The 2022 North American West Coast trials have now ended and we have 7 new winners headed to ADCC 2022. This event is a must watch and might be one of the best grappling events of all time. Usually there is some complaint about a lack of action or stalling, but I don't think anyone can say that about this tournament. All of the athletes were going after the kill and really showing their skills. Surprisingly I don't feel like many people were gaming the rules either. There were a few people who played it cautiously until the points period started, but once it did they hit the gas hard trying to get the submission. This event exceeded my expectations and I hope this will inspire people in the future to compete like this.
The only disappointment I have is that more people can't enter ADCC. There were a number of people who lost that I thought would do great there and possibly medal. I'm hoping some of them get picked up by WNO and used on future shows.
Winners
Men
-66kg Keith Krikorian def Josh Cisneros via inside heel hook
-77kg William Tackett def Andy Varela via points (4 - 2)
-88kg Jacob Rodriguez def Hunter Colvin via buggy choke
-99kg Paul Ardila def Mario Gonzalez via heel hook
+99 Kyle Boehm def Daniel Manasiou via points (0 - (-1))
Women
-60kg Brianna Ste-Marie def Jasmine Rocha via point (3 - 0)
+60kg Amy Campo def Paige Ivette via kneebar
How People Won
Women -60kg
Women +60kg
This division was small, but it was interesting to see a variety of styles used and that is easy to see by looking at the stats. There were a few standouts that really made this division interesting.
Men -66kg
This was a huge division, but it was action packed. Definitely give this one a watch. If you look at the stats you can see -66kg had more subs than decision or point victories. That is already a win, but on top of that the matches that didn't end in submissions were generally fun and exciting. The RNC and inside heel hook dominated, but there were a wide variety of other submissions also.
Men -77kg
I believe this division had the most competitors in ADCC trial's history. If you thought -66kg was good, this division might have been even better. Again more than half of the matches ended in submission and people were working for the finish the whole time. There were a lot of highlights from this division and interesting people to watch.
Men -88kg
Once again we get an over 50% submission rate along with a variety of submissions. I feel like there were a lot of new faces in this division that made a name for themselves at -88kg. Watch some of the matches by competitors you aren't familiar with and you might be surprised with how good they are.
Men -99kg
Men +99kg
I should give the big guys a round of applause. They managed a 50% submission rate and showed they are working on their leg locks. This was the only division where leg locks outnumbered chokes. This weightclass was more exciting that you'd expect and it is worth giving it a watch.
Total
Any way you look at it this event was a success. Not only were people working the whole time and not relying on stalling or tactics, but they also managed to end more than half the matches by submission. People complain about grappling events being boring and stalling, so lets give some praise to the atheles for doing the opposite this time and making this an enjoyable grappling event to watch. Chokes made up the majority of the finishes, followed by leg locks and finally arm locks. This seems to follow the general trend we have seen over the past 2 years or so. After this years ADCC tournament we'll be able to analyze things further, but so far this distribution seems fairly stable.
Trends
The biggest thing at this ADCC seemed to be connecting wrestling with back takes. It seems that many people realized that people can't hide their backs when standing and because of the rules of ADCC, lying flat on your back after a takedown will cause you to lose points. Due to this many people attempt to scramble after takedowns and that gives chances for back takes. Taking the back off scrambles seems to be a great winning strategy.
Another strategy seemed to be the traditional pass guard and move to mount. There were very few finishes from mount, but the defenders almost always gave up their backs and were finished. It seems the level of pinning has increased and more people were able to hold their opponents in side control and mount and when they started to lose the position they moved to the back.
Back control seemed to be improved with very few people able to actually escape this position. Trapping the arm from the back using the legs seems to be a standard move now and it looks like the back has become an even more dangerous position.
50/50 seems to be the most popular heel hooking position and fewer people are using the saddle/inside sankaku. For some reason outside heel hooks are becoming more popular with heavyweights. Perhaps it is because they are slower to roll out of the position and can't berimbolo out of it easily. I guess we'll see if this trend continues.
Triangles seem to be becoming popular, but no necessarily the standard type. Side and rear triangles are being used quite often now. They don't show up much in the stats above, but that is only because the finish often comes from the isolated arm. People are using triangles as control positions which creates a dilemma between being choked and arm locked. Once they're locked people are rarely escaping. I believe this will continue in the future and things like the diving kimura setup for them will become more popular over time.
The buggy choke is being used more often also. It finished at least 2 people, but 2 people were also knocked out when someone slammed out of it. It definitely works at a high level, but trying it might get you sent to the hospital.
Breakout Stars
There were a lot of familiar names, but there were also many people I wasn't familiar with that put on great performances. These trials gave them a chance to show their grappling skills and hopefully gain more name recognition. I feel that right we are at a point where professional grappling is starting to gain traction and by putting on a good show these people are setting themselves up for careers as pro grapplers. Let's briefly go over some names that you may not know that were impressive.
Josh Cisneros looked amazing and I was really impressed with his diving armbar into triangle attack. Not only that but he showed great wrestling and hit 2 suloev stretches.
Adam Benayoun looked really sharp and seems to made some improvements to his game that have brought him to the next level.
Pedro Sereno also looked very dangerous with his combination of berimbolos and leg locks.
Andrew Tackett also proved himself to be a showman with finishing ability
Kiren Kichuk is someone you should get familiar with. His leg locks and backtakes are very impressive.
Allan Sanchez is having a breakout year and showing that he really needs to be invited to more pro events.
Andy Varela came out of nowhere and upset a lot of people. He's very tenacious and has killer instinct.
Chris Wojick is someone I'd never heard of before, but he looked like he belonged with the other elite competitors. He showed good skills in all areas.
Harrison Woods was also an unknown, but was able to upset Jacob Couch. He looked good thoughout the tournament.
Hunter Colvin really showed what he could do at this event. Before he seemed hot and cold. I didn't think he could compete at this level, but I was very wrong. He looked sharp in all areas and made it to the finals by submitting his competition.
David Garmo also stepped his game up and was able to show off some of his submission skills that we haven't seen in his recent pro outings.
Mario Gonzalez is someone I'd never heard of before, but he submitted his was to the semi finals and almost beat Devonte Johnson.
Dan Mansoiu is also a relative unknown that got all the way to the finals and had lots of subs along the way.
Jacob Rodriguez won the 88kg division and people will finally have to stop calling him Nicky Rod's little brother.
Paige Ivette also impressed me with her well rounded game and killer instinct.
Amy Campo was somewhat of an unknown, but she ended up winning the whole thing in impressive fashion with a kneebar.
Overall
This might be the greatest ADCC trials event of all time. It had everything you'd want in an event and I loved the walkouts for the later matches. It really made the event feel like something special. The competition level was high and I feel the winners of these trials really deserve some respect. It was nice to see people like Keith Krakorian and William Tackett finally win. I imagine Eddie Bravo is also really happy. 10th planet looked really strong and had many people in the quarter finals. They are also the only team with 2 winners.
I know Mo Jassim said this would be the greatest ADCC of all time, but sometimes its hard to get hyped up. After these trials, I'm hoping on the hype train. If the atheles can keep up this level of competition ADCC 2022 will be the greatest grappling competition in history.
Year to Date Stats
Here are the year to date submission stats. This event really added a lot of data, so check it out.
Excellent post. The Adam Benayoun triangle armbar was magical. In the cradle pass to side and then mount in the womens match it seemed like she was glued to her opponent.
ReplyDeleteYeah, these trials were great. Even the matches that didn't end in subs were good. I hope ADCC lives up to these trials. That armbar was amazing. Sub of the year contender.
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