What we learned from the 2022 Europe, Africa & Middle East Trials

The European, African and Middle Eastern 2022 ADCC Trials have just finished so let's talk about the winner and the results. We are now getting close to the actual ADCC event and most of the spots have now been filled. These trials features a lot of action and a good amount of submissions. It was also nice seeing some new faces and young talent at these trials. Most of the competitors aren't as well knows as people in the other trials, but that means its a good chance for people to make names for themselves. Lets take a look at the winners for each division. 

Winners

Men

-66kg Sam McNally def Robin Bohlin via points (3 - 0)

-77kg Tommy Langaker def Mateusz Szczeinski via RNC

-88kg Santeri Lilius def Bruno Lima via decision

 -99kg Luke Griffith def Mario Owen Livesey via RNC

+99 Daniel Manasiou def  Muslim Patsarigov via arm triangle

Women

-60kg Julia Maele def Peyton Letcher via decision

+60kg Eleftheria Christodolou def Ane Svendsen via decision

How People Won

Women -60kg

Women in this division were very aggressive and were jumping on submissions when given the opportunity. This caused a lot of movement and overall the matches were interesting although fewer than 50% of matches ended in submission. This was a fairly small division so it 

Women +60kg

This division was a bit slow, but overall not bad. We saw mostly women trying to use their top game as you'd expect, but there were a few trying to play a more dynamic bottom games such as Maria Malyjasiak. There wasn't a ton of stalling, but the action in this division wasn't as good as what was seen in some others. Also I didn't understand how Eleftheria Christodolou won her finals match, but sometimes ADCC scoring is a mystery. 

Men -66kg

This division was pretty good over all. They almost reached the 50% submission threshold and they also showed a wide variety of submissions. The main attack here was getting to the back using various methods. Many people were using reverse de la riva to invert and create scrambles, others were taking the back off of passing and other were just taking the back off of takedowns. 

Men -77kg

This is the only division that had more than 50% of the matches end in submission and these matches were great. This division also had the most star power. The fighters in this division were hungry and went hard after submissions. The variety of submission is indicative of the diverse styles of the competitors of this division. If you can only watch one division, choose this one.

Men -88kg

In this weight class 69.4% of the matches ended without a submission, which is a bit disappointing. I appreciated the variety of techniques, but unfortunately there were times it wasn't that interesting. This division had a bigger emphasis on physicality, but in a grinding style that wasn't always so interesting. Of course there were exceptions and some of the matches were great. 

Men -99kg

This division had a 44.4% submission rate, which isn't too bad and I feel we like we got a variety of submissions out of this division. One strange thing is that there weren't any arm submissions, which is a bit strange. Surprisingly there were quite a few leg submissions and some people were really going after leg entanglements. I think many people's strategy was to try to catch an early leg lock before their opponent got warmed up. That proved to be an effective strategy in this weight class. 

Men +99kg

This is the heaviest division and is historically the one with the least action. They didn't do much to get rid of that notion and only 39.1% of the matches ended in finishes. Of course there were good matches and a lot of them were fun and interesting. There were also very few matches in this division. I appreciated the variety of submissions here.

Total

Overall the these trials had a 44.6% submission rate. There were some amazing submissions and gret matches, but there were some that weren't all that exciting. I was happy to see very little stalling and most competitors were trying to make things happen, but there were a lot of stalemates. On the feet they could have been a little quicker with the stalling calls, just to keep things moving. The RNC is still king and is the dominant submission in every weight class. 

Trends

There were a few things I saw at these trials and they seem to be things that we've seen at the previous trials as well. The bodylock pass is becoming very popular and you're seeing it in multiple weight classes. Multiple people were locking it up from various positions and they were having a decent amount of success using it to pass the guard.

It seems that the style of back control promoted by the DDS over the last decade has finally started to take over with almost everyone using a variation of it. Most people are trying to trap and arm and everyone is choking people over the jaw. The rear triangle is also showing up fairly regularly, which is surprising seeing as it was a very rare move only about 4 or 5 years ago. 

Although were some people that showed great stand up skills for the most part I felt like most competitors seemed tentative in that area. Those that actually made an effort seemed to do well and this helped them secure victory. For example Tommy Langaker went for a double leg takedown in his finals match and was able to take the top position. I'd never seen Tommy wrestle before and I'm sure this threw his opponent off. The same could be said of leg locks. The people who used them were finishing people fairly quickly, but only a few specialist seemed interested in going after them. 

Looking at passing and guard play, the reverse de la riva seemed to be popular, but butterfly guard seemed to be the more effective position even though fewer people were using it. One reason for the use of RDLR might have been their opponents forcing the position. There seems to have been a shift in passing with more people using the HQ(headquarters) position to start their passing. This seemed to be very effective and shut down a lot of offense from the bottom players. This position along with the bodylock seemed to be the preferred place to launch passes from.

Breakout Stars

Tommy Langaker was already knows, but I'd only seen 1 no-gi match of his before this. He was mainly thought of as a gi specialist, but here he made a statement and has shown he can be effective in submission grappling as well. 

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Mateusz Szczeinski also showed a very nice aggressive game using ankle locks and heel hooks. I'm guessing he'll win the next time around. His game looked very sharp. 

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Chris Wojick looked good again here and his well rounded game was giving people a lot of trouble. I believe he's still young and not even a black belt yet, but I expect to see him in ADCC in a few years.

Julia Maele was someone I hadn't heard of before, but she ended up winning and looked good in the process. Hopefully this will help her get some invites to some pro shows as well.

Both Luke Griffith and Dan Manasiou had breakout performances in the last 2 months and they showed why they are 2 of the hottest heavy weight stars. Lots of submissions and skills we don't often see in the larger divisions. Both of them have a bright future ahead of them and with their styles can go far in the upper weight divisions. 

Overall

These trials had some good action and finishes. It wasn't as exciting as some of the other trials, but it wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. It seems like most of the competitors have got the message that they need to work. I saw little to no stalling for the win and most people were attempting to submit their opponents even if they didn't get close to doing so. 

Personally I don't feel the level was as high here as what we saw in the NA and SA trials, however there were individual competitors that are definitely world class. More importantly they are getting better and instead of this region being far behind the others, I think now they are quickly catching up.

I don't know what is happening with the Asia trials, but I'll do those if possible, but they might be canceled. No matter what happens I'll be doing previews and breakdowns of the ADCC championship as well as some stat breakdowns, so be sure to keep checking this blog.

Year to Date Stats

Here are the year to date submission stats. This event really added a lot of data, so check it out.