ON THE ZWIFTPOWER RUMOR

A note on the rumor circulating, saying that Zwift is planning to bring ZwiftPower in-house:

If this is true, then it is (potentially) FANTASTIC NEWS! 

I couldn't be happier, given how busy they must be with Virtual Tour de France going on in the meantime. I will explain why.

If you have read my earlier posts, then you will know already that I strongly object to the race category system in Zwift. It's a dead end. And no third-party life support will change that. In fact, it will only make things worse by giving the false impression it is worth saving. It's time to move on and lay the W/kg race categories to rest once and for all.

Don't get me wrong. The community plays a very important part in making Zwift what it is today, similar to other online game communities. And ZwiftPower has been an important force that has helped the rest of the community to develop Zwift racing, and to encourage clubs to organize races at all! And it's voluntary work. Nothing to spit at. 

But the race category system must go. And then it doesn't help that you have a third party (Zwift and the racers being the other parties) that clings on to the W/kg system and tries to find new measures to stop cheating. The system itself promotes cheating. So what ZwiftPower sets out to do is, in a way, to put band aid on an infested wound. The wound won't heal, no matter how much band aid you put on it. It needs to be cleaned out first.

If Zwift brings ZwiftPower in-house, then that signals to me that Zwift is finally about to take control and, more importantly, full responsibility over racing. It's then up to them alone to make sure our racing is clean and fair. They can no longer just shrug and nod over to somebody else for that. There is then no one to help them keep racing clean and fair. It's all up to them. And it also gives Zwift a greater freedom to influence or redesign reporting of and keeping tabs on race results.

And in the best of worlds, this paves the way for what Eric Min vaguely promised in the Zwift Podcast of Feb 4th 2020. A reworked race category system. One based on past results rather than past efforts.

It does pave the way. Then it has to happen too. Seeing is believing, but one obstacle would be removed and that's a step forward. 

The people behind ZwiftPower are not the obstacle here. They have tried their best to remedy a system that was ill thought-out to begin with, without actually being able to change the system itself. That is up to Zwift. And I hope they take that step next. They will have to.

In the meantime, and in so far as the rumors are true, so far so good.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BORG CHARTING A CHEATER

Image
I was wreaking havoc on the official Zwift forum recently in the wake of this little study . A question that kept resurfacing in the discussion was whether it is really reasonable to assume that you can detect cheating (cruising) from just looking at a HR distribution chart. Coming from the outside it may indeed seem like a fair question. I would, however, like to argue that it is not, that you are missing the point. The point is that cruising is the HR distribution graph. You can't really detect it any other way, not even in theory. In fact, you can't really define it any other way. I will try to explain. But first one of those mandatory detours that come with this blog. I thought we would start off with discussing dead celebrities. Let's leave the boring Club 27 out of the picture for a change. But do you know who Borg was? No no, not that Borg. I am referring to Gunnar Borg, PhD MD and former Swedish professor in psychology.  I saw him in person a few times while he was
Read more

WHAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT WEIGHT DOPING

Image
You have probably already heard about weight doping. That by entering a deflated weight in your Zwift profile you will become faster since it will make your W/kg increase. And there is no one around to catch you red-handed if you do this smartly and only participate in everyday races. Only suckers who suddenly drop a nice even chunk, like 10 kg from one day to the next, will look suspicious. ZwiftPower will react to those and so will fellow racers who might be studying their ZwiftPower profiles. Zwift, however, will not react. You can enter any weight you like at any time. And if you race in the lower categories and make sure to decrease your weight in the profile gradually over time, as if you were on a diet, who would dare to call you a cheater? You were just getting fitter and slimmer! Weight doping, I would assume, could prove to be a big problem in the higher categories. In cat A you only stand to gain if you drop weight, one way or the other, as long as you don't get caught s
Read more

UPDATED: W/KG FAIL 2: THE LIGHT RIDER'S CURSE

The heavy rider's disadvantage You couldn't exactly call it unfair perhaps, but heavy riders suffer a disadvantage in Zwift races. The lighter riders have an easier time uphill and it is so hard to match the Watts needed to keep level with the lighter rider's W/kg there.  The above is a very common complaint on various Zwift forums. But is it true? I like to question those self-evident truths we all take for granted. If they are indeed truths then there is no harm in validating them. Sometimes, however, they turn out not to be true after all, once you actually take a serious look at them. So what about rider weight and race results in Zwift? Let's take one of those serious looks for a change instead of just passing on what some other guy said on the internet. The below is partly based on a discussion I was involved in on the official Zwift forum recently centered around what I like to call the Light Rider's Curse. The light rider's advantage Without any prior kn
Read more