2019 Crossfit Games

[iamsmu]

I was wondering how they were going to deal with the much larger number of competitors. Looks like it's going to be a funnel.

Every event will be worth up to 100 points, and athletes earn points based on their finish (see chart). After Event 1, the top 75 athletes will advance to Event 2. The proceeding events will cut the field to 50 athletes, then 40, 30, 20, and finally, 10. At the end of the weekend, the athlete with the most points is the winner. Athletes who tie receive the same number of points. If athletes fail to complete an event within the time cap (for timed events), their score will be capped, and they will receive a 1-second penalty for each rep not completed.

https://www.roguefitness.com/iron-game? ... 915#/watch

[iamsmu]

There are ~150 men on the leaderboard. They cut to 75 after the first event. The second event today will cut to 50, the typical number. I figured they'd just do a big culling like this back when they announced the end of regionals.

Lots of these people never stood a chance of making the top 75 or 50. I wonder if they are just happy to get to go to the games. . . .

There were 5 in the bottom 75 who were from the US. The rest are all international, as expected. But there are people from many more countries in the top 75 than usual. I'm curious to see what it looks like when we get down to 50.

[TimK]

Lots of these people never stood a chance of making the top 75 or 50. I wonder if they are just happy to get to go to the games. . . .

I don't really know anything about the crossfit games but I'm assuming there is an entry fee? Sounds like an easy way to boost revenue, although I'm sure you're right that people probably just like being able to say that they went and "competed'.

Not dissimilar from USAPL raw nationals...

[asdf]

I don't really know anything about the crossfit games but I'm assuming there is an entry fee? Sounds like an easy way to boost revenue, although I'm sure you're right that people probably just like being able to say that they went and "competed'.

Not dissimilar from USAPL raw nationals...

There might be an entry fee, but you have to qualify to be in the Games. You qualify by competing in the CrossFit Open and being a national champion or being in the top 20 worldwide, or by competing in and winning a major CrossFit-sponsored international event.

So the reason there were so many athletes in the Games this year is because the top man and woman in Peru, Taiwan, Turkey, Zambia, etc. all qualified. Some of them didn't stand a chance of succeeding at the Games, but it was cool to see them all announced during the opening ceremony.

Glassman made the Games more like the Olympics in terms of international diversity, which I think is great.

[iamsmu]

Event 3 was a 6k ruck, with increasing weight per lap, up to 50#. Men and women using the same weight. . . .

The top man did it in just shy of 24 min. It sure didn't look like he was doing 6 minute miles. The distance must be off. I can't make sense of it otherwise. That's just so fast with that much weight.

[Victore]

they probably fudge the distance

[iamsmu]

they probably fudge the distance

I suspect that they mismeasured by a good 500 meters.

[asdf]

they probably fudge the distance

I suspect that they mismeasured by a good 500 meters.

If you can find a map of the route, you could measure it yourself via the power of the interwebs. Some guy on Reddit said he did that using Google Maps and thought the distance was correct +/- 150 meters. Not saying he's right, of course.

[iamsmu]

they probably fudge the distance

I suspect that they mismeasured by a good 500 meters.

If you can find a map of the route, you could measure it yourself via the power of the interwebs. Some guy on Reddit said he did that using Google Maps and thought the distance was correct +/- 150 meters. Not saying he's right, of course.

If so, that's insane. So impressive! The level keeps going up.and up. Everyone seems 10# heavier this year too.

That 20 min amrap Mary was death. I'm shocked that Olsen could maintain the pace. They were making fun of him for starting too fast. . . .

[asdf]

If so, that's insane. So impressive! The level keeps going up.and up. Everyone seems 10# heavier this year too.

I didn't watch it, but my wife (an avid CrossFitter) told me that lots of men and women were sprinting to the finish. Hard for me to wrap my mind around a 130# woman sprinting with a 50# pack at the end of a 6K run. But I checked the video and sure enough, that part (at least) is real. Time-stamped:

That 20 min amrap Mary was death. I'm shocked that Olsen could maintain the pace. They were making fun of him for starting too fast. . . .

Just watched it to see what you were talking about. That was insane. Also, seemed to me that Fraser should have been no-repped on many of his "pull-ups."

[cwd]

Dear god, they were sprinting with 50 lb packs.

I just got done *walking my dogs* with a 60 lb vest for 2.5 km and I'm tired.

[iamsmu]

I didn't watch it, but my wife (an avid CrossFitter) told me that lots of men and women were sprinting to the finish. Hard for me to wrap my mind around a 130# woman sprinting with a 50# pack at the end of a 6K run. But I checked the video and sure enough, that part (at least) is real. Time-stamped:

...

Just watched it to see what you were talking about. That was insane. Also, seemed to me that Fraser should have been no-repped on many of his "pull-ups."

Some of the elite women were hanging out mid pack with the men. I was super impressed. . . . That 50# pack was crushing some people. Annie T looked like she was going to die.

Ya, Fraser wasn't getting his chin over the bar for many of those reps. I saw some other guy getting no-repped for pistols that were pretty much fine. Some judges are probably reluctant to no-rep the big names. And there is a little inconsistency in judging, as you'd expect since there are so many. Lablac-Bazinet's presses last year come to mind. She was not doing a strict press. It looks like they have judges watching the judges in some cases this year. I saw a second guy come out and tell a judge to make sure people were getting their chins over the bar. . . .

[Allentown]

Do they not have any interest in snagging casual viewers any more? Did the softball throw from a few years back totally kill off any mainstream/WSM-type "oh, this thing on ESPN3 looks kind of interesting, I'll watch this or put it on one of the TVs at the bar" interest?
My x-fit neighbor texted me and said she though some of the events looked boring/silly/likely to cause injury. Not a great endorsement?
Then she texted me saying her xfit gym emailed out the workouts for the week with a warning: "Monday and Tuesday we'll try out a couple tough new workouts from this year's CrossFit Games from the past few days" and she added a

Was the 6K on a track, and did they at least stagger start them? Because things like the long row or whatever was an embarrassment, as far as planning a piece of entertainment. Who TF is going to sit for however long that takes and watch a bunch of people go back and forth on a beam? Does Castro or whoever pulls these things out of a hat spend more than .0001s thinking about how to draw viewers, or make something interesting to watch?

[OCG]

It's Crossfit. By making that post, you've already put more thought into it than 90% of Crossfitters and 110% of HQ.

[iamsmu]

Was the 6K on a track, and did they at least stagger start them? Because things like the long row or whatever was an embarrassment, as far as planning a piece of entertainment. Who TF is going to sit for however long that takes and watch a bunch of people go back and forth on a beam? Does Castro or whoever pulls these things out of a hat spend more than .0001s thinking about how to draw viewers, or make something interesting to watch?

They all ran at the same time for the 6k, men and women. They had some path charted out around the stadium area. It was clearly mismeasured. But it wasn't like watching people do loops on a track. That would be so tedious and confusing. . . . They had to run 1500 and then add weight each time.

I don't think they cared much about viewers on the marathon row. It was at the end of the day. It wasn't nice to TV or on site viewers. But most of the other events were. The water events tend to be kind of boring to watch. But this year Toomey just blew everyone else away on the swim + paddle. She tied \ beat by a hair the best man.

I watched some of the team events too. Many of the top people from a few years ago are now on teams.

The games were a little less interesting this year. It wasn't all due to the events. Some of them weren't all that exciting. But most were pretty short and worth watching. The issue was in how far they trimmed the field. It was down to 10 men and 10 women early Saturday. Typically some lower ranked person will randomly do well in some later event. But they didn't have a chance this year. It took something out of it.

In some ways it was better to have fewer heats as they could put all the men and women together on some events. But it was worse in others.

There was some drama in the men's competition. Fraser was behind until the second or third to last events. The final event seemed to have been designed for Fraser.

The stadium looked pretty full for most of the events. But I have no idea who is watching this. I watched it on Rogue's live stream on youtube. There were around 90k other viewers at most times. That's not so many.

It's Crossfit. By making that post, you've already put more thought into it than 90% of Crossfitters and 110% of HQ.

Whatever the hell the games athletes are doing it's working very well. Though it certainly isn't main site programming. I've heard a few of them say that they pretty much train nearly every day all day. It might just be big talk to mess with their competitors. But I don't know. How they can recover from all that work is amazing. I guess the bulk of them are in their early 20s. In previous years there were several women in the 30s. This year there was an 18 year old girl in the top 10.

[Allentown]

It's Crossfit. By making that post, you've already put more thought into it than 90% of Crossfitters and 110% of HQ.

It's frustrating, because it would be cool to see any/more strength sports on TV.

[OCG]

Whatever the hell the games athletes are doing it's working very well.

Steroids do work very well I agree.

Also one of their main advantages is a greatly, massively enhanced recovery ability.

[LexAnderson]

Back when Froning was winning his individual titles he was talking about doing like 6 WOD'S a day and stuff compared to everyone elses 2 or 3. I suspect that other competitors have started to copy him in that regard. I'm also not sure what the drug testing is like for the games either. I know that last year they had a few people test positive and receive bans, but it honestly felt like they were just sacrificial lambs to appease their critics.

[Allentown]

I know that last year they had a few people test positive and receive bans, but it honestly felt like they were just sacrificial lambs to appease their critics.

"We only had 3 positive drug tests, it's a clean sport!"
Three people were tested

I mean, I don't care at all if 100% of them are using. Just make a reasonably easy to follow strongman/endurance thing. Throw in a few occasional Xfitty-touches like handstand walks or that sandbag wheelbarrow thing from a few years back. Hide Glassman in a concrete bunker away from all camera devices for the duration. Sell it to ESPN with some of the booty-short babes. Profit.

[LexAnderson]

I know that last year they had a few people test positive and receive bans, but it honestly felt like they were just sacrificial lambs to appease their critics.

"We only had 3 positive drug tests, it's a clean sport!"
Three people were tested

I mean, I don't care at all if 100% of them are using. Just make a reasonably easy to follow strongman/endurance thing. Throw in a few occasional Xfitty-touches like handstand walks or that sandbag wheelbarrow thing from a few years back. Hide Glassman in a concrete bunker away from all camera devices for the duration. Sell it to ESPN with some of the booty-short babes. Profit.

Also force Dave Castro to have all events planned 100% a head of time. I am not sure about this year, but I know in years past that he has just completely made up events to do during the weekend. Like he knows they are going to be in the stadium on Satuday morning, and he has all of the equipment there and just almost waits until 30 min before the 1st heat to decide what they are going to do. So it's really easy to see how it's not at all planned for TV viewership.