PGF Season 8 Week 1

PGF is back and this time we have a new format. Previously all the matches were done over a week and although that provided a week of intense action it was grueling for the competitors(and maybe the viewers as well). Now the matches will be spread out over weeks, so there will be time to talk about what happened and everyone will have a chance to breath. PGF will stream on youtube every Weds from July 23 to Aug 20th(The perfect warmup for CJI 2). Now let's look at the teams.

You can find out more info about PGF here.

You can watch the whole event here

Teams

THE NEW HOPE KINGS

Coach Robert Drysdale

Jett Thompson


Anthony Gojani


Anthony Molina


Juan Martinez


Dominic Lobo



THE ALABAMA TWISTERS

Coach Renato Canuto

Matt Masch


Jordan Wirth


Kris Olivo


Raphael Ferreira


Brady Hylton



TEAM DOLLAMUR

Coach Andy Varela

Brady Branscum


Mike John


Armin Bruni


Landon Elmore


Christos Papadelos



THE TROPIC THUNDERS

Coach Mica Cipili

Zack Schneider


JJ Bowers


Robert Blackledge


CJ Murdock


John Chandler

How People Won

Due to the high number of matches, I won't be covering all of them. I'll include the highest level athletes matches as well as a few matches that are interesting to me, but hopefully that will give a good snapshot of the event.

For some reason there were only leglocks and draws in the matches I covered, but sometimes that happens. As I said, I didn't cover every match, but I made sure I didn't know the results before I started collecting the stats, so as not to bias the process. I think this shows that there were a good number of finishes though and luckily, even though there were lots of leglocks, there was some variety there, which you can see below.
 

Stats

Overall

This was a good start to the event. We got a good amount of subs and action. This is what I like about the smaller competitors. They can go all day, but luckily they don't have to and the 6min rounds seem to be just right. I think they did a better job with the stalling calls this season as well and they really helped to keep the action moving. I was a bit suprised that season favorite Jett Thomson wasn't able to get any subs, but if you've ever watched PGF before you know there are always suprises. Another teenage phenom really impressed me here, Raphael Ferreira. I hadn't heard of him before, but he looked really dangerous and exciting today. 

As there are a number of events this weekend, I'll show the year to date stats in a future post. Before you go, let's take a look at the team standings though.

Team Dollamar - 16

Alabama Twisters - 15

The New Hope Kings -14

The Tropic Thunders - 12