Pondering the Possibilities: Beat the Bots on Zwift

Today, we’ll focus on a race format that was unveiled over the weekend as a Zwift Labs event: Beat the Bots. These events are set up on Zwift as group rides for now, but let’s be realistic: we were racing to stay away from the bots, then sprinting to the line to beat out teammates at the end.

And I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords. So let’s dig in!

Beat the Bots Basics

Beat the Bots events, as organized in their first iteration over the past weekend, work like this:

• There are just two groups of riders: the humans (group A) and the bots (group B).
• Humans leave 14 minutes before the bots
• The bots are holding 5.6 W/kg.
• Both groups ride on Watopia’s Big Flat 8 route (31.5km, 109m of elevation).

The goal is simple: to cross the finish line before any bots catch you.

Ride Experience Notes

I did this event yesterday, in the 8am PST timeslot (see Strava activity). I basically treated it like a faster group ride, averaging 234w (2.7 W/kg) and finishing around 4 minutes before the bots. (I say “around” because I have no way of knowing, since those stats aren’t tracked or shown anywhere. But more on that later.)

The experience was fun, and certainly different from a typical Zwift group ride, scratch race, points race, or TT. It was most comparable to a chase race, except we weren’t working to catch any riders up the road. Instead, our whole goal was just to stay away from the bots.

So you end up feeling like you’re working as team with other riders in your group, which is very different from the feeling you get in a typical Zwift race. Of course, once you’re a few hundred meters from the line, all bets are off, and you sprint to the finish with whatever legs you’ve got left!

The biggest thing lacking in the overall experience, I think, was not knowing how far back the bots were. The only way to figure this out was to click through the rider list until you found the bots. It took me around 10 clicks to scroll all the way back. Then you could look at their distance, compare it to your distance, and do the math to figure out how far back they were.

(This isn’t a criticism of Zwift, by the way. I love that they’re doing these “quick and dirty” Zwift Labs events, testing out formats to see what works and what doesn’t before putting more development time into polishing them.)

Here’s some of the feedback being shared in the Zwift Labs Club chat, where Zwift has asked people to post feedback for ZHQ:

Fun For All

How can these events be made more fun for everyone? This is an important question to answer when it comes to any ride format in Zwift, because Zwift needs to remain an inclusive platform where everyone can find motivation and fun, regardless of fitness level.

There are different directions we could go in how these races are set up. Some Zwifters have suggested breaking riders up into standard categories so slower riders (cat D, for example) could be released before faster riders (cat A), giving everyone a group to ride with and different time gaps so everyone is working at approximately the same relative effort level to stay away from the bots.

But I want to flip that idea on its head a bit, because breaking it up into categories like that just makes it into a standard chase race, with the addition of bots being the fastest group that is released last. That doesn’t feel novel enough to me.

What if we categorized the bots instead? All the humans leave en masse, then the bots leave as a group too, but some bots are faster than others. Perhaps something like this:

• A bots: 5.6 W/kg
• B bots: 4.8 W/kg
• C bots: 4.0 W/kg
• D bots: 3.5 W/kg

Basically, you want each group of bots to be stronger than the corresponding category of humans, so if they’re able to catch up to the human racers, humans can then do their best to sit on those bots’ wheels to the finish.

If the race was structured in this way, riders could track their fitness progress by seeing which bots catch them each race. You might get caught by all four bot groups the first time you race, but as you get stronger, you may only get caught by the B and A group… and eventually, maybe you’ll stay away from all the bots!

Why Join a Beat the Bots Race?

Beat the Bots races would be a special experience for two reasons:

• Teamwork: you need to work with the group of riders you’re in to stay away from the bots. This fun team aspect isn’t seen in most Zwift race formats.
• Experiential fitness progression: as mentioned above, you can track how much stronger you’re getting by tracking how long it takes the bots to catch you from one event to the next.
• Work as hard as you want: every rider, regardless of fitness level, can get a good workout in this format.
• A special “virtual-only” format: this is a format that doesn’t really have an outdoor equivalent, and there’s something extra fun about that.

Required Game Changes

What would Zwift need to implement in order to make Beat the Bots work well as a native race format? With the disclaimer that I’m not a game developer or platform engineer, here are a few things I can think of:

• Orientation UI: riders need to know what they’re signing up for, and how the event will work. On-screen messaging should explain this clearly and succinctly.
• Bot tracking UI: the event would be more engaging and motivating if you know where the bots are on course, how fast they’re closing the gap, etc.
• Results Screens: a race results screen at the end of the event would be nice, and perhaps the existing results screen could be modified to show which riders got caught by which bots.
• Post-ride chat: since you’ve worked with “teammates” throughout the event, it would be nice if the game kept you in “event mode” after you cross the finish line, so you can chat with other riders before returning to the open Zwift world.

Your Thoughts

Have you tried to “Beat the Bots” yet? What did you think? Share below!