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The second stage of the CrossFit Games season turns neighbors into nemeses as the best athletes from each region compete for a chance to test their mettle on the world stage.

In 2017, each Regional’s competitors put on a hell of a show every time they took the floor, but what went on behind the scenes was also fit for prime time, and CrossFit Media Director Sevan Matossian was there to capture it all.

The East Regional brought together two defending CrossFit Games champions and two other 2016 podium finishers to compete in Albany, New York, in front of screaming fans from eastern Canada and the northeastern United States.

Off the competition floor, Matossian seeks out the tensions between the Regional’s key players.

He chats with Pat Vellner, last year’s third-place finisher at the Games, about what it’s like to compete with reigning Fittest Man on Earth Mat Fraser.

“Last year at Regionals Mat Fraser probably wouldn’t have said a word to you. This year he’s all up in your business, assessing you. ... He sees you as a peer,” Matossian says. “Are you feeling that?”

Later he checks in with 2016 Games champ Katrin Davidsdottir on her Regionals performance and notes that dark horse Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault is dominating the competition.

Over the course of the weekend, Matossian gets to know rising stars Tori Dyson and Marquan Jones, learns more about Games veteran Dani Horan’s recovery from heartbreak, and highlights the rivalry between the four athletes from CrossFit MF: Cody Mooney, Austin Spencer, Max Bragg and Jordan Cook.

When the competition ends, the East has a new women’s champion, and a victorious Fraser tells Matossian how he finds Vellner both irritating and inspiring all at once.

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