There’s a rider participating in races who is under active sanctions for cheating. While the sanctions are formally only applicable in “official Zwift Cycling Esports events” it’s pretty unsatisfying seeing it happen. What would it take to prohibit sanctioned cheaters from racing in any events? Secondarily, what would it take to allow race organizers to ban individuals from their races?
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They’re not just formally only applicable in Zwift sanctioned events, it’s literally all it’s applicable to. Race organisers can DQ as they see fit in Zwift Power.
How hard is it for Zwift to prevent a user from entering any event tagged as a “race” on Zwift? In any other video game, when someone is caught cheating, they are universally banned from any competitive matchmaking at the very least, and sometimes permanently in the case of repeat offenders.
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And I’m asking to prevent them from entering events in the first place. Which was the point of the post.
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I think preventing people from entering public races on the whim of an organiser is extremely slippy ground.
They weren’t banned from all zwift races just the top level, and that’s probably how it will always be. In those races they can control everything, clear legal terms that are agreed by all participants. If they apply those rules to all races, it would be the wild west.
Agreed. Wouldn’t be as much of an issue if Zwift actually addressed cheaters beyond the one guy who went so overboard it drew international attention.
Most games have no problems banning cheaters, as it should be. Most wouldn’t even allow them on the platform at all. Why should Zwift be any different? How would banning sanctioned cheaters from competitive events make it “the wild west?” ZHQ could always add a “allow cheaters” option for race organizers.
Zwift will ban people for using swear words that are filtered out by the on-by-default swear filter. That they won’t ban cheaters is ridiculous.
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Elite events are relatively rare on the calendar, and elite riders mostly ride non-elite events, so being banned from elite events is largely meaningless, especially when it’s only for a period of months. A racing ban or platform ban are the only sanctions that can have any real effect.
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Other games issue permanent bans for folk guilty of cheating. The only thing stopping Zwift from doing so is lack of will.
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Zwift cares about money and subscribers. That’s it. It is very apparent that will never change. They only care about cheating when someone makes a public mockery of them in one of the rare ‘sanctioned’ events where they want you to believe they can detect any cheating.
A few months ago, I asked if they were still investigating riders that have been reported through the use of their ‘report suspicious rider’ form. Not one single reply from anyone at Zwift.
Reporting Suspicious Riders [July 2021] - Racing / ZwiftPower Community - Zwift Forums
Just yesterday I did one of Zwift’s own monthly Z racing ‘Crit Club’ races. One guy went off the front and held steady over 800 watts until finally getting coned after 10 minutes. Instead, the race was won by someone who average 615 watts for 19 minutes. Seems like the only way to beat the cheaters is to join them.
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Hey @Gerrie_Delport_ODZ what is Zwift currently doing to address the widespread cheating problem?
Was racing D-C-D cat enforcement races last winter (Nov - April) - I did not see any widespread problem.
You know @Gerrie_Delport_ODZ doesn’t work for Zwift right?
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He seems to have a response for every criticism and spoke as if he were directly involved in PD4 development, so it’s reasonable to assume he’s of sufficient status to know why they aren’t doing anything about cheating.
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Can take a wild guess…
It would take a lot of resource that isn’t offset by the impact to subscriber numbers.
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This is the guy?
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Wow. 
Looks like he might be one a spin bike, somehow broadcasting power.
I look at those reports on a daily basis.
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And? What is the outcome? How many people are banned for cheating? How is the guy who cheated so flagrantly in an “elite” competition still allowed on the platform at all?
I’m definitely not going to comment on how many riders we ban.
If you send me a link to the rider in question I’ll definitely raise it internally.