If you are a part of the BJJ world already for some time you probably heard about organizations such as IBJJF or UAEJJF. Bud did you heard about Jiu-Jitsu World League? If no, it’s time to change it. Beneath you will find all you need to know about it.
What is the Jiu-Jitsu World League?
JJWL is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu organization initiated by Rigan Machado. They describe themself as a competitive BJJ federation. They rank competitors through a series of tournaments using innovative technology and event services. According to Machado, this organization and its events are to be an alternative to tournaments under the IBJJF brand. His other motivation behind the creation of JJWL is also a desire to professionalize BJJ. Machado in one of the interviews said that the problem with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is that the last 20 years, this sport has been amateur. He also added that with the creation of Jiu-Jitsu World League he wanted to push BJJ to be more exciting and have a chance to reach past the amateur level. Machado stated, “I want this sport to be bigger, like any other sport.”.
Events
Their first JJWL event was set in Irvine, California in January of 2015. It was only gi tournament with two open divisions. One for lighter and the other for heavier fighters. The winner of each category claimed 5,000 dollars in a winner-take-all format. Now events are held in USAs cities such as Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego or Houston in both gi and no-gi.
Differences from other BJJ organizations
One of the different things about the Jiu-Jitsu World League is its points system. The rules of JJWL events compared to other tournaments were changed to encourage activity and praise the submissions. The rules Machado has authored award more points for high amplitude throws. Fewer for dominant if static positions like mount and aggressively penalize stalling. A single warning deducts two points from a competitor. The second removes four. Any third warning merits automatic disqualification. They also get rid of advantages and put more focus on overtime. For example, if you’re tied at the end of the match, there will be sudden-death overtime.
Jiu-Jitsu World League ranking
What’s interesting, JJWL also created the ranking of fighters. During tournaments, there are points that determine your place in the league. For example, the victory gives you 10 points. If you end a match by submission your points are doubling. The same is happening if you win by 20 points or higher. You collect points in particular competitions and later they make up a point total for each competitor. This later formulates the ranking system. The more points you get, the higher is your position in the ranking. The best competitors standings can be seen on the JJWL website. There is no breakdown by gender or weight, all fighters are included in one ranking.
Moreover, on their page, you can also find a list of the best individual academies and teams. One of the outstanding clubs here is Brazilian Top Team. It got third place in the affiliations category and BTT Fullerton is the owner of the first place in individual academies standings.
Great announcements, little publicity
Jiu-Jitsu World League was announced as a revolution for the competing world of BJJ. The announcements, however, turned out to be greater than the results. Despite being really well organized, having interesting solutions such as your own fighter profile and team stats, providing cool looking medals and cash payout the tournaments did not gain as much popularity as they could. This state of matters is blamed on the strong locality of the tournament and its small advertising.
