It seems to me that your implicit criticism is this: that somehow the "better" guy might lose the match. Now, it might be that in your opinion a match and a tournament is to "find out" who's the best. But I don't look at it that way, and the explicit goals of EBI are different.
EBI's stated goals:
- Make jiujitsu matches exciting
- Encourage competitors to attack
We've only seen serious stalling once: Denny vs. Orchard. Nevertheless, I think that match was exciting as hell, as the storyline became, "Can Denny survive the Orchard onslaught?" He hung tough after a few early scares and secured the OT win. Nice. Having multiple viable strategies to win is not a bad thing.
The overemphasis on winning any single match or any single tournament is, in my opinion, an odd way of looking at a martial art that is about technique, humility, and respect. What does it even mean to be "better" someone else? Are you better at attacking a few submissions? Better at securing what you call dominant positions? Better at gameplanning and strategizing for the dramatically different rules of a particular competition, be it IBJJF, ADCC, or EBI? I feel that these are all valid aspects of our art, and as I get older I don't mind any of them coming to the fore.
While we're on the subject, I think we should talk about dominant positions. If we're in a submission-only framework, if a competitor achieves dozens of 'dominant' positions, but is unable to procure a submission, then how dominant were those positions? If all we care about in a given match is the submission (like practice rolls often are), then what does it matter if I'm mounted or not? It would be interesting to look at real statistics, but it seems to me like we rarely see matches finished from mount, even though this is traditionally considered a dominant position. Maybe this is why we talk about deadzones, the dominant positions of sub-only, using different language. Perhaps our entire paradigm needs to adjust.
Looking at all of the events so far, I as a fan consider them a resounding success. As a competitor, I would give years off of my life to be able to compete in such an amazing event in front of an educated audience.
Originally Posted by
Liquidrob
I like EBI and what Eddie is doing, but I'm not a fan of the OT rules, I don't really have a better suggestion yet , but the current OT rules don't do it for me
Its forced, there are guys who never get a dominant position all match than get put it back mount or armbar position with a chance to win? Doesn't make sense IMO
If you know you're a not a better grappler, have little chance to sub in regulation, you can stall for OT, also once the caliber of the tournament gets higher, there will be way more OTs, just not enough time to sub someone
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