Although CJI 2 was an excellent weekend full of elite grappling, it ended in controversy due to the judging decisions made in the final between New Wave Jiu-Jitsu and B-Team Jiu-Jitsu. The vast majority of matches went by without an issue, but there was a little bit of controversy in the opening round on the first day too. CJI were accused of bias when the referees rules that Giancarlo Bodoni tapped to Taylor Pearman during their match. It was certainly not a clear decision and there were knowledgeable competitors on either side of the debate, but there weren’t any real signs that it was part of some kind of conspiracy against New Wave.
Unfortunately another question arose during the final match that also involved New Wave and Gordon Ryan, among others, immediately started accusing CJI of being biased again. This time it was more about the actual rules of the event rather than the action that happened on the mat, because the final team match was so close that it required a ruling that hadn’t been used so far in the event. In previous team battles they were either won because one team had more submissions than the other, or there was a clear lead on the scorecards for all of the matches that didn’t end in submission.
The final started with Mica Galvao winning a clear 10-9 round for New Wave and although Victor Hugo was incredibly dominant for B-Team in the next match, the rules dictated that a competitor at a significant weight advantage could only be awarded a 10-9 round. Dorian Olivarez and Giancarlo Bodoni then put New Wave back in the lead with 10-9 rounds of their own, leading into a tense final match. Nicky Rodriguez pushed for the finish right from the start and even though he couldn’t get it, he won a clear 10-8 round and brought the total scores to 47-47 even though New Wave had won 3 rounds to B-Team’s 2.
The announcers then revealed that because the scorecards were tied, the result of the final round would dictate the winner of the match. This meant that B-Team were declared the winners on account of Rodriguez’s dominant final round, but New Wave and much of the crowd were left confused by the decision. This is because they clearly won 3 out of 5 rounds and they were under the impression that the decision would go to whoever had won the most rounds. Unfortunately things weren’t much clearer when the official rules were dug up in the hours that followed, because there appeared to be a conflict within them due to two points:
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If five double eliminations occur, or any such instance where each team’s final athletes are double eliminated, the team with more individual wins by judges’ decision wins.
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If tied on scorecards, the team whose athlete won the final bout wins. If the final bout is a draw, the win goes to the team whose athlete last won a non-draw bout.
Both of these rules technically applied to the final match. There were five double eliminations and as a result, New Wave would have won by virtue of being team with more individual wins by judges’ decision. However, the teams were also tied on scorecards and B-Team would have won by virtue of being the team whose athlete won the final bout. It’s clear which rule was applied during the live broadcast but it’s not clear which rule should have been applied as neither one is dictated as taking precedence over the other in the official rules and it has been left open to interpretation.
Thankfully, Craig Jones and his unknown benefactor have been able to remedy the judging controversy at CJI 2 by allowing B-Team to keep their prize money while awarding another million dollars to New Wave:
