The ADCC Open delivered plenty of memorable moments in Las Vegas earlier this year and now the tournament will be heading over the border to Canada in 2023. The ADCC Open took place in the days during the build-up to the actual ADCC World Championships in 2022 and there were several big winners at the event, alongside a fair bit of controversy when a brawl broke out and weapons were allegedly involved. Naturally fans and organizers alike are hoping for even more exciting matches and impressive submission finishes, but significantly less controversy as they continue to hold ADCC Open events.
The idea behind replicating the ADCC Open and spreading it throughout the world is relatively straight forward, it gives the next generation of athletes more opportunities to compete under the ADCC ruleset and develop their games accordingly. Because the ADCC ruleset is significantly different to the one used by the other major BJJ competition organizer, the IBJJF, it’s not uncommon to see competitors struggle when transitioning from one to the other if they haven’t been able to adapt accordingly. The non-scoring portion of each match drastically changes the pacing and application of tactics in each match, and the ability to turtle to deny any points greatly enhances the need for competitors to excel both offensively and defensively when it comes to the turtle.
The news that there was going to be an ADCC Canada Open in 2023 was announced in a story posted to the official Instagram account of ADCC that has since expired. The event will take place in Ottawa, no doubt owing in part to the fact that Jiu-Jitsu competition is actually currently illegal in the province of Quebec, ruling out other major areas like Montreal from contention. The BJJ scene is going from strength to strength in Canada, with the nation actually producing two medallists at ADCC 2022, Dante Leon and Brianna Ste-Marie. It’ll be exciting to see what the next generation of Canadian grapplers look like when the ADCC Canada Open does come around.
