CrossFit announced through their newsletter, “The Hopper,” and subsequent press release the locations and dates for their seven Individual and Team Semifinals for the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games season.
The seven Semifinals will occur over three weeks, from May 18 to June 4, 2023. The Semifinals determine who competes at the Games from July 31 to Aug. 6, 2023, in Madison, WI.
For the age group divisions, their Semifinal will remain online and take place April 28-30. The top 10 athletes in those divisions will advance to the Games to determine the Fittest in their respective age-group category.
[Related: 2023 CrossFit Season Equipment List Announced]
What’s New?
CrossFit will own and operate three of the Semifinals, unlike the past two seasons. They will host the two North American Semifinals and the European Semifinal.
For the past two seasons, the Semifinals were run by non-CrossFit entities and included four competitions in North America and two in Europe. CrossFit has combined those Semifinals this year, increasing the qualifying field’s size. Due to the larger fields, those Semifinals will be one day longer than the other four.
The North America East Semifinal is the opening competition at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL, from May 18-21, 2023. It will be the first time CrossFit holds an official event in this location.
The following weekend, May 25-28, 2023, CrossFit makes its competition return to California when it hosts the North America West Semifinal at the Pasadena Convention Center. The last time CrossFit hosted a competition in California was the 2018 West Regional in Del Mar.
On the final weekend, CrossFit will host the Europe Semifinal June 1-4, 2023, inside Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin, Germany. Each CrossFit-ran Semifinals will have 60 Individual athletes and 40 Teams competing. Ten spots for Teams and a minimum of five for Individuals will be available from these three Semifinals.
The Africa Semifinal is named the REBEL Renegade Games and will be held in South Africa. The University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg is the host site. That Semifinal will be held May 19-20, 2023, with one Games spot on the line for individuals and Teams.
The popular Torian Pro returns for its third year as a host Semifinal for the Oceania region. That event will take place May 26-28, 2023, in the iconic Pat Rafter Arena in Brisbane, Australia. Currently, the Oceania region has three Games spots each for Teams and Individuals.
The Far East Throwdown and Copa Sur return as Semifinal hosts for the second-straight year. Both events currently have two Games spots available for both Teams and Individuals.
The Far East Throwdown takes place June 2-4, 2023, at Bexco Arena in Busan, South Korea. Copa Sur will move to Arena Carioca 1 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and will take place May 26-28, 2023.
Notable News
2023 will see CrossFit standardize and program all workouts throughout every stage of the Games season, including the Semifinals. This is the first time CrossFit has done this since the 2018 season, the final year of Regionals.
Athletes will be placed in their region based on their country of citizenship. They will know what region they will compete in once they register for the 2023 CrossFit Open.
The worldwide ranking system will determine the final number of qualifying spots for Individual athletes at each Semifinal event. Highly competitive regions will be awarded more qualifying spots for the Games based on the rankings of the qualifying athletes after the Quarterfinals.
The rankings are based on points athletes will be awarded on their performance during the CrossFit Games season. The previous two years of an athlete’s performance in the Open, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Games will be used to calculate their ranking. Placing higher in these stages and advancing further in the season will earn them more points.
Featured image: @crossfit on Instagram