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Ralek Gracie Details ‘The Road To Metamoris’ Reality Show

Ralek Gracie Details ‘The Road To Metamoris’  Reality Show

 

 

Metamoris last month announced that it was hosting a secret tournament for heavyweight grapplers from all over the world to compete for a chance for a spot in the next Metamoris and to find a challenger for Josh Barnett.

Some famous names that participated included Travis Newaza (owner of Newaza apparel) and Olympic greco-roman wrestling silver medalist and BJJ black belt Adam Wheeler (on top in photo)

 

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Metamoris founder Ralek Gracie talked to Fightland about the concept of this tournament that he calls ‘The road to Metamoris‘ which will be available on their new exclusive network All Access:

 

Fightland: What was the motivation behind this new tournament series?
Ralek Gracie:This is the Pilot, and now we are going to make this available globally. That’s the concept. It’s going to be a global qualifier and we are going to get the best people in every state, every city—we’re going to be the best. And then everything is going to culminate and the final will be here. This is a pilot to get people excited.

What are the rules?
There are four four-men brackets. And each of the four-men brackets fights each other.

It’s not about the number, per se. It could be five-man brackets. In this case, there are four, four-men brackets. The idea is that each man will fight everyone in their bracket but it’s not a traditional round robin. It’s a “Death-Trap” round robin… Basically, if someone has more submissions than you, but you beat them, you move on and you inherit all their wins for yourself. It’s “King of the Hill” style so the brackets will close out very fast.

If one guy ends up winning three matches in a row, and the other two guys are losing (or they just draw) they are not going to be able to catch up with him, they haven’t done their submissions, and they don’t deserve to move on at that point. We also told them that if every match in a bracket ends in a draw they all go home… Needless to say, they were going all-out.

So the people who move on have the most points, and you get a point by getting a submission.
You can call it a point, but it’s just a submission. The number of submissions you get determines your ability to move forward and the main thing is that it keeps it really simple. It’s just about who catches submissions and who doesn’t.

We have been avoiding the point (scoring) system, because whenever you have a point system, you have people trying to game the system, and then it changes the way people train, and it changes the objective. Even, like, giving a point for a submission attempt during a match, you know, which has been suggested to me, it will mutate the way people train because they will attempt that submission—they will look for that point for attempting, because it’s easier to attempt than it is to finish. Always. The distance between finishing a submission…you never know.

Anyone that trains knows there is a huge difference there. So we just want to focus on the submission, I think we always have. We don’t want them thinking about anything else.

That’s what we felt in here when the first couple matches started happening. We are testing it, we are like scientists. We are trying to figure out the way to create a situation where the best athletes will move on—and the best to me has always been defined by submissions, and effectiveness in your ability to close the deal.

So you will have satellite tournaments, and the winners of those will compete at a live event? Will that person be picked to fight, say, Josh Barnett?
Yes. Local, regional, national, and international. Not only that but that final guy—we have built his media package and his presence to where he’s as big as anyone.

We have to do it because there is not enough linear support in the industry. We had to create a linear business model because there’s not enough support for this final step in what we are doing. We kind of went straight to the cream of the crop. There’s not enough of a foundation [in the sport].

As far as our game plan for our site. We are basically creating the Netflix of grappling. Our new website we are launching is going to be only five percent of our content. This is just one little project. The Road to Metamoris is just one piece.

Fighters who win the “road” tournaments are then invited to the stage of the bigger live events, and a chance to compete against big names in the sport.

 

Read the entire interview….