Forget everything you thought you knew about the CrossFit Games, because the most intense, most grueling athletic competition in the world is changing just about every single facet of their event — from qualifying to the flow of the calendar year to who exactly gets to compete, and how. The end game is clearly to adapt to the growing popularity and participation in CrossFit. It's an evolution before our eyes.

The news was first dropped by our friends at the Morning Chalk, who extensively cover the impending changes. 

“The plan is to restructure the company (and) de-emphasize the Games . . . change the very structure of the Games to something that’s more sustainable and fundamentally globalize the Games,” Glassman told The Morning Chalk. “This is the path to 150,000 affiliates and we’re excited about it.”

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Next year is going to be whacky, to say the least: The Open and the Games will take place per usual in February and August, respectively, but then immediately in October 2019 the new Open will take place. Then beginning in November and moving through the summer, there will be CrossFit-sanctioned events (see last point).
• There are 162 countries with a licensed CrossFit affiliate, and each of them will name the top male athlete, female athlete, and team to qualify for the CrossFit Games. In addition (see next point for more detail), a number of outside competitions will get more teams and individuals qualified for the Games, which means that nearly 350 athletes will take part in the game. 
• Of special interest to fans of FloElite is the fact that 16 "outside competitions" will become official CrossFit-sanctioned events. Granite Games — streaming on FloElite in less than a month — and Wodapalooza — streaming on FloElite in January — are two of the events explicitly named in the Morning Chalk article as possibilities, along with the Dubai Fitness Championship. 

These changes are total and foundational, and it's definitely going to take a while to not only simply digest the news but see how it plays out over the next 12-18 months. Whatever happens, seeing the agility and movement of this organization is cool to see, and we can't lie: We're excited as hell to see what happens.