PGF Season 8 is beginning to be a story of the haves and have nots. During the first week, 13 competitors got submissions; this week; only 11. One team has started to pull away from the pack. And a group of top grapplers have likewise started to pull away from the pack in the individual rankings.
THE TEAMS
At the end of week 1, only two points separated the first and second team. And only four points separated the first and last place teams. Now, after a dominant third block from Team Dollamur with 13 points, they are beginning to start pulling away. This might be like Season 7’s New Hope Regeneration team – they had a 16 point block 2 of Day 2. That block began their path to the championship. Similarly, this last block today might have signaled the beginning of Team Dollamur’s march towards the championship. Team Dollamur has 42 points. The Kings are still in striking distance with 35 points. The The Twisters aren’t out of the mix, sitting at 27 points. The Thunders are trending towards irrelevancy if they can’t string together a number of submissions next week. But the injury bug has definitely hit PGF Season 8. Egghead has asked many competitors and commentators if they think that having the week between competition would lead to less injuries or more injuries. Egghead’s hypothesis was that since competitors knew they had a week to recover from any “pops” they endured, the competitors would treat PGF competition more like a one-day tournament where they let pops happen. Whether that’s explicitly in the minds of the competitors, we’re seeing tons of injuries. In week 1, we say Armin Bruni and Mike John go down to injury. Robert Blackledge had a family emergency and has the right priorities in his life so he’s out as well (best wishes Robert to you and your family). So we had three free agents come in and take their places in the form of Nick Sahf, Derek Rayfield, and Spenser Ortiz.
Sahf is a PGF Season 4 veteran and a 10th Planet Decatur student/instructor. He’s been around the PGF for quite some time. He’s been itching to get in on the action that some dubbed him the “Final Destination” competitor…hoping for anything to take out a regular roster member so he could get his shot. While Sahf didn’t score any points in PGF Week 2, he gave us one of the best, if not the best, PGF match in the 8-season history. Sahf v. Raphael Ferreira was NON-STOP ACTION!!! Seriously, it ended up a draw, but it was beautiful. If this was Boondock Saints, we’d have Willem Dafoe shooting into the air exclaiming “IT WAS A FIREFIGHT!” Honestly, Rafa already established himself as the”Must-See TV” of PGF8, but Sahf gave him the perfect dance partner to put on a match for the ages. Sahf will get his points, no doubt, but not in Week 2. Now Derek Rayfield and Spenser Ortiz both came in for Team Dollamur players. Rayfield has been on the big stage since he competed at EBI 5 as a 14-year-old. He has multiple 10th Planet Qualifier wins and maybe more Combat Jiu Jitsu experience than any other competitor. Honestly, if he’d been in the PGF 8 draft, he might have fetched a pretty penny. Rayfield came in and gave some great performances, but more importantly for Team Dollamur, he got a submission to add to their team total. Spenser Ortiz was more of a mystery. Quick research told us he was a 10th Planet Las Vegas member like Rayfield. Ortiz is quite the wrestler, with titles in high school. But PGF fans saw that Ortiz can combine his wrestling pedigree with his jiu jitsu to be very dangerous. Just like Rayfield, he put a submission on the board for Team Dollamur. Ortiz also used a standing switch when Rafa was running at him to take Rafa’s back and possibly put Rafa in his most dangerous spot yet. These free agents and their scoring ways harken back to PGF Season 6 where Dane Leak came in for Team X Martial and got a KILL to help them seal the deal in their champoinship quest. Rayfield and Ortiz seem like they might be the type of players, like Leak, who can positively contribute to their teams.
But wait, there’s more! In PGF Season 8 Week 2, we saw more injuries. Brady Hylton and Jordan Wirth from the Alabama Twisters had to be put on the injured reserve (IR) list. At first the Twisters brought out Noah Guitierrez, but Landon Elmore hit him with an Aoki lock so rough that it broke him (Egghead guesses a possible spiral fracture, but nothing solid has been reported. Spiral fractures are common with child abuse and DV situation from the often rotational force applied to limbs…don’t ask how Egghead knows about these things.). Regardless, the Twisters had to forfeit two matches in the last block, giving two points to their opponents. Hylton and Wirth, per the PGF IR/free agent policy, must now sit out at least three matches from the time they were put on the IR. However, the Twisters might have failed forward into an upgrade. The Twisters have officially picked up Dominic Mejia (PGF 8 Massachusetts qualifier winner – seriuosly, it was more than 1.5 hours outside Boston, it’s not the Boston qualifier. Egghead has lived in Boston – it was not in Boston.). Dom is a ADCC trials silver medalist and at least 4X ADCC open champion. He’s DANGEROUS. Plus, the Twisters have now backed into retaining counsel….of course we’re talking about NCWA all-american wrestler in college, black belt in jiu jitsu, and millionaire lawyer, Sergio Ardila. Sergio had other commitments that kept him from weeks 1-2, but he’s cleared hot for the remaining PGF schedule. Those who know jiu jitsu know that the Twisters just became possible favorites to win the Team Championship. Sure, they’re down, but they just picked up two top tier talents. Egghead loves Wirth’s style and loves Hylton’s resilience, but the Twisters just grabbed two blue-chip draft picks off the waiver wire. Team Dollamur has been showing out, but they need to get ready for the Twisters to wreck the current standings!
THE STARS
THE BIG SLIME LANDON ELMORE!!! Three submissions, including one against Anthony Molina Valdes, and one with an Elbow Genie point for being in less than one minute. He’s dangerous. The baby purple belt made a real statement today and garnered money bags for his effort. He went for $1600 in the draft which many of us thought was a real steal. Now, he’s proving he might have been the steal of the draft (tip of the cap to Dom Lobo and how he’s been performing as Mr. Irrelevant who went for the league minimun). Egghead sees a lot more submissions and Pokemon cards in his future.
Christos Papadelos – one break and one kill helped Papadelos propel himself to first place overall. He told all the coaches he had the most experience with the PGF ruleset. He said so many things, talking like a Senator during a filibuster. But whatever he said, he’s backing it up in spades. Papadelos faces Anthony Molina Valdes and Raphael Ferreira during week 3. Next week, Christos will have the chance to prove he truly is the number one competitor in PGF Season 8.
Kris Olivo– We all thought he would have some issues the first week of competition due to his weight cut. Olivo still got a sub the first week, but admitted he was probably operating at 60%. Well, he batted 1000 today, with three submissions. More enjoyable was probably his win over his foil Anthony Gojani. Olivo is hitting on all cylinders and will definitely be in the playoffs this season.
So much more could be said for PGF Season 8 week 2, but we have to move on, looking forward to PGF 8 week 3. If you have any thoughts or ideas on PGF coverage that you’d like Egghead to think about or to possibly shout out during PGF 8 Week 3, hit him up at egghead@eggheadwarrior.com.
Keep watching the PGF and tell your family and friends. Egghead trains at 10th Planet Oceanside currently and even though two members of the gym were on PGF Season 7, the majority of practitioners still didn’t know about the PGF or watch it. The PGF is the most exciting BJJ promotion around and it’s FREE and LIVE every Wednesday on YouTube. Help us keep this beautiful thing going. We’re paying competitors like professional athletes. We’re giving you professional production value and all the accoutrements of professional sports. Help us take the PGF to the next level. You are in on the ground floor – now let’s build the skyscraper!!!
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