I am thinking for starting my own local competition, I want to know what you guys believe is the best rule set to use. I would also like to know what you guys think makes good competitions good.
Some things I want for the competition:
Sub only is stupid, but a period where points aren’t scored I can get behind.
I honestly don’t mind the major rules of ibjjf scoring, its more the minor rules.
EBI rules 
Do you mean existing ruleset that you could use, or perhaps coming up with your own custom rules?
Both. I am conflicted because everything has pros and cons.
Sub Only has pros and cons
Grappling Industries has pros and cons
I am just not sure what is best, and what people like more.
Sub only. Points rewards playing it safe.
Watch sub UG, watch EBI, watch mundial.
One is boring as all hell.
First one to submit - wins!
I think a no points period is tight, it’ll keep the cheesiness of sub only out with allowing athletes to YOLO which is what lower belts do anyways in the first minute or two. Brown and black belts dont compete anyways at smaller tournaments so cater to blue and white belts.
Maybe double elimination as well. We’'ve all seen that one white belt who pulled himself into mount in the first 30 seconds of his first match. Give them a chance to gain experience and want to come back
I think grappling competitions should be as real as possible. No time limit, no points, you’re allowed to just jump a guy and stab him with a screwdriver … all that sh*t
Positional domination is just as good as a submission and in a lot of cases better for any kind of practical grappling application.
Giving up position for a submission in many cases goes against what jiu jitsu is truly about. Also, certain joint locks aren’t going to do a ton in the moment if someone really wants to hurt you and is possibly psychotic and or on substances.
Any rule set that penalizes sitting on your ass without any contact. That shit is the stupidest part of our sport, exactly the opposite of actual combat
There’s going to be gaming of any ruleset.
(even in mma, you can flop on your butt and hope your opponent follows you)
I don’t think there’s any ruleset that’s simply best.
I like having a variety of rulesets.
If I was doing a club style tournament I’d do a lot of the standard things like banning slams, restrictions on certain grips, neck cranks and most most foot locks below purple or blue at least. I know some people hate that but realistically, most competitors are 2-3 say a week working stiffs who have to pay the bills.
But in MMA you don’t have to engage, you can make them stand up again,
In Bjj you must engage if the opponent is on his butt, you must try to pass or get penalized.
So we see people just sitting on there ass and shuffling forward like a dog with an itchy ass.
It is beyond ridiculous that a so called combat sport allows this
I’ve written this out before, but my ideal ruleset would be as follows:
Points for side control (2pts), mount (3pts) and back control (3pts) only.
No points for sweeps/takedowns, guard passing, or knee on belly
7 min match, win by sub or first to 10 points. If match goes full length, then winner is fighter with most points.
My reasoning is as follows:
If BJJ is supposedly about “position before submission”, then we should be rewarding gaining dominant control positions, not sweeps or takedowns. If I take you down and land in your guard, I don’t have control. But yet currently I score points for that, despite you having more ability to control me then I have to control you. Same with sweeps - I can sweep and end up in your half guard, still lacking dominant control. So I don’t think that should score.
As for removing guard passing points, you’ll still get points if you get past the guard and establish control from either side mount or mount. But what you won’t get is passing points plus mount points if you pass straight to mount. You just get the mount points, which to me is enough reward for passing guard. I don’t think extra points are needed.
The final difference is the ability to end the match early via points victory. It was used years in a comp in SoCal and by all accounts was very well received. Plus I think it’s fucking pointless to have matches where someone racks up 20 points. If you’re scoring anytime you want, just fucking get the submission and stop being a show off.
First to 3 subs. 30 seconds with no sub attempt, restart in locked in arm bar or rear naked choke. No taps accepted.
strobe lights, blasting dub step music, and the floor covered in broken glass. Everyone gets a bowl of scalding hot soup, and one person has a knife.
One MONKEY has a knife.
Grindr ruleset
I’d stick pretty close to an established ruleset for your first comp. If you start making up your own without running a few test events then they’re going to be unevenly/unclearly refereed and that tends to put people right off.
My focus for the white/blue belt/novice/whatever divisions would be getting people as many matches as possible, whether that’s via double elimination/round robin for the smaller divisions, letting everyone into the absolute or running a “challenge mat” where people can sign up for extra matches against whoever. The most common reason people are upset after their first comp is getting steamrolled in 30 seconds and having no opportunity to get back in for another crack.
Depending where you are you might get fewer signups for the higher skill brackets, in which case it might be better to run a couple of super fights or -76kg/+76kg brown/black belt tournament to give people a bit more exposure and generate a sense of occasion. You can even hand out championship belts for those to encourage those more advanced guys to come back and defend.
This one might be a bit more location specific, but in the UK I’d get someone who has run a couple of wrestling or Judo comps to be in charge of the brackets weigh-ins etc. if at all possible because they actually have courses that train people how to do it.