CrossFit Games 25 Season Changes

Transcript

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We're all misfits, alright, you big, big bunch of misfits.

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You're a scrappy little misfit, just like me Biggest bunch of misfits I've ever seen either.

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Good morning misfits.

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You are tuning in to another episode of the Misfit Podcast.

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On today's episode, we talk everything or least everything that we know um about the 2025 crossfit game season the updates podcast over and then and then, probably most importantly, what does that mean for misfit athletics programming?

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what are we going to do?

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Um, to make sure that that everybody's ready for whatever their super bowl is, whatever their goal is, etc.

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Before we jump into that, as always, we start with live chat.

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Hunter, what you got going on?

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Well, boys, I did it.

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500-pound club what?

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I pulled 500 yesterday.

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What?

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the fuck.

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When did you do that?

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Yeah, yesterday, during when was it?

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Took hatchet and I did not have a.

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I was not on the path to recovery from the weekend.

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Just did not sleep well Sunday.

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Did not sleep well Sunday night.

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Woke up like way later than usual Monday.

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Yesterday morning Worked from home the front half of the day Came in and I was like all right, I'll take hatchet class.

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My expectations couldn't be lower and lo and behold, went through the team misfit affiliate.

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Every 90 seconds one deadlift.

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Kept going up, kept going up and even 500 moved like pretty quick looked like like a 90 percent lift.

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Yeah, yeah, kyle walked by and stapled five, 10 to the floor, but 500 went up pretty quick.

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So, um, okay, so this is we gotta.

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We gotta dig into this a little bit.

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Um, would you say that you are good at performing one rep maxes relative to your strength in like traditional sets and reps, Like when you go to like find new prs?

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I'm definitely like I'm I would.

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I'm on like the.

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I think I'm pretty close to in the middle between like fast and slow twitch.

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I'm not the most powerful, but I I can, I can be if, if needed, um, so I I'd say, I'd say I'm definitely better with reps than a one rep max yeah, yeah.

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But also, like I've told, told a lot of people, especially with a deadlift or a back squat, I would say deadlift even more.

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So it's like that's one of those lifts where it's like you either got it or you don't on that day, like there's not a whole lot of.

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There's obviously technique involved, but it's not like a snatch where, like everything, you can feel really, really good and it's just there's something about it that's not clicking.

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A deadlift is like that thing's either coming off the floor or it's not and your nervous system's not ready, your muscles aren't ready, whatever, whatever it is like things have to kind of line up.

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But then again, like I did not feel great going into the session and just kind of kept plugging away and it worked out so.

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But I'd say I'm slightly better on the repetition side versus like the one rm side the only reason I ask is because it's it's always interesting as, like a I don't know if there's some correlation that we could make that for people who aren't former like traditional sport athletes, but you definitely like throughout your like throughout your like you talked about like you've been in shape for a very long time, you've worked out for a very long time and I think it's always had the like cardiovascular piece to it, whereas like a lot of traditional sports athletes, it's just weightlifting, just what you do.

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You go in and right, so like.

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The reason I ask is because it's always been so much more comfortable for me to do a one rep max and to find a new pr than it has to go into something that's whatever four to twenty minutes long and figure out how to like, temper, the same level of intensity, to go through it yeah, I'm more comfortable with that.

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I'm more like the the short, really short time domain workouts.

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Bike sprints, those I really don't like, for I mean I thought hey, surprise, like yeah, who does?

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but um, like the, yeah, I'm much more.

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I'm somebody who like, even in the format that we did the class, where it was every 90 seconds one deadlift, add weight every interval and then at some point you actually want to take an interval off.

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So you're not going to pull a one rep max every 90 seconds.

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But that sort of style for me and I've found for, like, our affiliate athletes and a lot of people tend to agree like that structured, timed ladder where we start at a very manageable weight and then add weight People, just the clock kind of disappears.

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People are just like, yep, add weight, pull it.

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Go do a vertical jump, add weight, pull it.

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And people just kind of you kind of get lost, you kind of get into a groove and I tend to like I, that's.

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That same thing applies in a 20 minute metcon like almost ease into it and find that I can like ramp up and really get into a rhythm and maybe finish stronger than I started.

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So yeah, you got to find ways to.

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For someone who doesn't love you know your 90 to 105%.

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You have to find ways to get them out of their head and into their body, because if there's any time as an athlete where you just got to go do your thing, yeah it's.

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It's at that weight like you get into your head about it, whether it's a technical lift or not.

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A technical lift, like your body's the one doing it, your nervous system, your musculature, all of that stuff you've probably got your 10 000 hours.

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If you're trying to pull a 500 pound deadlift like yeah, how do you create the environment to just go do it?

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That's one of the reasons why we do the survivor lifts in the programming instead of just find a one rep max, because find a one rep max session is a mind fuck for at least half of our athletes.

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Yeah, it's just like it's a weird session.

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It's a weird set.

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It could be a weird.

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It could be weird if the only thing on the whiteboard is find a one rep max and then there's no.

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And if you're alone and if, well, yeah for sure, but like, even even find a one rep max, even if, like, even if the coach you know you're in a class coach warms you up really, really well, and you're, you're like, okay, you have 20 minutes to find a one rep max and your barbell's empty, like even that there's a lot of athletes who don't.

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It's like, what do I do?

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I just do one rep, add a bunch of weight, do one rep, like it's like literally a knowledge thing of how do I most effectively, you know how many sets and reps do I do?

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Like what kind of jumps should I make?

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Like that's obvious to me because I've done it for so long, but it's not obvious to the average kind of gym goer.

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And I think that also is another reason that the the survivor style thing works really well, because it like, again, it takes some thought out of the equation.

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It's just like all you have to do is worry about pulling the weight.

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You're going to add the same amount of weight to the next lift.

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You're going to pull it, you're going to come back, it's going to be a little bit heavier, but you don't have to think about it.

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We don't have to do this calculus.

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Like all right, I, I gotta do five reps here and then three reps there and then two and a half reps there, and then like, should I jump five pounds or six and a half pounds?

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Like it's like shut up, put weight on the bar, pull it, yeah, that sort of thing.

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So um, so I have a.

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I have a 18 month old child who's three feet tall, um, and also very sneaky, uh, so they'll just.

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The last few days, he has been stealing objects from the counter which like we have a cutting board on the counter which used to have a knife on it and he hasn't gotten one, but he's tried.

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Um, but like the stuff that he can get, now you don't see him get it and you kind of wonder how he got there.

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And last night I cooked like five or six pounds of chicken breast on.

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The traeger was kind of coming in and out and I was supposed to be watching him while I was cutting it up and within the blink of an eye he was running around the house with a cheese grater laughing so hard and I have no clue.

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He was the drawer next to me, had it in there, and he opened it, took it out, closed it and ran off.

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In the time that I just like chopped two pieces of chicken.

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I I still don't believe that it happened.

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But maya's like true, he was in the kitchen.

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The cheese grater is in this drawer.

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Like I'm like is like is this mission impossible?

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Like how did he open this gigantic drawer that's like bigger than him, pull it out, close it and then run off?

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and she's like I don't know, but he obviously did yeah or I had a time lapse, which my brain has been known to do, and he actually did it across like 30 seconds and I just didn't see um but Maya's like let's go with the mission impossible version.

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Dude, our son's got a cheese grater.

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He's coming down from the ceiling yeah, but just belays.

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Like his arms and feet, he's like hovering three inches over the ground, looks at you but like any table.

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he just if he sees something sticking out or you're holding him and he sees it he files it away for later and he just reaches up and takes things and starts laughing and running.

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I'll be back for you.

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Cheese grater, luckily, he tells on himself because he's laughing.

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Maya's like kind of dangerous but like sort of not.

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Like it had a handle.

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I don't think he's going to try to grate his hand.

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He really knows how to use that.

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To be fair, we didn't know.

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He knew how to get the cheese grater to begin with.

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Give him a block of cheese, put him to work.

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I still don't fucking know.

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I still don't know how he did it.

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You smart enough to grab the cheese grater.

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You smart enough to grate cheese?

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Come over here.

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Oh dude, he would be so happy.

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He loves cheese.

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That man loves cheese, all right, so, um, breaking news, breaking news.

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Crossfit has changed the season structure.

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Um, for the first time ever in kitchen confidential history, for the first time this month uh, gordon ramsey is shutting down the kitchen.

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He's shutting down the restaurant.

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It's never happened before.

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This is the first time.

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Um, yeah, high level overview.

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They're going back to sanctionals, but I think don't really want to have to deal with the fact that they are trying to make this global.

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So if they went back to sanctionals and it was global, you'd either be asking the athletes to travel a ridiculous distance or you can say they had a chance to qualify online like everybody else.

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Also, obviously, money, right, are they going to be able to pull in sponsors after the 2024 crossfit games?

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Like, how many companies want to go put their name on that before knowing what the aftermath of all that is?

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Because they're doing like, there's a bunch of polls online about like, are you signing up for the open?

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And of course people love knee-jerk reactions, but like 50 percent of people are saying they're not signing up for the open and whatnot.

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Course people love knee-jerk reactions, but like 50 if people are saying they're not signing up for the open, and why not?

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And there's obviously there's I mean there's like 10 reasons why you would or wouldn't sign up for the open.

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Um, we talked a little bit before the podcast about what our perspective is what the purview of a podcast like this should be.

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Um, I feel like everyone right now wants to be like a crossfit news organization and I have negative 600 interest in being a crossfit news organization.

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Um, we are coaches and programmers and leaders of a community and my purview of looking at this stuff is, if I'm going to continue to help my athletes, which I obviously am I got to figure out what all of this means and what the best course of action is, moving forward.

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So, like, obviously, there I just gave opinions.

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I'm not saying we won't give opinions on this stuff, but the way that I want to look at it and the way that I want to speak to the listeners is through the lens of what does this mean for you?

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What are these changes mean for you?

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Are you going to be?

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able to qualify for a certain round, etc.

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That sort of thing.

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Yeah, uh, crossfit's putting us in a weird spot as a company that you know promotes sending athletes, asking athletes to to work hard in order to compete at a high level.

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Yeah, um, and some of the changes I, I think we we saw some of it coming as far as like an online semi-final for at least maybe, masters and teens, um, and stuff like that and like we've been to enough semi-finals events to like it doesn't.

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It doesn't take a, an nba to look around and be like who's footing the bill for all this?

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Um, right, and like, is this, is this feasible long term?

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As far as, like keeping people interested, and you're right, last year's the crossfit get or this year's the crossfit games is going to make that, make that a really big question mark for a lot of people.

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And then the other thing, the, um, we can get into it later, but the, the prize purse being dependent on open registration, um, is, uh, it's, it's questionable at best I would.

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I would say not, uh, like, I understand maybe what like crossfit is doing is, from a business perspective, to try to protect itself a little bit, but, um, like just purely financially and you can balk at that as much as you want, but, um, I yeah, it's, that's that's gonna make it tough for for the athlete who wants to you know, is hoping to maybe pull in a paycheck from the crossfit games or something like that to be like is this, like can't, can I, can I make this work?

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Or like what am I, what am I doing here?

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So, um, yeah, I mean that's, there's, there's.

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I almost did a list of unknowns.

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To you.

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Ran out of Google docs, google google drive storage.

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Yeah they asked me uh, even though we have unlimited, um, they asked me to pay extra to finish the document um, because the list this is the most ridiculous document we've ever seen pay us 99 cents that's.

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That's such a huge part of things and one of the reasons why why I've.

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You know, I've already had conversations with some of my athletes on this and it's like you have to do a lot of digging mentally and be like is this the thing that I want to do?

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Am I passionate about this?

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And if the answer is yes, there is still a path for you.

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Um, but if it is more financially motivated, like there are a ton of questions and a ton of unknowns.

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I had a conversation with a master's athlete last night and I was like we're going to do the open and we're going to do semifinals and then we don't know, but that's three workouts in February, march, and then it's a handful of workouts in Like we can commit to that, we can 100% commit to that.

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And if they come out and say, like the master's champion and the 35 to 39 division gets a ham sandwich and a $2 off a cold tub, like then are you going to?

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You know, are you going to do this whole huge thing and go?

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Um, that sort of thing?

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So I think a lot of people have to look at it sort of from that perspective.

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Um, all right, so CrossFit open.

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Um, make the open matter again has been a conversation, uh, for a while.

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No one cares about the open and they're like how about this?

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Um, so the open in quarterfinals have essentially combined.

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Um, way, there's like half of the quarterfinals is now during the Open and the other half is now during semifinals.

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It's been chopped in two.

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So February 27th through March 17th is the CrossFit Open.

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Top 1% of individuals qualify for the online semifinal if the same participation exists.

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Who knows?

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That's about 1500 athletes per division.

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It's a little bit higher on the men's side, a little bit lower on the women's side.

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Um, if you have thoughts on any of this, feel free to stop me hunter.

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Um, all teams advance to the online semifinal.

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I wonder why, um, but I will say.

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I will say that that is probably better for a lot of the affiliate teams who just wanted to be able to go get after it.

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Sure that you know if, if, if a gym wants to make a team, wants to make multiple teams, like they get to have those team, all of them get to have those team workouts, because those team workouts didn't exist in the open before and it was actually pretty hard to get into quarterfinals because there weren't very many teams.

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Exactly yeah, and it's like the open is, it's not a, the open isn't a team thing, it's individuals that create a qualifying team and then you get to do team workouts and quarterfinals.

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So from a participation standpoint that's not a bad thing.

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And again you get like, hey, athletes do well in the open or whatever.

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And it's like, yeah, let's see what happens.

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Maybe that is a feeder system, like we've talked about that before.

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Some of a lot of our athletes started like on a team.

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Caroline, like you know, went on a team, really enjoyed it and that kind of fed her into the individual, uh, competitive space.

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So, who knows, maybe you get a affiliate athlete who doesn't think they want to do it and then they have, enjoy it, have fun on a team.

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By and large, it seems like athletes have like the team game is more fun just because it is a.

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It's a team thing rather than all the pressure on your shoulders.

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So it can certainly be a benefit to affiliate athletes who maybe want to dabble in the competitive space at some point and don't know where to go, or maybe they don't qualify for the online semifinal after the Open.

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I think it's one of the bright spots of the changes.

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Only because, again, you're trying to build that culture at your affiliate, you have these people that want to do it and they've never been able to participate.

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The percentage it's actually really hard to get it Like we've had like four very fit individuals multiple times not qualify for quarterfinals.

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So it's like they never got to do the four person workouts and see what they're made of, see how fun it is Um, and then potentially try to, you know, maybe train the rest of the year to see.

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You know I have my benchmark.

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Now we finally know we're the 600 fittest affiliate in the world and we got to chop.

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You know we just my benchmark.

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Now we finally know we're the 600 fittest affiliate in the world and we got to chop.

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You know we just got to get our way back down to that.

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So, um, once I thought about it a little bit, I actually was was happy about that.

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Um top 2% of age group athletes qualify Um.

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So I did each division here, um, and again, I like to speak to individuals on this podcast, so bear with me.

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I am going to say, based on last year, how many people would qualify per division 35 to 39 women, 540 athletes.

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40 to 44, 500 men, 400 women.

00:19:35.826 --> 00:19:38.410
45 to 49, 320 men, 240 women.

00:19:38.410 --> 00:19:41.213
50 to 54 men, 190 women.

00:19:41.213 --> 00:19:45.920
130, 54 to 59, 110 and 80, 60 to 64, 54 and 50 and 64 plus 34 and 32.

00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:51.231
50 and 64 plus 34 and 32 um, that's how many athletes would move on to the online or virtual in affiliate semi-final.

00:19:51.231 --> 00:19:56.633
I want to get the make sure I get the branding weren't saying much right and that is the only avenue for masters to qualify for the games.

00:19:56.712 --> 00:20:08.234
Right masters do not have an in-person competition they do not, um so you can take those numbers, you can rewind back, you can find your division, you can go and check what you did in the Open last year.

00:20:08.234 --> 00:20:17.070
It's going to be complicated auditing your position, though, because it is true that you probably didn't go as hard as you possibly could.

00:20:17.070 --> 00:20:18.586
You didn't retest, etc.

00:20:18.586 --> 00:20:22.169
But neither did your opponents, for the most part.

00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:26.009
So like you definitely have the ability to slide up and you're going to know.

00:20:26.009 --> 00:20:34.746
You're going to know if you left a lot on the table or not, cause some athletes just go out and execute and don't necessarily like they're not going to gain a ton from retesting.

00:20:35.067 --> 00:20:53.599
Yeah, and in the same way that you know the fact that team registration is fairly low, which means therefore, it is more difficult to qualify, like if open registration is low this year, like that, those numbers are smaller, like this is assuming what, how many, how many?

00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:55.765
We don't have totals here.

00:20:55.765 --> 00:20:56.727
Do you remember?

00:20:56.727 --> 00:21:04.973
Probably like in the 200 000 maybe 100 000 like total registrants, like just all those across every division.

00:21:05.213 --> 00:21:12.551
Yeah like total total total open registrations and I guess that doesn't matter, because it's still broken by division.

00:21:12.613 --> 00:21:17.280
But you, you understand what I mean the fewer, yeah, fewer competitors, the fewer spots there are available.

00:21:17.280 --> 00:21:27.255
So, correct and to your point, like, yeah, all of the athletes who were not worried about qualifying for quarterfinals and semifinals are now worried about it.

00:21:27.255 --> 00:21:34.173
And the other question that this poses is, like, what does this mean for the programming of the Open?

00:21:34.173 --> 00:21:37.648
And then also, what does the programming mean for semifinals?

00:21:37.648 --> 00:21:49.928
So, if you're top 1%, which, like, is obviously the upper tier, which, like, is obviously a the upper tier, but if, like, there are a lot of there, there will be.

00:21:49.928 --> 00:21:58.972
There are a lot of athletes who, like, you see, at the affiliate level, who maybe crack that top one percent but don't really have any business competing at, like, a semi-final level.

00:21:58.972 --> 00:22:08.666
Or you know, seeing, you see a semi-final type workout get thrown out there and you're like I think you're right if the workouts are a certain way I think right.

00:22:08.747 --> 00:22:25.387
But then the complexity, then that won't happen yeah, but I, but I guess I'm saying, like is the, like the bottom of the bottom, like the lowest ranked, top one percent athlete, like they're going to move on to semiifinals?

00:22:25.387 --> 00:22:48.272
Like, is the semi-final, how do we, how is the semifinals workouts programmed in such a way that, like that person can participate because that's what CrossFit wants while also making sure that the fittest you know are having we have a good test for the fittest people to go to the CrossFit games, and I'm not saying they can't do it because, yeah, like I mean, we know that that's possible.

00:22:48.272 --> 00:23:02.519
But it is going to be an interesting wrench where, like, if you're doing an affiliate in affiliate semi-final and it's, like you know, ght sit-ups and rope climbs or a 405 deadlift or something like that, you're just like okay, what do we?

00:23:03.382 --> 00:23:10.920
the one thing, too, that has to be factored in is this is 1% of everyone, so we don't have divided leaderboards anymore.

00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:24.031
So the top 1% is actually better than the percentage-based leaderboards on like okay, from your region, you're in this category.

00:23:24.220 --> 00:23:27.913
Because you could be 10% worldwide, but within your age division.

00:23:28.817 --> 00:23:31.567
Yes, yeah, yeah, but I was talking about just the individuals.

00:23:31.567 --> 00:23:40.048
So like, if you think about the Indies, the people who could have been 15th in their region might be 3000th in the world, something like that.

00:23:40.048 --> 00:23:52.195
So now all of those people that could at least go do all of the, because when I think about this, I'm like for you specifically, hunter, how many semifinals workouts could you just do?

00:23:52.195 --> 00:23:54.326
Like a decent amount of them.

00:23:54.941 --> 00:24:04.385
Yeah, I mean I could probably do all of them save, like the ladders right, like a ladder that ends with a 265 snatch is not going to happen, but yeah, I could do them.

00:24:04.385 --> 00:24:06.267
I mean, I get time capped in a lot of them.

00:24:06.326 --> 00:24:08.928
but and you're in the like top 2%.

00:24:08.928 --> 00:24:12.990
So like somewhere in that range top 2% or 3%.

00:24:14.702 --> 00:24:16.487
So when we get down to the 1%.

00:24:16.867 --> 00:24:18.531
I think they'll have room to.

00:24:18.531 --> 00:24:22.386
I think the bigger issue is equipment.

00:24:22.386 --> 00:24:24.664
More than anything, what are they going to ask people to have?

00:24:47.339 --> 00:24:50.686
Right, because semifinals has been running an echo bike, like exclusively for the last couple of years, right?

00:24:50.686 --> 00:24:54.275
Is that what they're going to ask athletes, your entire division or your entire age group, rather than, like, within your region?

00:24:54.275 --> 00:24:55.176
What does that do for, like you know, asia?

00:24:55.196 --> 00:24:58.102
latin america, like regions that are typically exactly what I said at the beginning of the podcast.

00:24:58.102 --> 00:25:06.012
It gives them an opportunity, but not really yeah, not really um.

00:25:06.012 --> 00:25:14.454
So to end it, I'll say something that's really interesting.

00:25:14.454 --> 00:25:26.131
If my math is correct, 28 men, 28 boys 14 to 15, 24 girls 14 to 15.

00:25:26.131 --> 00:25:33.144
I think that's less than they had go to the games last year, and then 30 and 30 for 16 to 17.

00:25:33.684 --> 00:25:36.317
Would be the numbers based on last year's registrations.

00:25:36.659 --> 00:25:41.820
Yeah, we also don't know how many people they're going to have go to the games, but you're looking at seven.

00:25:41.820 --> 00:25:48.317
You're looking at 35,000 men in the 35 to 39 and 1500 boys in the 16 to 17.

00:25:48.317 --> 00:25:49.898
So it's like a massive difference.

00:25:49.898 --> 00:25:57.249
And again, like I don't know if I toggled the stuff wrong, but I'm pretty sure I didn't um, so that's definitely interesting.

00:25:57.249 --> 00:26:04.836
And then we don't have like the most information um, but I do know we have some um listeners that are in the adaptive division.

00:26:04.836 --> 00:26:06.859
Top 20 per division.

00:26:06.859 --> 00:26:09.144
Um will advance to.

00:26:09.184 --> 00:26:16.117
I believe wheel watt is still running the whole show yeah so they'll have their version of the open, their version of the semifinals, their version of the CrossFit games.

00:26:16.117 --> 00:26:17.842
So that's the open.

00:26:17.842 --> 00:26:20.026
Um, making the open matter.

00:26:20.026 --> 00:26:28.080
Um, I guess you did that, but you might've made it not matter for the bottom tier athletes.

00:26:28.080 --> 00:26:29.104
Do they care anymore?

00:26:29.104 --> 00:26:30.186
I don't know the answer to that.

00:26:30.186 --> 00:26:30.989
Um, do they care anymore?

00:26:30.989 --> 00:26:32.574
I don't know the answer to that, um, do they care the same?

00:26:32.574 --> 00:26:34.583
Because they didn't care about advancing in the first place?

00:26:34.583 --> 00:26:46.288
Like we have so many athletes out there that used to qualify for quarterfinals that thought it was hilarious that we would even ask if they were going to sign up, like no no way I'm signing up for quarterfinals so is it the same?

00:26:46.355 --> 00:26:52.407
is it just a a thing where everyone can participate for three workouts a year and then we get back to business?

00:26:52.407 --> 00:26:59.288
Um, I think that's probably what crossfit is hoping is the case, um, but I don't know.

00:26:59.288 --> 00:27:01.176
That's definitely that.

00:27:01.176 --> 00:27:05.696
That's like probably the biggest unknown how many people are going to come out and participate for this?

00:27:06.577 --> 00:27:27.221
yeah, and I mean we don't know much about the community cup for for the affiliates just as affiliates that are interested in hosting the community cup will receive details shortly Um, I don't know if that means like a like an in-person, like at a affiliate is going to happen or like again, just kind of a lot of unknowns about that.

00:27:27.221 --> 00:27:27.983
But is the?

00:27:27.983 --> 00:27:35.799
Is that big jump from the open to semifinals going to funnel more of those kind of a more fun?

00:27:53.577 --> 00:27:54.260
not really quarter.

00:27:54.260 --> 00:27:57.584
That's why I said half of quarterfinals are now the open and the other teammates.

00:27:57.584 --> 00:27:58.547
Yeah, for sure.

00:27:58.547 --> 00:28:00.040
And then like the other, thing.

00:28:00.115 --> 00:28:10.261
We'll see how the community cup like, um, you know, for a unique format for our local athletes to compete against their peers based on their level during the open.

00:28:10.261 --> 00:28:11.798
So presumably you know what.

00:28:11.798 --> 00:28:16.823
What placement you get in the open, you know, relative to the field, earns you a level.

00:28:16.823 --> 00:28:40.865
I remember listening to a is either a podcast or a video with castro and he um, I think he was like doing his affiliate tour or whatever he dropped into an affiliate and they, I think their programming was based on, like you know, here's the black level, the blue level, and I think some affiliates do this you know sort of thing, and it was like yeah, this is just like kind of self-scaling, like a

00:28:40.884 --> 00:28:42.502
scale, a method of scaling or it was.

00:28:42.502 --> 00:28:53.939
It was maybe like a leaderboard, like if you, you know you got a 500 pound deadlift and a 215 Fran or whatever, your gold tier, if you've got it, you know the next tier below, like just kind of based on benchmarks and stuff like that.

00:28:53.939 --> 00:28:57.287
So if I had to guess, maybe that's where the idea came from.

00:28:57.287 --> 00:28:59.821
We'll see how it plays out in reality.

00:28:59.821 --> 00:29:09.578
Again, that all just depends on how many athletes are motivated to pay CrossFit, to participate in the open here's what I'll say.

00:29:10.340 --> 00:29:14.769
I hope that they find a way to convince people to care.

00:29:14.769 --> 00:29:22.681
I don't know if they're going to, that's not, that's on them.

00:29:22.681 --> 00:29:40.566
Very specifically, like selling the idea of the community cup, just saying you can participate and pay us and compete against you know, like you're a level nine, like if I don't know, I don't know that people are going to care about that, unless they find a way to get people to care about that.

00:29:40.925 --> 00:29:45.130
Right which hasn't necessarily been their strong suit over the last handful of years.

00:29:45.130 --> 00:29:52.517
Like they just they go dark and don't post anywhere, post anywhere.

00:29:52.537 --> 00:29:56.569
That's why probably one of my biggest gripes about and and I I think that applies across the board too it's like the.

00:29:56.589 --> 00:29:57.753
For me personally, there's a like the.

00:29:57.753 --> 00:30:05.018
Uh, when they announced the coaches doing like level four evaluations, I was like I was like, oh sick, like that's interesting to me.

00:30:05.018 --> 00:30:09.167
What is not interesting to me is that there's no incentive to do that.

00:30:09.167 --> 00:30:27.108
Like crossfit, the incentive is like you, you, you have, you have, you've earned, you've earned a title of L4, but the, the cost is like you're going to spend a shitload of money in continuing education and oh, by the way, like the members on the floor don't fucking know what L4 means.

00:30:27.108 --> 00:30:27.855
They know what.

00:30:27.855 --> 00:30:32.135
Like, they know they want to come in and get sweaty and hopefully we, you can.

00:30:32.135 --> 00:30:34.696
You know you distinguish yourself through quality.

00:30:34.696 --> 00:30:46.901
But again, like you're, we're assuming that affiliates are like, or athletes are just going from gym to gym evaluating the quality of coaching and be like yep, that guy's an L4, that guy's an L3, doesn't fucking matter.

00:30:46.901 --> 00:30:56.784
And if there's no incentive for coaches to acquire higher levels of education as a means for, like, growing their business or the gym, or whatever.

00:30:56.844 --> 00:31:18.471
It's like what's the point of forking over thousands of dollars to CrossFit and thousands of dollars in continuing education if CrossFit is not going to provide any incentive or you know, whether it's financial help or marketing or just doing what they can to drive people into affiliates, it's like it's the same.

00:31:18.471 --> 00:31:19.590
It's the same thing.

00:31:19.590 --> 00:31:29.473
It's like you know we're not giving people good reasons to take part in these things that CrossFit is setting up.

00:31:36.380 --> 00:31:39.614
It's like they put these things on the start line and that's as far as they go.

00:31:39.614 --> 00:31:56.182
Yeah, one thing that's been funny about that and has actually applied a lot to the competitive space as well is coaches weren't as good 10 plus years ago and people did care about that stuff back then then which is kind of fascinating, like coaches are better now.

00:31:57.285 --> 00:32:01.797
So if you're better now and you have an l4, that should be a thing.

00:32:01.797 --> 00:32:03.119
But people don't.

00:32:03.119 --> 00:32:07.868
People don't, aren't locked in on that type of thing related to hq.

00:32:07.868 --> 00:32:14.739
When they come into the gym, the members of the gym are just like crossfit is hunter, hunter is crossfit coach.

00:32:15.299 --> 00:32:32.787
Like yeah, I don't know who fucking the ceo is or what a red shirt is or any of those things yeah and obviously that happens with growth can't have hundreds of thousands or millions of people locked in on this like niche thing, um, but it's been kind of fascinating to to see over, uh, over a long period of time.

00:32:32.787 --> 00:32:52.106
Um, all right, semi-finals virtual in affiliate semi-finals must be done at a crossfit affiliate and you must be judged by a current l1 who takes the new advanced judges course, which lasts three years.

00:32:52.106 --> 00:32:52.548
Thank you.

00:32:52.548 --> 00:33:01.069
Finally, make me make me take that damn click through as fast as I possibly can to take that test every single year to do this.

00:33:01.069 --> 00:33:01.794
Um, so at least this one.

00:33:01.814 --> 00:33:07.143
Last, how am I going to fucking PR the judges course, this year it's my, that's my annual benchmark from CrossFit.

00:33:07.214 --> 00:33:13.138
You might still have to do the, the, the open one, I don't know.

00:33:13.138 --> 00:33:16.511
Wouldn't surprise me if you had to do both.

00:33:16.511 --> 00:33:39.905
So before we move on, there are multiple opinions on this, because there are some people who think that this is awesome because you can be your regional semifinal location, like anyone in Maine, new Hampshire, eastern Massachusetts.

00:33:39.905 --> 00:33:41.930
Come on up, like that sort of thing.

00:33:41.930 --> 00:33:43.140
That's what they think might happen.

00:33:43.140 --> 00:33:47.304
That sounds stressful to me.

00:33:47.304 --> 00:34:08.483
That sounds like a lot, unless you could figure out a way to like I don't know our athletes gonna want to, our gym's gonna want to monetize this, like because it's four days, I think you know we don't know if it's announced on one day and it's you know however many workouts and how it goes, but like there's also three different versions of it.

00:34:08.483 --> 00:34:18.282
Um, it's a lot to put on affiliates and maybe some will band together and make it a little bit more fun, but I don't know how much of that's actually going to happen.

00:34:21.777 --> 00:34:29.222
Yeah, honestly, I didn't really think about the, which is weird because that's the first thing I usually think about is the logistics of that.

00:34:29.222 --> 00:34:44.385
As far as, like multiple days, you have to assume that it's going to be multiple, more than three workouts, couple workout like the same, I don't know two per day with the deadline, sort of thing, and it's like are we, how do we get?

00:34:44.385 --> 00:34:54.918
And with a higher number of participants, like there is now an even deeper logistical demand on affiliates to like get these people through their workouts.

00:34:54.918 --> 00:35:02.539
And yeah, I don't know I what I'm, I'm confused about why you think people are going to like travel.

00:35:02.539 --> 00:35:04.327
Why would, why would somebody trap?

00:35:04.347 --> 00:35:12.666
because, like every, every affiliate affiliated this is the narrative that I've seen from certain people, so it's not from me necessarily.

00:35:12.788 --> 00:35:13.548
Oh it's more like.

00:35:13.755 --> 00:35:24.985
it's more like our, our affiliates, going to lean into this and, you know, have the, you know the 10 local people work out together against each other.

00:35:24.985 --> 00:35:28.900
She gonna fight 10 L ones Like it's a whole thing.

00:35:29.121 --> 00:35:32.440
So, um, age group goes first.

00:35:32.440 --> 00:35:34.139
Uh, April 3rd, through the six.

00:35:34.139 --> 00:35:37.826
That is the only path to the CrossFit games for age group divisions.

00:35:37.826 --> 00:35:43.858
The number of athletes advancing, oh no, we don't know.

00:35:43.858 --> 00:35:47.099
Um, it was a lot last year.

00:35:47.099 --> 00:35:48.224
I don't know if they're gonna.

00:35:48.224 --> 00:35:50.762
I mean, you were, you were there, hunter.

00:35:50.762 --> 00:35:52.003
That was like.

00:35:52.003 --> 00:35:54.706
The more I think about it, the more you know.

00:35:54.706 --> 00:35:58.452
At least a shaft hat tip to the people organizing it.

00:35:58.452 --> 00:36:00.101
They were, they were given a lot to deal with.

00:36:00.275 --> 00:36:01.702
Yeah for sure.

00:36:02.235 --> 00:36:04.983
So interesting, intriguing.

00:36:04.983 --> 00:36:08.414
April 24th through the 27th is the team version.

00:36:08.414 --> 00:36:13.086
Again, everyone um that signs up for the open, that creates a team, is allowed to do this.

00:36:13.086 --> 00:36:16.603
Um, also, the only path to the crossfit games.

00:36:16.603 --> 00:36:23.161
Only 20 teams advancing this year, that is down 33 from 30 teams last year.

00:36:23.161 --> 00:36:25.949
Uh, new rule one affiliate.

00:36:25.949 --> 00:36:27.974
One team per affiliate can qualify.

00:36:27.974 --> 00:36:32.161
So sorry, rich, this Invictus.

00:36:32.161 --> 00:36:38.289
I think he might have only had one last year Actually maybe honestly, maybe Invictus did too.

00:36:41.376 --> 00:36:53.503
I think everyone being like, oh, these gyms are screwed, is thinking about semifinals, not the games, because Mayhem, torian or whatever is Australia, it's a different affiliate, that kind of thing.

00:36:53.503 --> 00:37:01.920
Yeah, so I don't know that that really changes much, yeah, especially now that it's only 20 teams.

00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:08.264
Yeah, exactly, individuals are May 1st through the 4th.

00:37:08.264 --> 00:37:11.403
This is the only division where there are multiple paths to the games.

00:37:11.403 --> 00:37:14.894
Through the fourth, this is the only division where there are multiple paths to the games.

00:37:14.894 --> 00:37:22.875
At the very least, 15 men and 15 women will advance from in-affiliate semifinals.

00:37:22.875 --> 00:37:31.784
Athletes 16 through 20 will depend on how many athletes sanctionals can send to the CrossFit Games, which supposedly is 10 at a minimum.

00:37:31.784 --> 00:37:36.641
So if there's only 10, then that means the top 20 in each division will qualify from the Open.

00:37:36.641 --> 00:37:39.003
If there's 15 from sanctionals, it will be the top 15.

00:37:42.559 --> 00:37:59.507
Yeah, now there are a lot of unknowns, that kind of get attached to the dates of the in-affiliate semifinals and the fact that that is smack in the window of april through june where, correct, a theoretical in-person semifinal might be held.

00:37:59.507 --> 00:38:08.516
So, and without knowing, we don't know any locations for that right kind of like we know literally nothing.

00:38:08.715 --> 00:38:15.043
We know that one of the partners from last year like very clearly has their.

00:38:15.043 --> 00:38:20.590
They already knew that their qualifier was one week before the Open and their event is May 9th, 10th and 11th.

00:38:20.590 --> 00:38:26.778
So, like French Throwdown seems like the only one that has been announced, that it seems like it would be.

00:38:27.639 --> 00:38:34.922
It seems obvious that that's this is again one of those things where, like in, I think it sounds good, it's a good idea in theory.

00:38:34.922 --> 00:38:39.346
The execution is going to be like again.

00:38:39.346 --> 00:38:40.306
So is it like?

00:38:40.306 --> 00:38:42.547
Who's running the events?

00:38:42.547 --> 00:38:44.528
Who's programming the events?

00:38:44.528 --> 00:38:48.331
Is it the same programming as what our in affiliate semifinals have?

00:38:49.291 --> 00:39:05.063
is the judging program is the now judging requirement, the same for in affiliate, because at the crossfit games the crossfit games judges at least I don't know if it's, if it's only I remember at one point it was like only the like on the final day.

00:39:05.063 --> 00:39:09.219
It was like it was l4s, or like l3s and l4s were judges?

00:39:09.480 --> 00:39:11.826
I'm not sure, sure I don't know what the requirement is.

00:39:11.826 --> 00:39:23.043
But again, if, like, if the in-affiliate semi-final, like judging requirement is L1, which I think on average is a positive, there's still like, there's still going to be problems with it for sure.

00:39:23.043 --> 00:39:28.806
But now, like, what does that require for the in-person semifinal?

00:39:28.806 --> 00:39:30.858
Where are those held?

00:39:30.858 --> 00:39:31.097
Held?

00:39:31.097 --> 00:39:36.000
What does the qualification process look like for an in like a semifinal?

00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:38.344
Like that, is it location dependent, is it?

00:39:38.344 --> 00:39:38.865
You know?

00:39:38.865 --> 00:39:39.768
I think there's just.

00:39:39.768 --> 00:39:44.387
And then, like, what do I do if I want to?

00:39:44.387 --> 00:39:57.161
You know, if I don't qualify through the open and I sign up for the in affiliate or the in-person semi-final in june, whatever it is, like yeah, is my eligibility affected?

00:39:57.442 --> 00:40:04.804
you know, if I qualify for one, do, and then yeah yeah there's just a lot of unknowns and logistics that when we introduce this other path.

00:40:04.804 --> 00:40:11.119
It's, you're just, it's a, it's an entire new, almost an entire new project that they have to undertake.

00:40:11.360 --> 00:40:51.456
And again, we've seen these events by third-party entities be run really well and we've seen them run abysmally the way that it was run and it felt like the right mix of they had their shit together before hq showed up and said like here are some of your parameters and your rules yeah, and you wonder if, like a rogue is going to do that, is going to turn around from rogan in scotland and then put on an event a few months later like wadapalooza is obviously getting geared up for the beginning of the year.

00:40:51.496 --> 00:40:55.481
Their competition, are they going to be a like?

00:40:55.481 --> 00:41:00.235
That's probably the other major competition that athletes probably trust more than others.

00:41:00.355 --> 00:41:01.780
The same company did West Coast Classic, I believe.

00:41:01.780 --> 00:41:03.284
What's that?

00:41:03.284 --> 00:41:07.025
The same company runs the West Coast Classic, as far as I know.

00:41:07.235 --> 00:41:11.742
I don't know if that's still true, so that would be that version, like the Guadalupalooza West or like I don't know if that's still true.

00:41:11.804 --> 00:41:14.010
So that would be that version, like the Wadapalooza West, no, like West Coast Classic.

00:41:14.010 --> 00:41:17.221
West Coast Classic yeah, yeah, they did that in Del Mar.

00:41:17.221 --> 00:41:24.063
Loud and Live, I believe, was the one who was running that, who does Wadapalooza and then the SoCal thing.

00:41:24.063 --> 00:42:07.789
So, yeah, I mean to finish off the virtual in-affiliate semifinals no-transcript, um and then one to two athletes per division will advance to the crossfit games, making up the final 10 to 15 athletes to reach 30 and 30 as a field for the games, a 25 reduction from 40 and 40.

00:42:07.789 --> 00:42:17.056
40.

00:42:17.115 --> 00:42:22.632
So we got a little bit of a taste of the own programming thing, with legends like I do not believe that anyone approved them not going longer than 11 or 12 minutes.

00:42:22.632 --> 00:42:23.916

CrossFit Games 25 Season Changes - E.330

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