On Saturday 3rd December 2022 Esports Team Toyota CRYO RDT terminated their relationship with rider Eddy Hoole. The team was requested not to make any public statement while a Zwift Accuracy and Data Analysis Group (ZADA) investigation was ongoing. The results of this investigation were released today Wednesday 7th December 2022.
On Wednesday 23rd November 2022 Team Management were made aware by rider Eddy Hoole that Zwift Accuracy and Data Analysis Group (ZADA) had been in communication with him regarding additional data required to verify his performance in the Zwift Continental Qualifiers held on Sunday 13th November 2022. As a team we were not initially sighted on the nature of these requests as the rider was deemed by ZADA not to be representing Toyota CRYO RDT in this event.
We requested and were assured by the rider that he would fully comply with all ZADA requests. We suggested that the rider offer himself for a laboratory test at the team’s expense should ZADA deem this useful.
Late on the evening of Wednesday 30th November 2022 we were informed by the rider of a further line of enquiry that ZADA had notified him of. In our view this fell well outside of the boundaries of typical validation / verification of results.
Team Management immediately contacted ZADA and requested to have sight of all relevant information in order to be in a position to take any internal action we might deem necessary. Overnight we informed the rider that he would be ineligible for further selection by the team until such times that ZADA’s investigation was concluded.
On Thursday 1st December 2022 we were appraised by ZADA of the current state of their investigation and on Friday 2nd December 2022 we held a meeting with the rider concerned seeking an explanation for the specific allegations being made against them. No plausible explanation was forthcoming and after clarifying a number of key points with ZADA, we met again with the rider on the morning of Saturday 3rd December 2022 where he was informed that our relationship with him was terminated with immediate effect.
CRYO RDT / TOYOTA CRYO RDT has at its roots a goal of promoting fair and transparent sport. Since inception we have required all our riders to comply with all aspects of Zwift Esports Rules regardless of whether they race at Elite level or not. The rider in question had all elements in place and had previously been verified in elite level racing.
As can be seen from ZADA’s determination the nature of this case is such that the team would not have the means to suspect / identify / investigate circumstances such as these as they require access to Zwift Server log files and an in-depth knowledge of how to interpret these. However, it was clear to the Management Team that as a result of initial information received from ZADA without any plausible explanation from the rider there was only one decision open to us.
Esports requires a basis of trust on the part of all involved to ensure that the sport is fair, and we have and will continue to work with ZWIFT / ZADA in an effort to achieve this. We are saddened by this situation and will now study in detail ZADA’s report to establish any lessons which we can learn from it.
Alan Glendinning
Team Director
Toyota CRYO RDT
