Zwift Racing Score Updates and Opinion Poll

It was big news when Zwift began testing their new Zwift Racing Score (ZRS) metric in early July, because that meant results-based race categorization could be coming soon.

Now, a month into the tests, statistics and racer opinions have emerged which are in turn driving changes to the ZRS system as Zwift works to make it ready for a larger release.

Let’s take a look at some of the numbers, opinions, and changes made or planned. But first…

Take Our Poll!

I’m curious: if you’ve tried one or more scored races, what do you think of Zwift Racing Score? Here’s a one-question poll where you can rate your experience:

Some Stats

Zwift staff recently shared a forum post that includes some ZRS stats and plans (see it here).

As of July 30, over 12,750 unique racers had joined over 25,000 scored races. Most riders have finished just one scored race, which makes some sense, since there aren’t a lot of scored races available:

The distribution of racing scores is as follows:

Summarizing Feedback

There’s a lot of feedback flowing in from the ZRS test events, with riders posting comments in the Zwift forums and the Zwift Labs club.

I certainly haven’t read all the feedback… but I’ve read a lot of it. Here are some of the themes I’m noticing:

• Race groups seem more diverse. That is, you’ve got riders with strong 30s power and relatively low FTPs mixed in with riders who have higher FTP but a poor sprint. This should result in more interesting races as the high FTP riders put in hard, longer attacks to try to drop sprinters before the line.
• Heavier riders and/or those with big 30s power feel like they’re seeded too high. Some riders with a strong sprint (in terms of pure watts) are complaining that they are getting dropped quickly in their races. This seems to be more than a “you’re at the bottom of your category” issue, and more of a “your seed score is higher than it should be” issue. But it could also be a “you’re having to work for the result instead of just sitting in then sprinting” issue.
• Seed score increases are confusing some riders. Your seed score is based on your 30s and 10-minute power, and you can set a new PR for either of these in any Zwift activity. It’s very possible to set a new PR in a race and have your ZRS change based on a new seed score as well as your race result. This could be a bit confusing, and Zwift may need to make some UI changes to improve the experience.
• (Possibly) unrealistic expectations: I’ve seen various comments from riders whose expectations don’t seem realistic. A few examples:
  • “My ZRS band is harder than my old category enforcement category, and this is wrong.” It’s two completely different categorization systems, and nothing says that you should be at the same place in the pecking order in both.
  • “My score isn’t changing enough.” If the ZRS system is accurate, your score shouldn’t be changing drastically between events. Your ZRS is supposed to predict race performance, and if it does that well, you should finish at or near your current ZRS.
  • “I got dropped. The system is broken.” Lots of riders get dropped. You may have been at the top of your category before, and now you’re at the bottom. Some riders with strong sprints have been sitting in and sandbagging the lower categories and are now being forced to race against stronger riders. ZRS wasn’t meant to make racing easier: it was meant to make it fairer.

ZRS Changes

Zwift’s devs have already made some changes to ZRS since its initial rollout, including:

• Slowing the rate at which your ZRS decays
• Fixing some UI bugs
• Showing your updated score when you return to the game homescreen after a race
• Changing ZRS-based bands in ZRacing events to use different score ranges

Additional changes are planned for August:

• New indicator icons in race results to show if you hit your floor value or had a major jump based on setting a new 30s to 600s best
• “We will also be fixing an issue that prevented score from moving as quickly as they should when a new 90-day power best/floor is established”
• Fixing web results so up/down arrows display correctly

Join a Scored Race!

If you haven’t tried a race using Zwift Racing Score, give it a try! Here’s a list of upcoming ZRS test races: zwift.com/events/tag/zwiftlabs

Questions Or Comments?

Questions about how ZRS works? Comments about it? Post below!