Monarch Lions 2018

By Year IV the Games had grown into something you could train for. The teams from the war years came apart and the format went back to where it started - every athlete for themselves, the way Year I had been. The day moved into a real fitness facility, racks and rigs and a room full of spin bikes, and turned the competition inward: against the bar, against the clock, against last year's version of yourself.

The card was strength and conditioning. A spin block to open, then the barbell - deadlifts off the platform, work through the rig - and the conditioning floor in between. Less tournament, more proving ground, scored one athlete at a time.

It's also the year the brand showed up on the floor: the Monarch lion crest on the first run of team apparel, worn by the people who built it.

No one called it at the time, but Year IV was the last one. The Games went quiet after 2018 - the final chapter of the original run, until the 10-year anniversary brought them back seven years later in 2025.