Kasai is back for the first time in years and this time the promotion is putting together an incredible team of elite grapplers to compete in the upcoming AIGA Champions League Brazil Qualifier 2024 on May 23rd to 25th, 2024. They will have to get through a tough bracket of 7 other teams in order to earn an invite to compete in the Champions League quarter-finals next year. This tournament is the second of four qualifiers that will take place throughout the year, with the final two rounds taking place in Thailand and the USA.
As with all teams in the AIGA Champions League, Team Kasai will compete across 7 different weight classes and they will be sending a total of 11 competitors to the Brazil Qualifier. Their team consists of several ADCC Trials winners and elite grapplers who are all known for their exciting styles. Edwin ‘Junny’ Ocasio is the only one at 60kg, while both Dorian Olivarez and Diego ‘Pato’ Oliveira will be available to compete in the under 65kg division. There’s only one representative in the under 70kg division, Fabricio Andrey, while the under 76kg division features both Andrew Tackett and Renato Canuto.
William Tackett is joining his younger brother by registering in the under 83kg division, and Sebastian Rodriguez is competing alongside him there. Pedro Marinho and Roberto Jimenez will both be representing Kasai in the under 91kg division and it’ll be incredibly difficult for any of the other teams to win a match at that weight. The final competitor in the over 91kg weight class is two-time ADCC world champion Kaynan Duarte, who will easily be the favorite to win any match in the division. It’s tough to imagine anyone stopping Team Kasai from running away with the win here, but anything can happen in team grappling tournaments where a single upset can swing the momentum in the other direction.
Whichever team emerges victorious at the AIGA Champions League Brazil Qualifier 2024 will join Team Euro Trash, who dominated the Turkey Qualifier earlier in the year. Although the competitors representing Kasai look as though they will end up being the favorites to win their qualifying round, there will be plenty of tough opposition waiting for them. Each team will be fielding some fantastic competitors and some of their lineups are yet to be announced, including the team that will represent elite coach Melqui Galvao and the team that UFC legend Demian Maia is putting together.
AIGA announced the full lineup for the Kasai Grappling team that will be competing at the AIGA Champions League Brazil Qualifier 2024 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
