Earlier today, it was announced that the European based grappling promotion would tweak some of its rules. Until now, Polaris had a submission only format, so if there was no winner at the end of the set time limit, then the match was declared a draw. That will no longer be the case. Now, three judges will score the matches based on three different categories. The three categories are aggression, positional control, and submission attempts. Competitors can also lose points for stalling and being overly defensive. A draw is still possible, but now it is less likely to happen.
This is a great move by Polaris. To continue to push professional grappling towards the mainstream, there has to be winners. Winners are who you push to an audience and who you market around. Obviously, winning by submission would be the best outcome, but having matches constantly go to a draw will no longer be a problem. With judges in place, winners will surface and the matches will have more meaning in the grand scheme of things. Polaris always puts on good shows, I just had a problem with all the draws that happened. This was a great move by an already great promotion. For a complete breakdown of the rules visit Polaris
