Z-Score Points System Used For the First Time at a CrossFit Competition

Z-Score points system was put to the test for the first time at the Crash Crucible CrossFit competition in late September.

The Z-score points system is an idea that has been pushed by data analyst Tyler Watkins and commentator Brian Friend to be introduced in CrossFit.

What Is the Z-Score Points System?

Lovers of CrossFit know more or less how points are given to athletes during a competition. The traditional way is to give a specific number of points to each athlete depending on how the placement of each individual. At the Games, for example, the winner of an event gets 100 points, the 2^nd placed gets 97 points, the 3^rd 94 and so on, regardless of how close each athlete finished compared to others.

The Z-Score points system tells how far a certain data point is away from the average. According to Watkins and Friend, the Z-score would give a much more precise idea of how each athlete performed compared to the average of the playing field.

One simple explanation would be a race. Let’s say the winner of the race finishes the track in 5 minutes. The second place finished in 4 minutes and the 3^rd place finished in 3 minutes and 55 seconds.

In a traditional scoring, the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place would get 100, 97 and 94 points, even though the 1^st place won by a landslide. In a Z-Score points system, the winner would get 100 points, but the 2^nd and 3^rd athletes would get points that would be much closer to each other, and much further from the 1^st placement.

Crash Crucible Used Z-Score Points System for Leaderboard

Noted, Crash Crucible is not a famous CrossFit-sanctioned event of the off-season, but it grabbed the attention of the Community simply because it ditched the traditional scoring system for the elite individuals. Instead, for the first time, it used the Z-Score points system.

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The Crash Crucible took place in Spartanburg, South Carolina, from September 30^th to October 2^nd.

In the end, here is how the leaderboard ended with the first number being the official Z-Score points system, and the second set of points are from the traditional system – the organisers kept a track of the traditional scores for the individuals.

Male Elite:

1. Luke Parker – 616.13 / 664
2. Hudson Fricke – 588.70 / 601
3. Lee Sharum – 574.46 / 601
4. Marquan Jones – 564.40 / 592
5. Daniel Kuc – 559.95 / 586

Female Elite:

1. Shaylin Laure – 618.32 / 596
2. Alexis Johnson – 570.57 / 594
3. Ellie Hiller – 569.57 / 594
4. Emily Beroth – 543.67 / 516
5. Madeline Helms – 539.38 / 460

Read More: Tia-Clair Toomey Opens Up About Mental Game and the CrossFit Games Programming