What’s this all about? Well, on the surface this is a blog about cheating in Zwift races.
I give an inside view of how cheating is done in races in such a way that the race results look perfectly legit even on ZwiftPower, i.e. cheating in order to secure that gold cup in the ZwiftPower race results. This inside view comes from my own races, where I cheat and at the same time observe other cheaters. Hence if you read the various posts, at the very least you get a deeper understanding of the less visible but all too common form of cheating I call cruising. If you haven’t reflected on the phenomenon yet it should be an eye opener for you. But you could also use the information in the posts to get you up to speed so you can start cheating yourself, if you would like to. It’s up to you what you do with your freetime. You should at least have equal opportunities. The series of posts tagged as Cheat School as well as the Race Reports provide the inside view.
Beneath the surface this blog is not about cheating at all. It is a critique against the race mechanics and rules in Zwift as they stand today. My firm view is that most of the cheating, which you will find in almost every race in categories B-D throughout the weekly Zwift race schedule, is an artifact that is created by ill thought out race rules, rules that Zwift could easily change to make racing a much more fair and thus more fun experience. There are also other flaws in Zwift racing creating unfair advantages where the beneficiaries are not actually cheating, but it is still there, it ruins racing and I explain those quirks too.
“Fun is Fast”, they say in the Zwift commercials. “Fun is Fair” is the statement between the lines in this blog. You will get a deeper understanding of the flaws of the Zwift racing system in posts tagged as Cheating Theory or General.
Except for this introductory post, all the posts are displayed in descending date order, the latest posts first. So you need to browse a little to go back to older posts. In e.g. the Race Reports I often refer to older posts that introduce some key concepts, so there is a reason for you to go back and read up on those. Like any other blog keeper I encourage you to read all of it of course, but if you want to deepen your understanding of how Zwift racing really works, then you should actually spend some time here. Chances are you will be as astonished as I once was myself when I began to understand bit by bit what is really going on in Zwift races and what the real reasons were why I struggled so much without ever getting rewarded. No need to reinvent the wheel. Just read some posts and take it from there.
I try to be mildly entertaining. Still, you might find some posts or comments harsh or even offensive. That’s because I’m pissed off. Not with you. Not with cheaters (really!). But with Zwift. Zwift racing is badly designed. And their CRM, Customer Relations Management, is just terrible. Many of us paying subscribers have tried for years to make Zwift listen and address the issues we see but nothing ever happens. Zwift regularly brushes off these customer complaints with the argument that Zwift racing is just a margin phenomenon or feature that attracts comparatively few subscribers, hence they need to focus on more pressing issues that would benefit the bulk of the subscribers (not that we see much of that either). But this is a flawed argument or at least a bad strategic choice on their part. Subscribers that are not new tend to drift into racing sooner or later. Those who then back away and stick to group rides or solo activities typically had bad first experiences in races.
Just look at the weekly events calendar – the by far most common event is races. And a big part of Zwift marketing is the high profile elite racing events, which for various reasons I discuss are not nearly as flawed as the subscriber races. For a sustainable Zwift we really need racing fixed. But Zwift seems to focus entirely on attracting as many new subscribers as possible without taking care of the loyal subscribers they already have. That’s not sustainable. That’s an exit strategy, inflating subscriber numbers before selling off the company to some other party. So do we have a future as long-time subscribers in Zwift, or should we simply jump ship? Read and decide for yourself.