by John Wakefield
Cycling esports takes a momentous step closer to a multi-platform future with Flamme Rouge Racing’s MYTIKAS esGames beginning July 26
The latest event announced by Flamme Rouge Racing adopts a groundbreaking multi-platform approach. The Zommunique’ is excited to explore what this means for you and consider how it may shape the future of the sport.
The Zommunique’ has been an advocate of a multi-platform future for cycling esports for many years. The MYTIKAS esGames will act as a proof of concept for an international UCI calendar, highlight each platform’s unique features, breed competition, and foster collaboration between the platforms.
FRR have been clear to all platforms that each race on each platform is independent – events offered cross platform will not be merged to form an overall winner for that event.
Over the coming weeks, through a series of articles, The Zommunique’ contributor, Jon Wakefield, will look at the various topics surrounding the MYTIKAS esGames in more detail, addressing key questions that this groundbreaking FRR event is raising.
Overview of the FRR MYTIKAS esGames
The FRR race organization and promotion team, led by Richard Vale, has developed a fierce reputation for delivering some of the most challenging racing series available and has rightly built a strong following of committed racers. The MYTIKAS esGames takes this reputation even further—and wider.
Here are a few key details!
- 3 weeks of racing, with 18 events hosted across 17 days.
- FRR will host the events across three different ‘arenas’ – using Zwift, indieVelo, and MyWhoosh platforms.
- By utilizing each platform’s native capabilities, the MYTIKAS esGames promises to offer the most innovative and interesting racing in this never-before-seen type of racing.
- The events are classified into three disciplines—Road, Track, and Field—and will be split by gender.
Three Arenas—Many Exciting MYTIKAS esGames Events!
Road events
- Road Races will be 80km scratch races, and iTTs will be 35km. Both these events use the base functionality available in all arenas, giving riders the opportunity to compare racing tactics and dynamics.
- Marathon events will take place across all three platforms but will showcase scratch, points, and elimination capabilities of each platform/arena.
Don’t worry, these events will be bike events, not running!
- Mountain Bike will be a 40km scratch race, with steering. This is currently planned for the final day of the series, on Zwift.
- Triathlon events will be on Zwift and will include a 20km road race, a 10km iTT, followed by a 5km run. FRR will also give the option to perform the run element outside—by using a Strava activity to log a time rather than having to own a treadmill or foot pod. The FRR site will allow riders to upload their run details, but be aware, that the run must start within 10 minutes of finishing the iTT and needs to be logged within 60 minutes of the event finishing.
Track events
- Track events cover 8 different distances, ranging from a super short 100m to a 10,000m event. The FRR twist is that these events will be back-to-back! These events are held in the indieVelo arena only, on their Forest Velodrome – a flat outside 500m track to showcase track racing strategy.
- With multiple time slots scheduled, you have the option to enter multiple times to try and improve your times and points, with the fastest time counting.
- You do not need to enter them all, but if you do these as well as the Field events (more on these below), you automatically enter the Pent, Hept, and Decathlon-style events.
Field events
- Field Events include the High Jump and Long Jump and take advantage of a specific “Time Challenge: feature within indieVelo.
- Medals will be awarded to the riders who climb (High jump) and travel (the longest distance (Long jump) within the specified 40 minutes on a set course. Drafting will be off for these events!
Bonus “-athlon” events
The eagle-eyed amongst you who caught the initial announcement will notice that the original 15 events have now grown to 18, due to the inclusion of Decathlon, Heptathlon, and Pentathlon – but you’ll need to complete these all on IndieVELO as the only arena to offer the ‘Field’ events.
. This is another example of how Richard at FRR listens to the community and incorporates the suggestions.
- Decathlon will combine the 8 tracks and 2 field events.
- Heptathlon will include the 2 Field events and the longest four track events (1,500m—10,000m)
- Pentathlon will focus on the 4 shortest track events (100m—1,000m) and the Long Jump field event.
How Will the MYTIKAS esGames Work?
Richard at FRR is still working meticulously to ensure all of the finer details are in place. We will share more information as details are confirmed but, to cover some of the initial questions:
Do you need to compete in all events on every platform?
The games encourages riders to be curious and experiment with new challenges. It welcomes everyone to compete on platforms and in arenas that might be unfamiliar to them.
Ultimately, the choice is yours! You can participate in as many or as few events as you prefer. Since the events are specific to each arena and the results are tallied by arena, you can choose to concentrate on events within a single platform or enter events across multiple platforms.
Entering the events
Events across each arena will be scheduled as Open events. To keep things simple, they will be gender-based—Men’s and Women’s—starting pens. All you have to do is join and race to your ability.
You must register with FRR to be included in the results and medal tables (Registration is due to open on July 1st) and have an account with each platform on which you wish to participate.
The events schedule is currently mapped out, with full course details due to be confirmed on July 1st. Stay tuned!
The latest information can be found on the FRR MYTIKAS esGames Website
Results Classification—Zwiftracing.app and Nations
FRR’s infamous 10-scale Chilli classification naming convention will now align directly with the vELO scale of 10, as seen on Zwiftracing.app, which Tim Hanson built and manages. Results from all Zwift, indieVelo, and MyWhoosh events will fall under the FRR Chilli naming convention, classified into 10 levels.
The MYTIKAS esGames presents not just a personal challenge but also a collective opportunity for national success. By converting results into points and creating a country ranking table based on medals and points won, every rider’s participation and point haul can crucially help their country achieve victory.
Haven’t Tried All Of The Platforms (Yet)? No Worries!
While Zwift requires a paid subscription, both indieVelo and MyWhoosh are free to join and use.
All platforms are now supported on a wide range of devices. You can check device compatibility for each platform here:
FRR will also be offering “training and platform familiarization” sessions across all platforms, at a range of times, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays
What is coming next?
This is undoubtedly groundbreaking, hopefully paving the way for the next chapter in cycling esports competition and further cementing the skills of what it means to be an “indoor specialist”.
Hear what Aussie Cycling Esports Indoor Specialists Kate Trdin and Josh Harris have to say about the MYTIKAS esGames in the latest episode of The Virtual Velo Podcast
Are you keen to get involved and test yourself in areas, or arenas, that might be outside of your comfort zone? To help you build towards this, The Zommunique’ will continue to provide more detail about all areas of the series as we approach the July 26 start date.
Jon is a passionate and dedicated member of the cycling esports community, known for his refreshing positive mindset and a wealth of experience as the principle of Team CLS and partner to an elite-level racer. His commitment and dedication to the development and growth of cycling esports—at all levels—are evident.
The Zommunique is thrilled to have him join its contributor team. His analytical skills, forward-thinking approach, and empathy promise to offer valuable insights and a comprehensive perspective on the sport’s future.
Whilst this is a great idea, how sustainable does it become once all the platforms are charging subscription fees? Will racers be prepared to pay three subscriptions to be on all the platforms to be able to participate ?
Or does there need to be some sort of overarching cycling E-sports ‘licence’ where as long as you have one full subscription to your home platform you can pay a smaller top up to be able to join just the races of other platforms in certain competitions. Would the platforms ever be capable of co-operating in that way?