Can you please implement Zwift Grand Prix style races for the rest of us (that are supported by the UI and not some human race organizer)?
I want to race a points race, where the points actually show up on the screen.
I want to race an elimination race. Where the last racer is actually eliminated every lap until there are only 3 left and its a 3-up sprint.
I want to race a 3-race series, where I have to be in the top X to move on to the next race and only people who have made the top X places will continue.
And I want it to be supported by the UI and not a 3rd party race organizer. I donât have time for the WTRL and ZRL and whateverRL. Iâm a dad with 4 kids and very little time. I need this to be available in a more on-demand format. Iâll note that RGT has elimination races already, and they are quite fun (but as with everything RGT, not enough real human riders present).
It seems a really lost opportunity for Zwift to be doing all this innovated stuff with the Zwift pro-level racing without giving the rest of us plebes some way to emulate it. Normal outdoor bike racing is similarly inaccessible to me (I canât go race a 3-week grand tour in France, for example), but Zwift has the potential to let me race any format I can also watch, and it seems a real marketing loss not to capitalize on that.
Zwift likely will not be supporting this for awhile. Currently, everything they are doing with the elimination format requires a physical Zwift employee controlling all of the different functions. It is not automated which is why Zwift canât offer it to the community.
I think the point is that they should. In years of Zwift racing the only additional format that has been implemented is boost mode, and we all know how well that went. There are so many things that could be done:
Clubhouse / coffee shop after race where you can discuss the results, see the results, see the podium, give ride-ons, etc
Points based racing where the current standings are shown on the left hand side
lap or segment based elimination races
Key stats shown in your profile - rank, category etc
Matchmaking (blind entry, grouped with similar riders)
Club dynamics - all riders that have the same primary club selected have team-based benefits. Highlight team riders, team radio, team powerups (trade or gift powerup, burrito that doesnât affect team mates, team-boost)
Race organiser configuration toolkit - give organisers the tools to innovate (number of pens, select dynamic to allocate riders to pens, etc)
Yes, this is what Iâm asking for. The new islands map is beautiful and itâs nice to have some new virtual tarmac to ride, but it would be amazing to actually have Zwift implement new racing features rather than more maps. Thereâs plenty of tarmac in Zwift already. Canât they spare a team of developers to actually implement some of this stuff? These arenât even really that hard from a design/implementation perspective (unless their code-base is just spaghetti code).For instance, they already show leaderboards for sprint segments and KOM segments, just do essentially the same thing for the points race and keep it live.
I love the clubhouse idea and the club dynamics idea. My friends and I use Discord to achieve something similar, but sub-par.
The problem is that racers are estimated to be only 5-10% of the user base, so weâre low priority.
An alternative would be for Zwift to have a plug-in API that allows people to implement their own additional features (especially one that could be monetized). It may not be worth it for Zwift to focus on their racers, but it may be worth it to someone else.
Yeah, I suspect that the racing community represents a more hard-core center of Zwiftâs user base, but also thereâs a bunch of people who are into the group-ride social ride stuff that are also core.
I donât think it should be low priority because of the low numbers. The true racers have passion for Zwift and they bring more people to Zwift. You can say the Zwift racers are the ambassadors for Zwift.
it shouldnât be low priority but when you look at it, but racing really is low priority for Zwift
example being community made ZwiftPower, taken over by Zwift over 2 years ago, nothing has been done to implement any sort of integration with users profiles for racing
ZRL run Zwifts most high profile race series but it seems Zwift will not enforce their own CE system for that race series, is there a reason for this or is it that Zwift donât want ZRL pull out tools theyâve made, which are not available for other organisers ? ZRL is a sandbaggers haven now
The racing community have never had tools available despite numerous requests over the years and that is because the racing is in a minority Zwift will discard them to an extent and just add more worlds, which I do fully understand as the majority take precedent over the minority and will bring in the dollar, whcih lets be honest, thatâs all Zwift is concerned about, the money
This is the first time that the âcoffee shopâ idea made sense to me. I think a light just went on.
I always thought it would be avatars on spinners like the start pen, but this give so much more to the racer.
Doing another lap with your fellow racers (showing only the racers and chat) will be so much fun to chat about the race and congratulate the winners or just the guy that beat you to the sprint.
well⌠itâs not a charity, if itâs not profitable then we have nothingâŚ
Not saying they shouldnât focus on the racing community more as it is a huge strength of the platform⌠they are at least giving us some development over the past year with CE and the promise of results based cats.
This is true Mike, but I am sure that if the top racers go to another platform so will group ride leaders and the rest will slowly follow and Zwift will be left with the people that ride a few days a week with coco.
yet it seems that 90% of the tools available for organisers etc are community based or made by users not Zwift themselves, its only recently that they have started to put some development time into the racing side of it.
Whilst this is true, itâs the most limited thinking I could imagine.
If you look at the number of Zwift subscriptions that the TTT, or ZRL has brought in. Then look at the amount of free advertising from youtube and twitch, or Zwift Insider. The vast majority is race related. Zwift racing is Zwiftâs window for the wider world. Set up an addictive and rewarding racing ecosystem and you also maintain year round subscriptions. It has a monetary value far beyond the % of active racers.