Introduced in April of this year, the Zwift Club Ladder League has quickly exploded into one of the most unique, and fun, racing formats on Zwift. It is the most exciting format I have been a part of and is a borderline addiction for me. The captain of my team has us racing 3-4 times per week and I often find myself volunteering to race in all of them. While I haven’t done a true gauntlet yet, I usually do two Ladder races per week.
Here’s why I absolutely love the Zwift Club Ladder League:
What is the Zwift Club Ladder League?
Ladder League
The Zwift Club Ladder Leaguer is based on a leapfrog ladder league format. This format is popular in other sports such as tennis and squash. Teams can challenge other teams who are up to five places above them on the “ladder”. Currently, my team is in 47th place, so we can challenge any of the teams above us up to 42nd place. If a team wins, they take that team’s spot and everyone moves down one place. So if we challenge Gold Glucose Rush (currently 42nd) and win, we take their spot and they’d move down to 43rd.
Team and Points Structure
For the racing, it’s a 5v5 head-to-head format. Therefore there’s only 10 riders in each race and the team with the most points wins. The winning rider scores 12 points and it scales down so that the 10th place rider gets one point. Honestly, the point structure is spot on. If you get two riders in the top three, you have a really good chance at winning. Though, even then, every point counts. In one race, my team took the top two spots, but still needed the points of the last two riders.
Course and Powerup Selection
The challenging team gets to choose the course and the powerups. Ladder guidelines suggest a balanced course that’s approximately 25 km long. But anything goes if the teams agree. All of my races have been around 25 km and 5v5. I recently did a race that was 4v4 and my team has participated in a “friendly” race that was 7v7. Obviously, the challenging team usually chooses a course that suits their strengths and/or exploits the other team’s weaknesses. While a team has a right to refuse a race/course, it’s a borderline dick move that I have not seen happen yet.
Why I Love the Zwift Club Ladder League!
Team Tactics and Communication are Vital
I have participated in a handful of team race series including the ZRL, DRS, TTT and FRR. Obviously, the TTT is a very tactical team effort in terms of pacing and effort management. However, the other series often end up being a solo effort. The ZRL is perhaps the most popular racing series on the Zwift platform. Despite it being a team event, the size of the races and varying rider types make it extremely challenging to execute any sort of team tactics. Breakaways are often easily pulled back by the blob and if the field does shatter, there’s usually not enough riders to enable team tactics.
The 5v5 format of the Ladder League makes it all about team tactics. As I previously mentioned, the courses are based on one team’s strengths. If you’re challenging (thus choosing the course), you obviously come in with tactics for that course. If you’re being challenged, then course recon and team analysis are vital. Unlike the bigger races, there’s little room for error and poor team tactics will cost you.
My team comes into every race with a plan and during the race we communicate constantly. We also play off each other’s strengths, which has been a key to our success. In fact, in our first race, we were able to counter every single move the other team made and go 1-2. More recently, my teammate and I got a small gap on a climb and threw down a two-man time trial enroute to victory. Neither one of those moves were part of our plan, but the team communication helped them succeed.
Dynamic Courses and Racing
Beyond team tactics, the 25km length and custom course choice makes things even more exciting. Only twice have I raced a standard course (2 laps of the Watopia Flat Route and 1 lap of the Knickerbocker loop). All the other races have featured custom finishes. This makes the course recon vital and often creates a very dynamic finale. While standard loops are fun, having a custom finish increases the excitement.
Even more exciting is when a rider doesn’t do course recon and decides to attack inside the final K without truly knowing where the finish line is. I know a rider who recently misjudged the finish and blew with 100m to go. Luckily he had a two-second gap and was able to ride the last 100m at 100 watts.
What’s next?
Now that I have gone on and on about my love for the Ladder League, I inevitably must ask myself where I think things are headed. The one thing I voted for was that the challenging team could choose power ups as well as the course. This is now in place, so I’m happy.
Team Size
As I mentioned, I have participated in a 4v4 race and seen a 7v7 one. I think the points structure and overall feel of a 5v5 race is perfect. 4v4 was super fun, but I honestly didn’t notice much of a difference than a 5v5 race. Increasing the team size doesn’t make much sense, so I’d be happy if they kept it the same.
More Teams?
I have ranted on and on about the two-team racing tactics and dynamics. Clearly I love it, but I am very intrigued by adding one more team to the mix. In general, I think 15 riders is still very dynamic and I really enjoy races with 15-20 riders. Even without teamwork, fields of that size provide dynamic racing and I often find race craft and strategy is very important. My club has considered doing a three team “friendly” and I am really interested in being a part of it.
Is the Zwift Club Ladder League a game changer? I think so. If you’re interested in the Zwift Club Ladder League, let me know and I’d be happy to get you on to one of my clubs teams. Otherwise, you can live vicariously through me. I’ve played around with live streaming these races, but haven’t got it dialed in. I volunteered for three races this week, so it looks like my love affair is alive and well.