It’s been a busy week in the world of cycling esports, so here’s a quick post to catch you up on anything you may have missed.
Let’s discuss four pieces of recent noteworthy news for Zwift racers, in chronological order:
- Zwift Grand Prix
- Zwift partnering with IndieVelo founders for rider verification
- UCI and MyWhoosh sign three-year Esports Worlds agreement
- Zwift Championships
Zwift Grand Prix
Zwift retooled its elite racing series in 2022, rolling out the “Grand Prix” series and its suite of unique race formats. On July 31 Zwift’s competition team notified top teams’ managers that the next Grand Prix series is happening, and Zwift is now accepting applications for teams.
The Grand Prix will comprise 7 rounds, starting October 19 and ending mid-January 2024. Selected teams will be announced on or around September 8.
What’s different for the Grand Prix this year?
- Grand Prix riders will be racing the ZRL course the Thursday/Friday before racers take it on, for rounds 2 and 3.
- Some or all of the Grand Prix event formats will match ZRL’s, including the new scratch race format, TTT, and points races.
- Teams will be required to have both a men’s and women’s team, which explains why we’ve seen some high-level men’s teams rolling out a women’s team in recent months (NeXT, BL13). Teams are allowed to partner with existing women’s teams in order to make this happen, which is a good move given the number of established women’s only teams on Zwift.
I’m happy to see the Grand Prix being linked into ZRL a bit more, like Zwift’s Premier League (predecessor to the Grand Prix) was in the past. It encourages community racers to watch Grand Prix events, and helps unite the entire Zwift racing community.
Zwift/ZADA/IndieVelo
Zwift’s ZADA has, for years, been responsible for verifying performances in high-level Zwift events. Originally a community-powered initiative, it was dissolved due to privacy issues, then returned in 2019 as an official Zwift governing body. It is referenced throughout Zwift’s official Cycling Esports Ruleset.
I’ve been wondering what was happening with ZADA for the past few months, after learning that ZADA’s former chairman (George Gilbert) had launched indieVelo, a race-focused indoor cycling platform. Who would take the reins at ZADA moving forward?
Turns out, it’s still going to be George Gilbert, as well as former ZADA team leader Bjoern Ossenbrink. Zwift told elite Team Managers on August 11:
“For 2023/24, we will continue to work with Dr. George Gilbert and Bjoern Ossenbrink from indievelo (previously part of ZADA), who will provide an independent governance and performance verification service for the ZGP on Zwift. This service will be delivering PV and governance solutions only.“
As I understand it, the indieVelo platform itself won’t be used for performance verification. Rather, Zwift is simply contracting with Gilbert and Ossenbrink, through the indieVelo corporate entity, to continue to do similar work as they’ve done in the past in verifying Zwift race performances.
Interesting times, indeed.
UCI Selects MyWhoosh as Esports Worlds Host
The biggest news in cycling esports this week is the UCI’s announcement that they’ve selected MyWhoosh as their partner for the next three Esports World Championships (2024, 2025, 2026).
This may come as a surprise to Zwifters (and Zwift itself), given that Zwift has been the only platform to host Esports Worlds thus far, having hosted it for three years. I reached out to Zwift for an official statement, and they said:
Naturally, we are disappointed by this outcome but we are extremely proud of the three great World Championships we have delivered with the UCI to date.
Our commitment to grow the sport of cycling esports from community racing upwards and to further develop our elite racing product remains unchanged. We will continue to innovate and drive this new sport forward.
The Zwift community is the bedrock of cycling esports and we will continue to create top-level elite events, including a Zwift Championship, that showcase racing on Zwift and celebrate the best Zwift racers in the world. Stay tuned for more details to come!
Is this a major setback for Zwift? A sign that they’ve fallen from their lofty perch atop indoor cycling virtual mountain? Probably not. As DCRainmaker said in today’s post, “The point here being, everything about these selections are driven by money (and connections), not functionality or user bases.”
Zwift still possesses a pile of investor cash, but MyWhoosh, based in United Arab Emirates (UAE), is linked/backed by the government of UAE itself. And that government is not short on cash. Comparing the features and user bases of Zwift and MyWhoosh, one can only assume that the UCI made its decision based on financial motives.
Who knows? Three years from now we may find that MyWhoosh hosting Esports Worlds was a good thing for Zwift. First, it holds their feet to the fire. It may also allow Zwift to invest in other crucial projects that keep growing its user base, feature set, and hardware offerings, so the platform can continue dominating the indoor space.
Zwift Championships
Hidden in Zwift’s statement above re: Esports Worlds is a new event announcement: a “Zwift Championship”! What exactly is this? I have no idea, and Zwift isn’t sharing any info just yet. But my guess is, it will be a sort of “Esports Worlds” without all the UCI attachments.
Zwift, more than any other indoor cycling platform, knows how to organize a high-end racing event. With ZRL bigger than ever and the next Grand Prix series announced, we’ll probably see everything culminate in a Zwift Championship in early 2024.
Questions or Comments
Thoughts on anything above? Share below!
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