What We Learned from the 2nd ADCC European, African and Middle Eastern Trials

The final European, Middle Eastern and African Trials have just finished and we have 8 new people going to the ADCC 2024 championship. We got a lot of new names going and many I haven't seen before. Let's look at the results and see who is going.

Results

Men's

-66kg Gairbeg Ibragimov (2nd Yigit Hanay, 3rd Ash Williams)

-77kg Tommy Langaker (2nd Davis Asare, 3rd Oliver Taza)

-88kg Taylor Pearman(2nd Ben Bennett, 3rd Adam Wardzinski )

-99kg Marcin Maciulewicz (2nd Kasper Larsen, 3rd Daniel Ladero)

+99kg  Mark MacQueen ( 2nd Fredric Vosgroene, 3rd Jean Maltese)

Women's

-55kg Margot Ciccarelli(2nd Ashley Bendle, 3rd Julia Maele) 

-65kg Aurelie Le Vern(2nd Nora Naomi Schultz, 3rd  Gamila Kanew)

+65kg Nia Blackman(2nd Salla Simola, 3rd Maria Malyjasiak)

How People Won

For this event I only covered the finals, 3rd place and semifinal matches. Not all matches are included here, so as you can see the numbers a fewer than normal. Also this might bias the stats a bit since the competitors were closer in skill level. However I was still a bit disappointed in some divisions due to the amount of point victories. Some people were going for the kill the whole time, but others were coasting a bit. That said, we still got a good number of submissions although strangely no arm submissions. I'm sure some happened, but not in the semi-finals onward. Leg submissions also come in higher than chokes, which is also a bit strange. 

Stats

The inside heelhook came in #1 here followed by the outside heelhook and the RNC. These are fairly standard, but we also got 1 calf slicer, which we don't see often. It is always nice to be reminded that these niche techniques can be useful even at the highest level. 

The double leg takedown came out on top here followed by the single leg and the bodylock. There were a number of throws here such as knee taps and uki goshis too. People seem to be finding their own style and we got to see a wide variety of approaches. This seems to be the same in all regions. 

There weren't too many sweeps, but the number 1 here was the hook sweep. This might be due to Adam Wardzenski, a master of this sweep. Overall it seems that people weren't able to easily sweep their opponents, so these people must have had some good base. 

 

Passing also wasn't too common with only half guard passes scoring multiple times. The bodylock is usually quite successful, but here it was shut down. The knee slice pass had the same problem, with no success in these matches. 

The saddle was the winner here, with as many finishes as failures. It seemed to be the place where athletes were getting put away. Leglocks seem like the finish of choice here and the saddle was the place where they were launched from. 

Action

Above you can see the amount of action per 5 min of time. I'll give you the 2023 average as a reference. The 2023 action average was 6.5 per 5min and 1.68 techniques per 5 min. These matches fell under the Action average and the Technique average. These matches aren't bad, but I've definitely seen better. Perhaps if I included all matches, they would have faired better as you would get some of the superstars blowing through low level competition. These scores are better than the Australia Oceania trials from last year, but well below the WNO and Polaris events. 

I also added a new stat, the "Good Technique Ratio", which is simply the technique score divided by the action score. This tells us how often we actually see a technique succeed. That way we can see if people are just spamming moves or if they are actually able to finish their techniques. The closer it is to 1 the better, but in this case it is possible to go over 1. The close it is to 0 the worse. This is the first time I've done this, so I don't have any previous data for it. 

Youtube

You can hear more on my thoughts about this event here.

Overall

This was a pretty good event, but I don't know if it was a must watch. I think Tommy Langaker and Taylor Pearman put on great performances, so definitely check those matches out. It was great to see the development of European grappling and the improvements over the course of the last few years. There seems to be a changing of the guard and new fresh faces are in for ADCC this time. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are done, but we still have 2 South American and a single Trial for both North America and Asia/Australia. Be sure to check back for those and more. Also subscribe to my Youtube channel if you haven't done that. 

Year to Date Stats

Not much change here, but these are the current submission stats for 2024.