How the Worldwide Ranking System Works

"The?CrossFit Games is excited to publish updated worldwide rankings for all athletes who qualify and register for?the?2023 Individual Quarterfinal." — Adrian Bozman, CrossFit Director of Competition.

The?Worldwide Ranking System: How It Works?

New for?the?2023 season, CrossFit implemented?a?worldwide ranking system for athletes who compete as individuals. All athletes who registered for?the?Individual Quarterfinal in 2022 will be included in?the?worldwide ranking that will be released prior to?the?start of?the?2023 Open. Updated worldwide rankings will be published periodically throughout?the?year for all athletes who qualify and register for?the?2023 Quarterfinals (men’s and women’s individual divisions).?

To determine an athlete’s worldwide rank, points are assigned to?the?previous two years of competitive results for?the?four stages of?the?CrossFit Games season (the?Open, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Games). Athletes who accumulate more points will be ranked higher than athletes with fewer points. As?the?season progresses,?the?calculation window will slide such that?the?ranking will always be based on?the?most recent running two years of data.?The?two years of competition experience operate as an overview of an athlete’s fitness.

What's Included in?the?Worldwide Ranking??

As of Feb. 1, 2023, scores for?the?2021 and 2022 Open, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Games are included in?the?worldwide ranking calculation.

After?the?close of?the?2023 Quarterfinals, scores will be recalculated by dropping?the?2021 Open and Quarterfinals scores and adding in?the?new 2023 Open and Quarterfinals scores.?

See?the?diagrams below for further explanation:

How Scores Are Tabulated

Points for?the?Open and Quarterfinals will be awarded based on an athlete’s worldwide percentile finish. Athletes will receive points for their finishing percentile x 10. In?the?Open, there are 1,000 points available to?the?top male and female athlete (worldwide) and scores go down from there — 990 for 99th percentile, 980 for 98th percentile, and so on.?

During?the?Quarterfinals, athletes will receive points for their worldwide percentile finish x 20. There are 2,000 points available to?the?top male and female athlete (worldwide) and scores go down from there —1,980 points for?the?99th percentile, 1,960 for?the?98th percentile, and so on.

Once?the?season progresses to in-person events (Semifinals and?the?Games), points are earned based on rank-order finish. Each placement on?the?leaderboard at each competition will earn?a?different number of points.?The?top male and female athlete at each Semifinal will earn 4,000 points.?The?remainder of Semifinalists will have different point-earning opportunities. Each Semifinal will have?a?points table based on?the?final number of Games-qualifying positions and?the?size of?the?field present at that specific Semifinal competition.??

Qualifying for?the?CrossFit Games creates?the?largest points-earning opportunity for an athlete during?the?season. Winning?the?title of Fittest on Earth will award 10,000 points.

For?the?2023 season, updated points tables for all Semifinals will be based on?the?final number of Games-qualifying positions at each competition. In addition,?the?North America and Europe Semifinals points tables will reflect?the?larger, 60-athlete fields present at those competitions. Semifinals with?a?higher number of qualifying positions/larger field of athletes will have?a?more gradual decline in points per placement.?

For example, in?a?smaller region with only one qualifying athlete,?the?difference between first and second place will be:

First = 4,000 points

Second = 1,800 points

In?a?larger region with 10 qualifying athletes,?the?difference between first and second place will be:?

First = 4,000 points

Second = 3,750 points

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View Worldwide Rankings

Strength of Field Explained?

Also new for?the?2023 season, CrossFit will use?the?worldwide rankings to finalize?the?number of Games-qualifying positions at each Semifinal. Each competition region has?the?opportunity to add to their minimum number of guaranteed Games-qualifying position(s).

The?top 100 athletes in?the?worldwide rankings* after?the?2023 Quarterfinals will be used to determine?the?relative strength of field at each Semifinal. Semifinals with more athletes within?the?top 100 worldwide will be more likely to earn additional Games-qualifying positions.?

(*Note:?the?top 100 in?the?worldwide rankings are based on?the?previous two years of competition results. This list is?not?simply?the?top 100 athletes from?the?2023 Quarterfinals competition.)

Since there are 40 total Games positions available,?the?remaining 17 will be allocated based on?the?top 100 worldwide. Within each Semifinal, strength-of-field calculations will be made separately for men and women. For example, it is possible for?a?Semifinal to gain one additional position for?the?men, but?the?women may not earn any additional positions or vice versa.

The?strength-of-field calculation implemented to distribute?the?17 remaining Games spots is based on?the?D’Hondt method, which is used by governments around?the?world to award seats based on proportional representation.?The?method uses rounds of calculation, awarding one seat after each round of calculation. So, for?the?17 remaining Games positions, 17 rounds of calculations will be completed.

Each round of calculation will award?a?score to each region by dividing?the?number of athletes within?the?top 100 worldwide by?the?number of seats awarded (above?the?number of guaranteed positions) plus one.

The?region with?the?highest score during?a?round of calculation will be awarded an additional qualifying position. Then,?the?next round of calculation is completed and?the?process continues.?

The?calculation is illustrated below using?a?hypothetical distribution of?the?top 100 women:

Number of women in?the?top 100 of?the?worldwide ranking by region:

• 34 - N. America East
• 18 - N. America West
• 31 - Europe
• 5 - Oceania
• 4 - S. America
• 4 - Asia
• 4 - Africa

The?formula is then applied to each region. In this case,?the?number of women in?the?top 100 worldwide in each region is divided by 1 since each region has not had any seats awarded above?the?minimum (the?divisor in?the?formula is?the?number of seats awarded above?the?minimum + 1).

North America East has?the?highest score in?the?first round and is therefore awarded one additional qualifying position.?

Round 1 Calculation:

• 34 - N.A?East
• 18 - N.A?West
• 31 - Europe
• 5 - Oceania
• 4 - S. America
• 4 - Asia
• 4 - Africa

The?second round of calculations now begins and?the?formula is again applied to all regions. Any region that is not awarded?a?position in?the?previous round will maintain its score since there is no change to its divisor. Any region that was awarded?a?position will see its score changed as its divisor has now changed.?

For example, in?the?second round of calculations, North America East’s score becomes 17 since its original score of 34 is now divided by 2 (1 awarded position + 1).

In the second round, Europe has the highest score and is therefore awarded one additional qualifying position.?

In the third round, Europe’s new divisor becomes 2, changing its score to 15.5. The other region’s scores carry over from the previous round, resulting in North America West being awarded the third qualifying position, as it has the highest score of the round.

The process is repeated until all 17 qualifying positions have been distributed. The full 17 rounds of calculation in this scenario can be seen below. The highlighted score in each column represents the winner of each round. The columns on the right show the number of awarded positions and the final number of positions at each Semifinal. The same process would then be repeated for the men’s division based on the regional distribution of men in the top 100 worldwide.

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Any ties during the rounds of calculation will be awarded to the Semifinal with the fewer number of Games positions already awarded. If a tie still exists, it will be broken by awarding the qualifying position to the region with the highest individually ranked athlete.

Note that in the final round, South America, Asia, and Africa would have needed a score higher than 4.86 to be awarded an additional qualifying position. Said another way, if any of those regions had just one more athlete within the top 100 worldwide, bringing their original score to 5, it is likely they would have been awarded an additional qualifying position. This illustrates the ability of Semifinal competitions to gain more qualifying positions as more athletes in their region enter the top 100 worldwide.

The bottom line for athletes and fans: The more athletes who are within the top 100 worldwide ranking in your region, the more likely your Semifinal will gain additional Games-qualifying positions.?

Watch more on the Worldwide Ranking.

The Video Review Process

Every video that has a penalty assessed has been viewed by multiple judges. The first of these is the on-site judge who should hold the athlete to a high standard throughout the test. Next, the athlete should review their own video prior to submission to ensure they are content with the quality of movement based on their comprehension of the standards.

Once a video is submitted, CrossFit may choose to review it based on score and placement. This review typically begins with verification of loading, measurements, rep counts, test guidelines, and an assessment of movement standards. If the judge finds any issues with the submission, they make notes about the issues and send the notes to another, more senior judge. This judge then repeats the process of assessment, and if they agree there are issues, the video is sent to yet another, even more senior judge for a final penalty determination.?This process ensures that no one judge can have too much influence (for good or bad) on any single athlete or division during a competition, and it helps create consistency when penalties are applied.?

Input from all levels of judging is taken into consideration when determining if a penalty is appropriate.

Which Videos Get Reviewed?

During online competition, the following performances provide a starting point for the team to review:

• Top scores in any single test.
• Top athletes in the overall competition standings.

The review team prioritizes performances that affect prize money and/or advancement to the next stage of the season.?

Who Is Responsible for Reviewing the Videos?

The CrossFit Games video review team is made up of CrossFit staff and judges from the greater CrossFit community who have proven themselves to have a keen eye. The team of judges and team leads are paid for their time and held to a high standard. In addition to the official review team, during the Open, anyone who has passed the most recent Judges Course can view and provide input on any video that has been published on the CrossFit Games leaderboard. This feature has been available for years and is used by our internal team as a spotlight for videos that may need official review.

Reasons for modification of a score include but are not limited to:

• Failure to follow the video submission guidelines, including recording movements from angles, distances, or with effects that do not allow judges to assess whether the movement standards are being met.?
• The view of the athlete in the video is obscured.
• Violation of the event format, including movement standards.
• Workout attire that prevents the judge from determining whether the athlete is meeting the movement standards.
• Miscounting repetitions.

How Penalties Are Assessed

There are five possible outcomes that may be applied by the CrossFit Games internal review team when judging video submissions.

• Good Video?- All requirements are met. The score that was submitted will be accepted.
• Valid With Minor Penalty?- During review, there were a small number of no reps and a minor penalty will be applied.
• Valid With Major Penalty?- During review, there were a significant number of no reps and a major penalty will be applied. At minimum, the penalty will be 15% of total rep count or total time.
• Zero Score?- An athlete submits a video that demonstrates they were clearly trying to complete the test, but the standards were violated egregiously, they did the wrong movements, or they used the wrong weight. In this case, the athlete’s score may be adjusted to zero. Despite the zero score, this athlete will remain in the competition.
• Invalid Score?- An athlete submits a video that is actively malicious or intentionally disregards the rules of the competition. This action will result in CrossFit disqualifying the athlete and removing this and all other scores from the competition.?

The video review process is thorough, time-consuming, and necessary. The main goal has always been ensuring the performance captured on video matches the submitted score while following all the rules of the competition.

Video Submission Best Practices

For more information, check out the?2023 CrossFit Games Rulebook.?You can also contact?[email protected]?with questions.

Final List of 2023 Competition Region Exemptions

The application for competition region exemptions for the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games season closed on Feb. 1. Applications have been reviewed, and athletes who were granted an exemption have been notified.?

All athletes who were granted a competition region exemption for the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games season are listed in the article “Athletes Granted Competition Region Exemptions.”