Finding EBI's exploit

I'll preface by saying that EBI is my favorite BJJ thing to watch. Great action, great jiu-jitsu. My question is whether Joe Soto exposed a kink in EBI, found an "exploit" so to speak. I mean. He was pretty much dominated by Geo and Joao for 10 minutes: meaning he was in disadvantageous positions through both matches. BUT he couldn't be tapped. In overtime, that first round he held onto both Geo and Joao instead of really going for a sub (from my arm-chair vantage point). After that, he secured the victory by escaping while Geo and Joao WENT FOR SUBS in the overtime, allowing Joe to escape faster.

I am afraid that now that BJJers saw this, it will harm the overtime rules by fighters making it a hugfest.

Any thoughts? Disagree? All the best.

I was thinking the exact same thing when I watched it, and it became much more obvious in second OT. He was much stronger than both of them so it played perfectly for him. I don't think it's an exploit tho as any of those guys could've caught him so a dangerous game to play.....it just worked this time in his favor

Yeah I'm not sure i agree it's an exploit. Geo and Miyao had 3 rounds to sub him or escape faster. They just need to sharpen that more.

If Geo Choked him the first round, than maybe Soto would've been thinking "ah i should've went for the kill".

Well you can do that shit all you want but you won't be getting paid for it....

I think it's a game plan a person could have for sure. You know you're giving up the money if you take that route though. And you take the risk of A: tiring yourself out (which I think somewhat happened to Soto by the time he got to the finals) and B: if you get subbed in any OT or before you lose. So I'm not sure it's all that great of a game plan or if it would pay off.

I don't think Soto really played that game though. His jits was pretty explosive and impressive as far as I saw. It was quite impressive to me to see an MMA guy have better back control than a Miyao brother. That's Miyao's game and Soto beat him at it. I wouldn't say that Miyao was going for subs in OT, he was just trying to control Soto and he couldn't.

If Miyao would have beat out Soto by being 15 seconds quicker, it's unlikely he would of tapped to Cummings leg locks as we have seen him with Tonon just not be subbed to legs. So then we see another OT and Miyao wins with a 0$ prize pool? Could have happened for sure and I still wouldn't argued Miyao tried to do that, it's just what happened and how his style matched up with the other guys.

But yes, I do think we will see some guys choose to just slow things down in OT if they get taken there. I don't think we will see many try to get there because of the money incentive, cardio etc. But if a match gets taken to OT then yes I think there will be guys who decide holding a person for more time is better than trying for a risky sub.

Maybe setting up a time limit for the first two OT rounds is a good idea to try and limit how much time OT can take up? Or make the first two rounds time not matter, then just the third round have it be time and sub? Then you have the first two rounds where you just want to try a submission and the last round where there is strategy.

As prize money continues to go up, this will be less of a issue.

I could see a lot of MMA fighters with good sub defense and good explosive escapes employing this strategy with a lot of effectiveness.

I don't think Soto was gaming the system. He almost tapped Geo with an Inverted Heel Hook at one point.

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Originally Posted by Ben Eddy

I think it's a game plan a person could have for sure. You know you're giving up the money if you take that route though. And you take the risk of A: tiring yourself out (which I think somewhat happened to Soto by the time he got to the finals) and B: if you get subbed in any OT or before you lose. So I'm not sure it's all that great of a game plan or if it would pay off.

I don't think Soto really played that game though. His jits was pretty explosive and impressive as far as I saw. It was quite impressive to me to see an MMA guy have better back control than a Miyao brother. That's Miyao's game and Soto beat him at it. I wouldn't say that Miyao was going for subs in OT, he was just trying to control Soto and he couldn't.

If Miyao would have beat out Soto by being 15 seconds quicker, it's unlikely he would of tapped to Cummings leg locks as we have seen him with Tonon just not be subbed to legs. So then we see another OT and Miyao wins with a 0$ prize pool? Could have happened for sure and I still wouldn't argued Miyao tried to do that, it's just what happened and how his style matched up with the other guys.

But yes, I do think we will see some guys choose to just slow things down in OT if they get taken there. I don't think we will see many try to get there because of the money incentive, cardio etc. But if a match gets taken to OT then yes I think there will be guys who decide holding a person for more time is better than trying for a risky sub.

Maybe setting up a time limit for the first two OT rounds is a good idea to try and limit how much time OT can take up? Or make the first two rounds time not matter, then just the third round have it be time and sub? Then you have the first two rounds where you just want to try a submission and the last round where there is strategy.

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I agree with this.

That's pretty much the only thing I could come up with. There seems to be risk when going for the submission in OT, as it can make it easier for the defensive person to escape and get a time advantage. Then in the next round that person (now offense) can further increase his time advantage through stalling, committing 100% to maintaining position and control.

What if the first 2 or 3 rounds had time limits and no escape time accumulation? This would take the risk of accumulative escape time off of the offensive person and because of the time limit, increase the urgency for submission. -Although this would mean the defensive person could try and stall till time ran out because escape would not be urgent.

Then if it got past these rounds it would go into one or two standard no time limit, timed escape rounds. And again the offensive person could stall, but at least for the first 2 or 3 rounds the person on offense would get to really go after the finish with out putting themselves at a disadvantage.