Quarterfinals and Semifinals, as well as a last-chance qualifier, will replace the Sanctional format as a direct qualifying route to the CrossFit Games, CrossFit confirmed this week with the release of the 2021 CrossFit Games Competition Rulebook.
Sanctionals, which consisted of independently run competitions certified by CrossFit, replaced Regionals in 2018 as a qualifying route to the CrossFit Games.
They highlighted local events and gave athletes a chance to choose when and where to compete, but were criticised for their lack of homogeneity and varying standards compared to CrossFit Regionals.
The new CrossFit competitive season will start with the Open, then the top qualifying individual athletes and teams from each recognized competitive continent will qualify
to compete at the next stage, the Quarterfinals.
Top athletes in the Quarterfinals will then advance to the 10 Semifinals across the six competitive continets and, after a “last-chance qualifier”, the CrossFit competitive season will culminate with the CrossFit Games.
CrossFit Continents
For competitive purposes, CrossFit has established six competitive continents. During the Open registration process, athletes will provide information to establish which continent they represent; this is based on their citizenship at the close of the first Open event.
For the purpose of competition, CrossFit, LLC recognizes the following continental boundaries:
- North America
- Europe
- Oceania
- Asia
- South America
- Africa
Source: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.
If there is a discrepancy between the map and the list, the list is the determining factor.
The CrossFit Games Quarterfinals
At the conclusion of the Open, athletes who are ranked highest on their continental leaderboard will qualify to compete in the CrossFit Games Quarterfinals, or Quarterfinals for short.
The Quarterfinals are an online qualifier competition immediately following the CrossFit Open. They will consist of a series of events over the course of one weekend, Thursday through Monday.
The top 10% of Open ranked athletes on each continent – based on the total percentage of athletes registered per continent – are eligible to participate in the Quarterfinals. Equally, the top 25% of the total number of teams per continent (with a minimum of at least 50 teams from each continent) will be eligible to participate in the Quarterfinals.
Individual quarterfinals will start on Thursday, April 8, and team quarterfinals begin on Thursday, April 22.
The exact number of events will be released prior to the start of Quarterfinals and there will be no scaled versions.
Scores from the Open will be reset, so all athletes start with the same rank.
The CrossFit Games Semifinals
The Semifinals will serve as a direct qualifying route to the CrossFit Games. There will be 10 in-person Semifinal events hosted by CrossFit partners across six continents, ensuring at least one athlete from each continent qualifies for the Games.
CrossFit Semifinals will run between May 24 and June 14.
In addition to the Semifinals there will be a “last chance” qualifier for athletes who narrowly missed the cut in Semifinals. This will take place online on the week of June 28.
CrossFit Announces 2021 Season Schedule
The finals details for the Semifinals, the “last-chance qualifier” and the CrossFit Games are still to be released. Usually published with the Rulebook as well is the prize purse for the season, which is still unknown for 2021.
UPDATE: 10 CrossFit Semifinal Events Announced
Image Sources
- CFG21_SemifinalsMap_For_Rulebook: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.
- continents-and-quarterfinals-crossfit-games: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.