On July 23rd, Charlie Issendorf (Director of Events at Zwift) announced on Facebook that, for the first time ever, division winners from the previous ZRL season would be getting a prize!
To honor the division winning teams from Season 3 of the Zwift Racing League, we have designed a custom ZRL virtual winner’s helmet. Each rider who competed on the winning team will have this unique helmet entitled. It’s our way of saying congratulations on a job well done. This helmet will also be awarded to all future winners of each season so if you see a Zwifter wearing this helmet, you’ll know they are a champion.
It’s a small prize, but a cool idea.
Today I signed onto Zwift and checked my garage to see if the helmet had arrived. And it had… ahead of schedule! (Charlie had promised they would show up in game by August 1.)
It’s a rare thing for Zwift to entitle exclusive in-game kit to race winners, although it’s been done in the past for a few big top-tier races including nationals. But this is the first large-scale release of such a prize.
How large? Well, ZRL season 3 was huge, with thousands of teams racing each week. There are 123 teams receiving the prize helmet. That’s a minimum of 738 riders, but keep in mind the vast majority of these teams had extra riders to sub in when needed. So we’re probably looking at over 1000 riders who now have this helmet in their garage.
I was sort of a “utility racer” in season 3, riding for two different DIRT teams (the Hellhounds and the Roosters). Both of these teams won their respective divisions (despite my best efforts 🤣), so I guess I won the helmet two times over!
Don’t expect the ZRL Winner’s Helmet to make you faster in-game, though – it’s just a reskin of the default Zwift helmet (and even Zwift’s most “aero” helmets don’t make a measurable difference).
As Charlie explained in his post, the plan is for this helmet to be given to future season winners as well. Seems easy enough, but what I’d love to see is a different piece of kit given for each season’s winners, perhaps with the season number indicated on the kit. Season 4 socks, season 5 glasses… maybe a season 6 Safety Bike! So many options…
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