The 2004 World's Strongest Man competition will take on a dramatically different face, as twelve athletes will be competing in what is being described as the qualification events.

Once again, every athlete will compete in each event, but in a bold innovation, the athletes will compete against each other in pairs. The pairings will be changed in each of the eleven events so that each athlete will compete once against each other athlete. With a maximum of six points per event, scoring will be one point for a win and zero for a loss.