Each year the excitement builds for when the CrossFit Games Rulebook will get released. And finally, today, the 2020 CrossFit Games Rulebook is here. We’ve received an advanced copy of the Rulebook to give you a sneak peak as to what is ahead!
Last year, the Rulebook packed in several changes and confirmed all the speculations around Sanctionals™ and how seeding at the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games would work. While there hasn’t been as much chatter around big changes like last year this time around, there are some major new additions to this year’s Rulebook that we will go over.
Before we dive into the full 2020 CrossFit Games Rulebook, it’s worth noting that some of the changes we’re going to highlight below are only a part of the Rulebook, so if you’re interested in reading it in full please check out the official 2020 CrossFit Games Rulebook which we will link here once it’s live on their site.
A quick note on the 2020 Open:
The first workout released on Thursday, October 10, at 5:00 PM PT (one workout released each week.) The Open submission deadline is the Monday following each workout released per week. The Open will close on Monday, November 11, at 5:00 PM PT.
The 5 Biggest Changes to the 2020 CrossFit Games Rulebook
Open Workouts Video Submission and Scoring
Like last year, there will still be four possible outcomes in the judging and scoring of online video submissions:
- Good Video
- Valid With Minor Penalty
- Valid With Major Penalty
- Invalid
The major change here is in the “Valid With Minor Penalty” section which has updated the wording from “the athlete demonstrates 1 to 4 “no reps” that may be removed from the athlete’s final score as required. This penalty is used for video submissions for which the score needs to be adjusted by fewer than 5 reps. If the score is posted in the form of a time, the total time to complete the workout will be adjusted accordingly” to “the athlete demonstrates a small number of “no reps” that result in a faster time or higher score for a given workout. A minor penalty will be applied, and a score adjustment will be made to the athlete’s final score. If the score is posted in the form of a time, the total time to complete the workout will be adjusted accordingly.”
What this refers to is changing an athlete’s score because of miscounting reps, “no reps,” or both.
Ranking of Individual Athletes
The CrossFit Games website will once again be the only source for the official leaderboard for the Open. However what has changed for individual athlete rankings this year is that the official Open rankings can be used by outside events, either sanctioned, licensed, or non-licensed, as stated in the Rulebook. The rankings will not be officially finalized until the video review processed is completed on December 16, 2019.
New Leaderboard: Open Affiliate Leaderboard
There will be a new leaderboard added this year, and that is the Open Affiliate Leaderboard. The affiliate will appear on the leaderboard once members from the respective affiliate have registered for the Open. Any unaffiliated gyms won’t be on this leaderboard.
Last year there was also a new leaderboard added and that was the country leaderboard. This will still be included this year along with others like CrossFit Games submitted scores leaderboard, scaled workouts, and more.
The Games Qualification Process from the Open (National Champions)
When a National Champion declined to compete in the Games last year, CrossFit Inc. did not backfill the spot to the second-place athlete. This year, however, CrossFit Inc. will backfill a National Champion spot only if the athlete decides to compete as a member of a team at the 2020 Reebok CrossFit Games.
[Check out the 2019 Open National Champions]
The Games Invite Process for Team
By definition, a team will include four athletes (two men and two women.) After a team wins a Sanctionals event and gets an invite to the Reebok CrossFit Games, it can submit two alternates (one man and one woman) to be included in the Games roster. Last year, teams had seven days after receiving an invite to the Games to declare their roster. This year, however, they will have just 48 rosters to confirm their roster and the roster will be frozen after the 48 hours.
