PGF Season 6 Finale and Week Round Pp

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PGF Seaon  6 has just wrapped up and we have a winning team and a winning player. We crowned the winning team, X Martial Arts, yesterday and yesterday there was an 8 man EBI tournament to determine the best player. We've been waiting all week for this, so let's take a look at the matches and the winners.

Results


 PJ Barch def. Davis Asare via  inside heelhoook

 Andy Varela def. Kevin Beuhring via RNC

 Elijah Carlton def. Renato Canuto via inside heelhook

Jett Thomson def. Daniel Sathler via RNC 

Matt Elkins def. John Chandler via guillotine (Battle-rama tournament)

Evan DeWitt def. Alvaro Pinedo via EBI OT (Battle-rama tournament)

Andy Varela def. PJ Barch via EBI OT

Jett Thomson def. Elijah Carlton via aoki lock 

Matt Elkins def. Evan DeWitt via RNC (Battle-rama tournament final)

Nakaiya Jackson def. Kaida DeWitt via EBI OT (Women's Title Match)

Andy Varela def. Jett Thomson via EBI OT (Season 6 Champion)



Team Winner - X-Martial Arts

Tournament Winner - Andy Varela




Finale Stats

Here are the stats for the 8 man tournament, Battle-rama tournament and female title fight.



Regular Season Stats

Here are the stats for the regular season. I was going to combine the finale tournament stats with these, but decided not to. The match times and rules are different, so I believe it is better to look at them separately.



In the regular season we got 60.8% of matches going to a draw and 39.3% being submissions. Of those chokes and leglocks lead the way and armlocks came in 3rd. This is consistent with the general trends we see as far as the distribution of subs goes. 
 
Something that should be noted is that the submission percentage was pulled down by the first day when people were still trying to figure out the format and the stalling calls were less strict. After stricter stalling calls were instituted, the amount of finishes increased. 



The RNC was number 1 the inside heelhook was close behind. There were quite a few rare submissions as well that we usually don't see. Wristlocks, Texacloverleaves and Estima locks were all present. I always like to see variety when it comes to subs and we got a lot of interesting stuff here. 


The single legg came in at number 1,which is what we usually see. That was followed by the double leg and the Snapdown. The Snapdown is a it rare, but there were actually multiple D1 wrestlers competing in season 6,so they made great use of this technique. There were also a surprising number of slide-bus and I general this technique has become more popular over the last year or so. 


Subs sweeps were number 1 here. These are sweeps that come about because someone is trying to avoid being submitted, so they let their opponents get on top. The classic example is from the omoplata, but most of these actually come from leg locks. They proved to be effective not only for subs, but also for sweeping. 

The next most common sweep was the hook sweep or butterfly sweep. This was followed by roll back sweeps, and then single and double legs. Usually wrestle ups are number 1,but here traditional sweeps were more effective. I imagine this is due to the number of wrestlers present. Who wants to wrestle up on a D1 all American? 


The Torreando pass came out on top here. This was mostly due to Andy Varela, but others were hitting it as well. I don't know if this is an isolated incident or if we will see this more in the future. Whatever the case is, in season 6 they were certainly effective. 

Halfguard passes and kneeslices came in next. Some people are wondering what is the difference between them. I define kneeslices as passes starting outside halfguard and halfguard passes as any type of pass starting inside halfguard. Both of these types of passes scored 11 times. There were also other passes such as bodylocks and smash passes being done as well. Overall there was a lot of diversity when it came to passing approaches. 


The back scored the most as expected , while 50/50 came in 2nd and this was mostly due to PJ Barch. The mount did surprisingly badly with only 1 finish. Side control and knee on belly had no subs, which is shocking considering people were in the positions nearly 100 times during the week. There seems to be a real problem when it comes to finishing from the top, but to be fair this isn't strictly in the PGF. It is a general trend I've noticed.  


The action score was 7.6 was pretty far above the average of  6.5 for 2023. The technique score was 2.4 which is also a significant improvement over 1.68 which is last years average. I think the format along with the stalling calls helped boost up the action levels. The technique score was also impressive and I was happy to see so many passes and sweeps. Not only is it fun to watch, but there is a lot to learn from this event.

It should be noted that these are based on 5 minute intervals, so an action score that hight means we are seeing something attempted at least once a minute and an actual technique being done about every other min. I think that is a fairly good pace for a grappling match. 


Thoughts

Personally I really liked the format because of 2 reasons. I got to see the athletes that I liked multiple times during the week. I feel that the PGF let everyone shine and show what they could do. Take Ben Eddy for example. He didn't win most of his matches, but his fans wanted to see him use his rubberguard and when he used it he got the sub. I think most of the athletes had moments like that. Even if they didn't look good the whole time, they at least had good moments.

The other reason is that new stars were made. I'd never heard of Jett Thomson before, but his aggressiveness and technique made me want to see him again. He might have the best Aoki lock I've ever seen and he tapped out a lot of people I wouldn't have expected.  

Jett shows off his signature Aoki lock


Andy Varela really showed his skills and that he is a top competitor at 77kgs. I was surprised at how good his passing was and his finishes from the back. He looked good and is now $20k richer. By the same token Elijah Carlton, Davis Asare, Dane Leak, David Evers and Nathan Haddad got to split $100K and I'm sure that is the most many of them have ever earned for an event.  Also, Jean Jacques gets to taunt Rigan at the next Machado family BBQ.

I was happy to see grapplers getting money and an enjoyable show being put on. Too often we see shows that are boring and the matches aren't fun. I think this format made things interesting and the team element did a lot to add to the excitement. 


The Good & The Bad 


The stalling calls really helped bring the excitement and momentum back to the matches when things started getting stale. The first day there were very few calls and things dragged, but on day 2 the calls were more strict and things improved. You can not only see it by watching it, but it showed up in the stats as well. 

The only complaint about the stalling calls I had was just the overall consistency of them. There were times where I thought there should have been calls, but it didn't happen. I'd like to see a system where there is a 30 sec shot clock before the penalty is called to bring a sense of urgency and excitement. Of course this should be on screen so the viewers can see it. If the athlete has a clear scoring attempt or escape attempt from a bad position then remove the clock. Have a judge watch 1 of the athletes and keep a timer set for 1 min during the match. If they have a clear scoring attempt restart the clock, but if it reaches 1 min, announce the 30 sec shot clock and let the athlete try to work before they are penalized. I think this would keep things more consistent. Hopefully something like this would add an interesting element that would make using the clock against people a strategy.  


The matches themselves were good and I was happy that there were a wide variety of styles. It wasn't all wrestling, or leglocks or rubberguard. We got to see a lot of different approaches and I think no matter what style of grappling you like to watch, it was there. I think the roster was really good and even some of the people I thought would be jobbers turned in good performances. 

A lot of people were complaining about the venue. Of course more mat space is always better, but I didn't think it was particularly small and people weren't constantly going out of bounds. A lot of people online didn't seem to like the couches. I didn't have a problem with it personally, but that's just me. People wanted the pit, but I don't even know if that is feasible. If they can get a pit that's great, but I'm not holding my breath. 

I liked the points aspect as it made the matches have more weight and it was interesting following the various fighters over the week. 

I think the biggest problem with the points was there weren't graphics for the teams or players so it was hard to keep track of who was winning. On the final day it became clear, but on the previous days it was sometimes hard to remember who was winning. I hope next time they have graphics that are displayed at the end of each block, showing who is in the lead. 

As I said before I really liked following the various competitors over the week and seeing them change strategies. I felt like I got to know more about people's styles and strategies as the week went on. 

The only problem with this is the large amount of grappling in the short amount of time. It is a lot for viewers to watch and it must be brutal for the athletes. In a perfect world there would be 1-2 shows every week giving players and audiences could rest. Logistically this doesn't seem possible, but hopefully in the future grappling becomes more popular and athletes can be flown in on private jets like NBA players. Until this this is good.  

Overall 


This is a must watch event IMO, especially because most of it was free on youtube. There were so many submission I'll have to go back and watch to remind myself. Not only was it fun to follow the fighters, but there was so much to learn from this event. It seemed like the fighters themselves learned as the week went on and the matches got better over time. 

Congrats to Andy Varela and to Team X-Martial Arts. They won some real money and hopefully this continues in the future. I'm hoping a season 7 is coming soon. I think this is a real step forward in pro grappling and a unique way to do it. We got the right mix of action and technique while keeping things entertaining and fun. I liked the rules and format, so I'm looking forward to getting another season with new competitors.


Support PGF so we can enjoy new seasons. Watch it free on youtube here.


Or if you want to see the individual matches check out it on smoothcomp. You can find all the matches for each competitor. 

Year to Date

Luckily this event gave us a lot of new data, so here are the updated submissions for 2024.


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