GAME ON!!!! Opening Day is only a few weeks away, but the PGF recently set their team lineups during the PGF Season 8 DRAFT!!! Some teams knocked it out of the park, stealing some highly regarded competitors. Some teams might have reached on players, paying too much, leaving them in the back seat for much of the draft. Let’s look at the rules of the draft and the team draft grades.
In an auction style format, each of the four teams had $15,000 actual dollars to assemble their five-competitor teams. The rules required that each bid increase by at least $100 and every team had to save at least $1,000 for each of their players (e.g. a team for their first pick could go up to $11,000, leaving $1,000 each for their remaining players). Players had every incentive to motivate higher bids because these auction prices are their actual base salaries for the season (we’ll talk about all the other ways they can add to these salaries later). With a $15,000 and five slots, the average salary should have been $3,000. While many consider the parity this season to be at an all-time high, most bids varied greatly off that $3,000 average. But how did each team perform in the draft? To be consistent, the Editorial Board at Eggheadwarrior.com will evaluate the draft performances based on the teams assembled compared to the Eggheadwarrior.com Draft Rankings published before the draft. In those rankings, we established general tiers of competitors – so the more top-tier talent on a team, the better the draft performance. So who “won the draft”?
TEAM CANUTO – GRADE A: PGF veteran Renato Canuto really set his draft up with his first draft pick. Somehow Canuto snagged Combat Jiu Jitsu Winner Matt Masch for only $2500. The last Combat Jiu Jitsu World Champion to grace the PGF stage was last season’s champion Ryan Aitken. Again, since the hypothetical average player should go for $3,000, Canuto snagged a Tier 2 talent at a $500 discount of the average (stashing that money for later picks). Canuto followed up that pick by drafting Jake Shields black belt and long-time 10th Planet standout Jordan Wirth for only $1100! At least a Tier 3 talent with the most unorthodox or just plain funky jiu jitsu around, Wirth will find ways to get some buggy chokes and gogos (gogoplatas and likely gogo clinches) this season – all of which are KILLS and will rack up six points a piece for his team. Getting Wirth for $1100, meant Canuto had essentially put $2400 in his war chest to pounce on a favorite draft pick later. Next Canuto drafted fellow PGF veteran Kris Olivo. Olivo competed in Season 7 as an alternate but got plenty of mat time in that 215 weight class season. Olivo walks around in the 180s naturally, so he should be one of the largest competitors. Combine that with his attacking mentality and he’s going to be great this season. The Editorial Board had Olivo as a Tier 1 talent – meaning Canuto at $3500, only had to pay a $500 premium to get one of the top competitors. These strategic moves left Canuto with $7900 for his last two picks, meaning he had $6900 if he wanted to go “all-in” for a competitor. An all-in he went for PGF Season 8 Las Vegas Qualifier winner Raphael Ferreira. In that qualifier, the Tier 1 ranked 17 year old finished at the top with 9 out of 20 PGF8 competitors in the bracket. Ferreira beat four of those competitors himself (and he cribbed my notes from the player info sheet I shared with him – in his awesome callout speech while being auctioned off). Ferreira is something special, out-cyclng his opponents. Because of the way he positioned his team, Canuto was able to go just shy of all-in, landing Ferreira for $6400. With his last pick, Canuto drafted Brady Hylton for his remaining $1500, adding a very tough competitor who has upside despite his Tier 5 ranking. Canuto landed two Tier 1 competitors, one Tier 2 competitor, one Tier 3 competitor, and one Tier 5 competitor – that’s a great team!
TEAM VARELA – Grade A- (B+): The grade was going to be A-, but there was a deduction for math issues. Varela made a bit of a miss step out of the gate, showing a bias for his student Brady Branscum. While the Branscum’s Tier 5 ranking might be a bit low, Varela tipped his hand when he came out hot with his first bid. As other coaches moved to bid up Branscum, Varela jumped the bid in $500 or more increments. Branscum could be a surprise this season, finding ways to use his wrestling to cause shot clock violations, possibly resulting in taking his opponent’s back and getting rear-naked chokes, Varela overpaid for Branscum. The Draft Commentary team pointed out it’s great to take care of a homie by getting them paid, but it could backfire later on when a team needed that money. Varela immediately made up for this overbid, this time using his big splash bidding to get PGF Season 6 veteran Mike John for only $3200. Mike John is a solid Tier 2 talent who is poised to give his team a number of kills for the season. Mike John was a great pick up and a great value at $3200. Unfortunately, Varela was targeting Raphael Ferreira (like every other coach), but the $6700 he had spent for his first two picks meant Varela couldn’t match Canuto’s bid. That didn’t stop Varela from trying, bidding up to $7000 before the auditors got the attention of the PGF staff. Varela was smart to target Ferreira, but he just didn’t have enough money left to match Canuto. Varela made another nice draft pick in Armin Bruni. Bruni is tough, durable, rugged. At $1400, this Tier 4 competitor is a solid value for a team’s stopper (e.g. the player on a team you can use to ensure your opponents don’t put points on the board). In perhaps the steal of the draft, Varela snagged Landon Elmore, a solid Tier 2 player and recent Enigma Invitational 155lb champion for ONLY $1600. Sure, Elmore is a blue belt and a teenager, but he’s the PGF 8 Austin qualifier winner and trains at one of the best gyms in the world in Kingswave Jiu Jitsu in Austin. Elmore is putting up points this season and has a great shot at making the playoffs. Finally, Varela scored the biggest name in the second half of the draft in Christos Papadelos. Also out of Kingswave, Papadelos was the runner up in the PGF 7 Austin Qualifier (215 lb season) and made a mark during his time on the mats during PGF 7. More importantly, he’s the promoter of Enigma Jiu Jitsu and has spent more time with the PGF ruleset (he adopted it for his promotion) than any other competitor on the roster. Papadelos appreciated me calling him wicked smart (pointing out the Massachusetts pronunciation of smaht), but it’s just solidly true. Varela found the quarterback of his team in Papadelos. Team Varela will easily be in the running for PGF 8 Champions this season.
NEW HOPE KINGS – GRADE B: The first franchise in Jiu Jitsu history, the New Hope Kings went big early. While the rest of the draft order was random, the first pick of the draft was auctioned off, allowing the winning team to pick whomever they wanted first. Going for $7700, Jett “the Kid” Thompson, your PGF Season 6 runner-up, became the player to received the highest bid in PGF history. Representing 51.3% of the New Hope Kings’ budget, Thompson will a large responsibility to lead his team, and the league in points, and he very well might succeed. Jett Thompson was very much the consensus number one pick amongst everyone who weighed in on the matter. This strategy of spending big on the anchor of their team helped the New Hope Kings win PGF Season 7. Last season, the New Hope Kings bided their time, saving their budget for Ryan Aitken who was last in the randonmly-ordered auction. Spending 52% of their budget on Aitken paid off, with him scoring more points than the top two members of any other team. This season, they made their big splash up front. However, this big splash forced them to relinquish the driver’s seat as they had to conserve funds for the rest of their team. The Kings weren’t able to lock down any other competitors until they grabbed the 15th player up for auction: Anthony Gojani. Gojani who has been the biggest talker on the roster has some very funky jiu jitsu and should be a fan favorite, but comes in as a Tier 4 competitor in the draft rankings. The Kings got Gojani for the league minimum, $1000, helping them smooth out their budget issues a bit. The Kings made a great move snagging Anthony Molina Valdes with their next pick for only $1500. At that price the Tier 2 ranked Molina Valdes was a steal. Molina Valdes won qualifiers both in PGF Season 4 and this season and he has the experience from competing in PGF Season 4. Since then, he’s moved to the B Team for training and should have a great showing this season. The New Hope Kings targeted Juan Martinez V, another PGF Season 4 veteran next. They almost lost Juan due to some creative financing on another team’s part, but the Kings leadership appealed the ruling to the Commish, ultimately getting their guy for $3800. As a tier 3 talent, $3800 is a solid price for Juan. He’s definitely improved his game since PGF Season 4 and should be exciting to watch this season. Finally, they rounded out their roster with Dominic Lobo at $1000. Lobo had one of the most viral clips in jiu jitsu in the last year and is currently a special project of Eddie Bravo’s. While the Editorial Board had Lobo as a Tier 5 talent, he’s young and sure to want to make even more of a name for himself. Again, we’ll see if the go big or go home approach to the draft can work again for the New Hope Kings. The late pickups of Anthony Molina Valdes and Juan Martinez V certainly help provide a cast of supporting characters who can help Jett Thompson put up points this season. But as noted above, with the increased parity this season, it will be hard to pull off a Ryan Aitken-like performance.
TEAM MICA- GRADE C+: As a disclaimer, Coach Mica Cipili has coached a PGF Season Championship team (Team New Hope with Pedro Sauer in PGF Season 7), so the Editorial Board could be very wrong about the following analysis. Still, the grades reflect the rosters compared to the EggheadWarrior.com Draft Rankings. Coach Mica started off the draft very well. His first pick of Zach Schneider for only $2300 was outstanding. While Schneider was in the middle of the ranking pack as a Tier 3 competitor, he has lots of experience on big stages at both Submission Underground and Combat Jiu Jitsu Worlds. He comes in maybe a little undersized, but with great jiu jitsu with a bent towards kills. JJ Bowers wasted no time hyping up the coaches to draft him. By putting Keith Krikorian to sleep with an anaconda at Combat Jiu Jitsu Worlds, JJ made an indelible mark in the minds of everyone. Training and competing in jiu jitsu since he was a young child, JJ has around a decade and a half of experience. He’s certainly shown he can take on the best, but was only a Tier 3 player in the rankings due to his smaller body of work at the adult level. With that ranking, $6,600 was a bit of a reach for JJ. But PGF 8 could be JJ’s true coming out party, giving him 15 matches to show everyone he’s ready to make waves in jiu jitsu. If that happens, this draft grade would definitely go up. With his third pick, Mica was able to select his real-life student in Robert Blackledge. While Blackledge was a Tier 5 ranked competitor, Mica slyly played it cool and was able to get his student for only $1200 – a solid pickup for that price. Many believed CJ Murdock at $1,100 was a great bargain. The very experienced competitor out of Daisy Fresh/Pedigo has a wrestling heavy style that can grind away at opponents. While only ranked as a Tier 4 competitor based on his body of work, CJ informed the Editorial Board that he’s been doing nothing but PGF format training for months and knowing he has to shift from his strategies under other rulesets. After picking up CJ, Team Mica only had $3800 left in their budget, putting players like Christos Papadelos and Juan Martinez V out of reach fairly quickly once bidding began. Mica rounded out his roster, spending his remaining budget on John Chandler, a Tier 4 ranked competitor. The PGF Season 6 alternate made the most out of his time on the mats that season, showing a serious motor. Recently, Chandler improved to 3-0 in MMA. One has to think his MMA cardio will help him wear down opponents in a season with a more appropriate weight class. Team Mica might be seen as the underdogs to win this season, but that status might just make them gel together and overperform their rankings.
The PGF 8 Draft is complete. Now you know your teams. Soon, the PGF 8 schedule will be announced and give the teams a few weeks to start game planning for their Opening Day matchups. Beginning on Opening Day, July 23, the PGF 8 Regular Season will take place once a week on Wednesdays for five weeks. Each night, 30 matches will occur for a total of 150 matches in the season. Every competitor will face all 15 opponents from the other teams. The top scoring team of the season will become your PGF 8 Team Champions. The top eight scoring players from the entire league, regardless of team, will face off against each other in the PGF 8 Playoffs Finale in a single-elimination bracket to crown your PGF 8 Overall Champion. The stage is set folks. It’s the most exciting time of the year for jiu jitsu – PGF Season. GET EXCITED!!!
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