Acknowledging Kazushi Sakuraba’s Quintet as a revolutionary team grappling concept, Polaris set to work on how to bring more of traditional team sports excitement to grappling. Combining a larger team size and a simple two-team format, Polaris Squads will pit two teams of eight against each other in an 80-minute grappling contest split into two 40-minute halves.
Each team will have four members under 75kg and four members under 95kg. Squads is a winner-stays-on format, with all submissions legal. Each team will send their representative to the stage to battle it out. A submission victory brings one point to the team, and if a -75kg player submits a -95kg player, he will earn three points. Bouts are five minutes in length. In the case of no submission, both players are out. Team Captains can choose any of their team to compete, but once played, a team member becomes inactive until the whole team has been used once, then can be used again. The team with the most points at the end of the second half is the victor.
To kick things off and as a proof of concept, Polaris will be pitting the combined might of Team UK and Ireland against Team Europe. Eight of the best grapplers from Great Britain and Ireland will face off against eight of mainland Europe’s top competitors, leaving scope for national and international level Squads events in future.
Polaris Squads will feature a host of familiar names to Polaris fans and will be released in the coming weeks.
The first ever Polaris Squads will be broadcast on Sunday 27 September exclusively on UFC Fight Pass and will also feature a superfight.
About Polaris:Polaris is a leading global submission grappling promotion featuring many of the best athletes in the world. Polaris events take place all around the UK and can be seen on UFC Fight Pass. Polaris is comprised of an executive team that includes top industry professionals with decades of combined experience in combat sports. Since its inception in 2015, Polaris has featured ADCC champions, world jiu jitsu champions and UFC superstars.
For more information on Polaris, please visit www.polarisprograppling.com
