The top 60 men and women in North America East, North America West and Europe Quarterfinals advance to the Semifinals. For Oceania, Asia, South America and Africa, the top 30 men and women move on to Semifinals.
It is obvious that some regions are better than others and making it inside the top 30 or 60 can be easier in one region and/or harder in a different region. With this in mind, I was curious how the last man (or woman) in each Semifinal would have fared in a different region. That is, how would the 60th place finisher in the North America East Quarterfinal do in, say, the South America Quarterfinal.
So I took the scores for each of the “last in” athletes and calculated how those athletes would have fared in the other regions.
Let’s take a look…
Last Man In
Here is the last man from each region’s Quarterfinal:
NA East: Ben Davidson
NA West: Kevin Schuetz
Europe: Anestis Artemis
Oceania: Riley Martin
Asia: Luke Tweddell
S. America: Hector Martin
Africa: Eduan Troskie
The table below shows how each athlete would have finished had they competed in a different region. The green highlighted cells indicate whether that athlete would have made it to the Semifinal for that region.
For example, Ben Davidson, who finished 60th in the North America East region, would have finished 40th if he had competed out of North America West. However, he would have finished 89th in Europe and failed to qualify for Semifinals.
As you can see, Eduan Troskie, the last man in from Africa, would not have qualified for a Semifinal in any other region. In contrast, Europe’s Anestis Artemis would have advanced to every Semifinal and would have actually finished in 1st place overall in Africa. Yes, the 60th place male in Europe beat all of the men in Africa.
Last Woman In
Here is the last woman from each region’s Quarterfinal:
NA East: Rachel Fricker
NA West: Carrie Beamer
Europe: Ralitza Koterlitzova
Oceania: Madeline Shelling
Asia: Rena Urabe
S. America: Camila Cartagena
Africa: Dalia Al Amry
I did the same analysis for the women with similar results.
Just like the men, the European last woman in, Ralitza Koterlitzova, would have qualified for Semifinals in every region. While she would not have won the African Quarterfinal, she would have finished in 2nd overall. And the last African woman in, Dalia Al Amry, would have failed to advance to Semifinals in any region other than Africa.
Takeaways
After looking at the cross-region results of the Quarterfinals, I have a couple takeaways as we head into the rest of the season.
First, Europe appears to have the most depth of any region. In both cases, the last athlete in would have been able to advance to Semifinals in any other region. No other region can say that. On the flip side, Africa has the least depth within in region as the last man or woman in could advance in any other region.
Second, depth of a region is only part of the equation. Advancing to Semifinals as the last athlete in likely means that qualifying for the CrossFit Games is nearly impossible. Those last athletes in will have to fight amongst some of the best athletes in the world to get in a qualifying spot. This analysis does not attempt to determine how easy (or difficult) that might be.
Third, the depth varies drastically from region to region, even within the “Big 3” (North America East/West and Europe). While I already have my doubts about how the new worldwide rankings play into the Games allocation process, this analysis makes me more skeptical that the new system will work in the future.
And finally, fourth. The online qualifiers are over. The Semifinals are the first in-person competition of the season. What will ultimately matter is how those athletes who make it to Semifinals actually compete while working out next to their fellow competitors. The best athletes out of each region will qualify for the Games and will closely resemble the 40 fittest athletes in the world.
