Watts Up in Watopia: Arena Games, ZRL Season 3, and Return to Menu
Welcome back to Watts Up in Watopia. This (at least) monthly series will check in on some of the big happenings with Zwift events and releases on the app. In this edition, we'll be taking a look at this weekend's Arena Games London event; the announcement of ZRL Season 3 (and the Slowtwitch teams you can join); and a new feature in the latest Zwift game release that people have been asking for for years. Let's get to it.
SLT Arena Games: London
Super League Triathlon is back at it, with Arena Games London taking place this Saturday. This weekend's race format features three laps of 200 meters of swimming, 4 kilometers of biking, and a 1 kilometer run, but in mixed orders each lap through. On lap 1, it'll be swim-run-bike; on lap 2, it's run-bike-swim; and to complete the race, it's bike-swim-run.
For biking, the course of choice is Downtown Dolphin. With a more dedicated climb on the bike, it should make for punchy attacks each time on the cobbles. On the run, meanwhile, they'll be lapping in the opposite direction on the Bell Lap. All riding is done on Tacx NEO 2T trainers, and running on a self-powered curved treadmill.
It's a packed field this week, too: Jonathan Brownlee, Tim Don, George Goodwin, Marten Van Reil and Reece Charles-Barclay headline the men's field. On the women's side, Lucy Charles-Barclay, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Beth Potter, and Anna Godoy are among the top names you can expect to be battling for the win.
Arena Games London will be streamed on multiple platforms, along with the Super League website and YouTube channels. You can find more details, as well as how to watch in your country and/or time zone, here.
ZRL Season 3
Zwift Racing League is coming back from its winter break, with Season 3 beginning next Tuesday. New this season includes playoffs for World Championship titles for teams in B1, C1, and D1 across all time slots, and A1 teams being eligible for both an upgrade to the Premier League and a custom in-game kit. (Thankfully, we already have that taken care of if you race for Slowtwitch!)
One of the major changes, impacting the Slowtwitch teams that currently race in ZRL, are some time changes for the Americas East races. They've been pushed forward by 30 minutes, to 7:15 PM Eastern. Teams may have up to 12 members on their roster, with 4 being the minimum to participate for points each week, and 6 being the maximum. We are actively recruiting for members for our existing mixed/men's A, B, and C squads in the America's East time zone as well as looking to develop a couple of teams in other time zones. If you're interested, please reach out here and we'll see what we can do.
Return to Menu
You've asked for it, and it's finally here. No longer do you need to fully exit the Zwift game (on Mac or PC) to be able to choose a new route, or ride a new workout. Instead, upon exiting and saving your file, you're now returned to the main menu screen. For me, this is really beneficial if I have a race that goes poorly in, say, Crit City, and I just want to spin out on something flat thereafter. Or, for those of us route badge hunting, now you can knock out a bunch of short routes without having to constantly re-pair sensors. It's a big win, so make sure you have the latest game version downloaded to your computer.
