Sevan Matossian (00:00):
Oh, shit. I forgot to send it to you. Sorry. Bam. We’re live. Who sent it to you? Brian SU did.
Brian Friend (00:06):
Yeah. I asked him,
Sevan Matossian (00:07):
Oh, sorry. That’s my fault. Hey, I wanted to tell you this story real quick. Ready? Oh, there’s Angela shit. Sorry Caleb.
Angelo DiCicco (00:16):
Hey, this is my phone for now until my, um, until my laptop finishes. It’s update.
Sevan Matossian (00:24):
I got this, this friend of mine sent me this text today. This is a true story. Ready? I got pulled over for rolling through a stop sign yesterday. When the cop asked me why I told him the sign identified is yield.
Angelo DiCicco (00:38):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (00:39):
Guess who didn’t get a ticket? I go seriously. He said, yeah, he laughed so hard and said it was the best line he’s heard yet.
Angelo DiCicco (00:46):
<laugh>
Brian Friend (00:49):
What a great opening to the show.
Sevan Matossian (00:51):
Well, I’m just, it’s free. I just saved everyone who gets pulled over. I mean, I don’t get pulled over anymore. I’ve reached that age. I’ve reached that age. Um, but Angelo’s wait. You don’t under, you don’t know that age. You will,
Brian Friend (01:03):
Where they look they’re like, oh, it’s just some old guy.
Sevan Matossian (01:05):
We’ll let us. Yeah. Yeah. <laugh> it’s a dude, a Sienna. They don’t want none. Angela knows. Angelo drives by me in the fire. Trucking goes in 20 years. I’m gonna be fucking visiting that guy in the nursing home.
Angelo DiCicco (01:18):
<laugh> yeah, no, I get pulled over all the time.
Sevan Matossian (01:24):
Uh, what are, well, let me, let me ask Angela first. Angela, what do you think power rankings mean? What do you think that means?
Angelo DiCicco (01:34):
Uh, uh, that sounds like a big term that Brian understands that I don’t,
Sevan Matossian (01:40):
I think it means who he thinks are currently the best CrossFitters in the world ranked in order, based on their sex, a list of men and a list of women with the one caveat that they have to be eligible in this current season to make it to the games as an individual. So for example, if someone got knocked out already, they couldn’t be on the list. Yeah. Or two, like someone like rich couldn’t be on the list because he’s an individual. Okay. So let’s, uh, the, the Google definition is ratings or power ratings, little different than rankings are numerical representations of competitive strength often directly comparable. So that the game outcome between any two teams can be predicted. Oh, so is there some, so maybe there’s some sort of calculation that Brian does that gives each person a ranking based on their birthday, um, their birth country and how they did in their last, uh, competition.
Brian Friend (02:39):
That’s it? Those are the only three things I think of a,
Angelo DiCicco (02:42):
No, I think, I think it’s, uh, I think it’s just basically their, how they were represented themselves at their semifinal, who they were competing against and how they did against those people. I mean, that that’s, that would be the best way, I guess. I
Sevan Matossian (02:54):
Don’t know about, but to mean what to mean? What, when we look at this list, what do you think it means? Do you think that means that’s like if we see someone who’s number 10 on the listens number or someone who’s number five, do you think we’re gonna be able to be able to say, um, Brian thinks that guy’s gonna be fifth, that the games and this guy’s gonna be 10th?
Angelo DiCicco (03:11):
Um, I think as of right now, that’s, as of right now, that’s the only, uh, that’s really the only thing you can compare, I guess, you know, it’s like they haven’t done the same workouts. They haven’t done all the same workouts. They’ve just, um, they’ve just,
Sevan Matossian (03:27):
<laugh> keep a straight face in.
Angelo DiCicco (03:33):
They’ve just all qualified and based, based on how they qualified out of their respective, um semi-final and who they competed against is the only way you could PO you could say that. So, no, I don’t think that necessarily means that who is 10th and the list is gonna get 10th. I just think that, um, I think he’s basically done the best that he can with the information he’s been given so far.
Sevan Matossian (03:55):
How can <affirmative>, how come I can’t remember. I know I’ve asked you before, what power rankings mean? How come I can’t, but I always know that whatever I’m thinking is wrong,
Angelo DiCicco (04:02):
<laugh>
Brian Friend (04:03):
I, I mean, I think you did a pretty good job, but uh, good. And then supplemented by Angela. Can we do a, is, can we do polls in the comment section seven? Is that a thing we can do?
Sevan Matossian (04:12):
Yes. Yes, yes, totally. Totally. I’d like that. Let’s double check with, uh, Mr. Beaver.
Brian Friend (04:17):
Yes, of course. Okay. Let’s do, uh, Paul, would you rather go with the sure thing or the big risk, big reward? And let’s put that there we’ll come, come on, come back to it later.
Sevan Matossian (04:28):
Would you rather go with sure thing, a mm-hmm <affirmative> or B would you rather go with big risk, big reward?
Brian Friend (04:35):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (04:36):
Uh, no dig genitalia size is not a factor this year. Thank you though. That’s, um, been taken out
Brian Friend (04:43):
And, um, another, you know, we could do a good example of the, you know, how power rankings go just by, um, looking around at the three of us here. It’s pretty obvious that the most powerful facial hair is Angela.
Angelo DiCicco (04:56):
<laugh>
Brian Friend (04:58):
You come in as, as a close second Sevan. And even though I might contend in many circles, I’m a distant third here.
Angelo DiCicco (05:04):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (05:06):
Hi, I’ll take it. I’ll take second. I’ll take second to anything to Angelo. Um, okay. Let us, um, no, John Young is not, uh, is John Young banned from the Seon podcast? No, he is not banned yet. Uh, okay. Um, uh, hello, John Young. Good to see you. Um, uh, so tell Brian, can you tell us what the power rankings are and, and, and, and, and explain to us what’s happened to them? Um, this year, I know that there’s 30 men, 30 women last year, or last time we only had 20 and 20.
Brian Friend (05:40):
Yeah. So, um, basically just trying to assess at different points of the season, based on the total, you know, knowledge of what I we know or I know of the athletes, uh, yeah, I mean, you could ask yourself this question in a couple of different ways, but, but the general question I’m asking is who do I think is, um, more well positioned or more well poised to outperform the other one when at, at the competition that matters the most there’s, you know, a lot of, and so, uh, a, a lot of times when I put out, um, these things, people think it is a prediction that I’m saying, this is gonna be the order of finish this. Guy’s gonna beat this guy. And I don’t really feel, you know, feel that it’s, that, um, valuable to do that really early on. So this is a different way to assess the field without, you know, necessarily locking yourself into a prediction, obviously over the course of the next eight weeks, many things could happen that we could learn about that.
Brian Friend (06:39):
Could, you know, IM impact these things, but at this given moment with what we’ve seen this year, what we know about these athletes over the total amount of years, that they’ve been competing from a, not just a competition perspective, but a consistency perspective and, uh, continuation of growth perspective or not, uh, yes, age does come into the equation. And, and, you know, I think one of the things that people often forget is like, you can’t have 30 guys in the top 10 there’s one spot, and then that spot’s gone and the next best spot is the next best spot available. And you can be fitter this year and do worse at the games this year, especially in the men’s division.
Sevan Matossian (07:20):
And how is that?
Brian Friend (07:21):
Cause the field is better.
Sevan Matossian (07:24):
Oh, okay. Fitter than you were the previous year, not fitter than your comrades, your colleagues.
Brian Friend (07:28):
Correct.
Sevan Matossian (07:29):
Okay. Okay. Uh, so the, the dickhead side of me wants to be like, Hey dude, this power rankings is just a pus. You pussy foot in a, uh, around not wanting to rank them in the order that you think they’re gonna win the games cuz it’s too early. But, but what you’re saying is it’s who you think is more well poised to outperform the others. If the competition were tomorrow
Brian Friend (07:54):
Were no
Sevan Matossian (07:55):
July, June 22nd. No. Okay. Shit. Okay. Well to take one more stab at it, I’m sorry.
Brian Friend (08:00):
No, I’m, I, I, I am projecting based on what I know right now about the athletes, how well I think that they will end up doing at the games, but there’s a lot of things that’ll happen between now and then, uh, that have, you know, you might think it’s like a cop out or whatever that have a lot of potential to change that. And I try to, when it comes to the competitions, put out predictions for the competitions as close to the start of the competition as possible when I have most available information, because sometimes, you know, specific information can be, in my opinion, pretty critical for certain a especially for certain athletes, you know, there are athletes that I think, uh, transcend those inconsistencies in either programming or timing or whatever that, uh, that situation might be. But those are few and far between. And for a majority of the athletes, I, I look at them as having a range of P potential finishes best possible scenario to worst possible outcome, obviously with the exception of injury. However, even in the case of injury, I factor that in sometimes with certain athletes because, uh, you know, it’s, it’s, it almost seems useless to rank someone pretty highly at the gains level when they sh have only shown the capacity to not finish the games test ever. And, you know, then it’s like, okay, well, I, you know, I,
Sevan Matossian (09:20):
Who, who are you saying when you say that? Who are you saying? Like car Saunders or
Brian Friend (09:23):
No car is an interesting fact or a factor for sure, because she has had a lot of ups and downs at the games she’s had just as many amazing performances as withdrawals or below power performances. Um,
Sevan Matossian (09:37):
And so is there someone who’s ne who’s been to the games twice and never finished the games either time? Yeah,
Brian Friend (09:42):
Well, yeah. I mean, but, but you, part of the problem with most of the athletes in the field is that some of the only opportunities they had were 2019 and 2020. Okay. Which were, you know, kind of, they weren’t, you, we actually weren’t being tested at the games. You know, I actually think that both Adrian Bosman and Brent Frankowski did a decent job in this past press conference of detailing, what is so special about the games and that it is a different, uh, than any other competition you can do. And in those two years, the athletes there did not get to experience the games in that way. And so, you know, I can say, look at someone and say, oh, you only did five workouts in 2020, you only did one workout last year, you had to withdraw. And in 2009 or 19, you did five last year in 2022 online, you did the seven workouts online. And it just doesn’t like, there’s not a really good, even though this person spends at the games multiple times, there’s no good sample size or data to look at. Well, can that person actually last the duration of the games,
Sevan Matossian (10:39):
Right? Roman
Brian Friend (10:41):
<laugh> no, it’s, uh, Danny stego is the one I’m referring to.
Sevan Matossian (10:44):
Right. But Roman’s another one that’s um, like, Hey, what what’s gonna happen when he is not in Siberia? Is he gonna melt? Does he melt path? The seventh, seventh event?
Brian Friend (10:55):
Roman’s a great example. So, you know, because you want to, you know, it, it appears like he has every potential to be as good as anyone at the game based on the things that he’s done. He’s regular,
Sevan Matossian (11:04):
Not Justin. Maderas careful.
Brian Friend (11:06):
<laugh> his competition resume over the past several years is better than Justin Maderas at the competition he’s been able to compete at, but
Sevan Matossian (11:15):
He hasn’t the Siberian throw down the Moscow open. And the St Petersburg’s butchery. Those were, yeah, those were, uh, legit. No,
Angelo DiCicco (11:24):
He just competed Dubai more than once, right?
Brian Friend (11:27):
Yes. And he is done exceptionally well there. Uh, you know, he, he, he finished behind Brent and pat one year, he won it last year. He’s um,
Sevan Matossian (11:35):
All I remember is that Ricky smoked his ass
Brian Friend (11:38):
In one workout. <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (11:40):
That’s the fun. I remember
Brian Friend (11:41):
<laugh> no. And in both of
Sevan Matossian (11:44):
You, I love Roman. I just can’t give him any, I can’t give him any street cred yet. I just can’t. I
Brian Friend (11:48):
Just can’t. Well, no, no, but you know, that is the highest level competition that he is competed at. And in the two LA the last two years that he’s done it, he basically beat the field this year by a hundred points. And it’s not, um, you know, it’s not the best field out there, but you got Laar GI Rickard, Jeff ad Adler. And none of those guys were able to get within 95 points of him on the leaderboard, by the end of the test. And then you have the, you know, the, the previous year that he did it, he lost to Kowski and ner, but he was a hundred points ahead of the fourth base finisher, which is EKG. And we all know how good EKG can do in a game setting. The games are usually 13 to 15 tests. Dubai is usually nine or 10 tests these years. Um, and so he’s getting close to demonstrating against some of the best games athletes that he can hang for, you know, at least a good portion of what the games test is gonna be.
Sevan Matossian (12:35):
Um, we’re, we’re way off track here, but I’m gonna do it anyway. Angela, when you show up to the games and you’re just a Savage, like someone like Roman is, do you still look back and look around you and be like, oh shit, there’s nowhere to hide. Like, do you know that now? It’s like a totally different show.
Angelo DiCicco (12:54):
Yeah. I think, I think anybody who shows to the games, it’s a totally different feeling. Doesn’t matter how many big high level competitions you’ve been to the games are a completely different animal. Um, mainly just because that’s what your whole year revolves around, you know, cuz and that’s what everyone else’s year revolves around. So, um, like what Brian’s saying is you can compare stuff that Dubai pretty well because it’s of the test, how long the test is, but then you have to think about that’s some people, they don’t train all that hard for it and they don’t, they’re not trying to peak then, you know, that could be just, um, you know, okay, I’m gonna train. And then let’s say I’m like fourth week into my nine week Olympic lifting cycle. I’ll just put it on pause for a week and go do this competition. Whereas the games it’s all tailor made, you know, I’m gonna finish my Olympic lifting cycle the week before the games and I’m gonna finish this aerobic capacity cycle a week before the games and I wanna be ramped up and ready to go taper for a few days. And I’m, you know, I’m the fittest I’ve been all year. So, um, I think the games are totally different animal. Um, for a lot of reasons than that being one of them.
Sevan Matossian (14:03):
I mean, you, you can, you can be, Roman’s gonna be in a heat and he is gonna look to his right. And there’s Travis mayor and to his left there’s Justin Maderas and then he is gonna look one more down to his left and there’s gonna be Noah. And then he is gonna look to his right, little more down. There’s gonna lizard GI and there’s gonna be no one, everyone HES looks at he’s gonna have seen on TV or yeah. On Instagram, winning some sort of event somewhere. Yeah. Someone, everyone in his heat, someone is gonna there’s has a fan base that thinks that guy’s gonna win the games.
Angelo DiCicco (14:29):
Yeah, exactly. It’s like, um, it’s like, it’s almost like you playing football with the kids in your neighborhood. And then you’re like, man, I’m, you know, being the best kid in the neighborhood and then go showing up to high school and being like just kind of run of the mill. You know, it’s like everyone is that kid. Everyone’s that kid who’s the best in his group and they’re getting sent there. So you’re not like, uh, yeah, some people are kind of standout, but mostly everybody there is usually the best person in the, in their gym or second or third in their gym, depending on who they’re training with mean we know the training groups are a lot more, uh, prevalent now than they used to be. But you you’re showing up, you’re probably the fittest guy in your circle or close to it. You’re not usually getting beat all the time.
Angelo DiCicco (15:13):
And then when you show up at the games, you’re competing against the guys who are just like you and they can easily beat you in any of the events, uh, or you can beat them in any events. So, um, being able to roll with the punches of knowing like, oh, I’m a good swimmer getting in the water and being like fifth place in the swim, you know, that can freak some people out. And like, you know, this is supposed to be a home run, hit what’s happening. So yeah, there’s a, there’s a ton of different mental, there’s the mental side of the games. And then there’s uh, there’s the physical, like I said, just, uh, being able to like know that everyone’s at their fittest and they’ve been training all year for that competition.
Sevan Matossian (15:48):
Um, guys, this of all the game shows we do, this is the junk food. This is the cotton candy. This is the fun one. So everyone’s settled down. This is like, this is the fun one, one, chill, the comments having fucking turn into it. It’s like dogs behind a cage. They’re like barking at the enemy and then they start biting each other. <laugh> um, Brian in those comments. But um, in the morning Chalkup, uh, comments, people say in there a half dozen times, it appears that the people commenting in here don’t understand what the power rankings are. So
Brian Friend (16:21):
Yeah. Let, let me, I wanna just so add something in. So before the semifinals, there’s I think a good example of this is an Alex vio. I’m not worried about Alex vio at the games. I’m worried about if he’s gonna get to the games, if he gets to the games and he doesn’t get injured, I know that he’s gonna do great because he is never done anything other than great, but it’s not a guarantee he’s gonna get through the semifinals. The semifinals is a critical point of the season for him. So when I’m doing a power ratings early in the season, I’m aware of Alex Vi’s potential, but I’m still holding him back a little bit relative to guys like, you know, and it, it didn’t even necessarily turn out this way, but guys like Noah Olson or Travis mayor who, or Cole ser who I feel much more confident will make it through the semifinals.
Brian Friend (17:07):
And then I wanna see, and then, and I see a guy like Alex and he did what he needed to do and he didn’t look stressed doing it. And even though I think it is a stressful weekend for him, cuz he knows that that’s, you know, all he has to do is get, find a way to get through. He did that and now I think he’s in, in his element. So he’s gonna move up at that point for me. And that’s how you can see cuz otherwise you could just say, oh, these are the power rankings for the someone at the start of the season. And how are they different after the open? How are they different after the quarter finals or the semifinals? And in some cases there are athletes that we have not had a chance to see in any real comparable setting, uh, for whatever number of reasons until the semifinals. And so those people are probably missing, uh, entirely from the ranking ratings or our rankings prior to that. And some of ’em are still missing from the power rankings after that. Uh, because I just don’t think that I have enough information to put ’em ahead of people that I do have that information about
Sevan Matossian (18:05):
Presuming making the assumption’ll do this show a week before the CrossFit games. Will it still be called a power ranking show
Brian Friend (18:12):
The week before? Uh, <laugh> probably, I mean, no,
Sevan Matossian (18:19):
Uh, or will it be who will win the games?
Brian Friend (18:22):
Probably that.
Sevan Matossian (18:23):
Okay, thank you, John.
Brian Friend (18:27):
I think that when it comes to the games, you know, obviously a few workouts might be announced right up before it, but probably Monday, Tuesday, you know, Monday prior to the games, that’s a good time to, to say like, this is what, this is why I think’s gonna happen in order. Uh,
Sevan Matossian (18:42):
Steven, that show will be starting at 1:00 AM Pacific standard time, the power bottoms, uh, okay. Um, exciting year for the CrossFit games. Would you say if, if I’m reading this right, what, what you wrote in the morning chocolate article, um, and if you could pull that up, Caleb, uh, it was published this early this morning. Uh, you believe that this year’s men’s, uh, competition and this year women’s competition are the best females and males ever to be, um, buying to get to the games
Brian Friend (19:12):
For, I think, I think this is amongst the maybe second or third best men’s field. It’s in the top three best men’s field I’ve ever seen. And I wouldn’t have, I think the women’s fields similar to last year is missing too many significant players to be considered that
Sevan Matossian (19:31):
To be con so, so you’re saying the women’s isn’t necessarily the toughest ever
Brian Friend (19:36):
Not relative to what’s out there. No, I mean, it is very, very impressive and, and deep, but you know, we just lost Kristen Holta and Sam Briggs from the field. We just, we don’t have any Thor’s daughter in the field this year.
Sevan Matossian (19:47):
Well, we didn’t lose Sam Briggs. She lost herself. There’s a difference between bowing out and, and not making it right. If you don’t make it, then it’s still an argument that this is the best field. I hate to think I’m having trouble. I hate to think that the women’s field is sliding backwards.
Brian Friend (20:02):
It’s not sliding backwards. But in addition to those, you also have athletes like Sarah Sigma’s daughter, Jamie Simmons, Madeline St. Katherine David’s daughter, Ariel Lowen, who have proven the capacity to finish in the top half of the games field that none of them are necessarily passed the point of their career where they could still do that. And they’re all in the last chance qualifier. Now, obviously there are women that had to beat them to get in there, but I, I don’t think that those women will do as well at the games, even though they beat them at semifinals as the women that I just listed that are in the last chance qualifier would do. And so that’s five in the last chance, qualifier three that have been perennial contenders at the games that aren’t in the field this year, for whatever reason. And then you also have the Bethany Chadburn you also had Carrie Pierce retire, you know, so there’s up to 10 women missing that actually could be vying for top half finishes at the games. And if you had those tennis, women’s there with the top 30 that are maybe on this list right now, suddenly you’re looking at pretty close to a full women’s field where you’re like, I’m actually interested in this first heat because there’s five women in here that, uh, are, I actually know them and they could, you know, cause some havoc on certain workouts.
Sevan Matossian (21:12):
Yeah. The games are gonna be gonna be great. Uh, the two, 2014, um, was that the year that, uh, Matt Fraser and rich were both at the games when they compete against each other.
Brian Friend (21:22):
Yeah. And I think that is, is amongst one of the best, uh, years for the men’s field as well.
Sevan Matossian (21:27):
How cool is that for rich?
Brian Friend (21:30):
It’s just a great field. When you just look down the, the leaderboard of that field, it’s, you know, it’s a really
Sevan Matossian (21:34):
Impressive, he put it to him. It kind of fucks it up for Matt.
Brian Friend (21:39):
I won. No,
Sevan Matossian (21:39):
I don’t think so. I won five. Yeah, but I beat you. Oh <laugh> yeah. It’s just, I’m just saying, I’m just saying like, if they were like pissing, if they were pissing, installs next to yeah. But I mean, great. That’s how
Brian Friend (21:49):
They come. What are you gonna say? Ah, yeah, I’ve got four titles and Graham Berg walks up and says, yeah, but I beat you rich and he
Sevan Matossian (21:55):
<laugh> damn damn Brian. Damn you am. Oh my goodness. That’s
Brian Friend (22:04):
Like, look, I like looking at the numbers. The numbers tell a lot of the story, but the numbers are not the end of the story.
Sevan Matossian (22:13):
Right, right. Of course. Um, okay. Should we pull it? Should we pull it up? It’s a beautiful list. Uh, I think you guys are gonna really appreciate this. Uh, we can start with the, do you wanna start with the men,
Brian Friend (22:23):
Whatever
Sevan Matossian (22:24):
You want. Yeah. Let’s start with the men. Uh, these are 30 men last time. There was 20. I think that the reason why is cuz we have the last chance qualifier I’m still, so Brian wanted to
Brian Friend (22:31):
Make just ex you know, this is the first year I’m doing this. And I, you know, I wasn’t, uh, sure of the appropriate number. I felt that after the semifinals, you know, the cross people, I think even though, um, in some of the semifinals there weren’t great attendance in person. I think that there was a really good attention to semifinals by the, you know, CrossFit, sporting community, uh, remotely this year. And that people know enough about 30 to 40 athletes, maybe even 50 athletes in some cases that we could expand the list a little bit and still have conversations about people that, um, athletes that people are very passionate about.
Sevan Matossian (23:07):
Okay. I, I don’t think, I don’t think I understood that, but, but, um, but, but, but I love this list. So what you guys are seeing is the list up at the top is Justin Maderas the champ. Um, rightfully so. And then you see these, um, green triangles with a number inside of him. That means the last time that the power rankings were there, that person was six has moved up six spots. So you see Scott Pancheck, he’s got a green triangle with a six in it. That means that last time we did this a month or two ago that he was number 11, correct? Yep. And that Roman Coff has moved down last time. He was five and he’s moved down, et cetera. Can we see the whole list really quick? And then we’ll go. And then we’ll um, man, Jason, Hopper’s up there.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
It’s split into two pictures. Do you want me to just pull up the, the spreadsheet?
Brian Friend (23:54):
No, no, just slide slide to the next 15.
Sevan Matossian (24:00):
Me man. The comments are feisty.
Angelo DiCicco (24:05):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (24:08):
Uh, so at the very bottom number 30, we have Spencer pan and at the top we at at number one, we have Justin Maderas. Um, wow. Look at these names. Go ahead and take quick look at these names.
Brian Friend (24:20):
Yeah. I mean, this is what I’m saying is that the 20 through 30 names are names that most people know and a lot of people are interested in, in these athletes. So I felt like cutting it off at 20 was not really doing a, a full service to this, but, uh, and then at the games I’ll go all the way through 40, you know,
Sevan Matossian (24:38):
There, there was a line in there in the morning chalk up, um, that you say, um, aspects of fitness that don’t show up on the leaderboard or put to the test. Mm-hmm <affirmative> um, what is that judges, um, crowds, um, venues outside, like what are, what are, what are, are you talking about elements that untangible?
Brian Friend (25:00):
I think it’s intangibles.
Sevan Matossian (25:01):
Intangibles. Yeah. I think you’re right too intangibles.
Brian Friend (25:05):
Uh, yeah, but you know, um,
Sevan Matossian (25:07):
What were you referencing? Uh,
Brian Friend (25:09):
Angela knows these things, Angela there. What, what are some of the things that are relevant at the games that aren’t relevant, that any other competition all year round for the athletes?
Angelo DiCicco (25:20):
Um, the length, um, the type of events, the type of equipment they can get. Um, I wanna say the heat mostly, but I mean, not necessarily you can get the heat in other places too, but yeah, I would say the, the, I, I would say the equipment mostly because they have access, they have such easier access to rogue and they can come up with new stuff every year, like the snail and like the, I mean the worm years ago and, um, just different things like that. Am I missing it? Tell me if I’m
Brian Friend (25:53):
No, no, just, uh, yeah, there, I think that from a, like a total volume, a length, the ability to, uh, recover the ability sometimes to deal with new information in a very quick turnaround that yeah. You know, the being forced into, um, environments or, uh, you know, workouts that have things that you’ve never touched before, um, nothing to adapt on the fly. And then what you guys said earlier is like, most of the time, when you go to a competition, you can look around and pretty quickly assess and say, okay, these are the threats. And when you get to the CrossFit games, it’s way easier to identify the people that aren’t the threats then are the threats.
Sevan Matossian (26:33):
Ah huh.
Brian Friend (26:35):
Uh, there’s far fewer that are not the threats at the games. Right. And that’s a total inverse to most competitions.
Sevan Matossian (26:42):
This list that you’re looking at, all of these people have a chance of still making it to the CrossFit games. If you don’t have a chance of going to the CrossFit games based on the current rule book or where you’ve fallen, or if you’re on as an individual, you have to be able to go to the CrossFit games as an individual to be on this list. So if you’re like, Hey, where’s rich phoning. Well he’s on the team. That’s why he is not on here or where’s so and so, um, you know, because they’re not eligible by the way, is Roman in the country doing, is he going for sure. Think he make, yeah. Okay. Okay. Uh, I think we should just, I think we should look at the biggest movers. I think that’s where the most exciting, um, pieces are. You wanna do that? Sure. Okay. Uh, let’s look at him or S let’s look at Saxon, uh, moved up, uh, six places. How come are are people? I think Saxon’s great. I think he’s like one of the biggest threats to Justin out there. Um, but I feel like people are having trouble accepting that. Why is that? Is it because it’s Scott’s little brother?
Brian Friend (27:41):
No. So, um, when it says it moved up six, that was prior to the quarter finals, uh, Tommy marque chasing Graham, Patrick Clark, Chad trader myself each did a, a power rankings. And then we did a composite one and many of those guys had sex and a lot higher than I did. Um, so I had a fairly low relative to the other group of analysts there. And, um, you know, I think that I was probably just, uh, waiting some, waiting some things from waap PZA that were pretty uni impressive to me way too highly early in the season in his, in his regard. Uh, when you look at, at, at Saxon historically, like he’s a very, very consistent performer and he has a couple things that he’s not very good at. And then he, you know, he does, he’s not necessarily hitting the home runs to offset those bad performances, but his overall consistency keeps him pretty high relative to the field. Um, so he is got a small number of holes and a really consistent game,
Sevan Matossian (28:35):
Any strong as shit.
Brian Friend (28:37):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So really, really long stuff is not great for him and, and high power output, especially on the bike is not great for him. Like those are the two things he struggles the most with relative to the top competitors in the sport.
Sevan Matossian (28:50):
Um, I bet you, I bet you, if you asked those guys above him, how much they respect him. I betcha Patrick and I, I mean, I don’t know this at all, but I betcha Patrick Brenton BOR um, respect the fuck out of him. Justin probably keeps that a little closer to his, to his chest.
Brian Friend (29:05):
<laugh> yeah. But, and it’s also a little, you know, it’s, it’s a little different, like Justin is so good, but we kind of forget, you know, he’s really young. And so he looks at guys like, um, Saxon and Laar and GE and he’s like, these are my peers and they’re really good. And they’re coming for me like Brent and Patrick. And, uh, and, uh, and BKG, you know, they’re looking backwards on their career a little bit relative to those guys. And they say like, we’re still here, but yet, but these guys are coming. Um, but they like, you know, they know how to do this stuff. That’s why there’s no change at the top. Like until this five through 15, show me that they can beat that one through four. Nothing’s gonna change up there. There’s nothing you can show me at semifinals against whatever field you’re competing against. That’s saying, yep. I think you can beat FOW at the games because what Angela was talking about earlier is if you show up at a Dubai or a waap Palooza and Brent FSI or pat valor is there, they are not peaking for that.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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