Or a game publisher buys up Zwift and has Zwift update their user experience.
1 Like
It wasn’t too long ago that people were saying the same thing about Computrainer…best trainer out there, bulletproof, best user experience, etc.
1 Like
He has to talk about this as I’d bet that’s the story he sold his recent investors and board on.
I’ll go out on a limb here and say there will never be a serious esport component to a major competitive event - unless all athletes are in a centralized location, they do multiple heats moving between trainers/power meters in a randomized way, and no other electronic devices are allowed in the room.
At that point, it just becomes a gimmick, and what’s the point.
I don’t ride Zwift anymore so can’t comment on recent features or lack thereof. But in my short experience 12-18 months ago, I thought it was enjoyable for what it was designed to do.
2 Likes
There has been live events - CVR, Fiets Magazine, British Cycling National Championships. They’ve had everyone on the same trainer, calibrated by the officials, and athletes weighing in at the event. It wouldn’t be difficult, but once someone produces a wired trainer they’ll have that market stitched up. With Zwift’s hardware division, I would imagine this is something they will be looking at.
2 Likes
Everyone did up until a few years ago, amusingly enough.
Which is kinda my point. Part of the allure of esports is it would allow people to participate remotely from around the world. If you’re going to get all the athletes in one place, why not just do a regular bike race?
How many participants were there in these events?
All had large and/or lengthy qualification online for a live final. In the case of the British Cycling event, there were 248 results recorded on Zwiftpower.
Many major eSports have live tournaments. Where’s the difference here?
2 Likes
It’s ironic!! When I’m racing online, I have everything wired wherever possible - internet via ethernet cable, phone plugged directly into a speaker etc.
2 Likes
What sports? Are there any where the esport is replacing a traditional sport? Any sports where equipment calibration and/or cheating can be an issue, and/or that have had the same cheating history as cycling?
The term eSports refers to competitive gaming…
The use of the terms “sport” is a bit of a misnomer. Zwift, eRacing, “Physical eSport” etc, doesn’t fit nicely into that.
1 Like
Doing an ANT±over-USB or BLE-over-USB is trivial, but nobody is interested because a) it means more hardware on the trainer, and b) it’s only relevant for Win10 or MacOS platforms. One can assume that the Zwift hardware division rumored last fall could design or license a smart trainer and add a wired protocol - this would make live events secure from man-in-the-middle hacks.
I guess is boils down to where does this fit? Is it a video game? Is it a sport? CVR have “Physical Equalisation” so everyone is on the same playing field, but you could have a World Tour rider getting beaten by someone using a controller rather than being on a bike!!
Now a smart trainer with:
- Wired protocol
- Remote calibration
- Incorporated scales
Wouldn’t that be an interesting prospect?!
They (Zwift) are trying to create a new category: virtual sports, if you want. Where a real physical activity is performed in a virtual world. Not quite what eSports means at this time.
Until they (whoever is organizing the event) can guarantee that all remote participants are competing on a level playing field (weight, power, calibration, no cheating, etc), then cycling as an esport will be more of a novelty than a true competition with a lot of $ at stake.
AFAIK, The esports in the Wikipedia link generally don’t suffer from the same challenges as cycling in this regard.
1 Like
It would be interesting for live events. The integrated scale could be hacked if it was sitting by itself in your living room. And if you have a live event, you don’t need the integrated scale, you just do a weight-in before each race.
The wired communication could also be hacked in your living room, but depending on the talent of the designers, this can be a lot harder. And nothing prevents you from rigging a lawnmower engine to your trainer, of course. Apart from the neighbors complaining about the racket.
1 Like
There’s always going to be cheats. In any sport, where there is a will there’s a way. And the cheats will always be one step ahead of those that are trying to catch them.
1 Like
In the interview, Min pretty much confirms that whatever hardware solution they come up with will be a wired platform…or at least have it as an option.
1 Like
100% true…but that doesn’t mean that the providers should turn a blind eye to it (or worse, make it very easy to cheat the system).
3 Likes
Yes. But Cheating aside, cycling esports faces another challenge - equipment calibration, whether that’s the scale, the power meter (offset, slope, temperature adjustment), trainer (bearing maintenance), etc.
Let’s say my power meter is reading 1% higher than yours. I win by half a wheel in a Zwift race.
That’s a problem if it’s in a competitive arena, not just a casual Zwift race. Hence my point above about repeat heats on different equipment in a randomized order. That’s a very different competitive structure than most cycling (maybe track has some of this).
This is not to say that cycling esports events won’t happen. They will. But not at the UCI or Olympic level where a lot is at stake (other than maybe some publicity trials paid for by Zwift)
1 Like