Here Are 13 Changes You Need to Know About the New CrossFit Games Season Structure
Photo Credit: Erin Murphy (@erinmurphydesigns)
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CrossFit HQ released its initial outline for the 2023 CrossFit Games season format, introducing several new changes that could have long-lasting effects on the season for competitive athletes.
While a vast majority of the major changes are at the Semifinal stage and to the Games qualification process, several important changes have also been introduced to both the Open and Quarterfinals.
The Open: February 16 – March 6, 2023
- The six person roster for teams (four completing, two alternates) will be selected immediately after the Open. Only these athletes will be eligible to compete from Quarterfinals through the Games.
- Athletes can no longer use a registered CrossFit judge as the sole way of validating their score (see section 1.21 of the 2022 CrossFit Games rulebook).
Quarterfinals: Dates TBD
- Both team and age group Quarterfinal workouts will take place at the same time. Teams will compete Wednesday through Friday and Age-Group athletes will compete Friday through Sunday. This has the potential to greatly affect any teen or masters athletes looking to keep their options open for both individuals and teams. CrossFit does say it will allow athletes to compete in any division he or she qualifies for, however.
Semifinals: Dates TBD
Qualification and structure
- There will be seven Semifinals instead of 10.
- North America will have two Semifinals (East and West) and Europe will have one.
- All North American and European Semifinals will be operated by CrossFit.
- CrossFit will now program all Semifinal events.
- CrossFit will partner with four semifinal event organizers to put on events in Africa, Asia, Australia and South America.
Qualifying to Semifinals
- Athlete seeding for North America and Europe is going away. Athletes will qualify to their respective Semifinal based on their region. Athletes will know their region after registering for the Open.
- The top 60 individual men and women, and the top 40 teams will advance to the North American East and West, and European Semifinals respectively.
- The top 30 individual men and women, and the top 20 teams will compete at the Africa, Asia, Australia and South America Semifinals.
Qualifying to the Games
- The Last Chance qualifier is going away. Instead, the final two Games spots will be awarded to athletes further down the Semifinal leaderboard in accordance with “a ranking system based on the strength of the field.” No other information is available at this time.
The Games: Tuesday, August 1 – Sunday, August 6, 2023.
- They’re introducing a new six-day format but there aren’t any additional details available at this time.
Five things that are staying exactly the same:
- The Open will be three weeks long.
- The same number of athletes and teams will qualify to quarterfinals: the top 10 percent of individuals and top 25% of teams from each region.
- The same number of age group athletes will compete in the online Semifinals.
- The same number of athletes will compete at individual and team Semifinals.
- The same number of athletes will compete at the Games across all divisions.
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