The WSL doesn’t surprise often. They did today.

In a press release confirming the 2020 Championship Tour class, they announced the news that Leo Fioravanti and Mikey Wright will “surf-off” for a full-time wildcard spot on the 2020 tour.

“We have a unique situation with the WSL men’s wildcards for the 2020 season,” says Pat O’Connell, SVP of Tours and Competition. “After reviewing our criteria, as well as the independent medical board assessments, we believe both Leonardo Fioravanti and Mikey Wright have equitable cases for the second 2020 wildcard. After working with our event partners and speaking to both surfers, we have arranged for both Leo and Mikey to compete in the first three CT events of 2020 – Gold Coast, Bells Beach, and Margaret River. The surfer who finishes highest on the rankings across that opening Australian leg will receive the second WSL wildcard for the remainder of the 2020 season.”

It’s an interesting decision and a major deviation from procedure in years past. It seems that every year there are three worthy surfers vying for two injury wildcards, and one gets left out. Last year it was John Florence, Kelly Slater and Caio Ibelli, with Ibelli getting the short end of the stick.

This year, Adriano De Souza, Fioravanti and Wright were all vying for wildcard spots. De Souza locked up the first spot on the merit of being a world champ, and there was much speculation on whether Fioravanti or Wright would get the second spot, with both presenting solid cases. Wright hurt his back in the Volcom Pipe Pro in 2018 (he’s been battling the injury ever since), and Fioravanti dislocated his shoulder at Margaret River in May.

Apparently the WSL couldn’t decipher a clear winner, thus deciding to let them surf-off through the first three events of the year instead. Winner gets his full-time spot back, loser will be relegated back to the ‘QS. Although, it’s unclear what happens to the lower-rated surfer after three events. Will he be the first injury replacement, or will that spot go to Stuart Kennedy (the first man out on the ‘QS) instead? If it’s the former, there’s a good chance that Fioravanti/Wright will still get to compete in most events in 2020, as there is nearly always one injured surfer on tour. (Caio Ibelli surfed in all 11 events as a replacement surfer this year and requalified through his performance on the ‘CT.)

Aside from Fioravanti/Wright, the 2020 tour is all locked up. See below for the full list of surfers on next years ‘CT:

Men’s 2019 Top 22 CT:

Italo Ferreira

Gabriel Medina

Jordy Smith

Filipe Toledo

Kolohe Andino

Kanoa Igarashi

John John Florence

Kelly Slater

Owen Wright

Jeremy Flores

Julian Wilson

Seth Moniz

Michel Bourez

Ryan Callinan

Jack Freestone

Griffin Colapinto

Caio Ibelli

Wade Carmichael

Adrian Buchan

Conner Coffin

Peterson Crisanto

Yago Dora

Men’s ‘QS Qualifiers

Frederico Morais

Jadson Andre

Matthew McGillivray

Jack Robinson

Alex Ribeiro

Miguel Pupo

Ethan Ewing

Connor O’Leary

Deivid Silva

Morgan Cibilic

WSL Wildcard:

Adriano De Souza

Mikey Wright/Leo Fioravati

Women’s 2019 Top 10 CT:

*Carissa Moore

Caroline Marks

Lakey Peterson

Stephanie Gilmore

Sally Fitzgibbons

Tatiana Weston-Webb

Courtney Conlogue

Johanne Defay

Malia Manuel

Nikki Van Dijk

*Carissa Moore has withdrawn for 2020 (She will be replaced by Brisa Hennessy)

Women’s ‘QS Qualifiers

Isabella Nichols

Bronte Macaulay

Sage Erickson

*Brisa Hennessy

Macy Callaghan

Keely Andrew

*Amuro Tsuzuki (Brisa Hennessy moves into Carissa Moore’s CT spot, opening up a QS qualification spot for Tsuzuki)

WSL Wildcard:

Tyler Wright