Invictus Takes the Affiliate Cup Back to San Diego
Nine years ago, CrossFit Invictus first took home the Affiliate Cup home to San Diego. Since then, it has largely posted residence in Cookeville Tennessee, save for one year when it journeyed to Utah after Wasatch CrossFit briefly took the title in 2017.
This year, the title and the Cup officially return to San Diego after an absolutely dominant performance by CrossFit Invictus’ top team.
The details: At the end of day one, CrossFit Invictus earned their red leader’s jerseys and they never took them off.
- Over the course of the weekend, they took home three test wins and never finished a workout outside the top ten.
- Headed into the final test of the competition, Invictus had established a point spread so wide that it would take a finish of 17th or lower for second-place team CrossFit East Nashville PRVN to catch up to them.
- In the final workout, they took home second place after going head-to-head with East Nashville PRVN.
- Last year, the same Invictus team took third at the 2022 CrossFit Games. This year, they proved that they’ve only gotten fitter with their first-place finish.
The legacy of the Sea of Green: While Invictus hasn’t stood atop the podium since 2014, they have perhaps one of the most storied legacies in the history of CrossFit.
- Since 2009, CrossFit Invictus has sent at least one team to the CrossFit Games.
- Over the years, they’ve placed five teams on the podium and sent a number of individuals and age group athletes to the CrossFit Games.
- This season, they sent fifteen athletes, 12 athletes on teams, 2 age group athletes, and one individual athlete from their San Diego gym.
- In fact, their top team was a pure affiliate team with all team members hailing from their San Diego gym.
- Team member Brittany Weiss moved to San Diego in 2017 to pursue her dream of competing on a Games team with CrossFit Invictus.
- Last year, the team took third overall and this year, they elected to send the same roster back to the Games.
- Their performance on the floor proves that they spent the last 365 days honing in on their weaknesses both as individuals and as a team.
The story on the rest of the podium: While the podium was largely locked headed into the final test of the competition, the real battle would be between CrossFit East Nashville PRVN and CrossFit Oslo Navy Blue.
- While the two teams had been duking it out all weekend, CrossFit Oslo Navy Blue had largely sat in second place, while CrossFit East Nashville PRVN sat in third.
- However, an eighth-place finish on the first test of the final day would send CrossFit Oslo Navy Blue into third overall, just two points behind CrossFit East Nashville PRVN who jumped into second with a fourth-place finish.
- CrossFit Oslo Navy Blue would remain in third overall after taking third in the final test, just forty seconds behind CrossFit East Nashville PRVN who won the final workout.
- This is the third year in a row CrossFit Oslo has stood on the podium, though they’ve never finished better than second overall.
Other notable stories:
The comeback kids: While CrossFit Move Fast Lift Heavy had a rocky start to their season, finishing 24th in the worldwide open and 52nd worldwide in Quarterfinals (15th in the North America East Region), they managed to pull off a second-place finish right behind CrossFit East Nashville PRVN at North America East Semifinals.
- While a 19th and 18th place finish on the first two days would hold them back, they still managed to push themselves into fourth overall by the end of the competition, 115 points shy of cracking the podium.
The Nordics stack the field: While they account for just a small percentage of the CrossFit world, the Nordic teams make up a large part of the Games field.
- After the European Semifinal, eight of the ten qualifying teams hailed from the Nordic region.
- For reference, the Nordic region consists of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, as well as the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland.
- Of those eight teams, four were from Norway, two from Sweden, one from Finland, and one from Denmark
- Out of the eight Nordic teams competing at the Games, seven of the eight teams made the top twenty, and four of the eight teams made the top ten.
- This meant that out of all the teams in the top ten, 40% of teams hailed from the Nordic region.
- Notably, CrossFit Oslo, who sent 6 teams to the European Semifinal and three teams to the CrossFit Games managed to put one team on the podium and have one other team crack the top 20.
The most dominant regions: While the United States makes up more than half of all spots in the top ten, Europe still comprised 40% of the top ten despite only sending ten teams to the Games.
- Out of the top twenty, North America East and North America West made up 55% of the field, while Oceania made an appearance and Europe continued to make up about 40% of the field.
The Games introduced a new element: In the final event of the weekend, the teams were introduced to a brand new element, the Earthworm.
- While fans might be familiar with the Worm, the 365# sandbag snake that teams lift in unison, the Earthworm adds 85 pounds to that implement and is similar in nature to one of the original versions of the worm, the log worm.
- Sections are broken down into two 100-pound sections and two 125-pound sections.
- Over the course of the event, athletes on nearly every team struggled to maintain control of the worm as it flopped all over while being picked up and placed down.
- Not only that but in this event, no reps meant the earthworm had to be placed back on the floor, which forced athletes to completely reset themselves and pick the unruly element back up to their shoulders.
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