2012 Open, Regional and Games thread

[Sean Dunston]

So, if you haven't checked it out yet, there is a beta site in place right now that has lots of interesting info about this year's Games season (wfs):

http://games-beta.crossfit.com/

I particularly like the fact they have published a handy rule book - only 17 pages (wfs):

http://games-beta.crossfit.com/sites...c/rulebook.pdf

Some items that I found interesting that should be of interest to competitors as well:

Registration prices for the 2012 season are as follows:
i. Open Registration - $20 for U.S. and Canada ($10 for rest of world)
ii. Team Registration - $20
iii. Regional Individual - $100
iv. Regional Team - $300
v. Games Team - $300

The Open:

The Open will run from February 22 through March 25, 2012. There will be five workouts in
the Open. One workout will be released during each of the five weeks.
1. Each workout will be released on Wednesday at 17:00 PST (GMT-8). Athletes will
have 96 hours, until Sunday at 17:00 PST, to validly complete the workout and
submit their results.
2. Once the workout closes on Sunday, an Athlete will not be able to adjust or resubmit
any score for that workout.
c. Validating Workouts
i. Athletes must perform the workout and have their score validated by a CrossFit Affiliate in
good standing and/or by uploading a video of their workout to the CrossFit Games
website.
ii. It is the sole responsibility of the Athlete to ensure the timely and successful submission of
their workout each week. Scores that are not validated will not be accepted.
iii. Only valid CrossFit Affiliates in good standing (as determined by CrossFit, Inc.) have the
ability to validate scores. To opt-in to validate scores, they commit to upholding the
standards and ethics of the CrossFit Games and assert that they have the equipment and
facility to administer the workout.

Prizes
i. Prizes will be awarded for the following achievements during the Open.
1. Largest Team Worldwide
a. The team with the most validly registered Athletes on Sunday, February
26 at 17:00 PDT (GMT-8) will win:
i. A number of tickets to the Games equal to the number of
registered Athletes on their team.
ii. Their Affiliate fee will be waived for life of the CrossFit Affiliate
gym so long as such CrossFit Affiliate complies with CrossFit’s
then-current rules and policies regarding affiliated gyms.
2. Largest Team Regionally
a. The Team with the most validly registered Athletes in their Region on
Sunday, February 26 at 17:00 PDT (GMT-8) will win:
i. A number of tickets to the Regionals equal to the number of
registered Athletes on their team.
3. Spirit of the Open (weekly)
a. The prize will be US$2012.00. All prizes are subject to applicable taxes
and withholding and prize winner’s compliance with and agreement to
CrossFit’s prize affidavit.
b. One Athlete will be selected each week who represents the CrossFit
community and the spirit of the Open competition.
c. Athlete may compete in any division.
d. Athlete must attempt the workout, but overall performance in the
workout will not be considered for this prize.
e. Nominations may be sent to support@crossfitgames.com with “spirit of
the games” as the subject line.
4. Top male and female score worldwide (weekly)
a. The prize will be US$2012.00 for the male and female winner. All prizes
are subject to applicable taxes and withholding and prize winner’s
compliance with and agreement to CrossFit’s prize affidavit.
b. Athlete must video tape the workout and submit to CrossFit, Inc. in
order to claim the prize.

Important Dates - Regionals:

i. Week of April 23-29 (South East, South Central, Canada West)
ii. Week of April 30 - May 6 (Mid Atlantic, South West, Africa, Asia)
iii. Week of May 7-13 (Central East, SoCal, Canada East, Latin America)
iv. Week of May 14-20 (North Central, NorCal, Australia)
v. Week of May 21-27 (North East, North West, Europe)
vi. On-site check-in will take place on Thursday of event week

Prizes at each Regional event-

1. 1st place man and woman, US$3,000 each
2. 2nd place man and woman, US$2,000 each
3. 3rd place man and woman, US$1,000 each
4. 1st place Team, US$3,000 per team
5. 2nd place Team, US$1,500 per team
6. 3rd place Team, US$750 per team

Dates and Prizes for The Games-

Week of July 9-15, 2012
1. Individual check-in will take place on Monday of event week
2. Masters check-in will take place on Tuesday of event week
3. Team check-in will take place on Wednesday of event week

1. 1st place man and woman, US$250,000 each
2. 2nd place man and woman, US$50,000 each
3. 3rd place man and woman, US$25,000 each
4. 1st place Team, US$30,000 per team
5. 2nd place Team, US$12,000 per team
6. 3rd place Team, US$6,000 per team
7. 1st place Master (each division), US$3,000
8. 2nd place Master (each division), US$1,000
9. 3rd place Master (each division), US$500
Spirit of the Games Award
1. Will be selected by CrossFit HQ from any division.
2. Award and prize money to be announced.

[Charles Applin]

Well, it's nice they didn't learn some of the lessons from last year. Always good to know.

Problem One: Region determined by address on arbitrary date. Because no one ever moves or is on travel or lives closer to one venue than another. Asia Region was the biggest offender as it had people a two hour flight to Europe flying 9,000 miles to compete in Japan. Let people register for the region of their choice. This ain't the olympics where it's countries competing. These are individual events using an efficient manner to get the best to face off at the finals. Plus, spreading the high end of the talent pool early on ensures you get 60 of the best at the finals.

Problem Two: only top 60 open finishers are invited to Regionals. Look at last year. Some regionals were half filled or worse. Just give a 7 day opt-in or opt-out for all open competitors, then allow the top 70 opt in people to pay for registration. The extra 10 are just stand-by and can fill in on Region day or have their registration returned.

If they solve these two problems, I think it's reasonable to make all open fees at $20. In addition, they can then base number of athletes going to the finals on actual open numbers.

Suggestion for Open: Make a rule that affiliates have to upload video of their open competition events. The affiliate should have the ability to link this video to all the athletes featured in the video. This'll help increase fan enthusiasm seeing how the top players are doing.

Suggestion for Regional: On ladder event like last year's thruster ladder, allow an athelete to continue lifting if they believe a judge made a bad call. Video review latter, if found to be in the athlete's favor, won't mean holding a new event.

[Sean Dunston]

Actually -
I commend them for addressing a large number of issues from last year's Open and Regionals.
I understand your concern regarding remaining issues, but I think this is still a work in progress.

[Shawn M Wilson]

each masters division mean they going to just count that as men/women or 40-45/45+?

[Ben Norris]

Now all they need to do is ban prequalified individuals from competing in the teams comp for open and regionals.

[Charles Applin]

Originally Posted by Sean Dunston

Actually -
I commend them for addressing a large number of issues from last year's Open and Regionals.
I understand your concern regarding remaining issues, but I think this is still a work in progress.

Yes I should have said they're trying and they are improving on some things. The regional thing though is a big problem with an easy fix though.

[Scott McIntyre]

Wow, I didnt know some of the regional comps were lacking competitors? Which region?

How can one win the Spirit of the Open award and what is it?

[Frances Ballesteros]

Why do the US regionals get like 12 spots and Europe gets 3?

[Milton Brisson]

Originally Posted by Frances Ballesteros

Why do the US regionals get like 12 spots and Europe gets 3?

There is a much higher concentration of Affiliates in the US compared to Europe, so it stsands to reason there would be more spots at the Games for them. Also, the Games will be held in the US, so they would want more Americans there to keep interest high.

[Joey Shishineh]

Anyone have a plan of attack for the open WODs?

I am probably going to take it easy on Tuesdays and then hit the WOD on Wednesday and again on Saturday.