Every OCR registration page asks a question disguised as a dropdown: team wave or solo? The formats are different sports wearing the same mud — the squad race runs on shared struggle; the solo race runs on the clock and strangers’ kindness. First-timers, here is the honest comparison.

The Team Case

Team waves are the classic first-race format: boosts over walls built-in, morale distributed (someone is always doing fine and it rotates), photos with witnesses, and the shared-mythology dividend (the group chat renames itself after the race — this is documented behavior). Recruiting two friends is the whole entry fee.

The Solo Case

Solo racing offers the clock (timed waves, personal benchmarks), the self-reliance test some racers specifically want, and the plot twist first-timers discover mid-course: solo racers get adopted — strangers boost strangers over walls by unbreakable OCR custom. Solo means untethered, never unassisted.

The Format Fine Print

Team waves run untimed and festival-flavored (costumes appear); competitive waves enforce obstacle completion (fail = penalty, strictly); open solo waves sit between. Match the wave to your first-race goal: finishing joyfully (team/open) versus benchmarking (timed).

The Recruiting Pitch

Converting friends, the honest script: ‘It is a hike with puzzles and mud, everyone helps everyone, and the photos are incredible.’ Fitness objections meet the walk-the-runs truth; the mud objection is, frankly, the feature. First-race teams of three finish at essentially 100% — bring two people and the format chooses itself.

Squad for the mythology, solo for the clock, adoption guaranteed either way. The dropdown was never really about format — it was about who you want in the finish photo, mud included.