This whole thing is interesting, but not really? Does the champion get the wear the jersey for a year while riding their trainer at home? Meh… I’m still in the camp that indoor training is to augment outdoor riding/racing, not replace it.
For my own sanity.
1st Feb he was level 16 and no Tron bike.
24th Feb he was level 24 and had the bike.
Between these dates he was in Calpe on a training camp and did daily videos. All of this is on his YT channel.
(I’m not defending his actions here, but there was no way he could ‘hide’ getting this bike given the work involved and his daily updates)
don’t agree with that (if you were meaning there’s no ‘skill’ involved beyond pure athletic ability)
if there were two identical riders competing but one was an experienced zwift racer, the experienced racer would win
granted, the skill component is much lower than in other e-sports but it does exist imo
aw mate i’ve got some bad news for you about traditional cycling then
I agree with you 100%.
Why were the other 2 riders DSQ?
Already a failed activity when 25% of the finalist are DSQ.
Any stats on the other national championships?
Seems we’ve gone through this on prime time teevee once before.
By this standard, L 
nce made a decade-long mistake.
He, presumably, made the fully conscious decision to cheat whilst sat in his comfy chair at home. This eventually resulted in him losing his title.
Nils Eekhoff made the not-so-fully conscious decision to cheat whilst sat no-so-comfy on his bike whilst being battered by horrific weather conditions. This eventually resulted in him losing his title.
Where to draw the line between a premeditated cheat driven by greed and ego and a lack of judgement from mental fatigue and distress?
Meh. In the big scheme of things, he’s still virtually unknown; we all know what reigns supreme.
Since his “win”:
Since his loss:
(Looks as though interest in him waned just as fast as it peaked.)
As it should be. If you play the game, better be willing to take the slings and arrows.
Old news. Point being, I won’t be throwing away $20/mo to zwift to ride my bike.
I can ride with real world cheaters for free.
Purely out of interest, in the multi-decade established eSports world, even though the total prize money, top earnings, number of tournaments, active players, etc. have all exploded over the last 20 years, the median earnings per player has remained relatively stable (decreased if you account for inflation). As with all economic ventures, the top few take home most of the pool; all other participants feed on the crumbs.
I don’t see zwift altering this model, beyond offering gender parity, so it will be interesting to see how cheating evolves as/if the cash prizes substantially grow.
i dont know, i dont find the guy all that entertaining but he has 50,000 followers and over 13 million views on yuotube. there’s more than a few people that care what the guy has to say. i actually ran into him in dubrovnik last week just by absolute happenstance. He’s by no means an asshole, just a kid in his 20’s that has figured out social media.
Rondal, these are the people who’ve ‘figured out’ social media:
There are mom and pops with over 50k. Don’t forget too that lots of YT’ers buy followers on websites to inflate numbers in the early days too. Actually think there’s children under 10 with millions of followers.
As a derail from the thread topic…those stats, esp the first one, are a 30,000ft view. How many of those 50,000 followers still follow/view his content? It takes effort to unsubscribe from a channel; the more common person will simply take the lazy way out – stay subbed but not click the link.
Regardless, as the goog stats show, doughnuts still rule the day.
Citation please?
I guess Lance was wrong, it IS all about the bike.
Median earnings/player 1998-2019: ~$5-600.
I don’t condone any of Jeffers’ actions before or after the event, but there are other issues being glossed over… the culpability of British Cycling in terms of how they have contributed to bringing the sport into disrepute is being overlooked. Sadly they have a long track record of this, and thankfully nobody’s life is in tatters this time.
This event was organised at short notice (for a national championship), it appears with the overriding intention to generate a quick buck. As a result it very much seems that they didn’t give much thought to the competition rules and process… Quite unbelievable that no formal competition rules were in place at the time of the qualifier.
Had they applied reasonable process around the championships rather than their usual last-minute, haphazard approach, this issue would have been picked up and dealt with relatively quietly before they took place (or wouldn’t have mattered, if virtual equipment was standardised). We wouldn’t be now stuck months down the line with the story of a national champion being stripped of their title, news which benefits nobody.
Interestingly, at least one rider was using equipment that was no longer available in the game. You only got that wheel-set as an early adopter (or more recently via a virtual shop, where you spend experience points). It was fast TT wheelset.
Usual caveat: Not defending Cam etc
If we start banning people who cheat on Zwift…Zwift is likely to go broke.
Zwift should embrace the cheating and award a separate jersey for the most successful cheat! How about black and white stripes?
Hilariously incorrect just FYI
So even the established eSports arena can’t get their stats correct? 
Oh well, good thing I outgrew the joys of the joystick.
So are the numbers too high or too low, what’s the issue with the numbers.
I thought they made for interesting reading either way. Some enticingly huge payouts, but definitely not a liveable wage for most sadly.