2025 CrossFit Season Rulebook Released — Here’s What You Should Know

Additional reporting by Nicky Freymond, Emily Beers, Mike Halpin, and Joe Genetin-Pilawa

The 2025 CrossFit rulebook has been released.

There are some key changes for the upcoming season that athletes and Open participants should know as we head into what is shaping up to be a very busy year in the sport of CrossFit.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by CrossFit Games (@crossfitgames)

Remind Me

The release of this year’s rulebook came later than last year but is generally in line with past seasons, making 2023 an anomaly.

CrossFit set its own deadline for the beginning of Open registration, which it met.

Here’s a list of when CrossFit HQ has dropped its rulebook in recent history:

2025 Season: January 10, 2025
2024 Season: December 21, 2023
2023 Season: November 15, 2022
2022 Season: December 28, 2021
2021 Season: January 7, 2021
2020 Season: August 28, 2019*

*The Open took place in October in 2020

2019 Season: January 7, 2019

What’s New in 2025?

As with every iteration of the CrossFit Games, there are both major and minor changes to this season’s rules.

Here are five high-level takeaways. We’ll dig deeper below:

1. New Season Structure

The first big change, which was announced previously, is that there will be no more Quarterfinals. Instead, athletes will progress from the Open directly to Semifinals and then to the Crossfit Games.

Most athletes who qualify for Semifinals will compete online via the virtual, In-Affiliate Semifinals.

Based on the worldwide Open leaderboard, the top 1%* (or a minimum of 1,200 athletes) in the Individual men’s and women’s divisions will qualify to participate in Semifinals.
All teams from the Open will be eligible to participate in the Team Semifinals with a chance to qualify for the CrossFit Games.
The top 2%** (or a minimum of 200 athletes) in each age-group division will qualify to participate in the Age-Group Semifinals.

The new Community Cup will take the place of Quarterfinals for 99% of athletes who choose to participate. (See more on this below.)

2. Virtual, In-Affiliate Semifinals

The 2025 Semifinals is essentially an online competition, where athletes are required to complete the workouts at an affiliate in good standing and submit a video of each workout.

There are additional criteria for in-affiliate judges during Semifinals. These include the designation of a Head Judge and a secondary judge, and that both must have a current L1 or higher and have completed both the 2025 Judges Course and Advanced Judges Course.

3. A New Way to Qualify to the CrossFit Games – In-Person Qualifying Events

This year also sees the introduction of another avenue to qualify to the CrossFit Games – through the 10 partnered CrossFit Games qualifying events.

In total, 18 men and 18 women will qualify through these events, which take place between April and June.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Morning Chalk Up (@morningchalkup)

4. Fewer Athletes at the Games

For the past four seasons, the CrossFit Games roster has featured 40 men and 40 women. This year’s CrossFit Games field will include just 30 men and 30 women.

5. Prize Money

This year’s prize money will be determined based on Open registration, which has remained at $20 USD. The more people who do the Open, the greater the prize purse to fund each stage of competitions throughout the season. (See breakdown below.)

Worth noting: Each Qualifying Event will award its own prize money. Northern California Classic has announced a $156,000 prize purse, with $85,000 going to the Elite/RX divisions.

In Appendix F of the rulebook, CrossFit gave an example of the breakdown should there be 300,000 Open participants. (Last year, 344,396 people registered for the Open.)

With 300,000 Open participants:

The male and female winners of the CrossFit Games would take home $367,500 each.
Second place would receive $73,500, and third place $58,800.
In comparison, first place received $315,000, second earned $125,000, and third $85,000 last season.

In this same example with 300,000 Open participants, Semifinal winners would take home $11,250, while second place would earn $5,400 and third $4,950. Last year, Semifinals winners took home $10,000, while second place earned $7,000 and third place $5,000.

Here is what a single $20 Open Registration would look like, split between the multiple award opportunities during the 2025 season:

$10 goes directly to CrossFit LLC, and then the remaining $10 is split amongst the Open, Individual Semifinals, Individual Games, Affiliate Cup, Divisional Games (Masters and Adaptive, there is no prize money for Teens).

Split of $20	Category	Percentage and Additional Detail
$2.00	Open – Affiliate Prizes	20% – Split between participation and performance prizes paid in $2,500 Rogue Gift cards to top 17-18 affiliates per prize category per region
$0.50	Open – Individuals	5% – Top Individual Performances (M/F; 1st-3rd weekly and overall)
$0.30	Individual Semifinals	3% – Awarded to 1st through 11th place. Online Individual Semifinals only; not in-person CrossFit Games Qualifying Events
$4.90	Individual Games	49% – Awarded to 1st through 20th place
$1.00	Affiliate Cup Games (teams)	10% – Awarded to 1st through 20th place
$1.00	Masters	10% – Specific payouts for divisions not provided
$0.30	Adaptive	3% – Specific payouts for divisions not provided

Notable Dates for the 2025 CrossFit Season

The CrossFit Open

Workout 25.1: February 27 – March 3
Workout 25.2: March 6 – March 10
Workout 25.3: March 13 – March 17

Semifinals and In-Person Qualifying Events

Registration for Age-Group In-Affiliate Semifinals Opens: March 31
Age-Group In-Affiliate Semifinals: April 3-6
Registration for Team In-Affiliate Semifinals Opens: April 7
Team In-Affiliate Semifinals: April 24-27
Adaptive Semifinals: May 8-11
Registration for Individual In-Affiliate Semifinals Opens: April 14

Individual In-Affiliate Semifinals: May 1-4
Individual In-Person Qualifying Events: Early April–Early June

Community Cup: June 9-15

Individual, Team, and Divisional CrossFit Games

2025 CrossFit Games: August (Exact date TBA).
2025 Masters CrossFit Games by Legends: Aug. 21-24
2025 Teenage CrossFit Games by Pit Teen Throwdown: Aug. 21-24
2025 Adaptive CrossFit Games by WheelWOD: Sept. 9-13
Pairs Competition by Masters Fitness Championships: October

A Closer Look at the Details

The 2025 CrossFit Open

1.08 Open Registration – Region Selection

For the 2025 season, competitive regions will have no bearing on the competition. They will only serve as a filter on the leaderboard.

The seven competitive regions from 2024 remain the same, and there is a full list of countries, states, and territories, cross-referenced by competitive region, in Appendix C of the rulebook.
According to the rulebook, “Residency at the close of the first Open score submission window will be used to determine an athlete’s region.”

It should be noted that some In-Person Qualifying Events will use competitive regions as a requirement for registration, in addition to Open finish and online qualifier results. (E.g., Rebel Renegade Games, Syndicate Crown, and The Fittest Experience.)

1.33 Open – Prizes

A percentage of each Open registration fee will be used to fund the prize purse for each stage of competition throughout the season.

During the Open, Individual athletes and affiliates will be awarded prizes.

There will be weekly first-, second-, and third-place winners for both men and women, based on performance. Additionally, there will be an overall prize for first-, second-, and third-place men and women once the leaderboard is finalized following 25.3.

The value of each Individual prize is determined by total Open registration and will be announced at the close of the registration period.

Affiliates will also be awarded prizes ($2500 Rogue gift cards) based on participation and performance. Performance is based on Teams performance in the Open, and participation is based on total registrations at the affiliate. The rulebook notes that CrossFit will audit the registration numbers of winning affiliates to validate them prior to awards being handed out.
Affiliate awards will go to the top 18 affiliates in North America East and then the top 17 in all other regions. CrossFit mentions that additional prizes will be allocated to each region as total registrations grow.
- To be in the top 18 in the North America East region in 2024 an affiliate would need to have registered 156 Open athletes.

Semifinals

2.02 Semifinals – Judging and Video Requirements

Individual and Age-Group divisions will be required to submit videos of all workouts when they submit their scores.

Videos must be submitted via a publicly viewable YouTube link/URL. No other video hosting platforms or formats will be accepted. CrossFit notes that if a video is set to private or is blocked or removed because of copyright issues, it could result in a zero-score penalty.

2.01 Semifinals

The second stage of the CrossFit Games season is now Semifinals. Based on the worldwide Open rank, the top 1%* (or a minimum of 1,200 athletes) in the Individual men’s and women’s divisions will qualify to participate in Semifinals.

Individual and Age-Group athletes MUST complete the workouts at a CrossFit affiliate and MUST submit scores with videos for each workout.
Teams MUST complete the workouts at a CrossFit affiliate. As long as the team completes the workouts together, they can complete them at a different affiliate than the one they represent.

Age-Group athletes, 16-54, are eligible to compete in the Individual Semifinals should they qualify based on the Individual men’s and women’s worldwide leaderboards. They may also compete on a team during the Team Semifinal if they were listed on the team roster during the Open.

CrossFit will provide score submission instructions and event details leading up to and throughout the competition.

2.02 Semifinals – CrossFit Affiliate and Head Judge Requirement

All athletes (Individual, Age Group, and Teams) that have registered for Semifinals MUST complete the workouts at a CrossFit affiliate in good standing.

In order to host Semifinals, the CrossFit affiliate will need to assign a Head Judge to oversee the competition.

The requirements for a Head Judge are:

Hold an active CrossFit Level 1 credential (or higher).
Complete the 2025 Judges Course.
Complete the Advanced Judges Course.

The Head Judge must be on-site and introduced in each athlete’s video during each workout of the competition.

It is the responsibility of the Head Judge to uphold the requirements and standards of the competition, including review of final scores submitted by each athlete in their affiliate.

2.05 Semifinals – Selecting a Semifinal competition roster – Teams

During the registration process for Semifinals, teams will need to declare their Competition Team roster.

Team managers can only select eligible athletes (see Section 1.13 for eligibility rules) from their Open team roster to move forward on the Competition Team roster.

A Competition Team roster will consist of:

A maximum of 6 athletes: 3 men | 3 women.
A minimum of 4 athletes: 2 men | 2 women.

These athletes will represent the team for the Semifinal. Athletes in the Individual and Age-Group divisions are eligible to be a member of a Competition Team roster.

Any athlete who has qualified and chooses to compete in the Individual Semifinal is eligible to be listed on the Competition Team roster should they choose to compete in both divisions.

Once the members of the team have been selected by the team manager, the Competition Team roster is locked for the Semifinal. Only the athletes on the Competition Team Roster will be eligible to compete for the team during the Semifinal.

2.07 Semifinals – Judging and Video Requirement

In addition to the Head Judge mentioned in 2.02, all athletes (individual, age group, and teams) must use a second registered floor judge during each workout who holds the following:

Hold an active CrossFit Level 1 credential (or higher).
Complete the 2025 Judges Course.
Complete the Advanced Judges Course.

Both the Head Judge and the Floor Judge will need to be named in the score submission.

As it reads, these cannot be the same person but two separate judges.

For Individual and Age Group athletes, ALL WORKOUTS are REQUIRED to be submitted with a publicly viewable YouTube link/URL.

No other video hosting platforms or formats will be accepted.

For teams, the rulebook notes that videos are not required at score submission but may be requested to submit videos of their performance.

2.08 Semifinals – Event Format

Individual, Age-Group, and Team athletes will compete in a series of workouts throughout their competitions.

All score submission deadlines must be met, and there will be no exceptions for late scores.

The competition will take place over the course of one weekend in which athletes will need to perform workouts and submit scores. Scores will not populate on the public leaderboard until after the close of the competition window.

The 2025 Semifinals dates are:

Age Groups: Thursday, April 3, at 12 p.m. PT until Sunday, April 6, at 5 p.m. PT.
Teams: Thursday, April 24, at 12 p.m. PT until Sunday, April 27, at 5 p.m. PT.
Individuals: Thursday, May 1, at 12 p.m. PT until Sunday, May 4, at 5 p.m. PT.

The exact number of workouts to be completed will be released prior to the competition.

All scores will remain hidden from the public leaderboard until after the competition has concluded. Once the competition has concluded, the review period would occur where all videos, for Individuals and Age Groups, will be publicly available for review and penalties may be assessed.

For more information on video review and the penalties process check out sections 2.10A through 2.12 as well as Appendix D & E; we highly suggest all competing athletes read these sections of the rulebook in full and review them with your coach and judge.

2.13 Semifinals – Leaderboard Finalization

Leaderboards will not be final until after the review process is complete. Only after this time will athletes know if they are advancing to the next stage of competition. CrossFit will make an announcement when each leaderboard is final.

The Age-Group leaderboard will be final no later than April 21, 2025.
The Team leaderboard will be final no later than May 2, 2025.
The Individual leaderboard will be final no later than May 19, 2025.

Note: In the case of Individuals who are planning to compete both in the In-Affiliate (online) Semifinal and in In-Person Qualifying Events, there are two in-person Qualifying Events—French Throwdown and TFX Invitational—that would occur after the In-Affiliate Semifinal weekend but before the leaderboard may be finalized.

2.14 Semifinals – Team Advancement

Unlike previous years, only one team per affiliate can advance to the CrossFit Games.

If an affiliate has more than one team that finishes in a qualifying position, CrossFit will invite the next eligible team on the leaderboard.
Any team who advances will have the opportunity to substitute any athlete who competed for the affiliate during the Team Semifinals.

If an affiliate had multiple teams compete in Semifinals, they can rework their Games competition roster with any of the athletes from any of their teams.

2025 CrossFit Games Qualifying Events

3.01-3.02 – CrossFit Games Qualifying Event

An additional option for individual men and women to qualify for the CrossFit Games will be through a select number of Partnered CrossFit Games Qualifying Events.

Qualifying events are responsible to program and administer their own competitions.

These competitions may invite athletes and include qualifying rounds or other criteria at their discretion.

Athletes who earn a ticket to the Crossfit Games through a Qualifying Event must also have placed within the top 1% of the Open to advance.

Each Qualifying Event will send at least one man and one woman to the CrossFit Games.

There are currently 10 Qualifying Events in the 2025 CrossFit Games season and 18 CrossFit Games tickets available through this pathway.

If an athlete finishes in a qualifying position in multiple competitions, they will retain their Games invitation from the first competition from which they qualified.

Their rank will be passed over in subsequent competitions (Online Semifinals OR Live Events) and the Games invitation given to the next in line (i.e., backfilled). This process will repeat if the second-place finisher has earned a Games invitation and so on.

Each Qualifying Event will award its own prize money.

Community Cup

4.01, 4.02, 4.03 – Community Cup

After the Open, all competitors will have the chance to compete in a new competition: The Community Cup.

Anyone who submits scores in the Open will automatically be given a “level” based on their performance, of which there are 10.

Athletes who choose to compete in the Community Cup will then compete against others of a similar level—there will be five different tiers, two levels each, during the Community Cup—determined during the Open.

The competition will involve three workouts and must be completed between Monday, June 9, and Sunday, June 15.

The registration fee to participate is $30.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dave Castro (@thedavecastro)

Gender Classification Policy

9.01 Gender Classification

For 2019 through 2024, the CrossFit Games rulebook contained a “Transgender Policy” that allowed an athlete to select a gender other than that assigned at birth when they registered to compete in the Open.

That policy has now been replaced by the “Gender Classification Policy” that reads:

“All athletes are welcome to participate in CrossFit Games events. However, to maintain fairness and the integrity of the competition, athletes must compete in the division corresponding to their gender assigned at birth.”

Drug Testing Policy

1.03, 3.03, 5.18, and 8.01 – Drug Testing Policy

The Drug Testing Policy is mentioned through the rulebook with callouts in the Open, Semifinals, Qualifying Events, and the Games.

In each case, CrossFit reiterates that all Individuals, Teams, Age Groups, and Adaptive athletes are subject to drug testing, especially those that may be awarded prize money and qualify to the CrossFit Games or Divisional Games.

For the Qualifying Events, CrossFit states that “while the Qualifying Events are independent, CrossFit will conduct drug testing at these events as drug testing is required for any individual athlete to advance to the Games regardless of the path that they may choose to get there.”

In section 5.18, CrossFit goes further into the drug testing that will occur at the CrossFit Games for Individual athletes and Team athletes as well as for Age-Group athletes at the Divisional Games.

Individual, Age-Group, and Team athletes will be subject to drug testing at any time during the competition.

Athletes selected for drug testing will be notified by Athlete Control personnel.

The following athletes will be selected for drug testing at the end of the competition:

Top 5 overall individual men and women.
Top 5 overall teams, all members.
Top 5 overall Masters athletes, men and women, in each division.

All athletes are subject to drug testing at any time, but the top five individual men and women, all members of the top five teams and the top five in the Masters across all men’s and women’s divisions will be tested for sure.

In the sections of the rulebook about prize money, CrossFit notes that drug testing must be completed before prize money would be issued.

However, the rulebook appears to state that not all athletes and teams within a ranking of receiving prize money will be subject to required testing at the end of Games competition.

While the top five athletes are required to be tested, the top 20 for Individuals and Teams are shown to be in the money for the Games.

The Appendices

Appendix D: Online/In-Affiliate Competition Guidelines

With a good portion of the Games season occurring virtually, CrossFit has added a set of “Online/In-Affiliate Competition Guidelines”

These guidelines include:

Setup Consideration: An outline of how athletes are to set up their workout spaces to provide adequate space for movement.
Video Submission Requirements: An outline of any video submission violations that will result in a score of 0.
Penalties: CrossFit has included a detailed section outlining possible athlete errors and the penalties that will result, including both major and minor penalties.
Video Submission Best Practices: An outline of best practices for athletes when considering their camera setups for video submissions.
Weight Conversions: An outline of standard weight conversions from pounds to kilograms to be used for all online competitions. It was also noted that the list was not exhaustive and that if a weight was not listed below and appeared in the online competition format, CrossFit would include it in the movement standards.

Appendix E: Public Review Guidelines – Individual and Age-Group Semifinals

New to the 2025 season is a public review process. “As part of the online Semifinal review process for the Individual and Age-Group divisions, videos of all workout performances will be made public on the leaderboard,” according to the rulebook.