zwift epic games 2024

Excellent question! The 2024 Zwift racing season, often referred to as the "Zwift Games," is a major esports competition with a significant prize pool. Heres a breakdown of everything you need to know. Zwift Games 2024: The Basics This is not a single event but a multi-stage esports competition for both men and women. It's designed to find the best all-around Zwift racer, testing climbing, sprinting, and endurance. Organizer: Zwift, in partnership with Play Magnus (a chess/esports company). Format: A series of qualifiers and finals. Platform: Raced entirely on the Zwift platform. Prize Pool: 100,000 (split equally between men and women). Key Dates for 2024: Qualifiers: Took place in January 2024. Finals: Took place February 23-25, 2024. The 2024 Finals Structure & Winners The finals consisted of three distinct races over three days: The Climb (Alpe du Zwift): A pure mountain time trial. The Sprint (Downtown Titans): A flat, technical circuit favoring punchy riders. The Pursuit (R.G.V.): A unique points race where riders started staggered based on their combined time from the first two events. 2024 Champions: Women's Champion: Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (South Africa) Men's Champion: Jay Vine (Australia) Both are professional WorldTour riders, demonstrating the high level of competition. How to Watch the 2024 Action While the live finals are over, you can watch all the replays: Primary Platform: The official Zwift YouTube channel. Full Broadcasts: They streamed all three days of finals with professional commentary, graphics, and rider interviews. Search Terms: On YouTube, search for "Zwift Games 2024 Finals" to find the full broadcasts, highlights, and individual race analyses. Key Differences from Previous Years (Especially 2023) The 2024 edition was a significant evolution: New Name & Partner: Rebranded from "Zwift Grand Prix" to "Zwift Games" with the Play Magnus partnership, signaling a stronger push into esports. Equal Prize Money: Continued the equal 50,000 prize pools for men and women. Qualifier Open to All: Unlike previous invitational-only leagues, the 2024 qualifiers were open to any Zwifter who met the category requirements (e.g., ZRL A cat), allowing for "Cinderella stories." The "Pursuit" Finale: The points race format on the final day created a dramatic, easy-to-understand showdown for the overall title. Zwift and Epic Games: The Important Connection This is a crucial point of confusion. Zwift is NOT on the Epic Games Store. Zwift is a standalone subscription service (14.99/month). You download the Zwift app directly from their website or via the Apple/Google app stores. Epic Games is the company behind Fortnite and the Epic Games Store (a digital game storefront). The Connection: In November 2023, Epic Games acquired Zwift's gaming division, "Zwift Gaming." This was the team that developed the underlying game engine for Zwift. What it means: Epic Games now owns the technology that powers Zwift's virtual worlds. This provides Zwift with massive resources (Epic's Unreal Engine expertise) for future development, potentially leading to vastly improved graphics, new worlds, and more immersive gameplay in the coming years. For now: Your Zwift experience remains the same. You still subscribe directly to Zwift. The acquisition is about long-term technological development, not an immediate storefront change. Summary & Looking Ahead The Zwift Games 2024 concluded in February, with Ashleigh Moolman Pasio and Jay Vine winning the titles. You can watch all the action on Zwift's YouTube channel. Zwift is not on the Epic Games Store. Epic Games acquired Zwift's gaming tech division to help build the future of the platform. Expect the Zwift Games 2025 to be announced later in 2024, likely with a similar open-qualifier format leading to a spectacular finals event. If you're interested in competing in the future, make sure your Zwift category is up to date and watch for qualifier announcements in late 2024!