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Another Pro athlete banned from Zwift for data manipulation. Meh...Esports :D

800 views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Dos_Ruedas 
#1 ·
All I can do is shake my head and ask...why? Why as a pro would you do this?

Today Zwift has non-announced its latest sanction, against Philipp Diegner of Canyon Esports, for falsifying data as part of their Zwift Racing League pro race series. This would make for the fifth individual in the last 6 months, but most notably – the first male to be publicly suspended under the more robust anti-cheating system geared at pro athletes. All four other cases have involved women, including two just last month. The only other previous male to receive a public racing suspension from Zwift was Cam Jeffers a few years ago, though in an era well before the more advanced and heavily enforced means of capturing cheaters today – and in his case for entirely different reasons.

Ultimately though, the athlete in question had 11 pro race results nullified across two seasons, and received a 6-month suspension of racing on Zwift until July 24th, 2021. This is the first time Zwift has retroactively gone through and looked at past event data for transgressions, and then retroactively nullified those results. As such, Zwift is showing a bit of their hand here in the forward direction of what they plan to do in this arena.



 
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#2 ·
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. When you’re dealing with electronic data, the will and way tend to look much easier than it is. I remember when Amanda was doing her HAMR and Guinness attempt, she required three gps computers; her personal one that uploaded her files to Strava at the end of each day, one provided by HAMR and another provided by Guinness. The firmware for the two provided to her had modified firmware that would verify that the file she uploaded actually came from the provided computer. Both HAMR and Guinness would match their data against her Strava upload to verify that there was no cheating. Sounds like a lot, but we’re talking world records; which she obtained five during her 423 day ride.

I don’t Zwift or know that much about them but I’ve always wondered how easy or difficult would it be to cheat in a virtual world with no physical contact. Even with the test that was mentioned, what’s stopping someone from putting a seat tube motor in their bike prior to doing the Three Sisters test and using it for the entire season since there’s no one there to inspect the bike?
 
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