How to run a good Nogi competition?

I live in Ireland where BJJ is in its infancy still. I have travelled up and down the country many times for different competitions some of which were run poorly and some which were decent enough. I was reading about all the success 10th planet had at the Gracie nationals and about how the submission only format seemed to have worked well. It got me thinking about what would be the best way to run a competition.

Most competitions here use IBJJF rules which I am not a big fan of. I don’t like all the stalling and the scoring system itself I think is kind of flawed. Another thing I don’t like is that reaping the knee results in a disqualification.

I have competed in a couple of different comps which use sub only rules. The application of the rules is always a little different for each comp though. One of the issues seems to be time limits and what to do if the time runs out. Do you go with an overtime round or give it to the first takedown or first point scored in a sudden death type situation?

Often with the first takedown it could end up that the better grappler just gets taken down with an ugly tackle and loses. Also this could potentially lead to someone stalling for the whole match hoping to get to a first takedown situation and turning it into a takedown match effectively.

Also what are the weight classes in Nogi comps in your neck of the woods and when do you weigh in? Morning of the competition // Just before you step on the mats (to discourage weight cutting) // The day before the comp (to allow everyone to hydrate)// or something else?

I would like to hear any other points you guys think that make competitions run better or any things that you like / dislike about BJJ competitions in general?

I'm really interested as well. I agree with being done with IBJJF rules. I'd like to start Friday night submission only matches at my school.This way each student and myself can get a crazy amount of tourney experience weekly. Any ideas on the same questiones asked above?

i just participated in the gracie nationals and had done a bunch of local competitions with the ibjjf rules prior to that.

points/winning
i really love the idea of submission only, it totally gets rid of all the stalling in high level competition that can occur once someone gets a point/advantage. this is also what the art is about, finishing.

time limits
this is where it got a little tricky. the practicality of the submission only model comes into question here and imo only here. in the white belt divisions, there was a lot of situations where both people were eliminated because neither could land a sub within the 15 minute timeframe, then in the 135 and under weight class finals (no time limit on finals) we had a 35 minute match. in this division the match landed that long because the execution on their submissions wasn't so hot so it lead to a long ass stalemate.

on the otherhand, ben eddy, a really good blue from 10psf had a 36 minute final round that had a lot of movement, tons of solid sub attempts but it just took a long time to conclude.

Weigh Ins
being able to weigh in a day or two ahead is nice as a competitor but the most honest way is probably right before the match. tricky part for this is logistics, do you want to be dealing with weigh ins at the same time as you are running matches?

Scheduling
i was only there for the 2nd day of the gracie nationals but it sounded like they originally had different belt levels set to start at different times but changed it to all starting about the same time, probably after the experience of the first day. when they have an unlimited time limit on final matches, i think this is smart as you never know which brackets are gonna go 40mins, although it was tricky to get footage of everyone.

Conclusion
the gracie nationals ran pretty well as a model for a competition, can end up with some really long ass matches. long ones at high level probably good, at low level probably not so good.

My favorite tourney is a no points sub only round robin. You fight everyone in your division (maybe two brackets if division is too big), 3 points for a win, 1 point for the draw, 0 points for a lose.

weight classes are always different from organization to organization, and always changing. as far as weighing in is concerned, i think the day of is the best way to do it. the people who know how to cut weight are gonna do it anyway, but this way they are actually rolling at the same weight...not what they weighed yesterday before they hit the buffet and picked those 15-20 back up