Smashby's Training Blog

It finally happened, everyone! CrossFit HQ has made a change to the rules that states if and when an individual qualifies for Regionals and goes as an individual, their point totals will be REMOVED from their gym’s team total, and the team will be reranked accordingly.

Here is the official post from the CF Games site:

“Athletes who accept the invitation to compete as Individuals at their Regional will have their contributing Open scores removed from their respective Teams. The Team Leaderboard will then be re-sorted and the top 30 teams will be invited to compete at their respective Regional competition.”

This addresses an issue that many CrossFit athletes felt was unfair in the past. Example, sorry to use Froning as the example, but it’s the easiest way for most of us to understand!

If he qualifies #1 in the world, that would obviously give his gym a HUGE boost in the TEAM rankings as well. If he chooses to go individual, his point totals would NOT have been removed from his gym’s Team ranking…. until now! Now, once the athlete declares that they would like to go individual, their points would then be reevaluated MINUS the totals earned from Froning.

My opinion: That is much more fair, and will open the door to several more of those “bubble” teams who missed qualifying their gym by only a few spots.

Important additional details to note (also from the CF Games article):
“Those athletes who choose to compete individually at Regionals will not be barred from returning to their team for the Games (if the do not qualify as individuals). Additionally, team competitors who sit out of the Regional to recover from injury, etc., may compete on their team at the Games.”

All in all, I say GREAT JOB, HQ! Moving in the right direction to try and make this selection and qualifying process even more fair.