The hints that this tournament was going to have problems started about four days before the event. Someone reached out to me and asked if I wanted to ref in exchange for a paycheck, I said yes. To make a long, boring, overly confusing story short, I wasn’t allowed to compete and ref at the same time so I decided to compete. Upon arriving it was clear that there was very little communication between the event organizers and the people manning the tables. In addition to this there were also technical difficulties with their bracketing system.
The biggest issue I had with the event is that it was unable to attract enough competitors in my divisions. The absolute no gi division was easy to fill because the requirements are the largest. The gi absolute division got canceled. My weight class in no gi only had one other person besides me and my teammate from an affiliate school. Lastly, the gi division for my weight class had major issues that I will write about next to the match replay below.
These annoyances are things that don’t really impact much in the long run. What I was able to take away from this tournament was a few good grappling matches and a lot of good memories. It was really fun joking around and my teammates on the sidelines and jumping into coach when no one was available because three people were on at different mats at the same time. My favorite part was the car ride home after all the chaos of the day was done and I got to crack jokes with my coach and teammates in the back of a black hummer. It remined me of the bus rides I use to take while playing soccer my freshman year of highschool.
