The Sevan Podcast - 2023 CrossFit Games QF Team Power Rankings #904

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

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Bam. We're live. I'm trying to be woke. I actually go in the ladies' restroom now. Sure. Well, it's technically on the main, but I identify as a pervert.

I'm trying to be woke. I apologize. I thought we were doing a live calling show. I apologize. I didn't realize this a live calling show. I apologize. I didn't realize this was the team's semifinal show. Should I come back tomorrow? Yes, yes. Good morning, Eric.

Good morning, Eric. I had a small meltdown. Jeez Louise, good morning. Omar Conejo, good morning. Kelly Slater, good to see you, buddy. Look at you with Rich Froning trying to front. Angela, good morning. All hearts and shit.

Good stuff. Chris, good morning. Brian Friend, good morning. Pool Boy, good morning. David, assalamu alaikum. Yes, thank you. Ass Assalamualaikum. Yes, thank you. Assalamualaikum. Assalamualaikum.

Yes. Thank you. Yalla, yalla. Good morning, Isaac Abad. Abad from the Dubai. From the Dubai. Oh, there she is. Okay, we can start the show.

That's wrong, Eric. Not my boyfriend, so I don't care. Oh, I thought you were just going to say good morning to us. You're already fighting in the comments. Okay. Robbie Myers, good morning. I'm glad you've taken your hat off for when you come on the show. I remember when you used to wear your hat in here.

Not cool. Richie Rich. Thanks, Sebi and Brian. I think I've never and will never play Frisbee Toss, but I know more about it and the players than anyone else I know. I remember the Richie Rich cartoon. That's not around anymore, is it? Jay Hartle, did you hear about Jamie Foxx?

I know that I saw something on TMZ that he got hospitalized for something last week. I don't have a lot of time today, people. We must address the guest, Mr. Brian Friend. Do you think it's wrong to call you a guest? Like you come over – it's like your friend who comes over all the time and they're not really a guest anymore. Like if this were my house, you could open the refrigerator without asking me. So what would you call me then? I would kind of expect you to like if you were

like if you came over as much as we do shows and we're like hey could I have water I'd be annoyed I'd be like dude you know where the cups are and the water is oh my goodness Jamie Foxx did have a 49ers incident holy shit oh my god he got 49ered oh my god Fox did have a 49ers incident. Holy shit. Oh, my God.

He got 49ered. Oh, my God. I'm seeing two a day now from athletes. It's crazy. I hope the CrossFit athletes are good. Okay. I'm not going to lie to you. I find this whole ranking thing.

Yesterday, I asked you if you've ever done a team ranking before, and I think you said you didn't know, but I'm going to answer for you. No, you have not. Well, like, you know, prior to the games, probably we were like, these are predictions. I'm sure we did that last year for the top, you know, what are all the teams that made the games, but in the middle of the season, probably not.

Yeah, this is uh this is i can't tell i can't tell if this is a bold task to rank the teams or stupid because well bear with me here because they um i think i even addressed that in the article basically it's so well you do say this you do say this in the article. For anyone who wants to follow along, head over to BeFriendlyFitness.com. Don't put in the period. It's just the letter B and then the word FriendlyFitness, all one word,.com. You do say, hey, this is basically twice you reiterate, hey, this is going to be hard without seeing them compete. I really need to see these guys together on the floor at least once to evaluate. Yeah. This isn't anything permanent. I mean, as opposed to...

I think there are two key elements to that. Okay. You know, one is, especially with team competitions, I think there's a lot of limits to what you can test in the online format and a lot of elements of teamwork that can be tested to a higher level and with a greater kind of diversity in a live setting. That's why I want to see some of these teams compete, especially when you couple that with the fact what I wrote in here is that, you know, how do you handle new teams composed of extremely talented individuals and assess their potential when you haven't seen them in a live setting against teams who have been competing together for a long time. Are there teams that have been competing for a long time? Yeah, I mean,

the fourth team on the list, for example, CrossFit Oslo Navy Blue, they've been second place at the games to Mayhem Freedom the last two years. It's the same team from last year they did have one replacement of the male between 2021 and 2022 Nikolai joined their team but Lena Ingrid and Ivan have been on that team now this will be their third consecutive year they also have I think six teams out of CrossFit Oslo that are competing at semifinals so it's a very like there's a lot of opportunities for team training in that environment more so than probably anywhere else in the world maybe CrossFit Invictus the CrossFit Invictus team is the exact same team that came back last year but surrounding those teams you have East Nashville which is a new team Torian Mayhem which is a new team and No Shortcuts which is a new team and CrossFit Franco's Missou which is a new team so you even at the top, a blend of new and old teams.

And I'm doing my best to kind of assess some of what I think the potential is in some cases. In other cases, I think I kind of know because Andrea and Taylor have been doing this forever. We know Tola has a lot of team experience. That picture of Tola, we'll go back to in a second who took that is that a patrick clark picture too no this one um is just from proven they took that during i believe whoever took that either that's an incredible photo yeah and proven puts

out good media uh bailey bailey walker uh team verdant uh yes for a dollar 99 you can purchase a few seconds of brian's brain to speak about some fucking obscure team thank you bailey uh is this even a team team verdant crossfit checking something here did she just waste a dollar 99 no no it's not raining in california not well not not right now at my house. The sun should come out. Thank you for asking. But it did rain for like three days straight. A team Verdant. I believe there are some teams from the West Coast. Yeah.

I would consider them to be in the hunt for kind of an outside game spot in the North America West. I consider them to be in the hunt for kind of an outside game spot in the North America West. Brian, is there a team that's been together for five years, the same four people? Does that exist in the top 40? I'm not sure for exactly how long, but the team that I have ranked 12th, CrossFit Porti out of Finland, they have been competing together for a while i know for at least three years now i'm not 100 sure beyond that but i i spoke to them at um

oh and throw it on last year uh they were in the top 10 two years ago at the games so i think in terms of experience working together the same people they're kind of towards the top. This team that has Laura Isopusa on it? Mm-hmm. Yeah. She has a great name. Look at the guy's first name. They have a guy named Jusa, and then they have a girl named Isopusa. Joshua?

Yeah, it's like the Finnish version of Joshua, I think. Petteri is the Finnish version of Peter. Oh. Josh and Peter. You can call him Josh and Peter if you want. So that team's been, thank you. So that team's been together. Oh, look at Sam Stewart down at 14.

That's an individual athlete. What's he doing? Yeah, so this is another good example. The CrossFit Walleye athlete team, Sam Stewart, former individual games athlete, Joshua Wischthroop, German national champion in 2019, competed at the Games. Mia Hesketh, obviously tons of experience, individual and team.

And Antoine Kodolinski out of Sweden. She was on the CrossFit Nordic original team that placed in the top five of the Games two years ago. They did compete last year, but they had to make the substitution based on the ruling from CrossFit about one of their athletes living too far away and not training with them enough or whatever they decided there. So she's got a lot of team experience. She also won the RX Division at Wadapalooza two years ago. So this is a team that was assembled this year that has a lot of experience individually, some team experience,

and I'm not entirely sure how good they are. I mean, obviously, to put them 14th is pretty good worldwide. Sam's an individual male athlete, though, right? He's a games athlete. So it's Vishtrup and Sh through and shows mia wow from last year no no none of them last year but at some point in their career so these are that's certainly a team that when i when i see them compete in berlin it's possible i walk away with there and i say yeah as good as they are as individuals just some of the teamwork and chemistry stuff i think it's going to hold them back this season

compared to you you know, other teams, or I might say, damn, everything that was thrown at them. They looked good. They, they moved in sync. They had good communication. There was no kind of budding of egos or heads or anything like that. And maybe this is a top 10 team. Alyssa, I just have to say, can we get more masters 35 to 39 and less teams at the games? I think those things are in terms of what in terms

of what in terms of getting media attention no i think she's saying in terms of the number of athletes participating there so she wants less teams i think that what what we're going to talk about when we get especially towards the middle to bottom of this list is that there are definitely enough teams worldwide that you could field 40 competitive teams at the games but with the current distribution of spots you're missing 25 of the best 40 teams at the games. But with the current distribution of spots, you're missing 25% of the best 40 teams in the world because they're all in North America East. And the article addresses that, that basically,

and I think we will get to that or we could even do it now. Brian mentions in this article that's on BeFriendlyFitness.com that he thinks 17 or 18 of the teams, best teams in the top 40, 17 or 18 of the teams in the top 40 all come from North America East and then another 10 from North America West. Right. So that would give North America 27 of the 40 teams if if we were just wanted the best people there and not a distribution of global representation.

And I mean, and I have. Are you hating on that, by the way, or do you agree with that? I mean, although it may seem inconsistent, it's nice having global representation, isn't it? Yeah, and I have the same contention that I have for the individuals, is if you want global representation, guarantee one spot. And then let, you know, to everyone. And then let performance, especially in the team division,

I think even more so than the individual side, you're going to have this massive turnover year after year. Just new teams being created, teams filtering away, because it's not one person that has to make a decision to compete or not. It's an entire team. It might be four or six people and a coach. Can we all get to the same place at the same time, have the best equipment and enough training to actually be relevant

and competitive in this season? And the season is long. And be healthy. And be healthy, which we'll get to some of that today too. But, you know, but it just depends on, and I always will caveat this anytime we talk about, you know, CrossFit, the CrossFit Games team's execution or administration of the season is

what's the purpose? And how much work are they willing to do to try to achieve that goal? Or is it just like an easy way out? 10-10-10, 3-3-2, and let's everyone go to the game. Switching subjects again a little bit um i have this bias it's probably uh on um unsubstantiated but i i feel that when people leave individual competition that they won't be

as good when they come back and you know and you have people like annie who left on the craziest terms right and came back and kicked ass you have sam quant you have these like Annie who left on the craziest terms, right, and came back and kicked ass. You have Sam Quant. You have these clear people that don't fit in that paradigm, right, that do leave and come back and still perform at a really high level. But for some reason, I can't unstick that. And I am concerned when I see people like Sam Stewart go team, right? He's still young. And I'm very excited this year to see what happens to Samuel Cornwall.

Yeah. I would even go as far as this. I know this is blasphemy, but I would even go as far as to say even training with Rich. Rich isn't going into the red anymore, right? And you need to be going in. You need to be training with people who are going into the red on a regular basis. If you want to go to the games, right? If you want to be an individual i just find it fascinating i'm very very curious what uh samuel corn why is going to be like this year at the games very curious

yeah and just just to follow up on the other side of that spectrum we've talked about the 35 to 39 masters division in particular already this season, and that they're the number of participants they have, which is pushing towards 35,000 in the men's division alone, and the quality and caliber of athlete that they have. I think either way you look at it, there's absolutely no denying that a field of 20 is sustainable at the games for that division. But CrossFit still has this choice that they've made to have the same number of qualifiers in every age group division. From 14 and 15 to 65 plus, everyone gets 10.

And it has no reflection on the participants or the quality of the field. And I'm hopeful that that will change in years coming. They already have that system in place for the adaptive divisions, but they just flat out tell them, if you don't have enough participants, then you don't get to go to the games. You don't get any representation there. But in the master's division, where you have some divisions that have 10 times or 20 times as many registrants as others, getting the same number of qualifying spots, that kind of assessment of the fields of play is basically missing.

assessment of the of the fields of play is basically missing let me ask you this would you rather have 20 masters athletes and seven events or uh or uh 10 masters athletes and eight events i personally would rather have 10 masters athletes in eight events as as a spectator and i'm just i'm just being honest with like well what about fair to the crossfit games what let's say they do bring in more people okay well then they say okay the masters are going to have a big cut after day one to help mitigate the stress of having so many more people to deal with or what if we reduce it by one event there doesn't have to be any more so you want your cake and you want to eat it too no no no no i'm saying that in the divisions that have 20 000 plus registrants they get 20 spots to the games okay in the divisions that have 20,000 plus registrants, they get 20 spots to the games.

In the divisions that have less than 2,000, they only get five. And the five that will be removed from the 65 plus and 60 to 65 divisions will be supplemented. Then you're going to have almost a net same number. Additionally, you know how they, in this semifinals this past week, they scaled more, more. They had more scaling options than they usually do. Historically in the open and even this past year, 17 or 16 and 17.

And everyone is 35 to 54 has the same loading, the same rep scheme, whatever. This year in the semifinals, 35 to 44 had the same stuff, 45 to 54 same so they broke it down more and then there was a third scaling option and to your point point maybe the 55 plus only need seven events but maybe the 35 to 44 can have 10 you know what i'm saying so you can also taper it that way based on their age that it's more responsible to have fewer events for the 60 plus athletes than it is. And the 35 year olds can handle, you know, 10 or 11 events. So you could have a little bit of flexibility in a lot of different ways. That's actually addressing the, the competitive pool of athletes in each division, not just with the weights or the movements or the

reps, but also with the number of qualifiers and the number of events that they do at the games. Right now, based on the last conversation that I had with Adrian Bosman, he's handling the programming for every division for every part of the season. He's the first touchpoint. That is a ton of work. A ton. I don't think Dave did that. I think Dave put it off to Pat Sherwood.

I think that that transition happened over time. Dave may have been doing that early on and eventually he realized, you know, there are other people capable. I still want to take a look at everything, but. Right. I also don't blame Adrian for doing that, especially in the, as he takes control of the ship.

He probably wants to see everything. No, but I would look at Justin Burke. Justin Burke's been around forever and he probably have seen it both ways. And he might say, you know what? I think that we'll be able to manage every part of the season or every division, whether it's individual team, age groups, teenagers adapted better. If we have a different team lead at each one kind of, you know, maybe we have some, uh, some very specific patterns that we

want to see across all of them, but then take a shot at this, take a shot at this, take a shot at this. We'll bring it back together. We'll all look at it and we'll go forward. It just gives like, for me, it's a, it's a better opportunity to have a more clear mind working on each one than to have one person's mind, no matter how talented and experienced you might be responsible for all of them. Right. Uh, on a little editorial note, I don't appreciate, I don't like, uh, lots of different workouts and maybe I'm wrong and naive, but I liked the fewest amount of workouts, especially at the, at the open level that everyone is kind of participating together.

I think one of the coolest things about the Nopin that we'll find out soon is the fact that Andrew even made it. So the men and the women were doing the same workouts. I personally like that, um, uh, intellectually, Maybe it's not practical, but like emotionally and intellectually, I like to see everyone kind of doing the same workouts. And I'd like the programmers to take up the challenge of keeping as many people together as possible. Yeah. And I mean, I think, you know, even there's been many times on podcasts or in conversations with friends that I've, I've been reflecting on quarterfinals and I just get confused.

I can't remember which workout was for individuals and which one was for the masters. And it's like, you know, they could, even though they're on different weekends, like they could be very similar workouts. They don't have to be dramatically different. And I'm not, I'm not entirely sure why they are. You know, maybe there is some kind of a thought progression that it's like, no, no. In the masters divisions, we really need to assess this year, but for the individuals, maybe there is some kind of a thought progression that it's like, no, no,

in the master's divisions, we really need to assess this year, but for the individuals, maybe it's not so important. I don't know. So, you know, I think that, yeah. And then even at the games, you know, you'll see some pretty cool workouts sometimes in the age group divisions, and you're like, damn, like, I'm pretty sure they could have done a version of that in an individual field. And it would have been one fun to watch as well, or vice versa. And there, of course, there always are some workouts that have you know that are very similar but there's some that are not uh brian and i were talking discussing about whether just now uh there should be more uh masters athletes in the 35 to 39 range going to the crossfit games i tried to uh point out a compromise and and then I also raised my voice.

And did you see what he did? Did you see what he did? He just pointed at one simple fact. He didn't go for the emotional field. Then I attacked him. I said, I went ad hominem. I said, oh, you want your cake and eat it too? He didn't bite at any of those.

He just said, hey, dude, look it. Half the registrants are the old motherfuckers. And what do I have to do? I have to acquiesce at that point. This is just a common decency in conversation. That's a fucking winner right there. Half the fucking people who are getting into this open are oldies. And it's like, yeah, then accommodate them at the games.

They want to participate. And the truth is those guys are real 35 to 39 and there's that's still an age where there's going to be outliers there who are doing stuff that are completely ridiculous and worth uh highlighting is recovery really the thing that different differentiates a 35 and a 25 year old if you had to just pick the primary thing like you got two guys who are just amazing, but just the 25 year old is going to be ready for workout too before the, uh, 35 year old. Um, yeah.

In that, like in, in a vacuum, I would say yes. Okay. Really just sweeping generalization. Yeah. But like, look, I'm looking at, I'm looking at the 35 to 39 men's division right now. And in spots 11 through 20, you have Stephen Fawcett, former games athlete, legend in the UK.

You have Giannis Papadopoulos, this incredibly fun to watch, super strong guy. He set the deadlift record on the touch and go deadlift or the dead stop deadlifts a couple of years ago. You have Elijah Muhammad and Paul Tremblay. Don't need to say much about them. And Kyle Ruth, who I think was second place at the games in this division last year. And those guys are all out.

Of course, there's in the Masters, there's always going to be people that come in. So there's some other guys like Nick Roberts, Diego Jimenez, Chris Clyde, Yasuhiro Uchibori from Japan that also would have been in if they got 20 athletes. I'm sorry, but I would love to see every single one of those guys competing at the games. Elijah Muhammad, Paul Tremblay, the guy who got second place last year, Giannis Papadopoulos, these guys, if the right workout come out,

could win a workout at the CrossFit Games against Rich Froning and Scott Pancha. It's insane to answer. Like, they're specialists in certain things. They have experience to draw on. That would be fun to see. You know, it doesn't always happen, but, like, the fact that there's a guy who's in the top 20 in the world in this division that's from Japan, that would be fun to see. It doesn't always happen, but the fact that there's a guy who's

in the top 20 in the world in this division that's from Japan, that's awesome. I would love to see that guy competing there against these people. You've been asking for it on these shows. We want to see Oriental Asian people at the games competing. Where are they? I don't think you can say Oriental anymore. Yeah, you can because

they have a distinct look that's different than the people from Western Europe, Asia. I apologize for bringing political correctness to this show. Whatever. And the point is there's a guy there in Japan who's in the top 20 in the world in what I would say is the third most competitive division worldwide after the elite men and elite women. And with a slightly different system, he could have been there competing. And I think that we would have had a better overall experience with that division. I mean, it's going to be fun anyway just because of the top guys.

But I think there was a big miss this year. What is the average age of a team athlete? Do you know that? I know that's a lot of people, but you know why I'm curious about that is I wonder if it's an older crowd. I know that's a lot of people, but you know why I'm curious about that is I wonder if it's an older crowd. Or what maybe even is interesting is maybe – You know what Oriental means, by the way? Yeah, it's the kind of carpet. We had an Oriental carpet growing up as a kid from the Orient.

It means Eastern. Eastern. So Oriental Asian means Eastern Asian as opposed to Western Asian. If you go into Mexico, there's two mountain ranges, the Oriental and occidental one's on the east one's on the west it's not an age term and it's not an offensive term it's a descriptive geographical term fuck i'm gonna start using that thank you i appreciate you liberated a word for my vocabulary i appreciate thank you i am very concerned about offending people c Corey Leonard, $10. Thoughts on Franco's Misfits and the other Franco's team. What does that mean, Frank?

I know Misfits. What's Franco's Misfits? CrossFit Franco's is a gym in Texas. This team in particular is asking about the Franco's Misfits. They're ranked sixth on my list currently. They consist of Brandon Luckett, former games athlete, Logan Collins, former games athlete, Alexis Johnson, former, all the former individual games athletes and Shailen Laurie,

who is not a formal individual games athlete, but has a lot of experience on fairly competitive teams, both in and out of the CrossFit game season. I think that they are, I would say I would consider them like someone said earlier, there's only five relevant teams. I think that's a little bit short-sighted. I would say they're definitely. Which would be four more than last year.

Well, if you're talking about the winner, I suppose. But as you know, I'm far more interested in the competition than just the winner. I like to know about many and more of the teams and people competing because I recognize how difficult it is to get there and how talented. I mean, look, I'm telling you, anyone who's on a team that finishes in the top 10 this year, extremely impressive. It might not have that star power of a Rich Froning that you're referring to,

but there's plenty of talent and plenty of depth in the team division this year, and it's one of the reasons why I made this list. Luckett was the – I mean, I think I had him on the show and he said he he retired i think he was taking over he was an individual athlete and i want to say that maybe he's a doctor or he's in some sort of like medical devices and he's taking over his dad's business but i guess scott frankis is in louisiana and then we got logan collins Collins. Logan was the one that was having issues. He was trying to avoid going to Canada last year, right? Yep.

Winner of the Fibonacci finale in 2017. The only person to finish the work. Wow. And then Alexis Johnson is another games athlete, correct? Mm-hmm. And then I don't know who this is. Shailen Laurie. Shailen Laurie. correct and then i don't know who this is shaylen laurie shaylen laurie she was on the team she was on last year was unable to compete at semifinals or the games or one of their teammates popped for

steroids okay but she's not like from the special olympics or anything she's legit she's legit okay all right uh wad zombie we're not even gonna have to organize the show there's just so much money coming in we just answer questions for an hour and then you're done. Or you answer questions. I collect the money. Wadzombie, welcome to today's episode of Brian correcting Savant's pronunciations. Fair. I probably read that too late. The timing's probably off on that. I probably read that too late. The timing's probably off on that. Brian, you were saying that we were talking about the star power on a team. Looking at these teams, big picture,

is there a team on here that's as likely to win as we would say that the Mayhem team was likely to win when they competed? Is there a, like, hey, don't even watch when uh when they competed is there is there a like hey don't even watch this these guys got it is there a tia to me here i don't think so i think that um a lot of people might feel that way about the proven team obviously i do already have them at the top of the rankings and basically i just think that you know as i have thought since the basically the rogue invitational team division, when they had that tug of war that one year and they were still on OC3 Black, that Taylor and Andrea are the best women,

especially when they're on a team together in the team competition of CrossFit. And when you have the top women, it's a huge advantage. Now, look, the women on the next five or six teams on that list are also incredible. I mean, even down to eight there, Kelly Stone and Mary Kay Dreisselk are phenomenal as individual athletes and great team athletes. But Taylor and Andrea have always found a way to kind of distinguish and separate themselves from the rest. Tola and Tim are more than good enough to compliment that. And so I do think they're the favorites, but I am by no means sleeping on CrossFit Invictus.

That team has one singular goal this year. They have great chemistry across all four of them. I believe all four of them are improving individually and as a team. I won't be surprised if another team is kind of in the mix, but my instinct right now is that those two teams will pull away towards the end of the weekend and be within 30 points of each other for the overall title um tyler watkins from fantasy uh fitness league no launcher from launcher leaderboarding um shaylen won the crash crash crucible this past year.

She's very legit. Uh, he's referring to Shaylin who we were just talking about on, uh, CrossFit Franco's team and the crash crucible is, uh, um, Jr.

Howell will be on the show tonight. That's Jr. Howell's competition. So she is legit. All right. All right. Uh, I, I, I'm pulling for Invictus. I, it's maybe it's cause I had whore, So she is legit.

I'm pulling for Invictus. Maybe it's because I had Jorge and Devin on the show, and I really like them. And obviously I've seen Devin around the CrossFit community since. You haven't had Alchama on the show yet? No, that's a mistake. Probably a mistake that I haven't had all of them on the show. Yeah, you should get them all. Who'd you say you had on? I had Jorge and Devin. I've had Tim i had a jorge and devon i've had

tim paulson on and taylor and andrea too and i have to say i really enjoyed all of them too but maybe it's just um because of how recent i had jorge and devon on yeah i mean i think is a is a is a good story fun fun personality I think he'd really like a conversation with him. Yeah. You seem disappointed. I'm going to, I'm going to DM him immediately when the show's over. How close is this going to be? If Invictus wins, you're not surprised. I just said, I thought it would be within 30 points by the end of the competition between those two teams.

And so you wouldn't, but so you wouldn't be surprised at all. No. Taylor and Andrea will dominate. Yeah, I mean, look, when we say the Mayhem Freedom team is not coming back, well, half of it is. They were the women on that team the last two years. We know, obviously, how good Rich is and what he's done, but Andrea and Taylor have been on teams that have beaten Rich's teams before,

not at the games, but, you know, they're legit. And so I do think that I give them the nod, but I don't think that it's a runaway by any means. CrossFit Riverside, 1999 for some beer. Thank you. Victor M 93, Brian friend. What is your reasoning behind putting new unknown teams ahead of reoccurring teams that are going for their second or third games appearance? Um, varied. It depends on the team, you know, and I,

and I acknowledge this is really, really difficult to do. I would say that probably if someone's looking at this first blush there, they might be surprised to see that I have a team from Oceania ahead of the team that's finished second place at the games the last two years in terms of CrossFit Oslo Navy blue. And I totally understand that. And part of the reason why I would do something like that is to say like, Hey, don't sleep on this team. I think Royce Dunn is,

is a extremely underrated team athlete in particular. We know that individually he has had what it takes to get to the games in the past. He's had some incredible performance there individually. I think that there are aspects of leading a team in a CrossFit competition that he embodies that you can't necessarily teach just from this balance between aggression and calm, experience that he has, leadership that he has, and he handles the front part of the worm as well as any male in the field. And that is critical to, oh yeah, this guy's addressing that right there. And that is critical when you come to team competition because the worm will have a factor. I want to get to Arnaud L's question at some point about crossfit gen us also but we can hold on that one till later

where would you see where do you see that at brian why not putting crossfit gen us in the top 10 um so we'll hold on that one but okay you know i don't want to i don't want to like this guy is accusing me of being disrespectful towards Oslo Navy Blue, and I don't think that's the case at all. I am totally acknowledging CrossFit Oslo Blue as being extremely relevant and in contention. I think that they're, you know, they're more in contention for third, fourth, than for first, second, for the reasons I just spoke about with Proven and with Invictus. But I think people are drastically underestimating that Torian Mayhem team

if they don't think that they can podium. You may not – I mean, Brandon Swan, tons of – I think experience just goes a long way. Brandon Swan has a ton of experience, and he's totally content playing kind of second fiddle in terms of men to Roy Stunt. Christy Hollard used to be Christy Bishop and Marnie Sykes. These are women that you would know more about if Oceana had maintained five game spots instead of three

over the last couple of years in a much more relevant way than you do now. Marnie was competing on a team last year and has a lot of experience. Christy has competed on teams before. So I think this team has a lot to offer and is a legitimate podium threat. It's possible they finish fourth fifth whatever but i don't want people to think that there isn't a team from oceana that's uh you know as good as some of these other teams that they know oslo has a dude with gray hair on the team ivan he's such a good guy such a funny funny guy too. It doesn't make up for his great, the great, who day look at who day hanging out.

Yeah. This, I would say is, is a team that like, I feel that they should be very good. They've done very well in the competitions already this year. Looking forward to seeing them in the semifinal and look like the one thing that kind of sticks out to me here,

which some teams can overcome this. And in some cases, Oh, can I guess what it is can i guess what it is the height discrepancy it's big it's really big um now you're concerned about like the worm or some shit or like cycling uh toes to bar if they have to do that side by side or some shit like that yeah the range of motion for wall balls gymnastics like chest to bars toes to bars big sets, just syncing that up. Worm movements, if you have to hold the worm while someone else is doing something else. There's some elements of, and that's why I think Andrea and Taylor have been, one of the reasons that they've been really successful with anywhere they go

is because they just have that, they're a little bit taller on average than most of the women. they just have that uh they're they're a little bit taller on average than most of the women julian krag mosh fits is the um the guy that's super tall on that team he has some team experience for sure he's incredibly fit um but when you have a guy on your team that's really really tall and a woman that's not sometimes it can be a little bit problematic any particular circumstance that you can think of where you're just like holy shit like is there a standout moment that's like a game's moment where it's like hey that's just not working uh i don't know off the top of my head a specific moment that you know from a workout or whatever but anytime you have to put the worm overhead

in particular i think that can become a challenge. This right here, CrossFit Move Fast Lift Heavy, this doesn't have the guy on it. This is their second team. Their first team is in 11th place on these rankings. What's the guy's name? Christian Harris. Christian Harris, that's right. Where did you rank his first team? 11th.

Ah, okay. All right. Wow, I can't believe you go all the way down to 40 with this. This is intense. Wow, Africa even has a team on here. 36, that's bold. Yeah, I mean, they are definitely going to make the games, barring injury.

They're the runaway favorites in Africa, for sure. And they are pretty good. I mean, they didn't choose, none of them, they made a commitment to team this year. So they didn't want to even try for the individual. I think that everyone or at least three of the four on their team easily makes it in the individual. Michelle Moran is on that team.

She was the representative at the games last year. So, you know, they're going to be at the games. So I felt like I had to put them on this list just so that people are aware of them. They're representing mayhem. They've been focused on this. You know, I've, I have some friends in Africa who sometimes send me some clips of their training and whatever. So yeah, I just, I tried to put at least the top team from every part of the world on here.

Um, uh, Daniel Garrity, uh, has CJ Martin ever been on the show? No, that's a huge mistake on my part. Good morning, Barry McCockner. Halpin, always good to see you. Jedediah, always great to see you. Good morning, Jamie Latimer. Great to see you too. And we are here looking at the first –

I'm going to say it's the first ever. Maybe Brian disagrees. But it's the first ever power rankings for teams. but it's the first ever uh power rankings for teams this uh brian this will be a list that's the most difficult to keep uh accurate correct uh just just uh people getting injured so many there's just too many variables to any people leaving teams people coming to teams teams dissolving all the stuff um i mean yeah yes and no i mean obviously there's you know four times as many athletes on every team and all these other things but uh no i mean when something happens generally find out about it and just make adjustments to the either the roster or you

know actually yesterday i found out as many people did that uh two teams are not of the same composition that we thought they were going to be. And so we made some changes just last night based on the information that we'd heard. Fair enough. I can't find the link. Oh, darn it.

Unfortunately. Hold on one second. Maybe it's over here. What I'm about to bring up I do feel is a CrossFit gym owner charged with molestation. Nope, not that one. I feel like this is a little bit below you to bring this up. What the fuck? I can't find it.

There's a guy named Zach George who I had on the show who's out of the UK. What do you mean you can't find it? I can't find this link. There's a link. Some girl posted a link. I have this, but I feel like some – Zach George was on a team, and now he says, what a journey I've been on from being a very overweight and self-conscious kid to being a CrossFit Games athlete to now being on Gladiator. This is some show from like the 80s.

This is some show. There he is. Cool dude. This is some show from the 80s in the United States. I don't think they have this in the U.S. anymore. But anyway, there was – someone sent me a link to a lady on his team i get so i guess the story is this do you know the story are you following the story go on there's some lady who is on his team he's on a team of four from the uk and i guess three days ago i guess the

semifinals is coming up right and i guess a couple days ago zach george is like yo um i'm not doing the semifinals. I'm doing a TV show called Gladiator. And they're on the team together, and she blasted him. Can anyone send me that link? What's her name? Well, the girls on the team are Nicole Crouch and Janie Garrett. Let me see if I can find this Nicole thing.

Do you know which one made the post? No. That's not going to help. What do you think about that? It's possible that Peter, Coffee Pods, and WAD sent it to you. That's what he's saying here, and I think Will also posted it in the comments.

Let me see. Is this below you to talk about this type of uh no i mean okay this it yeah i found out about yeah here it is i don't like that i don't like her publicly attacking him i don't care really what he did let's see what she said uh what we do in life echoes in eternity god i hope what i did last night before i went to bed echoes in eternity but thanks for keeping this a secret until three days ago. So she's pissed.

A little passive aggressive, right? Even bigger, thanks for ruining our 2023 season of playing the victim, giving away her power. I guess I'll just sit back and watch Gladiators instead then. It's like, and then Hiller calls Zach George a wanker. I'm not sure what that means, but I think it's English for penis, penis head. Do you have any thoughts on this? I mean, the guy has an opportunity.

I guess I just don't think – was this team even going to make it to the games? I think so, yeah. I mean, they had – it was a pretty strong team. You know, the U.K. has a very strong community there when it comes to CrossFit. Obviously, they've, you know. When you say strong, you mean close, tight knit? Yeah, they support their athletes. Like, even if they're not the best in the world, they support them to the extreme.

Like, they get behind them for sure. They have a very, very supportive community. I think, you know, Zach has been a beneficiary of that for sure. Some of the accomplishments he's had both on and off the competition floor. I mean, you're not wrong. It's a great opportunity that yesterday when I heard about this, I had originally heard that he had made this decision, but they'd continue to compete because they had an alternate, which is why the alternates are in place in case something happens. However, when I went and looked on the game site in their open roster, they have an alternate

listed for male, not for female, but on their competition team roster, they do not. And then this is where it's just hearsay. Why is that? Why didn't they listed that guy guy on their competition team roster? Because then their team could have continued to compete, and even though it would have been a similar situation to CrossFit Nordic last year where their alternate is not as good as their main player, they still can show up and compete.

And that CrossFit Nordic team, I think with the backup last year, still did great and maybe exceeded expectations with him filling in so late. But that wasn't the case. I'm not sure why it wasn't listed as an alternate. And, I mean, yeah, it's certainly a bummer for the rest of them because they were in this together, the four of them, and then one person backed out. What do you think? I mean, she doesn't feel good that she wrote this, right? Like she posted this and now she's like, oh, this is she posted this.

I mean, people make these, you know, do this all 19 hours ago. Why did she needs to pull this down? Right. This isn't. I mean, I totally understand how she's feeling. You know, he's citing he's saying, you know, this is an opportunity I may only get one time. I have to think about my family when I make decisions like this. Obviously, there's going to be a financial compensation for being on this show. I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision for him. Some people will call it a selfish decision. It's a tough spot to be in. I think that it's really unfortunate that they

didn't choose to have that alternate listed on their competition roster because it does dampen the blow a little bit. Yeah, but now those other three people on the team, they are left high and dry this season. And I can certainly understand feeling bitter or resentful because of that. I hear you. My thing is get over it and get good enough to be an individual and shut the fuck up uh i i i don't um i don't think this makes her look any better i don't think this will bring her any peace of mind uh i appreciate your balanced uh objective look to it um but uh taking a guy out and uh publicly flogging him is like,

just call him up yourself or, or, I don't know, unless that's her job. I don't know. I don't know the nature of her account. Like if she, if that's her job,

if she publicly flogs people anyway, like that's her, her shtick. I get it. But like, here, here, what's it say about you also as a team player to do that?

You know what i mean take the fucking high road i i just i i it was she could have just said she could have just said uh hey this sucks zach is going to tv and let other people make the assessment right um yeah but the things that she said other people are gonna say anyway yeah no it's a it's a really like every person probably feels this. Like before I write something like that or before I post something like that, let me sleep on it and come back the next day. But there's always – I've certainly done it myself. I've posted something and then even a few hours later, I've been like, fuck.

Even though I feel that way or that might be true or whatever, did I really need to put that out there publicly? Something happened last year too. Do you know what happened last year to her uh to her or someone else will chime in what do you think about this i i i agree with this too um oh her teammate tested positive last year this guy harris has a good point maybe he's juiced up and he doesn't want to fail the drug test and so he's uh before you take the four-year ban i don't blame him for that either i ain't if i'm juiced up to the gills i'm not taking no fucking drug test i'm like i think i know i'm finding a way out i do think i know which team she was on last year that uh kind of the leader of that team too and the leader of that training program failed the drug test last year so that's two years in a row i mean

this has happened to a couple other people i think it it actually may have happened to Shailen Laurie, where she's been a kind of a, I know you hate the word, but a victim of circumstances that were out of her control back to back years. And it's, that's really tough, but you know, this is unusual, but it is kind of the risk that you take when you go team, there's a lot more opportunity. There's four times as many likelihood that someone gets injured, sick, unable to compete for whatever reason reason so maybe she's done being mad and she'll ask you guys how to be perfect like you you don't have to be perfect you just don't have to uh show people your flaws all the time hide some of them just hide some of them no one no one's perfect but i appreciate you recognizing that in us that's uh that means i'm doing my job, tricking you guys.

Okay, so would they – a top 10 team, would they have been a top 10 finisher at the games? I don't think so. Because Zach can't qualify – this guy can't qualify as an individual to the games, right? He's tried. He can't do it. Yeah.

So it's not – he's a superstar on his own right. He has a lot of Instagram followers, but they're not a world-class team. No. Top eight in Europe, top 20 at the games, the best-case scenario. And if they just took the best teams to go to the games, that team wouldn't even go if they didn't do it by region, right? They don't make the top 40 best teams alive right now. French, French.

Okay. Anyway, I like you, Zach. In response to, I also, Janie, I'm sorry. That sucks, too, for you. I'm sure you're pretty fired up. But in the end, like Phillip said, if you want to be perfect like me, just know that throwing a temper tantrum online. Isn't always the,

uh, the best way you won't feel you. You'll, you'll attract people like Andrew Hiller and, uh, you know, I think killer makes a video on this. I don't know.

Do you want to say congratulations to Zach for getting on TV for a glass show from the eighties? I mean, absent of, uh, of anything else, that's a pretty cool experience. Look, CK Kevin, she said she'd watch him on Gladiators. Fair enough. And then someone else said Zach handled it poorly. Yeah, they're fine. OK, yeah, I didn't mean to even fall into this. But the story doesn't really interest me so much. But I think it is probably one of the most exciting things happening with team.

Brian, how many events will they do? How many events will the teams do at semifinals, and how many will they do at the games, and is it commensurate to individual? Semifinals, I mean, they have three three days of competition i would expect a minimum of two per day i'm always hopeful for seven to eight instead of six to seven but i would bet on six or seven uh scored events and at the games they won't do as many as individuals it's usually more in the 10 to 12 range than the 12 to 15.

Okay. Sometimes they have, sometimes there are weird things at the games though. Like in 2016, I think it was they like every person on the six person team had an individual event and they all counted as an event. So those like six events. So it looked like they had a ton of, of scored events,

but it was really just, so sometimes there's some nuances like that. Basically, it's going to be 10-12. Will Brandstetter, this is the best story in teams since its existence, and it's a 2-10. I appreciate the comment, but when Miranda

Alcarez got hurt and they still wanted to put her on the floor, that was a pretty big story. 2015. Yeah, because Jason's team would have beat Rich's team that year, right? Yeah. If Miranda wouldn't have gotten injured. I think they would have run away with it. They were really good.

Yeah. What do you think about this? This is a great question. A little off subject, but I love the question. CrossFit should do an actual affiliate cup separate from the games. You talked about there being, I mean, there's 10,000 or 8,000 affiliates. Yeah, I think there is a lot of cool opportunity there. Was on Talking Elite Fitness the other day,

and we were talking about the CAP program as being somewhat new and also something that's now available to affiliates as part of their membership. They don't have to pay for it separately as part of your affiliate fee every year. You have access to the CAP programming if you want. And even if you don't want to use it in your gym for the programming, there are certain, like, there's a lot of thought that's put into that. Hobart and his team explains warm-up, explains the progression of a workout, scaling options, the intent behind it, and how to communicate that. And you could study that and become a better coach, even if you never use it in your gym. I also have always thought that there could be this thing where, you know, there's some kind of competition where as an affiliate, you automatically get one

entry into the opening stage of the team division. So instead of having, because Tyler Watkins has done studies on this, how many affiliates exist in every state or country and how many of them have a team that's represented in the open. And it's a really low percentage, but if it was like, Oh, as whatever CrossFit affiliate you are, you get one entry for your affiliate team in to the open. That's part of your $3,000 or whatever they pay annually. Then probably everyone's going to do it, you know, and have one team that signs up. And you could from there, there's tons of different things that you could talk about in terms of having an affiliate specific competition. But I don't know,

it seems like it could be a fun idea to get some more to get affiliates just like having more, you know, they can choose the best people from their gym, have a team, even if they're not competitive. It's a fun thing that your community can rally around. There's this talk always, right? That the, the, that there's kind of this Venn diagram, right? This you have the community and the affiliates, and then you have the CrossFit games, and then maybe you have a, I don't know, some training or whatever, but there needs to be certain continuity between all of the departments or corners or pillars of, of what is CrossFit HQ, what is the CrossFit movement. And the affiliate cup seems like a slam dunk to glorify – a way to glorify the affiliates.

But then there will be people just complaining that more – like us, complaining that more affiliates didn't get in for the competition, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You could also just do it on supply and demand. Just run it the capitalistic way, right? Well, there's a gray area. It's like – and we just saw this last year. What qualifies someone as a member of an affiliate? And that's always been the problem. Now, I think –

I wonder if you get less douchebags trying to skirt that line, that blur that line, if you have both Affiliate Cup and this. Right. I'll just throw this idea out there again. I've mentioned it to you and in a few other platforms at different occasions that there could be an option at the start of the season to register for the Open as a professional or an amateur. And you could do it in the team division too. And therefore, no matter if there's someone who is a fringe,

it's not really clear if they're a part of my team or not. That only applies to the professional division. And there are standards and rules, whatever they are, year to year. Hopefully that becomes more consistent year to year. And everyone knows what it is and it's predictable. But that every team, every affiliate gets an entry into the amateur division. And it's really unlikely that you're going to enter a team into the amateur division that has someone who's like, I don't know if they're really a member of my affiliate or not. They're a pro in the sport and whatever else. Like those people are going to sign up as a pro, whether it's individually or as a part of a

team. Me likey likey. I mean, it's, it's an idea. It would obviously would have to be, have a conversation with people who maybe know more about the administration of the game season than me, but I think it's at least a starting point for a conversation because this concept of having a true affiliate cup comes up all the time.

Anytime we talk about the team division, there are a number of people that are like, what if we could get back to the true affiliate cup? But doing it's not necessarily as black and white as you might think, doesn't mean there's not a way forward. And I think that that's a good starting point for a conversation. Philip Kelly, you should get that chick on the show to listen to her fry, Zach George.

I'd rather have Zach George on and him come on and tell you that the only reason why he took the gladiator show is because he needs money to pay for his mom's cancer meds. And then the rest of you motherfuckers just shut the fuck up after you hear that story. How about that? Because that's the truth for those of you don't know that's why zach george went to the gladiators i wasn't supposed to reveal that he's desperate for the money and he's whoring out that beautiful body of his on a fucking shitty tv show called gladiators so he can raise some fucking coin to pay for his fucking mom's medical meds i don't know i used to play gladiator in the basement with my brother and our friends you know it's totally different that's not the same gladiator totally different gladiator it's it's not are you guys wearing leather chaps probably just shorts and no shirt and whacking each other with pool noodles but

inspired by the tv show uh the story doesn't really to be honest with you i like that i'm happy i think we actually did it in the pool we would stand up on like mats that you know when we would lay on the sunbathe with the pool noodle and try to whack the other person off we'd clip that clip that's another one uh i'm i'm happy for that girl she's's very passionate, obviously, about the teams. I'm very happy for her that she's experiencing passion and a reason for life, even if it's expressed in anger, and I'm very happy for Zach George. I'm happy for both of them, that they're both getting to feel the taste and passion that some people just don't have in their life.

Elizabeth, are you making that up, Seve? Yeah, 100% I made it up. The thing about Zach George going there for the money for his mom. Yeah. My point is that no one knows. So, like, I don't give a fuck. The whole time I look at Zach George, I just think, wow, I wonder if my skin is softer than his.

That's all I'm thinking. I wonder what it's like to feel his traps. Like, I don't actually give a fuck about any of the other stuff. But just an excuse to put a beautiful man on the screen i don't care about teams either that's why brian's on here just an excuse to have a beautiful hairy man on the screen with alongside okay um what what are we missing here uh what can you help me um with some uh pertinent questions let me see what i have uh how many go to the games? Oh, okay. I have a good question for you that I know you're going to like.

Here we go. Brian, the allocation of teams from the regions, are you happy with how it's done? I know that there's two things. There's that strength of field number that allows CrossFit to figure out how many people go as individuals. Does that play a role here with teams? How do they figure out how many teams go from each region and are you happy with the distribution um well first of all I you know I have had a sentiment

when I some from when I first found out about the strength of field and worldwide rankings that it should start anew and it should be communicated how the process will work and that athletes can sign up for and participate in the season in accordance with their understanding of the significance of what their performances can mean. Because we didn't know that the last couple of years, and we're using that now to determine how the spots get distributed. I thought, and by the way,

tomorrow night, Mike Alpin and I will be on here and we're going to go through our solution to doing exactly that. And I think it's fairly compelling. And does it cross over to team competition or is it strictly for individual? No, I actually thought that if you didn't want to do that, you could have used the team competition as a test pool for how that might look because, and even if you didn't execute it in the season you could be applying it in the background because the team competition as we said earlier more so than the individual has turnover year to year and it would be even more ridiculous to base this year's distribution of game spots for the teams based on what happened last year or the year before.

And it would be very cumbersome and difficult to apply their models from last year into this season. But because the team landscape changes so much year to year, I think that absolutely there's an opportunity for this. And I think that kind of the solution that we're going to show you tomorrow for the individuals could easily be applied to the team side of things. You could still maintain a minimum of one per continent if you want to, or there's a couple other ways you could go about it, as we'll show you tomorrow night. Because, yeah, I mean, I have 18 teams from North America used to my top 40.

But in quarterfinals, I think 17 of those teams were in the top 30 worldwide. So there's a huge, you know, density of very, very high level teams in one competitive region. And it's dramatically more than the other two regions, Europe and North America West, that are getting the same number of spots represented at the games. Meaning that probably the last four teams from north america west and the last three teams from europe are not not nearly as good as the first seven or eight teams that will miss in north america east and does that bother you do you have a great do you think you have a more acceptance i know you're pretty you really

want the best people coming to the crossfit Games, an individual, and you're making a small exception to get at least one person from each region just based on region, but the rest you think should be the best. Is that a fair characterization of your beliefs? Yeah. Do you have the same thoughts like that with teams, the same rigorous line, demarcation line? Or with teams, are you willing to maybe let in a little bit more to get a broader global representation based on geography rather than quality of team just look at you know the people in the comments we don't want so many teams at the games why don't you want so many teams at the games because the bottom 15 teams at the games are not good enough to be there basically but there

are teams around the world that are potentially good enough to be there and be competitive and have an impact on the overall title race. You know, in the same way that I think about the 11 through 20 spots of the 35 to 39 men, there are men in that region of the leaderboard that would have impact the overall results on the podium, even if they're not themselves placing there. not themselves placing there. They're good enough to have an impact on individual events that would alter the scoring that would create a little bit of buffer so that if a rich or a Scott or a sand dancer or Brian Wong struggles on something that they're punished a little bit more heavily for it because the field is a little bit deeper. And in the team division, that is certainly the case as well, where right now there's a dozen teams at the games that you'll be lucky if for even a single event they place inside the top 20. So they're having absolutely no impact on those competitive teams at the top.

And at the expense of that, you have teams that are not at the games that could have specific events where they factor in. Fair. Very well said. Corey Leonard, your skin is not softer than Zach George. I suspect you're right, but there's no proof of that. I take offense to Pool Boy. I take offense to Brian's improper use of the pool. Pool noodle? Pool?

I think what he meant to say, I take offense to Brian's improper use of the word oriental is what he meant, but he couldn't spell oriental. Oh, here it is, Pool Noodle. One of the best things about pools and pool boy is that they're, you know, extremely diverse. There's, you can get a lot of different uses out of them. Uh, you know, uh, did you address, I'm looking at this, this stat right here, a giraffe, a giraffe skin is only 20 millimeters in thickness, whereas a manatee, have you ever seen a manatee?

Certain pictures of it. I think I've even seen them in real life yeah yeah i saw one in real life once in florida did you see in florida i mean i lived in florida for a year it's just like a swimming boulder just like when you see one in the water you're like oh look a rock with fins anyway its skin is 50 millimeters thick almost three times the thickness of a giraffe i wonder if a giraffe is soft when you pet it or if that if it's fur is coarse anyway a long hair draft you know what would be the greatest uh this is a little off subject you know it would be the greatest uh invention in the history of man you know it would sell faster than anything if someone could come up with a miniature giraffe like a draft

that only got like three feet tall or four feet tall. Do you know how like every rich person in America would have one? Don't you think? Like if you could have a, like they have a miniature pony. What if you had a minute? Like, wouldn't you want that?

A miniature giraffe? You believe it or not in my preparation for the show, I didn't think about that. Oh, all right. Fine. Um, uh, Jedediah Snelson, guest on the show, as opposed to Brian, who is closer to a co-host, and Jedediah Snelson is definitely closer to a guest.

They need to spend more time creating storylines for teams so they're more compelling. You could do some reality tv show style coverage on youtube highlighting several teams at all levels hey who are there any um media outlets that do good i mean now that um mayhem's not doing i mean that's what that was uh mayhem not only had rich froning but they had the best media of any person or team period right i. I mean, the coverage of the mayhem team was, it was the best coverage of any CrossFit, uh, competitors anywhere, regardless. Right. Yeah. I mean, I think there, yeah, I do think that there are certain, I guess, training camps that will, that will definitely have media out there about their, their teams. I don't know about, uh, you know about a more bipartisan or neutral site that's

putting out really high quality media that's evaluating several different competitive teams from around the world against each other. But Invictus will have three teams at semifinals, and all three teams will have a chance to make the games. They're all three on my top 40 list here. Like I mentioned earlier, CrossFit Oslo, I think has six teams going to the European semifinal. Certainly they'll be putting out content, not just surrounding their top teams, but also the depth of the number of teams they have there. And even teams like Training Think Tank.

They have a very good team. I have them ranked in the top 20. I might have them ranked a little low. Actually, they usually outperform kind of what you expect them to do. And I'm sure that they'll put out some media about their team. So, you know, if you're

paying attention, you'll see some stuff for sure. But again, is it on the channel that's just exclusively about that team that's really only appealing to their audience, their community that's supporting them? Or is it something that's a little bit more, like I said, objective or coming from a, you know, a media outlet, like a spin or talking about fitness or morning chalk up or whatever, that's showing the landscape of the team division in a more broad sense. Uh, if, if I were to, um, if I, if I were over at proven and I was doing their media and I was going to focus on the team, I would focus on the coach. If Shane or Tia is coaching that team, I would make the coach like 50% of it.

I think I would pivot over to this, probably taking the lead there as Shane and Tia work more closely with probably Saxon and Brooke. Yeah. I think Shane can bring a lot of star power that's untapped, but you, we have to really get into his head. Same with Max Elhaj. I think that their unexploited media potential, they could bring a shitload to wherever. But the media team is going to have to work closely with them. Mike, Poolboy, Jorge Fernandez is so handsome.

I apologize for this, Mike, but yesterday I was suggesting that you and Victoria Campos make a child. Dude, if Jorge and Victoria made a child, holy shit. Brian, who is the best male athlete in teams this year? Who's the guy?

Like if we were like, okay, we're taking all these people and we're doing an individual competition, who's the man? You probably have to say Tim Paulson. I mean, he's had the best success at the individuals uh side of things recently and consistently but roy stuns in the conversation andre who days in the conversation we don't i mean peripherally maybe jorge um just looking to see if there's anyone else for the dining probably

those guys i would probably those would probably be the top three or four guys and and what about women who who is who is the the fittest female if we had to be like okay teams are over we're going to get to give one or two of you over to individual probably andrea nistler i'm just trying to see i think an individual competition you know alexis johnson do well kelly stone do well Caroline Spencer two-time games athlete the last two years um Chloe Goffin-DeVeid there's some you know there's some good ones for sure Mia Hesketh but I still probably would lean towards Andrea who will coach the Mayhem team when they're out um when they're who will be their guy who will they can Rich do both how

will that be set up at uh semi how will that be set up at the games can you do the masters just go in their own if let's say well i made the assumption that rich is going to compete yeah he'll be he will be he would be done competing the same day that the team competition starts i believe or maybe the day before so there'll be very little to no overlap. So in theory, he could do both. And you think we would see him out there riding Angelo's jock, beating on with the crack and the whip on Angelo? Rich and Angelo have a really cool relationship. And I think that, you know, Angelo respects Rich tremendously and Rich trusts Angelo a lot. And so I think that, yeah, if Rich was their coach at the games, that that would be understandable.

Historically, Facundo has had the wristband for the top CrossFit Mayhem team, so he might do that again, even though it's not the same team. I'm not entirely sure. Facundo may choose to have the coach's band for one of the individual athletes. They have some options. Mike Halpin, I believe this is inaccurate. I hate to butt heads with the numbers guy. Rich has said on his podcast he is not doing Masters.

I believe he said it is 99.7% that he's not doing the Masters, if I'm correct. And, yeah, what do you think? Oh, and the reason why, let's put that in there, is because a few days after the games, there is a mountain bike race. I think it's called the Leadville 100 or something like that. And Rich believes, for some crazy reason, that's a good idea to do that. like that and rich believe uh believes for some crazy reason that's a good idea to do that and he and in addition to that that maybe he won't be in his you know he won't be as prepared

for that as he would want to be if he did the games but you know there's stories going way back of uh you know rich competing and winning the crossfit games and then everyone else taking these days off and the next day what does rich do goes out and trains. Like this is a guy that just trains every day of his life no matter what. Richie Rich, I'm not sure why, but I just don't like who day. Kind of just hate his face. Wow, I really like who day's face. I like him. He's a gentle soul, isn't he?

Yeah, Andre today. I got nothing bad to say about him. Yeah, he's cool. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, I can't even get on that to say about him. Yeah, he's cool. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, I can't even get on that even a tiny bit. Love the dude. Always been accommodating to the show. That's all I give a fuck about.

Halpin, I think JR Howell of CrossFit Crash Gray is the top individual athlete. Is JR really going to team? No, that's just bullshit. Rumors. Yeah. Justin H.r's coaching a team yeah his team's on this uh he has two teams going but this his team is uh one of this top team is number 38 on this list no shit oh how much home cooking is there? CrossFit, a crash black. Wow. They're legit.

I don't recognize any of the names. That's okay. So you think JR will actually be in, if this team makes it, he won't be available? Do you recognize any of the names on any of the teams on that part of the leaderboard? Let me see. Well, let me ask you this real quick, and then I'll do that. Do you think that he's not going to be available for the show during the games for commentary because he's going

to be at the games coaching a team yeah certainly there will be times that he's not i don't know how often and how for how long you're trying to go live but i think all the time every time all the time whenever i want right whenever you want but you know But maybe Greg comes in town and it doesn't happen at all. Right, good point. Oh, wow, you know me well. Coffee pods and wads, Rich is joining American Gladiators. You heard it here first. I do not recognize a single name.

Is that number 33, CrossFit? Is that Anna Tobias right there she just typo no um do you recognize any of these people yeah you do yeah i mean pretty much all of them at least i would say at least three out of four oh i know this girl lauren stalwood is that that that's the super hot chick from Invictus. I definitely know her. She lives in the UAE for a long time. Hey, who's the other girl she's always hanging with who's the Asian girl?

Is this Kelsey Schultz? No. I think you're thinking of Emily Lugman. She's on their second team, which is 18th on this list, along with Jesse Smith. My Instagram search is like always has one of them in it always the the algorithm has cracked the code it's crazy don't don't act like it's not in your search either brian don't don't fucking get all fucking puffy chested on me all high and mighty uh anything anything in here that um you think needs to be highlighted anything oh look at this guy this dex hopkins guy this is a morning chalk up uh guy number 22

cross it move fast lift heavy yeah we already talked about him at one point okay now i did want to talk about the 21st team on the list and someone in the comments had asked about him cross it genus yep um they were third place at the games two years ago with a different slightly different roster than this last year i think three out of the four athletes from the 2021 team had different things going on that prevented them from competing this team could be a lot better than 21st they could pretend i don't i don't even think it's out of the realm of possibility for them to potentially be fifth or eighth or something like that, but at the games, at the games, but I want to see them compete in person because it's a little bit different makeup, uh, than they've had in the past. Um,

I'd be basically looking for them to, if they podium in the, the European, uh, semifinal, I will jump them up at least 10 and possibly as many as, uh, you know, 12 to 14 spots on this list and to inside the top 10. I just Googled one of the guy's names. He didn't even pop up. What, uh,

what about them? What have you seen from these guys that makes you think that they're the shit? I mean, I know, I know each of them individually and they're good. Like they're really good. Uh,

I just want to see them as a team, how they move with the worm, how they do things in sync, how they respond in a, you know, fast paced workout where something goes a little bit wrong, small things like that, that I'll be looking forward to see just how good they can be against the

best teams in the world. Any of them, former individual athletes, I believe Carol Castellani, I think in 2019, let's check. I believe Carol Castellani, I think in 2019. Let's check. Well, Branstetter, Rich leaves us for a bike race,

and you guys are mad at Zach for going on a TV show. Oh, very strong point. Yeah, 33rd in the 2019 games, Carol Castellani. Okay. From which country? France. Okay okay it's a friend there's a french team uh brian shut that that down quick i can't remember what that was but uh yes that seems to be that happens now and again on the show uh oh my goodness uh oh when's the drug testing go down for the teams is it is it is it kind of

guaranteed that we're gonna see one of these teams pop there's just so many fucking athletes yeah no i mean it last year there were a few yeah they get drug tested after the semifinals the top five i think they'll probably drug test six seven eight or something like that just in case of backfill so that they have um you know, in case they have to do that for whatever reason that they have those samples as well. And then occasionally they'll just do, you know, quote unquote, random testing from somewhere else on the leaderboard. So, yeah, certainly if you're competing on a team and you're going to semifinals, the possibility of getting tested exists. finals the possibility of getting tested exists uh the so these teams to go back one more time these teams will all be showing up to their regions and from there they qualify and i know we talked about this in the beginning but is it um I don't know if the word's commensurate,

but is it the same amount of teams go from each region as individuals? Close, but there's no variable based on the strength of field and the haunt distribution method. So 10, 10, and 10, North America, East, West, and Europe. That gets you 30 of the 38 teams at the games. that gets you 30 of the 38 teams at the games three from Oceania two from South America two from Asia, one from Africa that should get you to 38

35-8, that does and how many will go to each semi-final? the ones that get 10, I believe there are 40 teams going, and the other ones I think there are 20 teams going. Okay, wow. So even Africa, does Africa have 20 teams? Let's see how many are signed up for their semifinal right now.

So it's 20, 20, 20, 20, and then 40 40 40 40 hey so that's um just so if you have 40 teams and there's four people on each team that's 160 and if each of them uh brings uh a mom and a dad to watch them um that's times two that's 320 that's a lot that's that's bringing those people are actually going to bring people to the regionals the semi-final look south africa has a south africa has a uh very um active competition scene they're 19 of 19 teams are signed up for their semi-final team semi-final right now which is crazy right yeah but there was i think in the fittest in cape town a couple years ago while you know people like cole Sager and Sean Sweeney and Katrin Davidsdottir went and competed there.

I think in the team division at the same competition, there were like 88 teams competing. They might not be as competitive as some other parts of the world, but they certainly show up in numbers like other parts of the world do when it comes especially to team competitions.

How solidified are these people, the names that we're seeing on this team? Is it too late to swap people out? Most of these teams won't swap anyone out. The names you see here are the intended members of their team. Obviously, if there's an injury between semis and the games, it's great to have an alternate just in case and in some cases i think probably the most prolific example of this is like the koleshnikov team the russian team that's now living in in abu dhabi and or somewhere in the uae and competing still in asia but but living in compete training somewhere else i think that

they have a roster of six and they very much much view it as this is a team of six, and when it comes game time, we'll make the decision then. So they're all training. They might think that they know who the top four are, but the others are in the mix and can still earn a spot on that final roster. I think that's how they kind of operate, which is a little bit different and kind of cool. Hey, so you can go to the semifinals, qualify for the games,

and then still swap someone out if they're in the six. I like this. You don't even have to have a reason. It doesn't have to be injury. Correct. Wow, crazy. So, wow. God, I would be curious to hear what Andrew would say about that.

Get a team, get it to qualify, keep someone juiced up, God, I would be curious to hear what Andrew would say about that. Get a team, get it to qualify, keep someone juiced up, but they don't have to get tested at semifinals, and then rotate them in for the games. Maybe that's too fucking complex. Okay, so you're telling me those four people on that Kalashnikov team, they go to semifinals, they qualify, and then for no reason they can just switch out a dude or a girl.

Yeah. As long as they're on the list of the six. Correct. I think that's their intended A team. The ones that we included on this list is who we believe to be the intended A team for every team. Yeah. But in that team in particular, I feel that they have a little different approach to it

than many of the others, where the alternates on the other teams, like they know for sure that they're there, they're on the team, there's a chance, but unless something happens, they're not going to be on the competitive roster. Whereas I think on that team, that there's more of an understanding

that show us every day in training, show us when we're doing this thing and that thing, and you guys that are on the A team, we're evaluating you at the semifinalsinals and if you don't perform up to par your spot could be in jeopardy and i like i said i kind of like that mentality like it's i like it too and and from what i know about them there's not there's not the it doesn't seem like the athletes are insulted when they're not selected but they're still supportive of the people that their coaches have chosen to send out there and i mean that's how it should be in a team sport in general.

Like it's tough. Everyone wants to be in the starting lineup, of course. But if you're not, are you going to sulk on the bench? Are you going to cheer for the teams that was selected to go out there at the critical moment? And by no means, I apologize for having the CrossFit Fly High team, Klyznikov team up there when I was talking about Roids. By no mean do I mean them. I meant anyone.

Let me put someone else up here. I meant anyone. Cornholio. When the kids soccer teams have 15 kids on each of them, that means there are 60 spectators. And we're definitely, this is still a sport. These people competing here are still the people who bring their

mom and dad. Draw your dagger. Brian, would it be cooler if you had a roster of three guys and three girls and you got to pick which man or which female pairing did each workout individually? That would make it more of a team event. Yeah, so I mean this is like

strength in depth in the UK. They have like teams of 12 that compete in their event. I think it's every December. I'm not entirely sure of the format of that, but I've thought about doing this at competitions at the gym that I used to coach at before where you have, you know, a bigger team that will compete in most of the events and you select athletes

to compete in a minimum number of events each over the course of the competition. It would, I mean, certainly it could be a format that would incite a lot of different conversation, you know, then you'd, instead of having like, everyone would have to have six, maybe you have to play everyone a minimum of three times at semifinals over eight events. Now there's a lot more strategy. There's an opportunity. I know people don't love it, but there's an opportunity for some specialists to come out, which as a result of that, you end up seeing maybe greater individual performances, greater weights being lifted in specific things, you know, that people love that.

And it might draw some more eyes and attention. So you like it. I think there's potential. I mean, I think there's potential there. And I think that conversations like that should be being had, you know, if I was across the games team and I was reflecting on the season, I would say, Hey, what, what did we like about this year? What are we not like? Does anyone have any ideas to maybe increase the excitement, whether it's this affiliate idea that we talked about, or it's this team of six with having some selective athletes, you might say, and at some, and two of the eight workouts, all six have to do it, you know, whether it's a relay format or a three and three or all six doing whatever at the same time. So you, there's a lot of variability there. And I think it's a fun conversation.

And I don't see really the harm in having a conversation like that. Hey, Halpin has a good point here. It could also mean that if someone gets injured at the games, the team could continue. You know what? You could just do that in general. You could just allow the teams to have two backups there. But then you'd have to prove – the problem, I guess, is then you have to prove that someone is actually injured and you're not just well you could say that it

has to be a medical withdraw you have a medical team that's on site and if the medical staff deems someone unfit to continue i know i know i don't like it why not because what if someone says that they're they're they're they're um uh they they can't go on because they have the flu and the doctors are like quit being a bitch and then the dude goes in there and dies. And then it's on the medical team. Like, I can't do it. I can't do it. That's a fair point.

I can't do it. But I do like the idea of having more robust teams. Maybe I'm just – I've been accused of overcomplicating shit. So I don't know. Brian, anything else? I'm plumb out of questions. I'm ready to talk about giraffes. No, I'll just say I am excited that in the team competition

there will be uniform workouts across all the semifinals, despite the fact that they take place on different weekends. It'll give us a better indication of just how competitive that North America East team is. Maybe some of those teams just did great online and they won't do as well in person. And maybe there's going to be a ton of European teams that when the worm shows up, when some of the live competition stuff is thrown at them, that they excel. And maybe it wasn't as skewed as we thought. And that will be some good touch points and data points to reevaluate,

whether it's us just having conversations about it or the games team themselves looking back at this year and maybe saying, do we want to do something a little different with the team competition next year based on what we saw last year to maybe have a little bit more accurate representation of where the top teams happen to be this season. Cause that's going to change every year. Especially in the team side of things.

Draw your dagger in baseball. You don't have a 26 man roster with all pitchers. You have guys with different skillsets, Brian, does that offend you that someone would compare the dumbest sport in the history of mankind that attracts the most retarded spectators to our beloved crossfit no comment okay didn't like the question all right well i apologize it was probably a good comment and i took my a biased twist to it since it's my show uh guys uh this evening what's gonna happen this evening are you on this evening show yeah um we're basically going

to predict how many workouts are going to be at semifinals and what they are going to be and then we're also going to try to keep taylor calm jr and taylor myself will come on the show tonight and it's basically a semifinals programming prediction show as usual you'll get you know probably a very analytical perspective from j JR based on what we've seen so far in the open and the quarterfinals, what's kind of missing that they would like to see as a, you know, make sure it's tested before we get to the games. We'll do a little bit of historical referencing.

Generally you see this and this at semifinals. We know that Adrian has a huge hand, if not total control over kind of what that ends up looking like this year. And that he has, you know, pulled some stuff from the past and made it a little bit more relevant than it's been in recent competition years. So are there things that we could expect to see that might not be in alignment with, with history based on the new programming team? And yeah, I mean, of course, with, with those guys on the show and programming being the

topic, it can go in a lot of different directions, but they're pretty good at what they do. They spend a lot of time and are very serious about it. I'll try to be prepared as well to keep up with them and it should just be a fun night. Two things. Draw your dagger. The CrossFit GOAT was a baseball player.

I'm telling Rich what you said. Please don't do that. I take it back. Baseball is great. I love baseball. Please don't do that i i uh i take it back baseball is great i love great uh i love baseball please don't do that please don't tell rich uh richie rich the beauty and the beast uh that's in reference to jr and taylor i really like that the beauty and the beast here's the hello here's the beauty may not be so much beauty tonight what really did what happened jr get

hit by a truck got a black eye oh no shit he's coming on like that he ain't got that shit fixed yet i don't think so oh wow don't give it away don't give it away oh my goodness uh listen uh um when when i first started working for crossfit i brought there was a friend of mine who i brought along everywhere with me and eventually got hired also. His name was Kerry Peterson. And behind my back, Greg and Lauren and others referred to as Sevan and the good-looking guy, or the good-looking guy and Sevan. And I was a young man. I was 34 years old. And it always stung a little bit when I'd hear that. Now, I completely understand and have embraced my... He's still there? I'd hear that now I completely understand and have embraced my, um, he's still there.

No, no, no, no. Um, but, uh, so I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to refer to Taylor. I don't know if Taylor's skin is thick enough to refer to them as beauty and the beast. Maybe he's a pussy like I was, I don't know. I'll try. I mean, Taylor's extraordinarily good looking in his own kind of American history X way. But OK, guys, thank you so much. That was the semifinals or that's the worldwide rankings for for teams. Very, very bold of Brian to take that on. Beauty in the thumb, that's not bad. Very noble of Brian, strong work to take that on. And we will have tons of semifinal coverage for you.

I have not reached out to Grundler yet, but I suspect that it will be myself and Grundler, hopefully, and Hiller and John Young and Taylor and what's his name? Taylor Watkins, Tyler Watkins, how, and those people who don't necessarily, if they don't have direct roles in covering the semifinals,

hopefully we will be covering all three weeks like mad men, like we normally do. And we'll give you tons of, uh, tons of great stuff. We'll also pick Brian off when we can, when he's walking between the, uh, we'll return, return he's walking between the, uh,

we'll return, return the five minutes with friend. Yes, I do. I like that. Whenever Brian gets to take a bathroom break, we'll sneak him on with some interviews using his phone. But,

uh, we are planning to go full steam ahead on semifinals and I, and I'm actually pretty pumped for it. Um, all right. I will tell you guys this evening, Brian, thanks for coming on.

See you this evening. Great week. It's fun seeing you every day and, uh, talk to you guys later. I thought it was fun. Not seeing you. Yeah.