While the ADCC has long been nicknamed “the Olympics of the submission grappling world” – with ADCC World Championship gold being considered by most the highest accolade anyone can receive in no-gi jiu-jitsu – the tournament has been making moves in recent times to attract more hobbyist athletes to its ruleset via a growing open tournament circuit.
In a post published to the official ADCC Instagram page, the organization announced early this month that a series of ADCC US Opens would be arriving within the next three months. In the same announcement, the organization teased an ADCC 2024 world championship that would include both juvenile and masters’ divisions, in addition to the traditional – and brutally competitive – adult championship.
It’s creating the beginnings of a tournament circuit that increasingly resembles that of the IBJJF, which has long reigned as the biggest organization in sport jiu-jitsu. However, ADCC tournaments are generally known for an arguably far less restrictive ruleset than their IBJJF cousins, in everything from lax uniform policies to a greater number of permissible attacks during competition.
The man behind ADCC itself, Mo Jassim, commented on the organization’s announcement of its upcoming US open tournaments, “ADCC takeover just starting.” His comment has garnered over 200 likes so far.
The growth of ADCC’s open tournament circuit will likely change the general landscape of the competitive jiu-jitsu scene, where high-prestige competitive options for hobbyists have been limited almost exclusively to the IBJJF majors – and grappling fans seem pretty happy about the possibility of change.
