E-Sports Cycling Comes of Age
Announcing Your Zwift World Champions
Since its launch in 2015, the indoor web-based cycling platform Zwift has seen over 2.5 million accounts registered across 190 countries. Zwift’s valuation of $1.1 billion is hard to comprehend, as that puts its worth as more than some of the bigger bicycle manufacturing brands.
“That’s impressive,” you might think, “but the racing part is phony, right?”
Well, what if I told you there are at least 12 professional teams specializing in online racing?
Just this month the final piece of the puzzle came boldly into place. The UCI (the international governing body of cycling) hosted the first E-sports World Championship title event. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio of South Africa and Jason Osborn of Germany took home the gold medals. The live televised race was not only on Eurosport, but several other TV channels, in addition to YouTube. National team riders competed against star-studded fields of indoor specialists and IRL (in real life) riders from a range of disciplines, including undisputed power houses like Tour de France star Rigoberto Urán, World Hour record holder Victor Campenaerts, mountain bike star Annika Langavad, and 2017 World Champion triathlete Lionel Sanders, to name just a few.
All riders had to undergo stringent checks of power meters and body weight and were supplied calibrated trainers on which to compete. The race was for a pixelated rainbow jersey, and what’s more it offered $32,000 USD in prize money. This purse puts the event at the low end of the Pro Video Game E-sports prize money and viewership rankings. However, glancing at some of the latest competitions in other e-sports, you’ll see the potential for prize money to one day rival World Tour races.
Many could have seen Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio’s explosive win coming because of the top tier pro’s Zwift focus this season, but Jason Osborn? Jason is an Olympic rower with incredible palmares that span world titles and world records. When he went early in the final uphill sprint, the favorites hesitated. Their reaction came in the form of an astounding 700-900 watt surge up the second half of the climb, but it was too late close the gap.
Jason, like other top-level rowers, has a special gift due to his competitions being max intensity 5-minute efforts, and therefore he’s developed the strength to tolerate insane lactate levels. For rowers maximum heart rate for 5 minutes at a time is totally normal.Jason used this perfectly timed attack to surprise the field. Next time he will be a marked man!
There is something cool about Zwift bringing super power talents over from triathlon, rowing, and various other sports. This elevation in competition and the unique aspects of Zwift make for unpredictable events that are joys to watch.
It’s got me thinking that perhaps this winter I need to do some rowing for cross training?
As a long time Zwifter, it was a treat for me to moonlight on the Canyon Esports powerhouse team for a couple of races. This new level is quite humbling. It’s a different game – kind of like jumping into a crit race as a stage race specialist. In Zwift’s earlier days, you had a good chance at success if you showed up stronger than everyone else, but now it’s a loaded international field of career-athletes and e-sport specialists.
A few saw it coming, but not many could have predicted the events of this year’s pandemic. Its effect on e-sports, especially Zwift, has been like pouring lighter fluid onto a backyard grill.
An exciting thing about this growth is that now there are more club teams and new ways to be involved. Canyon Esports started a community club for anyone who wants to join in and have fun. And for east coast US riders, you can join three Slowtwitch teams in ZRL – all in America’s East coast time zone with an A, B, and C option for tons of fun!
What’s ahead for racing is anyone’s guess, but for the next couple of months tune in to watch the pros duke it out in the professional invite-only Premier Leagues on Zwift. The Premier Division has professional invite-only races and the Community (or in other words, open amateur classes) hosts leagues across the different time zones: Asia, Europe, Eastern America, and Western America. If you live in India or Hawaii, you’ll have to decide if you’re a night owl or a morning person. Top teams in the amateur division can upgrade to the ranks of the Premier. With around nine exciting rounds of racing in January and February 2021, the platform will feature various courses and distances, including team time trails.
Meanwhile on the RGT platform, some of the USA Cycling Races that were previously canceled have been reborn as the Echelon Racing League. This series takes on some great courses with a lot of variety. Iconic American events like Tour of the Gila, Bucks County Classic, and Redland Classic have seen their rebirths happen online.
I’m stoked to be joining the Slowtwitch rise and shine ride on the first Thursday of the month for a brisk-but-not-all-out effort. I wonder if we can get Dan Empfeild out of bed at 2AM to join in?
E-sports cycling is here and has just put a foot in the bottom step of the lucrative e- sports industry. Will there be tournaments with $750,000 for first place? Only time will tell.
The fire is bight, but like lighter fluid sprayed about it’s hard to predict where and how it will grow. In the meantime, look for some sparks to fly and stars in the making.
Jeremiah Bishop
Additional resources and cool links:
• For racing, check out www.ZwiftPower.com for a calendar and power verification rankings page.
• Follow @ZwiftHacks for great tech tips and tricks.
• For non-racing news, see ZwiftInsider.com. They host the Power Up podcast and feature
tech reviews.
• Info about the Echelon Racing Series.
• For coverage of the Echelon racing series, subscribe to the YouTube channel.
• To spectate professional races, subscribe to the Zwift YouTube Channel.
• Check out GPLama for tech reviews and game updates.
• Zwift’s competitors seem to have lost some ground with the former’s huge boost from venture capital, but they are worth checking out. FulGaz.com has nice graphics. Rouvy.com has hosted some high-profile races like Ronde van Vlaanderen. Last, but not least, RGT or Road Gran Tours platform features unique game play, with braking in-turns and realistic solid riders you can’t ghost through.
