US based obstacle series Battlefrog has this week announced the biggest prize money in history of Obstacle Course Racing. The series, in which events are staggered throughout the year across 13 events will offer individual event prizes up to $50,000 plus an end of season Championships open to qualification from ANY global Obstacle Race.
In addition to male and female elites BattleFrog are adding real value to the Masters contingent. With a total prize pot of $1m the breakdown hasn’t yet been released. For example the $25,000 for the Elite top 10 at the championship, it is not clear if this is $2,500 each or $5,000 for top spot and $500 for 10th, which could make a big difference for people looking to put in the miles to travel to these events.
Garfield Griffiths, Battlefrog Race Director stated his intention to see some overseas competitors
I met a lot of the UK OCR guys at the OCR World Championships. A great bunch of competitors and we’d love to see the UK’s have a shot at the prize pot
Garfield wouldn’t confirm whether Jon Albon’s double world champ status will get him an invitational place so we’ll leave this one with Mr Albon himself to take another victory over in the states.
So how do you get out there and win this?
- The easiest way is to go and compete in a regular Battlefrog, just make sure you sign up for one of the 3 elite waves (7:30, 7:45, 8:00 15K) each capped at 250 entrants, so you v.s. 749 other people! Easy right?
- There is also the series cup, and by taking part in the regular season races, you can accrue points. But you can only count points from 4 races out of the 15 (any 4) - in addition you will accrue points at the Championship Race (more on that below) - but you must compete in the Championship to you get 5 points scoring event, or you score no points for race 5, we are assuming this would make it very hard to win.
- Once you’ve qualified for the Championships, winning the prize fund is quite straightforward, top 10 finish in your category (Like we said, easy yeah?). So lets talk about how you get there.
This isn’t any old signup up event, the Championship can be qualified by
- Athletes ranked in the top 50 in each of the 4 categories (male elite, female elite, masters male, masters female) automatically qualify to attend the Championship.
- Any top 10 finisher in one of the 4 categories from any of the 13 regular season races.
- And importantly for UK residents, top 3 finishers of any global OCR race will qualify to compete, based on limited availability on a first come, first serve basis.
There are 3 separate ways to win cash prizes:
1. The Regular Season
13 races throughout 2015 (sorry folks, the Virtual Race doesn’t count!)
Prizes available - $7,500 for both male & female elite waves and another $3,500 for the masters elite waves.
2. The Series Cup
This is an aggregation of points from the 13 race series above, plus the Championship event below.
Prizes available - $50,000 across top 30 Elite Male & $50,000 across top 30 Elite Females. $25,000 across top 15 Masters Males & $25,000 across top 15 Masters Females.
3. The Championship
(Atlanta 7/11/2015 - or Americans say 11/7/2015) Invitational / qualification only event.
Prizes available - $25,000 across top 10 Elite Male & $25,000 across top 10 Elite Females. $5,000 across top 10 Masters Males & $5,000 across top 10 Masters Females.
Battlefrog Video
How you can get there!
Find a free weekend - August 8/9 (currently free from any UK events…). Work out the travel arrangements. I’ve got the travel down to about £900.
Some more fine print is available at http://battlefrogseries.com/battlefrog-elite/
Questions
Which 4 races do you want to do?
Can you convince your OCR widow/widower that it’s just a nice family holiday to Pittsburgh and just disappear on the Saturday morning?
Would your OCR widow/widower notice you packing your Inov-8’s for a “business trip”?
What would you do to get to a Battlefrog 2015 Race?
Jump on our Muddy Race Forum now and discuss….