Registration is still on-going up to Wednesday night for the event scheduled for the Legends Sports Complex on Pruitt Road near the Woodlands Mall in North Houston.
We recently spoke to tournament promoters Brandon Quick and Chris Carlino to get some background on their organization along with some insight on what grapplers can expect specifically with this event.
“We use a strict schedule and run out tournament similar to how the IBJJF does,” said Brandon. “So far, we’ve quickly taken off in Texas with a few events in the Dallas area and recently did one In Tulsa, Oklahoma also. We’ve got 10 events total planned for this year and we’re learning more about how to deliver a great tournament experience with every event we conclude. Some of the adjustments we’ve made along the way include adding barricades, allowing people to compete for bronze, and now we give the medals on the mat with a banner picture too. Plus with this Houston tournament, we’re going to throw some money out there so we can offer cash prizes for absolute division winners. It’s going to be a good one.”
“Also, in order to do our part in educating our refs, we are only hiring purple, brown & black belts for this tournament. Our goal though is to educate anyone who wants to learn the rules & understand the sport better. The more we all know, from white belt to black, the better its going to be for everyone down the road. For this one, we will offer a Referee Certification Course to the public for everyone but it’s mandatory for our referee employees. We believe it will really help keep a high quality on the mats when it comes to the calls being made on Saturday and all our events.
Rather than go with the standard IBJJF rules in both GI and No-GI, the 2012 Houston BJJ Championship will serve as the first tournament we can recall that will be using “ADCC-style” rules in the submission grappling portion of the event,
“We made this change at the request of our competitors. The rounds will be 4 minutes for Kids, Teens & Masters and 6 min for Adults. The first half of the match will have no points! No-GI should be open to all kinds of grapplers include sambo practitioners, catch wrestlers, etc. so we wanted to open up the game a little by expanding beyond the standard BJJ rule set. The 1st half having no points encourages the submission. The second half will have points to prevent having to DQ 2 guys like they do in submission-only events and truly leave the best man standing. There will also be a “1st to Points” overtime to decide a definitive winner. A point or advantage in overtime will secure a legit victory. Who likes winning or losing on a refs decision? There’s more to it including the allowance of more submissions so check our website for the list of legal techniques.”
“Remember this is just for No-GI. We have not altered the BJJ Divisions rules at all. The AGF recognizes that BJJ is a sport in itself and some people avoid the No-GI Divisions intentionally and prefer competing only in the GI so we’re keeping the standard format there. This tournament will have a little bit for everybody and it should be a lot of fun.”