Sevan Matossian (00:00):
Bam. We’re live. Chris Madigan, bza pr. What’s bza? Someone Google that bza PR on behalf of CrossFit. B Z. Oh shit. They’ve hired an outside fucking company. Bz. They’re not even hiding it anymore that they fucking saw. Bza,
Mattew Souza (00:27):
Public relations.
Sevan Matossian (00:29):
Wow.
Mattew Souza (00:30):
PR company out out of la
Sevan Matossian (00:33):
Wow. Well that’s not good. Woke up. They’re
Mattew Souza (00:36):
Years of the nation’s leading communications. <laugh>,
Sevan Matossian (00:41):
Uh, Brian Friend. Hi. How’s it going? Andrew Hiller. Hi.
Andrew Hiller (00:46):
How
Sevan Matossian (00:47):
Are you? Off center, but I, you know, do what you want.
Andrew Hiller (00:49):
I don’t, it’s, it’s kinda where I hang out. I hang out here cause I get the video. Shit pops up over here,
Sevan Matossian (00:54):
<laugh>. Oh, is that really, is that true? That’s
Andrew Hiller (00:56):
Why I’m always offset. Yeah. Cause I put things up over here. So is, uh, Jason CF Media
Sevan Matossian (01:03):
Props to Jason and CF Media and, uh, Matthew Suza back from, um, the continent known as Europe. Uh, you, you know what my wife said, uh, Matt, is that the reason why Paris seemed like they’re char the people at Charles d Goldstein like assholes to is because you can’t just blame the French people because she said the people in Spain are so damn nice.
Mattew Souza (01:26):
Yeah. The people in Spain in LA were awesome.
Sevan Matossian (01:29):
Yeah. So she said that kind of fucked your, your whole radar up
Mattew Souza (01:32):
Perception. Yeah. Makes sense.
Sevan Matossian (01:35):
Look at all these handsome fellas and Andrew Lewis.
Andrew Hiller (01:40):
Andrew Hiller,
Sevan Matossian (01:41):
Right. Andrew Hiller.
Andrew Hiller (01:43):
Who the hell is Andrew Lewis <laugh>? Fuck. I dunno. It’s like CS Lewis. He wrote the Chronicles in Narnia. I’m his brother. I
Sevan Matossian (01:49):
Don’t know what the fuck I’m talking. I’m a mess. I just ran in, uh, Seon. I got your CEO shirt while competing at Crash last weekend for the first time. Amazing event. And it was icing on the cake to get your shirt. Oh, that’s awesome. Theresa Harvey. Can we, can we pull up her ig there? I will give you, uh oh. My first born child. If you have a post wearing your, uh, CEO shirt. Careful.
Andrew Hiller (02:12):
Careful. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. See ya. A
Sevan Matossian (02:15):
Uh, earlier today. Brian, feel free to jump in at any time. I fucked this up Earlier today, approximately 33 minutes ago. Pacific Standard Time, I guess anywhere aren’t you? Were on Planet Earth 33 minutes ago. A CrossFit released something that says CrossFit introduces updates and, and improvements will be the judge of that, of the 2023 CrossFit games season. That’s so funny that they say improvements.
Andrew Hiller (02:41):
The bold play.
Sevan Matossian (02:41):
Right? The shit CrossFits updates and improvements ahead of the 2023 CrossFit game season. Like don’t waste my time. Just say CrossFit introduces updates to 2023 season. That’s it. Pretty wasted. A bunch of words. New competition maps. Cool. That’s cool. I like that. Standardized programming. Oh, that’s fun. That’s fun. And other competition improvements. I are
Andrew Hiller (03:06):
Jack,
Sevan Matossian (03:07):
Why improvements? Uh, I see plays outside. Sorry there Harvey. I don’t see this seven CEO shirt.
Andrew Hiller (03:15):
Hmm. No, that’s disappointing.
Sevan Matossian (03:18):
Unacceptable.
Andrew Hiller (03:19):
Maybe things keep scrolling. It could be anywhere, maybe.
Sevan Matossian (03:22):
No, she just got it. Uh, Seon. Greg c Mary Kill Fuck. Today’s guests
Andrew Hiller (03:31):
<laugh>. Stay. I’m Mary and Su by reading. Stay tune. I’m gonna fuck myself. <laugh> Yeah. Every day. <laugh>,
Sevan Matossian (03:42):
Uh, this comes out of Boulder, Colorado. October 11th, 2022. CrossFit today announces updates of its season long schedule that will be incorporated immediately ahead of the 2023 Noble CrossFit game season.
Andrew Hiller (03:56):
It’s just long season. This is how you read all your emails. You just gotta read it and you gotta digest each sentence for a
Sevan Matossian (04:02):
Couple minutes. No, I usually just delete <laugh> guys who wrote this shit.
Andrew Hiller (04:07):
A PR firm for 30 years.
Sevan Matossian (04:08):
How the fuck is what immediately ahead of Yeah. I fucking know. You just told me. CrossFit today announced the updates to its long. Listen to this sentence. CrossFit today announced updates to its season long schedule that will be incorporated immediately ahead of the 2023. No. Isn’t that right now?
Andrew Hiller (04:27):
<laugh>? Why can’t they just say immediately?
Sevan Matossian (04:29):
Yeah, immediately. Or, or just the 20. It
Andrew Hiller (04:33):
Sounds like one
Sevan Matossian (04:33):
Of those process open on Thursday, February 16th, 2023. Okay. So the season hasn’t started yet and concludes returning to Madison, Wisconsin for the Noble CrossFit Games the week of July 31st through August 6th. So, uh, let’s start there. Is any of this news new Brian, that the season starts, I guess that means the open starts on February 16th, 2023 and that we have dates for the games. Is this new?
Brian Friend (04:57):
Yeah. They had not previously announced, uh, they had announced the dates for the open, at least the starting of it. They have not previously announced the dates for the game. So that’s new and it’s also new. Uh, and they wanted to clearly make a point of that, that they’re announcing these things earlier than they have in the past.
Sevan Matossian (05:15):
I didn’t see that. I have I got to that, that they’re, that they No, no. That’s why they’re back
Brian Friend (05:19):
To that. That’s what they said. The incorporated, the announced updates immediately ahead of all of that is in contrast to years in the past where these types of, uh, announcements would come later or sometimes even after the season had begun.
Sevan Matossian (05:36):
Okay. And when it says, um, so they’re patting themselves on the back without they just tell us You wanna pat yourself on the back? Well, I’m okay with some self self PAing. Um, and when it says the open will start Thursday, February 16th, that, that sounds like, because it says Thursday that that will be the actual, That’s not registration, That’s the actual announcement for the first event.
Brian Friend (05:58):
Correct. No registration usually opens up five, six weeks ahead of that.
Sevan Matossian (06:04):
Okay. That’s the date that uh, I think you guys should be pushing cuz that’s when the dollars come in and the games are July 31st through August 6th. I’m assuming August 6th is a Sunday in July 31st is a Monday. Monday. But, but I’m just making assumptions. Um, changes are being incorporated to the CrossFit open quarter, final semifinals, CrossFit games and some athletic divisions. By the way, do you, do you have any issues with anything that we just read?
Brian Friend (06:33):
What are athletic divisions?
Sevan Matossian (06:36):
Uh,
Andrew Hiller (06:37):
<laugh>,
Brian Friend (06:41):
I know from reading
Andrew Hiller (06:42):
Through, I oppos the young
Brian Friend (06:43):
Athletic referring to some of maybe the master’s team or adaptive divisions, but I don’t know if I’ve ever heard them referred to as athletic divisions before. I would assume that all of that divisions are athletic Yeah. Athletes competing in them.
Sevan Matossian (06:58):
<laugh> we shall find out. Yeah. Kids. Uh, our goal is to make the transgender division this year larger than any of the other divisions with the prize million of 6 million. Wow. That’s
Andrew Hiller (07:08):
Awesome. Game behind. I mean,
Sevan Matossian (07:11):
Hey Hiller, you’re on so much tea. You could be, you could be in the uh, Well,
Andrew Hiller (07:15):
No, the second I stopped taking it. I’ll qualify <laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (07:17):
Yeah, just plum it.
Andrew Hiller (07:19):
<laugh>. I’m in six mil. Oh six mil. Damn.
Sevan Matossian (07:22):
Our goal is to increase the amount of people who see,
Brian Friend (07:25):
Might tell a couple people. That was a joke.
Sevan Matossian (07:27):
That was a joke. By the way. There is no transgender division. And if there is, I’m even more certain that the money isn’t $6 million <laugh>. I wonder who the richest transgender person is in the world. You know how like they have the richest black guy, the richest, like Jenn. What?
Andrew Hiller (07:43):
They’re a Jenner.
Sevan Matossian (07:44):
Oh, uh, Bruce Jenners the rich. Really
Andrew Hiller (07:47):
Known as Bruce. Yeah. Yeah. Hot Cher. I got it all. I know, you’re right.
Sevan Matossian (07:50):
What about those Wosniak brothers who made the matrix
Andrew Hiller (07:56):
That more wealthy than the Jenner?
Sevan Matossian (07:58):
Okay.
Andrew Hiller (08:00):
I dunno. I’m on the spot.
Sevan Matossian (08:04):
I would love to have, uh, Caitlin Jenner as a, um,
Brian Friend (08:08):
Seven. When’s the last time you had coffee?
Sevan Matossian (08:10):
Oh, not recently, and I switched to decaf. Why do I, do I seem like I need some I’ve had too much switched to decaf. Well, that’s not true. I’ve been mixing my, um, p paper street coffee with some decaf beans. 50 50 diff
Andrew Hiller (08:23):
Difficult light says it’s not gender. Are you transiting? It might be was egg.
Sevan Matossian (08:26):
No. I am transitioning. I wanna sleep better and I drink coffee all day. Our goal is to increase the amount of people who see and participate in the sport and welcome more people to take up CrossFit training as a result. Uh, you have to know that is a fucking lie by the way they treat this podcast and the fact that this podcast is the most influential media piece in the fucking CrossFit space. Period. End of story. Mic drop. So that’s not true. Or else they would be kinder to us, although they are very kind It recording phase Actually strike all that. I wanna, I wanna strike that from the record. They’re actually somes coming on and we had Adrian on Yeah. Started sweating like maybe I started, I felt beat of sweat build under one of my armpits. I’ll take that. Let come back show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I just don’t think that they’re playing me right. We wanted to announce future season formats and timelines earlier than we’ve done in the past so that the athletes and affiliates have ample opportunity to plan their training. Scheduling with confidence said just Wow. What said Justin Berg James Sport? This is like, this isn’t like, I don’t care about any of this <laugh>.
Brian Friend (09:39):
I think that’s,
Sevan Matossian (09:40):
That’s what
Andrew Hiller (09:40):
I thought when I was reading it.
Sevan Matossian (09:43):
I just wanna know when it is. I wanna know what this stuff is. I don’t, It’s like there, it’s like, honey, I want to tell you something. I love you so much. I have a new wife. I’m bringing a girls to our bedroom. I mean, it’s like, well,
Brian Friend (09:53):
Let’s be, let’s be fair there. You know, a lot of the conversations that we’ve had over the last year, we have asked for more communication. So not just give us something, but to tell us why you’re doing it. Okay. Tell us what the intention is. Tell us who you’ve talked to to help make these decisions or maybe why you’ve made ’em. So I think that they’re attempting to do that here.
Sevan Matossian (10:13):
I think I’m telling, I what I think that they’re doing is, is they’re pat. They’re they’re be, it almost feels like there being,
Brian Friend (10:18):
It’s not necessarily that they’ve done a great job of it, but that’s what they’re attempting to do.
Sevan Matossian (10:22):
Okay. It feels like they’re feeling insecure or something about it. And they’re wasting my time by making me read these words that wanna make that mean nothing to me. Like this is what you tell your own team. Hey guys, congratulations you let us say this. Let Brian be like, Holy shit. I can’t believe how early they released this. Not you guys saying it about yourself or make me read it. Most of the people who, anyway, I know none of the athletes give a fuck about this. They just want the numbers. How much is it gonna cost? What are the dates? When do we start training? When do we register? We know how hard our athletes work and we want them to be prepared to put their best foot forward as a whole. We understand that while every CrossFit athlete might not choose to compete, there are those who love our sport. And see the benefits of this magical community getting ahead of our schedule events will allow more people to reap the overall benefits of CrossFit. I don’t understand Chris
Andrew Hiller (11:14):
Madigan, you have to fill up 1000 words in your email to the community.
Sevan Matossian (11:18):
He, he gets paid for. He gets paid. He gotta justify that price point. Uh, new competition. Okay, so now we’re at the good shit. This is the good shit. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, so anyone at home, anyone who got this email, you don’t have to read. Just read the first paragraph and skip the next three paragraphs. Okay, here we go. A new competition map. This is exciting. I’m excited. Athletes will compete in regions based on their country of citizenships, starting with the CrossFit open through the semifinals. The most notable changes in the map for individuals and team athletes is the division of North America into two competition regions, East and west. That’s a So does that Brian, does that mean if you’re a citizen of the US you get to choose whether you’re gonna be in the east or the west?
Brian Friend (11:58):
No, there’s so, first of all, athletes will compete in regions based on their country of citizenship. I think this is a really important bullet point here and I don’t think, if I’m remembering correctly, that it was included in the article the morning chalk up wrote about this. This is something that I’m not that excited about.
Sevan Matossian (12:16):
I that’s the way it was last year though. That’s no change, right? Correct.
Brian Friend (12:19):
And I was under the impression that there was a lot of conversation going on about athletes having the opportunity to compete where they live instead of where they’re from. And that’s something that I am a big proponent of and I just one example, but it’s based on some examples from the past. Maybe we’ll start the past examples. In the first year of semifinals two years ago, everyone knows that Tia Claire Tomi had the opportunity or could not compete in Australia because of the complications with travel at the time in the world. So she competed at the Mac and she won the Mac. We know what the implications of that were. In addition to Tia, Claire Tomi, there were about a dozen other people who were unable to travel back to their continent of residents or what they say here, country of citizenship, name
Sevan Matossian (12:59):
Three, name three
Brian Friend (13:00):
Can’t because every other one of them finished last place at the semifinal that they were displaced to. And the only exceptions for that, if they beat someone else who was also displaced. So in, in the entire season, all of the athletes that were unable to travel and compete, they’re either finished first one person or last about a dozen other people. But what I’m specifically thinking about for this year is Roman credit cough. And I’m sure there are other examples like this, but is ab absolutely ludicrous to me that Roman credit cough should have to travel to Asia two months before the CrossFit games where he’s a legitimate contender to win the CrossFit games just to go and totally embarrass everyone else there. He is on a totally different level in terms of competition than, than the rest of those people. And we know how difficult it’s been for him to get here and all, all of the other backstory of that. He’s got his family here now. He’s got a life here now. He has no intention or need to go back to Asia for any of that. It’s only complicated things for him. That’s already been an incredibly complicated situation. I know there are other athletes that this will be the case for. Cuz we saw it play out this year already. Or Cohen was unable to travel from Israel to South Korea. Dennis Senoff and Mor more haga were un I apologize if I mispronounced his name there. They were unable to tra to travel to to south treated.
Sevan Matossian (14:10):
Think take Athlete Hamza,
Brian Friend (14:11):
Right? Hoa te rfi. That’s it. Yes. Thank you. Anyway,
Sevan Matossian (14:16):
I I don’t, I’m you’re, I’m, I’m not compelled by what you’re saying, Brian. I, because are you not how, what you’re
Brian Friend (14:23):
Making travel there. Now there’s one caveat to this is that there’s a lot of information that’s not, that’s not included here. And there’s more information that’s to come. If suddenly the semi-final prize person for winning, it’s $20,000, then maybe I’ll change my mind because now it’s worth it to make the trip over there. But if you have to spend five grand to get there to compete for a spot that we know you’re gonna qualify anyway, what is the point of making him go?
Sevan Matossian (14:46):
Let me ask you this. So you’re saying that it’s okay for an American, you, you would think it would be okay for one of us, the studs from North America to go over and, uh, when the, the what the Chinese region or whatever that
Brian Friend (15:00):
Region is? A hundred percent. Yeah, for sure. If they’re living there. If
Sevan Matossian (15:03):
They’re, No, no not, Oh, they’re living there. Oh, I see. Are living
Brian Friend (15:06):
There. It’s happened in the past. They
Andrew Hiller (15:08):
Did that during the glass
Brian Friend (15:09):
Era. The athletes that used to live that used to train in Dubai would compete.
Sevan Matossian (15:12):
What’s a compromise you wanna make? What’s a compromise? You wanna
Brian Friend (15:15):
Living in Boston? She competed in the northeast. Okay. Sarah Sigmas moved to Cookville, she competed in the central regional. It’s fine. Let them compete where they live. It’s ridiculous to send ’em across the world for that.
Sevan Matossian (15:25):
How how long would they have to live there? I agree with you. How long would they have to live there?
Brian Friend (15:27):
Start of the season when you in, Okay, so, so your second question about North America, it says somewhere in here that once you register for the open, they will tell you whether you’re competing in the east to the west and your track from the open through the quarter finals, through the semifinals to the games will be known. That should just be the case for everyone based on where you register where you live.
Andrew Hiller (15:50):
So why did they do it?
Brian Friend (15:52):
Because they want global representation at the games.
Sevan Matossian (15:57):
They’ll still get global representation at the games. No, they’re still get I agree. No, no one’s
Brian Friend (16:03):
Just answering it.
Andrew Hiller (16:04):
You tell me there’s a handful of individuals who are sitting at the CrossFit games who thought about people like Roman Koff and they’re like, Fuck it, this is the better decision.
Sevan Matossian (16:12):
Or, or, or this, or they really are concerned with people moving somewhere to to to China or wherever the fuck that region is. Where is that region Korea.
Brian Friend (16:21):
Who cares? Because I’ll tell you what, Ative, if there’s some guy who’s 25th best in the United States and he decides to move him and his family and whatever else to China to live there to try to compete, to make the cross of games and he beats everyone in Asia, great. That means he’s better than them and that means the field will be better overall.
Sevan Matossian (16:38):
I agree. And maybe Patrick Vener would be a fucking good Canadian and just do it so that more Canadians could get in. It’s could be kind of his way of like, Hey, if all you guys chipping a thousand bucks, I’ll leave this region <laugh>, pay
Brian Friend (16:50):
My movie it expenses. This is a good thing for Canada because I have had this contention the past two years as well, that the Atlas games is basically just the Canadian games and I think nine out, the 10 male qualifiers are maybe 10 out, the 10 female qualifiers there. Or maybe it’s eight and nine or something like that. We’re from Canada anyway, and a majority of the field is Canadian. And I had said, well look at the men in Canada in particular, you have Valor, Kowski, and Vno top 10, you have Adler top 10, you have Alexander Coone, he second place at Waap Blue is the Samoa corn. Y we don’t ne necessarily know is you already can’t have that many guys. That’s already six guys that have top 20 potential at the games. Now they can be distributed east and west and they’ll have more opportunity to get through if they’re good enough to.
Sevan Matossian (17:29):
So we, so the US had four semi-finals last year and Canada had two and this year be, so that six total, and now they just have two
Brian Friend (17:36):
Between the, they have four last year and Canada had one of those four, three in the us one in Canada, four total. Now
Sevan Matossian (17:44):
Atlas games was the only one. There wasn’t one on the west.
Brian Friend (17:46):
There was nothing on the west at all
Sevan Matossian (17:49):
Even. Okay, so now, so, so now there’s only, now there’s only two.
Brian Friend (17:52):
There are two North
Sevan Matossian (17:53):
America. Do they take twice as many people west? Do they take twice as many people from each one?
Brian Friend (17:57):
They take 10 from each one. They
Andrew Hiller (18:00):
Haven’t said number
Brian Friend (18:01):
20.
Andrew Hiller (18:02):
Haven’t they not said in here the number of athletes they’re taking from each? Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (18:06):
Wow. Taking 10. Okay, so I see what’s going on. They’re, they’re, they’re bringing these events in house and they’re trying to save money. They wanna make sure they don’t fucking overextend. What does it save? I’m okay with that, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right? Brian,
Brian Friend (18:21):
I don’t know if it’s in this one or the morning chalk ups article. You
Sevan Matossian (18:24):
See it that way. Su Yeah. They’re just, they’re they’re taking the events back. They’re are they calling, They’re
Mattew Souza (18:29):
Reducing overhead. They’re reducing overhead.
Sevan Matossian (18:32):
Are they calling these regionals again? Who’s gonna run these? Is CrossFit running these?
Brian Friend (18:36):
Let’s keep reading.
Sevan Matossian (18:37):
Okay. Uh, because it sounds like it’s just a way to just shore up some, uh, some money evaporating. Yeah. Which I don’t, I I can’t hate for that. This eliminates the need for seeding process during semifinals. What’s that mean?
Brian Friend (18:50):
Remember during the semifinals that the, in the North America, in Europe, there was always a controversy about who got placed where, where you placed in the Atlas games and could you get there if you were placed there? Oh, athlete opinions came into place. Okay. All this other unknown stuff.
Sevan Matossian (19:04):
Upon registering for the 2023 crossroad open, each athlete will know the competition roadmap from open through the games upon registering. I think they mean after registering not on top upon. Okay. <laugh>. I’m not even a good writer. I just, I just dunno how to listen. Standardized programming, CrossFit will standardize and program all events for the entire season, including all of 2023 semifinal events.
Andrew Hiller (19:34):
Big thumbs up.
Mattew Souza (19:35):
Yeah, that’s good.
Sevan Matossian (19:37):
Meaning every single person who competes in the CrossFit games will have taken the same road of people who have the same genitalia as them.
Andrew Hiller (19:47):
Damn,
Sevan Matossian (19:48):
That’s as accurate as I could say it. That’s right. Right.
Mattew Souza (19:51):
Yeah. And that, and that’s better for the athletes too because I think one of the, from just a, a fan like Viewpoint, if you’re having to pay attention to what all the events are and what all the semi finals, you’re like focusing on the events and not the athletes. So if you already know it, like how it was with regionals and you watched one weekend and you already know all the events that are coming up, now you’re focused more on the athletes than you are in trying to figure out what event is where and which one is which and everything else. And it simplifies it, which actually will, in my opinion, help with more people that aren’t necessarily super into the sport to bring them back into it, to pay more attention to the athletes
Sevan Matossian (20:26):
Gives us less to complain about.
Mattew Souza (20:29):
Well, personally, yeah,
Brian Friend (20:29):
Andrew to, So
Andrew Hiller (20:31):
They think
Brian Friend (20:32):
It’s, uh, I don’t, I haven’t read through this entire email we’re doing now, but on the morning chalk ups website, it says the fields will be stronger, but the total number of game spots allocated to these regions will remain the same.
Andrew Hiller (20:41):
Yeah, I thought so. So it’s five.
Brian Friend (20:44):
No, it’s 20 for North America. The same spot’s allocated.
Andrew Hiller (20:48):
So, All right, so you derived that into 10 and 10. Okay. Yeah. 10 for each, 10 for West. Got it.
Sevan Matossian (20:56):
Um, well
Brian Friend (20:57):
At least there’s another caveat later on here.
Andrew Hiller (21:01):
Yep. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (21:01):
Okay. So, so we, so I like that we don’t need the, uh, seating for the semifinals. Uh, everything else. You like, you like the standardization, Andrew, you first
Andrew Hiller (21:09):
Of the programming. Oh yeah, yeah. That was one of the best things to tear apart during the season was how it didn’t seem as if they were getting the right people there based upon the workouts. And some of the workouts just seemed biased one way or the other.
Brian Friend (21:24):
There are a lot of reasons why this is a good thing. Some of them are specific to who’s doing the programming in a certain region. You know, there are, um, I wrote a bunch of articles about why, uh, how there were certain things being tested, some places that weren’t being tested at all other places. We drew comparisons to the past where we saw high level games contenders like Samantha Briggs or Katherine David daughter are miss out on a game season because something that what they weren’t very good at was programmed one year. But in this most recent model that could have happened to Andrew where he was competing, but I may not have had the same highest skilled level tests in the semifinal I was competing at or whatever.
Andrew Hiller (22:06):
How about Castro always saying that the open, the regionals and the games were always a linear progression and there was always a plan to each of those things and that was completely thrown out the window when mm-hmm. <affirmative> everyone could do whatever they wanted at the level of the semifinals.
Brian Friend (22:21):
Yeah, a hundred percent true. Also, you know, it’s, we had that in 2021 where we saw a one at Max Snatch at the games, but we also saw one at max Snapchat at a hand at half the semifinals. Oh, it’s a pleasure.
Andrew Hiller (22:34):
Hey,
Sevan Matossian (22:35):
Brian just talked to himself, huh? Lazard’s listening. It’s great.
Brian Friend (22:41):
Um, anyway, so yeah, that’s another great financial
Sevan Matossian (22:45):
Can’t be Lizards listening. Uh, um, cross standardized program, all events for the entire season, including all of 2023 semifinal events advancing from the semifinals to the CrossFit games. There will be a baseline number of CrossFit games, qualifying spots for each semifinal in lieu of the last Chance qualifier. The final games qualifying spots will be allocated from the semifinals according to a ranking system based on the strength of the field.
Brian Friend (23:14):
So Susan, can you pull up, uh, Tyler Watkins Instagram story?
Sevan Matossian (23:17):
So basically there will be no last chance qualifier and the final Games qualifying spots will be allocated from the semi-finals according to the ranking system. Ba based on the strength of the field. Is that Z-score?
Brian Friend (23:31):
Not Z-score, No, but last May or April. Tyler and I co-published an article that talked specifically about trying to solve this kind of solution and he identified this, uh, these bullet points here, probably from morning chalk UPS article, I think, or maybe this is from the email, I can’t tell in his format. And then on the next slide, he shows the table that we had come up with that basically, you know, talks about this, that this was a model that he created that, that shows this basically that we were allocating spots based on strength of strength of athletes in those semi-finals, uh, from previous years. So I’m not exactly sure how they’re planning to go about assessing the strength of each semi-final. This is where I think this, this caveat is what I think allows for athletes to compete where they live and still have a reasonable distribution of game spots. So for example, if you were allowed to compete where you live, and Roman Koff and Mia Aros and just for, you know, the sake of conversation, um, uh, you know, two other games, high level games, athletes were living in the United States and therefore competing in the United States. You could factor that into, uh, the equation when deciding how to allocate the game spots. So if they’re already implementing a, a plan for distributing some of the game slots based on strengths of semifinal, then why not just do that across the board after Athletes register?
Brian Friend (24:53):
You know, you’re not gonna make the strength of semifinal based on athletes saw 100 through 500 in the world. It’s gonna be based on the athletes that we know about.
Sevan Matossian (25:02):
So what’s that mean?
Brian Friend (25:04):
What does, what mean?
Sevan Matossian (25:05):
What does it mean then what they’re saying?
Brian Friend (25:07):
So what they’re saying is that there’s a fixed number. My understanding is there’s a fixed number of spots per semifinal, I mean per continent, 10 20 in the United States, 10 in Europe, and I’m assuming based on what’s been released, 3, 2, 2 and one in the rest of the world, which is that.
Andrew Hiller (25:23):
Right? I saw, I saw that in the comments Jr through that up earlier. I think
Brian Friend (25:27):
Three in, in in Oceana, two in Asia,
Andrew Hiller (25:31):
It sounded right.
Brian Friend (25:31):
Yes. Two in South America, one in Africa. And this gets us to 38. That means that there’s two remaining spots left and they’re planning to distribute those spots somewhere based on strength of semi-final field.
Sevan Matossian (25:45):
Oh, does it say field? I think it Oh, it does. Oh shit. So we don’t know, we don’t know what the fuck’s going on with ba This is what we know. We know there won’t be a last chance qualifier since everyone’s doing the same workout. They’re gonna try to figure out a fair way to get people, uh, to the, to, to the CrossFit games who didn’t qualify from their regions. But we’re close. Some number 11 guys are gonna go from somewhere. We
Brian Friend (26:12):
Had recommended. We had, we had suggested at some points during the last year that uh, you could have two weeks of semi-finals and you, and if there were standardized programming, you could look at how all of the athletes in week one did. And besides the guys who’ve already qualified, you could assign one or two or however many spots to the next best in like a cross semifinal comparison type thing. And then do the same thing for week two
Sevan Matossian (26:36):
Here. Why don’t we just do it by skin color <laugh>,
Andrew Hiller (26:40):
Because this is the show from earlier today you’re talking about. Oh,
Sevan Matossian (26:43):
Right, right,
Andrew Hiller (26:44):
Right.
Sevan Matossian (26:45):
This is a different show. I got my shows, I got, my shows
Andrew Hiller (26:47):
Are messed up. I
Sevan Matossian (26:48):
Got
Mattew Souza (26:48):
My shows in.
Sevan Matossian (26:50):
Okay. Um, well, I’m excited to see how they’re gonna, I’m excited to see how they’re gonna do that.
Brian Friend (26:57):
Me too. And because however they decide to do that, we’ll foster a further conversation for if it’s possible to implement that same method in addition to letting athletes compete where they live.
Sevan Matossian (27:10):
The, the part where the part, the argument that people have had where this is not fair. This standardized testing, by the way, is, doesn’t matter whenever anyone brings it up except right here. If you have a last, if you have a, if you’re gonna let people go in beyond what was already expected, and here’s why.
Sevan Matossian (27:26):
The people who go last are going to have the, the regions that go last with standardized testing theoretically have a better chance at doing the workouts more with the scores already to break. They can practice more. And so yeah, whatever method they come up with, that’s gonna be one of the arguments I’m sure we’re gonna throw at it right away to kind of crowbar it or attack it. What was that? And, and not, I think there’s any validity there. Who gives a fuck what’s fair? But, but, but it is, it is worth talking about. Were you gonna say, So Brian?
Brian Friend (27:54):
Well, what’s the unknown is whether they’re gonna assess this ranking system based on the strength of field, of how they perform in semi-finals or in how they’ve performed previously. So if they’re, if they have standardized programming for everyone worldwide in quarter finals, then they could use the quarter final performance and apply that to the semi-final fields and identify the two strongest fields relative to the number of competitors in those fields. And then give each one of those one spot or potentially give one of those two spots if they were, you know, that, that’s strong.
Sevan Matossian (28:25):
You could just get rid of the quarter finals, go straight from the, make the open five weeks again and go straight to the semifinals. Nailed
Andrew Hiller (28:30):
It. Agreed.
Mattew Souza (28:32):
Yeah, but they’re gonna make less money that way.
Andrew Hiller (28:33):
Exactly. Also nailed it.
Sevan Matossian (28:36):
I don’t know. I don’t know.
Mattew Souza (28:37):
Isn’t it like another 50 bucks to register if you make quarter
Brian Friend (28:40):
Finals? It’s five weeks. Either
Andrew Hiller (28:42):
Way, Brian, isn’t that something you and I talked about at one point, just making the quarter finals like a layer of competition to the CrossFit games.
Sevan Matossian (28:49):
Hey, hey, what if did this, What if they charge you 20 bucks for the first three workouts and if you want the next two <laugh>, it’s like a video game. If you wanna lock and you gotta drop another,
Brian Friend (28:59):
I mean, it’s basically what it is. Yeah. Yeah.
Mattew Souza (29:02):
That’s exactly what it is.
Mattew Souza (29:04):
And then with that 10%, it’s why
Brian Friend (29:06):
It would be better off doing that if they wanna make more money, because then you still might have some idiots who are way outside the, the, whatever the threshold is that still wanna pay to 50 bucks to get their name on the
Sevan Matossian (29:15):
Idiot. That was a little strong. Brian idiot.
Andrew Hiller (29:17):
Careful with the idiot. Brian. Dan, That’s my word.
Brian Friend (29:22):
Watching videos. That’s I,
Mattew Souza (29:24):
All the stuff we say
Sevan Matossian (29:26):
<laugh>. Okay. So this is good. I, I, since we’ve start, since we’ve gotten into the meat of this, I’m, I’m, I’m enjoying this. Um, okay. Uh, do, do you wanna say, is there anything that’s really upsetting you at all right so far? Brian or Hiller or Suza that, like are you tripping that there’ll only be east and west, North America? Are you tripping that we’ll be sending 10? Like is there anything that’s freaking you out so far? I don’t we’ve gotten to that part yet. Okay. Besides that, that’s fine. That’s good. <laugh>. That means the ratings will be good. Uh, su uh, Hillary, anything freaking you out so far? Are you okay with, uh, North America only having.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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