Zwift Chat

[Joffey]

Aleman like I said, when it is blatantly obvious it feels like they’re rubbing your race in it. But that wasn’t really my point. My point was that, and this is just what I’ve found helpful… is that it’s better to try and make peace with people’s cheating.
You have no idea who you’re racing against in reality.

I’ve never met the majority of you guys let alone the wider zwift racing community in the real world. Having the big argument when I caught milzy weight doping a couple of years back taught me a big lesson. Now I just treat it like a big computer game. People cheating is anyway on a game is completely tragic. What more is there to say!

Like they say - 'You are only cheating yourself'

I have a very similar attitude to you - I don't let it affect me as it's just a game. You win some and you lose some. I just use it for fitness but it is nice if you get close to winning the odd race here or there!

 

[JuhaL]

I'm not a racer as well and maybe it's better that way because i don't know would i be modest or will i start to show off with my results. Now i only accept that my physic don't reach any race levels what i should have after 30 year cycling, i just do my trainings with my own terms. And i enjoy that i can do even that.

 

[<Tommy>]

I'm not a racer as well and maybe it's better that way because i don't know would i be modest or will i start to show off with my results. Now i only accept that my physic don't reach any race levels what i should have after 30 year cycling, i just do my trainings with my own terms. And i enjoy that i can do even that.

You can have it both ways though bud. If you accept that there will always be people faster than you. And always people slower. It can just be great fun and a great work out too. Maybe it’s when people can’t handle losing it’s the first step towards cheating. I don’t know… to me losing is my motivation to try harder next time.

 

[<Tommy>]

Speaking of racing, does anyone fancy it tonight? I was painfully of the pace on Tuesday when I raced last. For a brief moment of self reflection afterwards I even considered doing a block on trainer road. But I pulled myself back from the abyss and I hope doing a couple of races plus velodrome training and it should come back.

 

[berty bassett]

Speaking of racing, does anyone fancy it tonight? I was painfully of the pace on Tuesday when I raced last. For a brief moment of self reflection afterwards I even considered doing a block on trainer road. But I pulled myself back from the abyss and I hope doing a couple of races plus velodrome training and it should come back.

Race at 7 on RGT only short one though

 

[Randyberlin]

as you know , i had a hissy git and left zwift as i couldnt race with the ones i wanted to because of the ranking system
i have just been reading how rgt ranks races and its a shame that zwift doesnt do the same
you all start with a silver ranking with points , if you beat people with more points than you , you get more points - if you beat people who have less points then there is a good chance of losing points
solves the sandbagging
points get you promoted - no points demoted

The ranking system used on RGTDB is built on a modified version of the Elo ranking system. The concept is simple. Ranked races offer the chance to gain or lose rank based a riders results vs others. The higher the difference in rank, the more change is possible. Over time, a rank is calculated that signifies the chance of winning against others.

In this system, sandbagging (or racing against lower ranked riders), is risky. At best, a win yeilds almost no rank gain. Losing transfers a large amount of rank to the winning riders.
just saying

Hey! What the !!??!. I was just about to get on here and troll everyone to come back to Bkool. Then you jump in ahead of me. Splitters splitters sect vs coming back to the traditional beliefs.
Our league starts up again tonight. Everyone is welcome.

 

[BurningLegs]

I’ve never met the majority of you guys let alone the wider zwift racing community in the real world. Having the big argument when I caught milzy weight doping a couple of years back taught me a big lesson. Now I just treat it like a big computer game. People cheating is anyway on a game is completely tragic. What more is there to say!

You only have to come to terms with the fact that people are cheating and getting away with it because of the system that Zwift have designed, though.

Other computer games all have ranking systems, you just don't know it. When you logon to FIFA, Call of Duty, or any other online game and join a game you are matched with someone that is a similar level to you but it is transparent. If they're actually nowhere near as good as you but they're cheating with an aim bot or something on their PC then so what? You get a good competition out of it anyway and the ranking system means you'll win some and lose some because it works.

Zwift is the only game I'm aware of that allows players to effectively self-select their ability and enter competitions on that basis, and this is what invites all the speculation (and often confirmation) of cheating.

If Zwift got rid of the lettered category system for races (instead of complicating it further like WTRL) and you just entered a race where the pens were sets of riders with a similar ZwiftPower race ranking (which is already in place) then it solves the cheating problem because if you cheat better you end up in a pen that has better races in it, so what is there to actually gain? There is no incentive.

 

[Whorty]

This /\

There are rankings in ZP, surely it's not that difficult to use this to rank riders? Cheats will win races ... they get promoted and race people of equal 'ability' ... some of whom are also cheating, some are not, but it's an equal race.

As a top C I benefit from sandbaggers ... a couple of B riders in a C race means I can sit on their wheel and get a free ride. Less strong C riders get dropped and gives me more chance of placing high. But ... be better if the sandbaggers were not there and all riders (me included) are forced to race harder to gain the wins/placings.

So yes ... a points based category would be much better, as everyone can push hard every race and not be scared of slipping into a next cat via w/kg even though they came mid table!

 

[steverob]

The trouble is that the ZwiftPower race ranking system is also broken. Now most of that is down to the category system; if that was removed it would work a lot better, but it’s still not all that good.

An example: when I was at the top of D but not quite good enough to get promoted to C, I was regularly getting podiums in races along with a few wins. My ranking therefore started trending downward (e.g. getting better). Some of my teammates who were in the lower half of C (and even a few of the Bs) however weren’t getting any points because they were finishing towards the bottom of their fields, meaning I had a better/lower score than them despite them being better riders. This meant that had there been an algorithm to separate pens based on race ranking, I’d have been racing with the Bs and top C’s as they had similar scores! Of course I then did get promoted to C and my rating fell away to 600 again as I was finishing last in most races, so problem solved I guess?

 

[<Tommy>]

You only have to come to terms with the fact that people are cheating and getting away with it because of the system that Zwift have designed, though.

That’s not correct though mate

Whatever the catergory system Zwift implemented it wouldn’t stop people weight doping would it. Unless there is a system that is somehow designed to measure the weight of every racer, then I think it’s better just to accept that a lot of people cheat and come to terms with it. Obviously that’s crap and you shouldn’t have to. But the alternative is getting wound up about something you have no power to change.

For what it’s worth I’m obviously not going to make arguments in favour of the current W/KG system. I’d like ap pint system too if they can get it to work. What I’m saying is that there is always going to be a limit as to what Zwift can do to stop cheating.

 

[Legs]

I’m not racing tonight, but I’m signed up for the BRT Ages Masters race tomorrow evening, taking advantage of my old git status to take my place in the 40-49 category. It’s the first time I’ve done one of these events - hopefully a few more will sign up for it, cos there’s only two of us in the whole race at the moment!

 

[mjd1988]

Just seen this, no more information

 

[BurningLegs]

That’s sad.

Makes me think perhaps we should all just enter a different race series if/when one comes up. Think we may have missed the boat on the DBR cup but there may be others starting soon.

 

[mjd1988]

That’s sad.

Makes me think perhaps we should all just enter a different race series if/when one comes up. Think we may have missed the boat on the DBR cup but there may be others starting soon.

Agreed. It's always lots of fun when there's loads of us in a race series. Might give some of us a kick to move up a cat as well

 

[Whorty]

That’s sad.

Makes me think perhaps we should all just enter a different race series if/when one comes up. Think we may have missed the boat on the DBR cup but there may be others starting soon.

I read that as someone quit working on the website ... do you think it's more? If so, very sad.