Grappling: Polaris Announces Complete Judging Overhaul

U.K.-based Polaris Professional Jiu Jitsu Invitational announced a complete overhaul to how its grappling contests will be judged moving forward. The impetus behind the modification on how matches will be scored was the draw-plagued Polaris 3 event in April, which didn’t have a single winner on the card.

As terrific as Polaris 3 was in terms of action and fierce competition, every fight was declared a draw. While grappling fans seemed to have an overall positive response to the action during and after the event based on social media activity, the giant elephant in the room was the fact that not one competitor walked out of the venue as a winner.

Polaris took some time to gauge what was in the best interest of its product and created an entirely new system that, according to an official statement, the most aggressive and exciting fighter who takes chances will be awarded and stalling will be penalized. And, most importantly, a winner should be crowned after each match.

In brief, the amended rules are as follows:

• Winner is determined by submission or judges' decision
• Three judges score the bout
• There are a limited number of points (three per category, with three categories in total) that must be distributed between the fighters
• Example: Aggression: Fighter A receives 1 point, Fighter B receives 2 points. The total amount must not exceed 3, and the judge must allocate more to one fighter than to another. In this case Fighter B displayed more aggression and heart during the bout than fighter A, so received the larger share of points.
• Negative points can be given (one every five minutes)

A complete rundown of the new Polaris rules can be viewed here. Polaris has penciled in November for its next event, which will debut the new rules. Combatants, venue and date have yet to be announced.