Savage Games April.......

Seflie station

Planking station was fun

So, This competition is the same as last month (insert link here) with a little less, for a bunch more. They marketing it to the ocr crowd, which is fine we get to play on obstacles for 2 hours, which was a full 2 hours of competition this time. which was an improvement. Within the last  week they posted that the  new time for the event was changed to 730am instead of the previous 8am start, so we got a walk through for about 30 min, then we did some warm up stuff (burpees, squat jumps, mountain climbers, etc) but the problem is that they took away some of the obstacle, no more traverse rope, no more cargo net climb, and changed almost everything again, so almost nothing has been the same for each event. which is not a bad thing, but in this case it kind of is. and it is because it is what they replaced them with. they kept the selfie station, which is kind of unique, not bad, just odd mid workout, but it fits with the environment. I found it weird that they had a station that was for haiku, and a squat jump station, a somersault station, and a few other things like that. it works to get you moving and a good workout, but if you are trying to make it an ocr style event, do not take a way obstacles and put in a haiku please. Or even worse, a needle threading station, yes you read that correct, a needle threading station, you had to thread 4 tiny needles to earn a point. Not exactly the obstacles i had in mind when the price went up! Also this month was 10 dollars more than last, which was a 5 dollar increase over the first one, it feels like a bad trend for a new thing like this. Plus the day of reg price is 45 to make matters even worse. I was informed of the email that was sent out that addressed the price increase, and it just does not add up in my book.

Thank you VERY much for emailing me about your concerns over the Savage Games price. I definitely understand your concern and happy to explain why the price has been slowly increasing.
Since the games started, it has grown a TON. We went from about 20 people to now 100 each month. One of the main reasons we have needed to increase price is for the staff. Now that we have been bringing in 100 people (possibly more going forward) we have needed to bring in more staff to keep the event running smoothly and make sure we have a good participant/instructor ratio. Another reason for the price increase is because we have been needing to repair and/or replace some of the equipment we use for the games.

As the games continue to grow we also have plans to make them even bigger and better. Starting next month we are looking to host a Savage Games After Party with food, drinks, local vendors, etc!
If it helps, we don't foresee the games getting too bigger so needing more staff wont be needed. We also got together and agreed that $35 for the games seemed very fair considering everything that goes into making it successful.
I hope the increase in price does not discourage you from attending the games. I also want to bring to your attention that we are now offering 2 rates, pre-registration for $35 and day of registration for $45. If you and your teammates still plan on going (and I hope you do!), I want to make sure you guys save some money by register before the day of the Games.
Again, thank you VERY much for the email and please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns!
NOTE: SAME DAY REGISTRATION $45 $35 beforehand.

They said it will not go up any more, but with three increases in as many months, i do not have faith. But lets say for arguments sake it does, they say it is cheaper than a race. But here is the thing, they are not the only gym to do things like this. Unleashed does competitions as well, they did it the same day for  25 (30 day of) and you get a shirt, they have less obstacles, and it is in Rhode Island, but it also benefited leukemia and lymphoma society check the link here. So my point with unleashed is this, there are other gym type competitions, that do not cost nearly that much, that can be just as fun, and just as competitive. FIT challenge does gym workouts as well, and they know how to run a work out, i have been to several, and they never disappoint (side note, i love the race, and am looking forward to the next one this Saturday) and they never charge that much! Also they said that they needed to pay for more staff. Well that again is bogus, last month the stations were mostly run by volunteers, this month, a few more were run by staff, but, every other obstacle was empty, and every otherish obstacle was manned. several were still not (note selfie station does not need to be staffed, nor did the haiku. But the stairs with bear crawls, and the squat jump, were not manned, and i think i forgot one of them). The frayed cargo net rope, and drooping traverse rope were taken down. Also one of the "obstacles" they used was crawling through their bench with minimal room, yet another disappointment when the email said the money was going to improvements, it just makes me wonder how that these additions were called improvements.

And did i miss something about the ego needed to be a ninja warrior? because the two people that manned those stations had such a demeanor of self importance, and spent their time discussing the private fb page for ninja warrior competitors, and not paying much attention to the event like all the other people running the obstacles. when they did tell us that something did not count, it was told with a negative demeanor, and an attitude that sapped some of the fun (good thing I was with friends and we were able to laugh anyway). At least the parkour people were really nice, as usual!

Kevin can hold a handstand for over 2 min fyi

They still had the 30ish obstacles, so at least they did not cut them down. They no longer had a photographer this month. They spoke about free bananas, and that they had coffee and food and vendors and such. The problem with that is when i got there, no bananas were left, and I know several others did not get any, I did not see people with more than one, not that it did not happen, but still. The coffee looked like a new partnership, they had a full blown coffee stand inside the gym. and some people selling pastries, one place that sampled treats but i could not tell because it was so much to cram into one small room. And here is another beef with that, it is customary to pay to be a vendor at an event, so why use that as an excuse to raise your price? So bottom line, it is a fun event, and if you have a membership and it is free, go to it, but do not miss a race for it! The main problem is that they are pricing it to basically compete with an ocr, and it is cheaper but a whole different animal, and unfair to compare the two. I must say that i still had a blast, it is still good with friends. But to recap, the things they needed to replace, they dropped, took extra money, and offered us the opportunity to spend more on coffee, and pastries, so kind of a let down.

Until Next Time, Keep training (it is race season after all, and FIT Challenge is right around the corner)
Stephen

P.S. 

I forgot to thank my friends that i went with, they truly knew how to embarass me for my birthday, which was the dah before! They made the team name happy birthday stephen, screamed it a bunch through the workout, and told the woman leading the event so at the end i got a big happy birthday song, nice touch all around!