What We Learned from PGF Season 8

 

PGF just finished season 8 and this might have been the best season yet. I was a bit disappointed coming in because it didn't seem to have many big names, but some actually joined after the draft. Not only that, but many of the unknown people stepped up and put on a show. I'm looking forward to seeing many of these people in the future and hopefully this is a stepping stone to get them into other promotions as well. I liked the new longer format of the PGF, so that things are spread out over weeks instead of 5 consecutive days. I think this gives people some time to think, talk, etc. 

Overall the season was great and below I'll give the stats for the playoffs and then the complete season 8 stats. Keep in mind that these stats aren't 100% complete since I didn't cover every match and unfortunately I missed Day 2 due to being on vacation, but I think this gives a good snap shot of the season. Now let's take a look at the results.

Results

Dominic Mejia def Brady Branscum via Anklelock

Raphael Ferreira def Dom Lobo via Inside heelhook

Jett Thomson def Matt Masch via Aoki lock

Derek Rayfield def Mike John via Anklelock

Dominic Mejia def  Raphael Ferreira via EBI OT

Jett Thomson def Derek Rayfield via EBI OT

Maka Vickers def Ally Wolski via Kimura

Jett Thomson def Dominic Mejia via EBI OT

How People Won (Playoffs)

The playoffs kept the same frantic action we got all season culminating in a back and forth finals match which had Jett Thomson come out as champion. As you can see 62.5% of the matches ended in submission and many of them ended in a minute or less. Strangely, there were no chokes and leglocks were by far the most common submission. In particular people really wanted to go for ankle locks and there were 2 of them here, along with an aoki lock. The decisions here were EBI overtime wins since the playoffs use a modified version of those rules. 

Stats (Playoffs)

How People Won (Totals)

Stats (Totals)

Overall

This was a great season of the PGF. There was a ton of action and submissions this season. In fact if you look down below you can see this event had the 2nd highest watchability score and the 3rd highest action score out of any event I've covered this year. That isn't much else to say. Just watch it if you haven't already. I think this PGF likely produced some of the grappling stars of tomorrow and it is free. Recently there has been a ton of great free content on youtube and hopefully this will grow the sport and bring you new eyes into pro BJJ. 

There are a lot of good BJJ events coming up in the near future, so stay tuned for that.

Year to Date