Ralek Gracie talked to bloodyelbow.com about the judging system that will be tested in Metamoris 2.
“T.P.: Do you ever think there is going to be a point system that could give us what you think a submission only match would give us?
Gracie: I’m working on it man. What we have now is three judges who are going to make the decision, and we want these three judges to basically make the decision on their experience as masters of the art and essentially curating it, like art. Saying ‘Ok, this person won’ and they’ll give a whole list of reasons, and we’ll film them after the event and release that to the public. So that it’s an educational process, they’re explaining why they made their decision.
And they have 2 options in their decision, they can decide on a win or they can decide on a draw. And there’s no points. There is no ‘I think you get 3 points for this sweep’, no it has to be an overall, overwhelming domination, with real technique and strategy and positioning and angles and all these things that they are going to be able to see as a master, but… they’ll just be able to see, they’ll just be able to know it’s there, and then they’ll be able to make that decision. And it’s actually a very simple thing at that point. What’s difficult is being able to explain why they made that decision. And that’s what we are looking for. We are looking for judges who not only are masters and have a reputation, but speak amazing English and are actually very articulate.
That’s the hardest trouble for me right now. Like for me, if I was a judge, I could watch a match and Buchecha clearly had the upper hand against Roger, he was controlling the pace, he was way more aggressive with submissions, and got a close submission attempt and it was extremely close. I could describe that for 5 minutes explain in detail what happened watching that match, and that’s what we want, we want the true reflection of jiu-jitsu, and we want unbiased judges who can curate the art of these athletes, and we want to create a space where it’s open and we can showcase the best in the world in a very open way.
T.P.: Have you picked those judges yet? You said you were in the process of… do you have a few judges in mind? Have you picked them already?
Gracie: We have one, we have Pedro Sauer and he’s just a very well-known black belt, actually he’s a black and red belt. And just a very solid guy, very articulate. I was on the phone with him and he really felt me, the way that he was talking about the approach of being a judge for this, it sounded just right. So we’re excited, and he’s kinda on the level of criteria we’re expecting as far as being able to really make a decision, and stick to it and explain the decision, and be accountable for their decision to the public. Which has never been done before, so it should be interesting.”
