In what started as “just playing around on the Competition Corner leaderboard”, the NOPEN quickly turned into an official competition. Two weeks ago Andrew Hiller created an online competition on Competition Corner to see what administrative options the program had, hit save and walked away from his computer. Little did he know what would happen next.
Within an hour of Hiller hitting save, Competition Corner shared the newly created competition, originally called the NoRep Open, on Instagram. That news quickly spread and what started as a test became an actual online competition.
After a name change to the NOPEN, Hiller began creating the workouts and working with sponsors to provide prizes to the top finishers, but also throughout the leaderboard based on percentile finish.
The NOPEN is a little bit different than most competitions…as one might expect.
To start, there is just one division. Not a men’s division and a women’s division. Just one division where the men and women will compete on the same leaderboard. In speaking with Hiller about the decision to combine the men and women into one division, he said, “I have always wanted workouts to be similar across sex and I’ve never seen it done before.” He added, “It stems from my time spent in the affiliate training with the team and you always wanted to see how you stacked up against everybody. With some things it’s impossible, but it’s part of the fun in trying to figure things out.”
On top of just “One Division to Rule Them All”, there aren’t any scaled options. But in looking at the first two workouts (more on that below), scaling is likely not needed for almost anyone.
And then there’s the video review process. In what’s been a growing call among the community for transparency around the video review process and athletes’ workouts, Hiller chose the option in Competition Corner to require all videos to be made public on the leaderboard.
Not only does this create accountability for the athletes since the videos will be available for all to see, it also allows for crowdsourcing the judging. But Hiller is not relying solely on the public to spot no reps. He has brought on 40 judges for the official video review process.
“I promise 100% certainty that the top 10 on the leaderboard will be the top 10 athletes and I have incentivized the public to help filter out the remainder by requiring video submissions to be public,” Hiller told The Barbell Spin.
This morning, Hiller released the two workouts for Week 1. Called “Dave” and “The Rock”, the workouts feature a repeat from the 2012 CrossFit Open and an original workout programmed by Hiller. Athletes will have until Monday, April 17, at 8am Central Time, to submit their scores.
Dave
As Many Reps as Possible in 7 Minutes
Burpees to a 6” Target
The Rock
For Time:
27 Ground to Overhead 95/65
72 Hops over the Bar
21 Ground to Overhead 95/65
72 Hops over the Bar
15 Ground to Overhead 95/65
72 Hops over the Bar
9 Ground to Overhead 95/65
*10 Minute Time Cap*
As of this morning, over 600 athletes have paid the $10 to register for the NOPEN, but there is still time to sign up. The submission window closes next Monday morning, April 17, and those wanted to compete have until then to register, compete the workouts and submit their scores (with video).
The NOPEN is a two-week competition so Hiller will be releasing more workouts next Monday.
As for who will receive prizes, that’s a bit ambiguous at this time…but that’s how Hiller likes it. He has guaranteed prizes to at least the top 3, but possibly the top 5 or top 10. That will likely depend on the final number of athletes who register.
But even if you’re not a top athletes, prizes will also be handed out to every 10th percentile finisher. So even if you 300th, but finish at the 50% percentile, you will receive a prize package from those sponsoring the NOPEN. So far C4 and Gainz Box have sponsored the first two workouts.
So if you’re interested in signing up for the NOPEN, head over to Competition Corner and register today. And even if you don’t sign up, you can be part of the crowdsourced judging by watching the video submissions and calling out those who have skirted the reps or the rules.
