Re: 2015 CrossFit Open, Regionals, and Games Thread
 

[QUOTE=Steven Ngo;1255400]Same as Camille last year[/QUOTE]

Really? Guess I didn't pay as much attention to that. You don't have to win them all, just be in the hunt on a consistent basis.

Total side note: Camille was exposed this year, last year she was pretty fortunate with the events and several top competitors not being there (injury, missed cut, etc.) She's a fantastic competitor, but she's barely top 10 for me on a yearly basis.

Re: 2015 CrossFit Open, Regionals, and Games Thread
 

Watching the awards, I believe Bailey, Smith and Ence were the only athletes that won more than one event (and they each only won 2)? I think that speaks volumes to the programming being very well-rounded and that you couldn't simply be "the strongest" and run away with this, or just have a "great engine." The mix really tested brute force work, gymnastics, endurance, strength/technique, etc... Was it "not true Crossfit," as Amanda Goodman not-so-subtly jabbed? Yes, but that's only because, IMHO, "true Crossfit" has to recognize that most people can't build random equipment on the spot, it has to stick to (largely) the core equipment/facilities throughout the year, and into the Open and Regionals, too. The Games, however, is no holds-barred. You're talking the fractions of a percentage of the people, the elite test, anything goes, and you have to deal.

Re: 2015 CrossFit Open, Regionals, and Games Thread
 

^^ sam briggs and spencer hendel also with 2 wins.

I think smith's performance on the soccer chipper was really where it turned, taking first on that one and beating hendel's time (who went ludicrously fast and was in a different heat so smith really had to gun it without having someone to pace).

on a different note -- the icelanders are the targaryens of crossfit with the flowing white/blond hair and potential to dominate the crossfit world for some time. winter is coming and they are ready!

Re: 2015 CrossFit Open, Regionals, and Games Thread
 

[QUOTE=Sean J Hunter;1255393]IF WE IGNORE THE WEAKNESSES.
[/QUOTE]

I'm always reminded of "If Grandma had balls, she'd be Grandpa", when I see stuff like this.

Re: 2015 CrossFit Open, Regionals, and Games Thread
 

[QUOTE=Matt Rigney;1255398]Whole Ppost."[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Richard Colon;1255410]I'm always reminded of "If Grandma had balls, she'd be Grandpa", when I see stuff like this.[/QUOTE]

I'm referring to next year. Matts weaknesses are experienced based and skill based, far easier to fix then Bens issues. Hold the games again in 3 months and Matt would crush.

S

Re: 2015 CrossFit Open, Regionals, and Games Thread
 

smith jumped 6 places from last year (7th to 1st), fraser didn't improve any. so going by that logic, if Fraser is in 1st in 3 months, then smith would be transcendent. :D

Re: 2015 CrossFit Open, Regionals, and Games Thread
 

[QUOTE=Sean J Hunter;1255414]I'm referring to next year. Matts weaknesses are experienced based and skill based, far easier to fix then Bens issues. Hold the games again in 3 months and Matt would crush.

S[/QUOTE]

What are Smith's weaknesses? He didn't do well on the sandbag carry (and we don't really know why...he wasn't shown much when it aired). Outside of that, where was he weak? His worst finish besides that evnet was 11th (the top quarter of the field). Could Matt win next year? Sure. It came down to the final event. Fraser will probably never do overly well in the sprint events no matter how much he trains...he'll do better w/rope climbs next year I suspect...but I thought the whole conclusion of the weekend was that Smith didn't have many (any?) holes to fix.

You said in your original post that Smith "Didn't show the same consistency as Matt in general."

Standard deviation (e.g. spread around the mean) of Fraser's placing: 12.72
Standard deviation of Smith's placing: 8.64

So Smith was more consistent (generally) that Fraser, not vice versa.

So in the end, is this your argument?
"Fraser's weaknesses were x, y, and z. He'll correct those by next year and dominate. Smith's weaknesses are a lack of consistency [which we just showed really isn't true], therefore he won't dominate next year."

What if Fraser can't correct his weaknesses? What if he's just weak? I'm not saying that's true...I just don't buy your logic (or the underlying presuppositions).

Re: 2015 CrossFit Open, Regionals, and Games Thread
 

This is just me, but I am sorta getting tired of the "rigged so Froning could win" stuff. There were NINETEEN team events. Aside from Froning by himself (ONE event), the entire team factored into the win. Khalipa, Hackenbruck, plenty of other top athletes had their chance to "shine" by themselves, and they were beat by Rich's teammates if I remember the heats correctly.

I think its of most people's opinion that NorCal would've either won or been VERY close had Miranda not gone down. But I find it silly to claim its rigged for one person with "solo events" when in all reality that means they took Rich OUT of the competition for 5 straight events and his TEAM scored all those points. Sure there was only a certain number of teams at that point - thats because they outperformed the other teams for the 12 events prior to get there.

With all that being said - I was rooting for Invictus because of my crush on Lauren Fisher. I just think there is too many conspiracy theories going on at this point. (*cough* Fraser "couldnt" win cause hes a Nike guy *cough)

:D

Re: 2015 CrossFit Open, Regionals, and Games Thread
 

[QUOTE=Zac Metz;1255435]This is just me, but I am sorta getting tired of the "rigged so Froning could win" stuff. There were NINETEEN team events. Aside from Froning by himself (ONE event), the entire team factored into the win. Khalipa, Hackenbruck, plenty of other top athletes had their chance to "shine" by themselves, and they were beat by Rich's teammates if I remember the heats correctly.

I think its of most people's opinion that NorCal would've either won or been VERY close had Miranda not gone down. But I find it silly to claim its rigged for one person with "solo events" when in all reality that means they took Rich OUT of the competition for 5 straight events and his TEAM scored all those points. Sure there was only a certain number of teams at that point - thats because they outperformed the other teams for the 12 events prior to get there.

With all that being said - I was rooting for Invictus because of my crush on Lauren Fisher. I just think there is too many conspiracy theories going on at this point. (*cough* Fraser "couldnt" win cause hes a Nike guy *cough)

:D[/QUOTE]

This...

Re: 2015 CrossFit Open, Regionals, and Games Thread
 

1/3 of the events in the team competition this year were counted from either all male or all female efforts. Mayhem, lead by Froning had by far the most dominating performance of any team in that department in the male only events. Their team comprised of Rich (4 time winner, 5 time top 2 competitor), James Hobart (who has been top 20 at the games) and Matt Hewett (top 20 last year in the central east). The male side of their team was stacked and the way the events rolled out definitely played well for them especially getting three wins in those solo events. Granted they did well in a lot of other events, but reality is that this year with the "super teams" they obviously wanted an opportunity to showcase the big names out there.

In contrast I went and looked at previous years team events, and there were zero solo events and at the most 200 points for just male/female scoring, a 10% increase from previous years and enough to make an overall difference. The male side of their team would be like Crossfit Reykjavik fielding a team with Annie, Katrin and one of their other top women competing. They would have crushed the other girls in the field.

The male side of their team was by far the best in the field and the women were good enough.


As far as Fraser vs. Smith. Ben has been on the podium three times in seven years and is a proven performer, he was healthy this year too so no surprise there. As far as Fraser's weaknesses, I think everyone here missed the very obvious one. His grip strength, it was lack of grip strength/endurance that cost him a pile of money. If he had it he would have made the rope climbs and then blitzed those KBs and won, otherwise (like most of the top people) his sprinting sucks, which likely is more technique, but it could be speed too. Look for enhanced gripping prowess and more of the same of what he did this year and he will be a force for the title again. His "cardio" is ridiculous.

The other thing is he is one of maybe 4 guys (?) to have multiple podium finishes and one of three guys to do it back to back years, the other guys.....Froning and Khalipa.