Rogue Invitational Moves to Online Competition

The Rogue Invitational will take place online this year due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the organising team announced.

“The Rogue leadership team has decided to move the Rogue Invitational in Columbus, Ohio to an online event,” Rogue Invitational posted on Instagram.

“Bringing 6,000 people from all over the world is not the right thing to do given the crisis the world faces today. We want to have an event with the athletes, spectators and vendors all feel safe without hesitation.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-INZVvgrwn/

The Sanctional was originally scheduled to take place at Rogue HQ in Columbus, Ohio, between Many 15-17. Last week, Rogue announced they’d be postponing their event to June 13-14 “in the interest of allowing more time to collect and process all information concerning the COVID-19 outbreak.”

Rogue has now decided to move the Sanctional online, but still plans to stream the whole event to the world.

“Our goal is to stream from the athlete’s location to a live event that the whole world can watch. Same events team, we just have a new mission,” posted the organising team.

The prize money is still set to be given out as normal. Rogue has one of the biggest prize pots outside the CrossFit Games, with a total prize purse for all three divisions of over $400,000.

“We believe we can still bring people together for a great competition and will pivot our events staff to think differently,” Rogue wrote. They also announced they were processing refunds for every ticket holder already, so there’s no need to ask for one.

Rogue has received an overwhelming amount of support from the community following their decision. This is what some athletes and spectators have said:

• Chandler Smith: “Y’all consistently choose the harder right over the easier wrong. Respect.”
• Annie Thorisdottir: “Very sad to hear it but so proud of this decision which was definitely not easy to make… I know you will put on an incredible event!! ?”
• Lauren Fisher: “Thank you for making it so much easier for us athletes to know that we are 100% training for something now ?? as always I’m sure you guys will put on one heck of an event! Proud to be part of @roguefitness?”
• Katrin Davidsdottir: “So sad but at the same time I am SO DAMN PROUD to be a part of this team ?❤️?? I know this was not an easy decision but thank you for putting our safety first. Now I’m excited to see what in the wooooorld we’ll be doing haha ?”
• Julie Foucher: “@roguefitness is always leading from the front – sad not to be able to do this in person but thank you for making this difficult decision in the best interest of the health and safety of athletes, volunteers, and spectators ?”
• Chyna Cho: “Sad to hear this but completely understand. ?”
• Jacob Heppner: “Starting to think that if most companies worked and performed like Rogue. The world would be pretty well off. You guys need to write a book.”
• Carolyne Prevost: “Thank you ❤️”
• @angelaarlene: “Although this makes me sad that I will not be able to see the action live, it is the right thing to do. Never have I ever been so proud of being from Ohio as I am for how the entire state is handling this pandemic. Thank you for putting everyone before yourself, we all appreciate it in the end.”
• @shannonlynnbyrne: “Right decision. Thank you ❤️”
• @ckelly0111: “Was really looking forward to attending as a spectator! Totally support the decision and look forward to the future, when we all can get close together again.”
• @bobby.tank: “High quality gear, higher quality people. Good job Rogue?”

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