ZRS seed was set below 399.
So that can’t be due to decay changes, I’m wondering if they are changing how the seed score is set, or if something else has changed?
Did the zwift crit race earlier LaGuardia.. some guy went off the front on lap 2 with the use of sticky watts, was watching him hit orange drop to 0 then back up, was often 6wkg and by the final lap had a 19s gap, 700m from the finish he’s suddenly doing 2wkg and everyone is passing him obviously to tank his score. He has hidden some data on zwiftpower so the fit file never processes to be able to see the power etc called him out mid race but pointless when people do that sort of thing
What is your current 5min max according to your zwift profile? ZRS seed is calculated from all activities, and there was also a change to make new power PBs move your score to seed.
The changing scores in the results could then be from slightly backdating that change and reprocessing results - something zwift has done before with seed score changes.
It’s what I mentioned above (298W). Which is less than it was last year when my seed was calculated below 399.
Here’s the current fitness screenshot for reference:
I only did one race this year which did not have a max 5min section, (it was a solo TT after getting dropped so I have a pretty flat profile between 5 mins and 15mins). Last year my 5min power was above this and I had a lower seed. So I’m not sure why my score shot-up for a 6/9 placement this week to a score that was 45 points above my score last season. It seems to me something changed in how they calculate it.
Right, I saw the 320w figure too which would go close to explaining the current score. 298w is nowhere near it.
