The Rogue Invitational has always stood by the word ‘invitational’ in that they have always reserved the right to invite anyone they choose to fill the 20-athlete field each year. With that said, Rogue has generally followed the path of inviting the top 15 athletes from the previous CrossFit Games and inviting the top 5 from ‘The Q’, Rogue’s online qualifier. Of course, there have been exceptions to that ‘rule’, such as when Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr was invited last year.
Today, however, Rogue debuted a new qualifying system that is based on an athlete’s multi-year historical performance rather than a single CrossFit Games’ performance. The system awards points for performances in the CrossFit Games season (minus Semifinals) and the Rogue Invitational with points being accrued from the past five years.
But unlike the CrossFit Worldwide Rankings, previous years’ points are depreciated such that the current years are weighted more heavily. In other words, earning 100 points in the current season will be reduced to 83.33 points next year, 66.67 points in two years, down to just 16.67 points in five years.
The most points are awarded for performance at the CrossFit Games and the Rogue Invitational where the winner of each receives 1,000 points plus a 100 point bonus. For example, Laura Horvath earned 2,200 points from her wins at the 2023 CrossFit Games and 2023 Rogue Invitational. She earned an additional 415.2 points from her performance in the Open, Quarterfinals and participating in the Rogue Invitational.
The table below outlines the points awarded to the winner of each competition included in the Qualifying System. As you can see, the competition points depreciate as the years go by, but the points awarded for winning the Games or Rogue Invitational do not.
EXCEPTIONS POINTS
Rogue has also implemented a method to award points to athletes who have not competed due to parental leave, going team or suffering a major injury. In those cases, Rogue takes the average non-depreciated scores from the three prior years and then reduces the points by 15%.
To illustrate this, Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr has received 850 points for the 2023 CrossFit Games. Rogue averaged the 1,000 points from 2020, 2021 and 2022 (which averages out to 1,000) and then reduced her point allotment by 15% to get 850 points.
It is unclear how Rogue is defining a major injury when applying points for exceptions.
INVITATIONS AND RANKINGS
Rogue said it will reserve the right to invite anyone to compete, but it will use the new Qualifying System to invite the top 10 in addition to the top 5 from The Q. That leaves the remaining 5 spots up to Rogue’s discretion.
The top 10 men and women are currently as follows:
MEN
1. Pat Vellner (7,227.25 points)
2. Jeff Adler (6,762.88)
3. Justin Medeiros (5,588.98)
4. BJorgvin Karl Gudmundsson (5,473.36)
5. Noah Ohlsen (4,753.07)
6. Roman Khrennikov (4,239.73)
7. Chandler Smith (3,921.28)
8. Jonne Koski (3,225.46)
9. Saxon Panchik (3,195.00)
10. Ricky Garard (3,090.33)
WOMEN
1. Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr (8,757.38 points)
2. Laura Horvath (6,983.48)
3. Gabriela Migala (5,567.43)
4. Danielle Brandon (4,649.37)
5. Annie Thorisdottir (4,471.74)
6. Emma Lawson (4,401.76)
7. Kara Saunders (4,274.69)
8. Arielle Loewen (3,973.62)
9. Brooke Wells (3,634.11)
10. Amanda Barnhart (3,405.56)
Full Rankings can be found here.
BETA LAUNCH
Rogue has clarified that this system is technically a ‘Beta’ launch and may be adjusted following feedback or find issues with the calculations or methodology.
