When WTRL announced the schedule for Zwift Racing League 2021/22 Season 3 there were lots of questions asked about the final two races, since they were described in ways racers had never seen before in ZRL:
- They were called “Finale” races
- One was called a points race, the other wasn’t classified at all
Additionally, the last race was scheduled for Saturday instead of Tuesday, and early messages from WTRL seemed to indicate that all teams would be participating in the races, not just Division 1 teams like past seasons.
It took a while for the details of these finale events to get solidified – our guess is WTRL had to work with Zwift to make sure it would work the way they’d like. But this week, WTRL finally released the particulars of both events.
They’re now called the “WTRL Racing Finals”, which indicates that they aren’t an official part of ZRL. Instead, the Finals are more of an experimental series than a set of races endorsed/supported by Zwift.
WTRL Racing Finals: the Basics
Here are the key things racers need to know about the WTRL Racing Finals:
- The Finals are independent of the regular ZRL season. No team is obligated to race but all teams are invited.
- Both of the Finals races are points races. Standard points will be up for grabs.
- The semi-finals events are on Tuesday 17th May 2022 (event times for the majority will not change.)
- The finals are on Saturday 21st May 2022 (event times will have a +/- 2 hours variance to normal).
- Some of the regular season leagues are being combined (stacked) for the semi-finals round, then the finals rounds are between teams in an entire region. So everyone will be racing against teams you haven’t yet seen this season.
- Powerups will be turned off for both races.
- Event times are available on the WTRL website (click Future and then filter by Zwift Racing League).
Cups, Plates, Shields, and Bowls
The results of the semi-final determine who will race who in the final. Semi-finals are within teams in a league, while finals are within teams in a region.
Teams will be ranked in each league prior to the semi-final. The top half of teams in each league will race in the “Regional Cup Semi Final”, while the bottom half go to the “Regional Shield Semi Final”.
Based on the results of the semi-finals teams will again be divided/sorted heading into the regional finals – so you may race an entirely different set of teams on Saturday (but chances are you’ll be racing some of the same teams as you did on Tuesday). The top half of teams from the Regional Cup Semi-Finals will race in the Regional Cup Final, while the bottom half races in the Regional Plate Final.
Similarly, the top half of teams from the Regional Shield Semi-Final will race in the Regional Shield Final, while the bottom half will race in the Regional Bowl Finals.
After the second race (the final), four teams in each region will come out as “winners”:
- Regional Cup
- Regional Plate
- Regional Shield
- Regional Bowl
The cup/plate/shield bowl will go to the team to score the most total rider points in their finals race. Cups/plates/shields/bowls will be given per gender (mixed or women’s), per region (Oceans, EMEA, Americas), per division (A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, D1). Where teams are tied, the order to determine the winner will be:
- Finish Points
- FAL Points
- FTS Points
- Highest placing rider per team
Confusing? Yeah, a bit. But it’s not easy setting up a fair two-race final for thousands of teams! See WTRL’s page for more details.
New Format Goals
WTRL has stated the following goals for this new finals format:
- To have as much fun and fair competition as possible.
- Test out a new format.
- Establish a team ranking across the entire region for the season and determine regional winners at all levels.
Our guess is, if all goes well, we’ll see this format adopted for the finals next ZRL season.
Team Eligibility
Which teams and riders can race in the WTRL Racing Finals?
Team requirements:
- All teams who have completed at least 1 race in ZRL Season 3 qualify.
- Maximum number of riders per team is 6, minimum number of riders is only 2 (normally 4 in the regular season)
Rider requirements:
- Must have completed at least 1 race with their Finals team in the regular season
- Must not have received any CODE 7 or 8 DQ with that team during races 1-5 of the regular season
- 3-race upgrade rule still applies
- Published power limits for each category still apply
- Riders may represent one team in the semi-finals, and a different team in the finals
Questions or Comments?
We’re sure some of you will have questions about how the finals will work. Talk to your team captain for clarification, read the WTRL page, but also feel free to comment below.
Question, so a rider who has raced for two teams in a division gets a DQ code 7 in the last race. They now can’t rave the finals for that team but are allowed to race for their 2nd team. This is how we have read the rules and it seems a bit bonkers tbh.
Still confused by how this “stacking” is going to work. In the Americas, only East has A2 and A3, B4, and B5, C3 and C4. If we’re all racing against our own divisions, does that mean those of us in those divisions are only going to be riding in regional and continental whatevers against the same folks we’ve been racing all season?
Does anyone know what happens to the top half/bottom half split for leagues with an odd number of teams?
Top half gets rounded up, bottom half rounded down. So for 13 teams the split is 7/6.
Having the Finals on a different day – especially the weekend – seems likely to affect interest in / availability for this quite substantially. (Personally, I’m very unlikely to make the Saturday race). That then undermines the validity of the results as so many riders will be away. It’s an interesting format but why not just stick to Tuesdays (especially as we expect an 8-week season anyway)?
The reasoning is because the timezones are merged then people are more likely to be flexible with timings on the weekend, vs weekday. With real life racing I’m not sure it will work out, but that is the idea.
But they’re not doing much merging of the time zones are they? This was more relevant when they were doing a worldwide playoff, but not so much with this format.