Prestige: Season 1 Premier-Tier Race Series Begins November 20

Prestige: Season One is a premier-tier cycling esports series on Zwift with full live broadcast coverage, performance verification, and prizes. It all begins this Thursday, November 20, which means I’m getting this post out a bit late! But I believe this series is a big deal, for a few reasons, so I reached out to organizer Dean Cunningham to gather details I could share with the Zwift Insider audience.

Read on to learn all about this groundbreaking series, and the new platform hosting registration and results…

Principals & Partners

The series is organized and promoted by Restart Esports p/b Alex Coh Coaching, utilizing the Leadout Esports platform at its core for all race details, rider/team entries, and results. 

Leadout Esports is a project headed by Nathan Guerra, and we’ll be seeing a lot more from them in the coming weeks and months as they begin powering additional high-end racing series. Restart Esports is headed by Dean Cunningham, and you can click below to hear Nathan and Dean discuss Prestige: Season One, the Leadout Esports platform, and visions for the future of cycling esports:

Race broadcast coverage is being handled by ZMS Esports Studio, powering live streams on the Leadout Esports YouTube channel during each race. Broadcasts will include commentary from familiar faces, including Nathan Guerra and Dave Towle.

Official race partners Verge Sport and Precision Fuel & Hydration will bring exclusive discounts to participants and squads, along with prizes for prime and race winners.

Series Format & Structure

The series consists of 4 one-day races on classic Zwift courses scheduled every other Thursday beginning November 20.

These are scratch races with one prime banner on each course. Scoring on the finish line of each race will be awarded as 30 points for 1st place, down to 1 point for 30th place. 

• Race 1: Thursday, November 20
  • Watopia’s Out and Back Again (1 Lap)
  • 42.6km, 335m
  • Prime: JWB Sprint
• Race 2: Thursday, December 4
  • Innsbruck’s Innsbruckring (4 Laps)
  • 35.4km, 309m
  • Prime: Lap 2 – Leg Snapper
• Race 3: Thursday, December 18
  • Richmond’s UCI Worlds (2 Laps)
  • 32.8km, 256m
  • Prime: Lap 1 – Libby Hill
• Race 4: Thursday, January 8
  • London’s London Loop (3 Laps)
  • 45.3km, 697m
  • Prime: Lap 2 – Box Hill

To enhance the broadcast, women race first, with men racing a half hour later:

• Women’s race times: 1300 EST/1800 GMT/1900 CET
• Men’s race times: 1330 EST/1830 GMT/1930 CET

Individual Competition & Prizes

For the individual classification, each event is treated as a one day race. There are no league cumulative standings across the series for individuals. Instead, racers will compete in each race for cash prizes, as well as prizes from the series’ apparel and nutrition sponsors, Verge Sport and Precision Fuel & Hydration. Prizes for women and men are always equal.

But that’s not all: Prestige offers a unique tiered prize structure that increases with the number of registrations for each race. The community has the power in their hands to grow the prize pool! This is visually represented on the Leadout Esports event page for the series:

Squad Competition & Prizes

Squads exist within teams, and there are 4 riders per squad. Within a team, you can have multiple squads, all competing against each other. This adds an inter-team competitive environment on top of the classic team competitions we have always enjoyed in esports cycling. 

Unlike the individual competition, there is a cumulative league scoring competition for squads that carries across all 4 races. 

Up to 3 racers on a registered squad, who place inside the top 30 across the race finish line, will see their points allocated to their squad’s point tally. These points will accumulate and form the squad’s total points after each race. 

This will eventually accumulate to a final squad league table after race #4, where the squad with the most points will be declared champions. The series squad champions will receive a monetary prize as well as a custom-designed Verge Sport kit for all 4 racers on the champion squad. 

Like the individual competition, the monetary prize pool for squads is also in the hands of the community. This prize pool grows in line with the number of squad registrations received for the series: 

Age Group Prizes

Precision Fuel & Hydration have offered up gift cards as prizes for age group winners across the finish line of each race. Racers who finish inside the criteria for cash prizes will not be eligible for the Age Group gift card prizes. This gives everyone in the entire race a chance at a prize! 

Performance Verification

All 4 races in Prestige: Season One will be subject to performance verification.

The following requirements are mandatory for all participants in each race: 

1. Must be 18 years of age or older.
2. A supplied weight video within 12 hours of the race start time.
3. The primary device to game for power, cadence, and resistance must be a smart trainer or smart bike from the permitted device list. 
4. Heart rate data for no less than 80% of the entire race. 
5. A dual recording dataset uploaded within 2 hours of race completion. This must show the primary device used for power, cadence, and resistance to the Zwift game overlaid with power and cadence data from a secondary independent power meter on the racer’s bike. 

All data provided by racers will be checked, confirmed, and verified by Race Control for the series. Race results will not be set as confirmed until all of these checks have taken place, and no prizes will be allocated to any racer/squad until Race Control is satisfied with the provided data.

Entry Fees and Registration

Prestige: Season One does indeed have entry fees for individuals and for squads. 

These entry fees fund further advancements to the Leadout platform. They enable and enhance live stream broadcast capabilities. And they enable the development of tooling/capabilities for Performance Verification. These are all things that are not available in any other race series. 

But most importantly, the entry fees enable prize pools for racers and squads. No matter the number of registered racers/squads or prize pool tier that is met, 50-75% of the entry fees are paid back directly to the participating racers and squads, with the rest going towards the development of the platforms and tooling to make the racing experience even greater. 

Individual entry stands at $12 USD per race. This is paid directly by each participating racer. 

Squad entry for the 4x races in the series stands at $40 USD. This covers a squad of 4x racers for all 4x races in the series. This can be paid by any member on the squad, and is paid in addition to the individual race entry fee.

To get started, click the Registration button on the Prestige: Season One homepage at Leadout Esports.

Get More Info

Full race details and Race Book can be found on Leadout Esports at leadoutesports.com/events/prestige-season-1

Foundations

Prestige is a new series, and the first to be hosted on the just-launched Leadout Esports platform. But Dean from Restart and Nathan from Leadout are veterans in the esports space! There’s a lot of fresh, innovative stuff to talk about here, making this feel like a foundational moment for community-organized, premier-tier cycling esports.

If you’re looking for a heightened experience in the sport, a way to promote yourself and your team to a wider audience, a place where honesty and fair play grant opportunities to win prizes… take a good look at Prestige: Season One.

Questions or Comments?

What do you think of this new series on a new platform? Share below!