People criticize e-Sports yet it is experiencing rapid growth. Televised e-Sports matches will end up on TV eventually. I can see what you are saying happening.

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

From a young age, I always wanted to see your athletic ability control your digital character. Glad to see this is finally coming to fruition.

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Clearly you've never played "World Class Track Meet" on the Nintendo Power Pad

How old are you Monty? Have you played any of the esports games that are televised or have million dollar payouts?

Sorry this will never happen for zwift, no one will watch people on trainers. We can’t even get people to watch real triathlon or bike racing in North America.

Maybe I’m way off, but esports are actually really interesting to watch, a bunch of people on bike trainers isn’t.

Well more people will probably watch an online race vs a race in person. I think the TDF gets pretty good viewership, doesn't it??

Anyway that would not be the driver here for this sport, maybe a side benefit later on. But do the numbers, say there are a million people on Zwift, each paying $15 bucks a month. This business is so scalable and every incremental addition adds a much bigger % ti the bottom line. In short, it is a huge cash cow. So when you have a lot of cash, you put it to work. If you had the Kona or TDF of online racing, you would get a pretty decent viewership just from your members.

And that doesn't even count this crowdfunding thing, that is a whole new ballgame. I mean it is like the old days during a crit when they would pass the hat in the crowd, count the money, and tell the riders next lap you get $64 bucks!! I remember those races and it was cool, and it did spice up the races. That is why one of my questions was how much was given here at this inaugural race? I see you could give directly to your favorite, with a vig being taken out for the prize pool and the race itself. That is brilliant. They had nearly double the prize money that Ironman Oceanside is having this weekend, how is that for a start.

I just think the future has shown itself in a very raw form, but it is going to hit full force like self driving cars. And hopefully it will get those 2/3 of our kids that are obese to play a different kind of game, one where you have to actually exercise. The old forms are dying a slow death, so perhaps this will be the answer..

Hey Monty, thanks for starting a thread on this! It was an insane experience, and I think I had the opportunity of a lifetime by riding my bike on a trainer, allowing me to meet, compete, and train with one of the toughest Ironman competitors in the world.

I do believe this is the future. Not the whole future, because triathlon and road racing will go nowhere, but the accessibility of this league—weekly races that qualified me to come to Los Angeles—and a low cost (aside from equipment just a $15/month Zwift subscription), makes it appealing to every person who has an ounce of competitive juice in them.

As for the prize funds, below is a breakdown of the $70k-ish in prizes (photos). This is mirrored for men and women (equal payouts in this sport!!). The vast majority of that was funded by Cycligent. During the league, Cycligent also handed out socks, hats, t-shirts, etc. to random racers every week. Additionally, all the bracket winners were given a full Garneau CVR World Cup winner’s kit.

As for the crowdfunding, CVR took a cue from Twitch for their stream platform, CycleView, and allowed viewers to “cheer” for their rider in real-time. I had friends and family at home sending me $1-$50 and it popped up on screen during the race. Unbelievably motivating to know people are watching and cheering me on. I have the best support crew.

If anyone has more questions, I’m happy to answer them. Another league starts next week and the event will be in Vancouver, Canada in June. Get your ass in gear and sign up!

EnderWiggan, the entire event was streamed to Mixer and the CVR team was watching the feed and it attracted 1,000+ new viewers, commenting, “What video game is this???” “Are these people actually powering the avatars?”

Did you watch the event by chance? It’s pretty compelling. I can send you the link to the races if you’re interested. It’s great to watch. Especially considering a bunch of everymen were able to hang onto Lionel Sanders’ wheel. I actually pushed him to new power PRs in a race while he chased my wheel up the climbs.

This will catch on, and it will become a big deal.

As an avid Halo player in high school, I dreamed of being a professional gamer. I practiced and played for hours and hours after school.

Never would have dreamed I would make that dream a reality and cross over another passion into that world. Video game cycling kicks ass. And I got paid to do it against Lionel Sanders.

Awesome Matt, I do a bit of Zwift but cat C and after watching the video my mind has been blown out of my head by what is humanly possible. There is something about quantifying performance in this way that, to me, actually makes it even more impressive because you can apply context against your own experience.

Out of curiosity, did they make you guys step on a pair of scales and have your power meters calibrated in some way?

Great stuff.

I didn't read any other replies so sorry if this was answered, but zwift put out a few investor calls shortly after launch. They raised $27.2 million in November 2016. To my knowledge, they've yet to turn a profit as a platform. Their goal is to invest in development and marketing with the goal to eliminate all competitors. Similar to what uber does. All of these events just raise awareness and convince people to use zwift instead of trainerroad, peloton, or other platforms.

Thanks, Knighty76!

We all weighed in on the exact same scale Saturday morning. We all rode Cycleops Hammers calibrated by a tech from Saris before the races.

This was a 100% level playing field. I think that’s what also makes it so cool to me. I understand that it’s far different and not comparable to outdoor riding abilities/racing, but it’s not trying to be that. This was a battle of power-to-weight, drafting ability, and timing your efforts.

I was able to break away from Lionel and one other for the win Saturday, and leading up to that Lionel and I trade punches on every single climb—he set new 1, 5, 10, and 20 min PRs to get through that race.

I was hoping you would jump in here Matt, nothing like having someone that was in the thick of it talking about the experience and answering questions. And thanks for the $$ breakdown, it was interesting. I have a couple comments about that too, as they are very new and may not understand how dollars attract competitors.

First of all the gap from 1st to 2nd is way too big, looks like 2nd was about a 1/3 of the grand prize. Since this is so new you do not need such a big 1st place, even it out a bit and you will get more top athletes competing. If there are lest say 3 or 4 pretty good payouts at the top, then 6 to 10 guys/gals will think they have a shot, giving you better fields. If it all goes to the winner, you have 2 or so, and thus dilute your value as a race.

I like the deep payouts, but they could also stream off more. $1300 for 20th is not necessary, $500 would be fine. That person is happy either way and lots of people think they have a shot at top 20, so that creates a deep field race. Move some of that bottom 10 money to the top ten, and you will have a pro bike race with big names from both triathlon and cycling.

And yes, this is going to be a big thing in the future. I'm sure Zwift took notice on what happened on their platform without them. They are going to be like the iPhone with lots of smart people is making apps to work with what they have created. If they are smart, they would also get into the game and have their own pro series. I know there are races out there already, but now this sport has gone pro. Those free amateur races are going to take a back seat to the new paradigm. Even the Ironman in Kona and the Boston Marathon had to forgo their amateurism and offer up money to stay relevant..

We may have just witnessed the first Kona in online professional racing!!

I had no clue Zwift wasn’t turning a profit. That seems insane to me.

One thing that doesn’t make sense to me is that Zwift doesn’t sponsor CVR (I guess it’s free advertising for them since CVR will use their platform regardless, so why put down $$). But, this wasn’t a “Zwift” event. It was a CVR event, and we just happened to race in that game.

Dumb that they wouldn’t advertise it on their channels considering the coverage they could’ve gathered for the event. But maybe there’s more to it between CVR/Zwift that I’m not privvy to.

I think that is a very good analogy—the apps and iPhone comparison.

Zwift has made their own series—KISS North American eCrit Series (East and West) and European eCrit Series. They actually took place at the same time and i competed in that one as well every Thursday night in January and February.

Top 5 from NA East and top 5 from NA West will be flown out to Long Beach next month for the event. I took 10th overall in NA East—Around 350 people raced that series, but every race ended in a bunch sprint. Tough for a triathlete!

They will not have any payouts, but they are flying everyone out to Long Beach.

That’s where CVR set their minimum payout: ensuring travel costs were covered. I wasn’t flown out to Los Angeles by CVR, I laid my way out, so the $1,250 minimum made sure I was pretty much completely covered. More than fair. I’m sure if more people join, and more sponsors pick this up, the payouts will increase and the scale from first to last will resemble more traditional payouts seen in road racing/triathlon.

Kind of a bad time of year for a CPA to be out of the office, eh?

Can you share what power profile (or just best intervals) looked like from one of those races? Hard to tell from that video in the article but looked like one of the bits was multiple seconds at 1600W (?!).

Here’s my TrainingPeaks file from Saturday’s qualifying heat where Lionel, myself, and Adam Zimmerman split the pack over the first climb.

http://tpks.ws/...4HZBO2ATZ674754IYBWM

Photos of race data (Saturday weight: 70.8 kg - 155.8 lbs):

Registered last night for the next season. Somehow CVR thought I was B division caliber, luckily it let me downgrade myself to C. Must have been that one D level podium for a 5am race that confused them. 😂

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I am firmly a Trainerroad advocate; however, this is pretty cool.

I've always disliked the experience that Zwift is promoting, but clearly many others don't mind using the trainer for more than a solitary torture device. Kudos to all of you and I hope it continues to grow, but for me, I'll stick to racing IRL.

Plus, I don't think I could ever manage a 388 NP for 30+ minutes. Damn, dude.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

For those interested, here is the video link from my Saturday qualifying heat race where Lionel, Adam Zimmerman, and I broke free from the group 3 minutes in and built a 3 minute gap over the course of the race: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DBCYnEFBTwU

Here’s the link to the full stage race for Elite Finals on Sunday: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0xUX-esEJE

Total armchair speculation/analysis lies below:
They're a young company, and while they're definitely growing their user base at a huge clip, I'd be surprised if they had significantly greater than 100,000 paying subscribers. They likely have sponsorship/business partnership revenue as well, but I'd hazard to guess that brand association (w/Trek, Cervélo, Diamondback, etc.) provides most of the value in those arrangements

As far as CVR/Zwift sponsorship goes, Zwift gets a lot of the benefit without paying anything, while CVR gets to hedge as an organization against the possibility that one of the several Zwift-likes in development (Virtu Go, Road Grand Tours) becomes the ultimate winner. While the global market for a program like Zwift is definitely there, it's a niche experience and I can't imagine there's much space for multiple players, especially given the social platform aspect.

"Kim Little looks like hot garbage" lolololol

super strong Matt! Doesn't even look like you're trying!

Hey Matt quick question. I noticed in the broadcast that the riders were all using different bikes/setups in their virtual worlds. Was there no consideration given to that when it came down to evening the playing field? We all know that there are differences (or I think we all do). It would be interesting to know what everybody's setup was to compare.

https://zwiftinsider.com/5-fastest-bikes/

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"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"

Hahah, thanks Sean! Love some of the announcers commentary. And stoked I was somehow able to manage a smile while pushing some of the riders to their limits.

CVR let everyone choose which bike to raced on. I chose the Zwift Concept Bike (tron) because it’s fast and cool looking. Other guys ride the 808/disc combo from Zwift Beta because they think it’s faster.

The real differences between the bikes is so small in the game—especially in a pack of riders.