Subculture Grappling Tournament Ruleset

Rules meeting will be 10am with the first match starting 10.15am Prohibited Techniques

  • No jumping closed guard

  • No slams

  • No scissor leg takedowns

    Legal Techniques

  • Allowed submissions: Heel hooks, Z locks, straight ankle locks, kneebars, toe holds, and reaps.

  • Guard pulling: Sitting to guard without contact is permitted. Match Duration

• All matches are 6 minutes long. Victory Conditions

  • Matches are won by submission.

  • If no submission occurs, the match will proceed to EBI overtime.

    EBI Overtime Rules

  • If regulation time ends without a submission, competitors enter EBI overtime.

  • A coin toss determines who chooses to start on offense (submission attempt)

    or defense (escape attempt).

  • Each competitor will have up to 3 rounds to either submit their opponent or

    escape as quickly as possible.

  • If no submission occurs after 3 rounds, the competitor with the fastest total

    escape time will be declared the winner.

    Close-Out Policy

  • Competitors from the same team are welcome to enter the tournament.

  • Organizers will make efforts to avoid teammates facing each other in early

    rounds.

  • Close-outs are strictly prohibited – all matches, including finals, must be fully

    contested.

  • This ensures fairness, integrity, and sportsmanship within the tournament.

Subculture Grappling Tournament Ruleset • Prize money matches must be fully competed.

Weigh-Ins Primary Weigh-In

  • Saturday via video message.

  • Video must start by validating the scales with a weight and quoting the

    password (published on Instagram Stories at 10 AM Saturday).

  • Gi matches – weigh-in without the Gi.

  • Failure to provide clear and conclusive weigh-in evidence will require an in-

    person weigh-in on competition morning.

    Singles Matches Ruleset

  • All singles matches will follow the IBJJF rule set, with no points.

  • Matches that do not end via submission will go to EBI overtime.

EBI Overtime (1 round minimum/3 rounds maximum)
If there is no submission after the regulation time limit, each competitor will have the chance to try to submit their opponent as fast as they can, while the other has a chance to escape. There will be a coin toss to determine which competitor will choose if they are starting on offense or defense.

How to win in overtime:
• Submit your opponent faster than he or she can submit you.
• If there is no submission by end of overtime (bottom of the 3rd round), the competitor with the fastest combined escape time in that match will win.

One overtime round means that a competitor had a chance at both offense and defense. There are up to three overtime rounds maximum per match.

Example of one overtime round:
Top of the 1st round = Competitor A on offense, Competitor B on defense.
Bottom of the 1st round = Competitor B on offense, Competitor A on offense.

Each part of the overtime round is two minutes maximum. If there is no submission or escape after two minutes, the competitors move on to the next part of overtime.

Example: Bottom of the 1st round, Competitor B is on offense, Competitor A is on defense. Neither competitor submitted or escaped after 2 minutes, meaning the competitors stop and move on to the Top of the 2nd round.

The competitor on offense gets to choose if they want to start in back control or armbar. Offense options:
• Back control with a seatbelt grip (grip must be in the middle of the opponent’s chest). The defensive competitor may only secure his grips in a “pull up” fashion on the offensive competitor’s arms, but cannot sneak his or her hands inside the offensive competitor’s grips. Competitor on defense must sit up with perfect posture and may not lean forward or sideways until the referee officially starts the OT round.

• Armbar with one arm fully threaded in and holding the armbar, and the other hand on the mat. Competitors must be lined up perpendicularly with the competitor on defense flat on his back with his feet planted flat on the floor. The defensive competitor can only choose a figure four (aka “rear naked choke grip”) defense, or a gable grip (aka “palm to palm grip”). No other grips allowed at the start of spider web OT.

• Switching from back control or spider web to any other submission (including the truck position, but excluding any other leg lock positions) once the time starts is permitted, as long as the transition is directly into a fully locked submission. Example: switching from armbar to fully locked triangle means the round is still going.

If there is a submission in the top of the round, the competitor who was submitted needs to secure a submission faster than he or she was submitted.

Example: Top of the 1st round, Competitor A submits Competitor B in 30 seconds. This means that in the Bottom of the 1st round, Competitor B needs to submit Competitor A in less than 30 seconds otherwise Competitor B loses.

If there is a submission in the bottom of the round, the competitor who achieved the submission wins the match (since the other competitor was unable to submit their opponent in the top of the round).

An escape is when a competitor is fully free from the submission position as determined by the referee.
• If you are on defense and your opponent is controlling your arm across your body, you must first clear your elbow before it will be considered an escape.

• Switching from either position to mount means the offensive player no longer has a locked in submission, and is thus considered an escape.

• Submissions from defensive positions count as an escape, not a submission.

Always keep escaping, even if you think you’re clear, keep escaping until the referee calls time. If competitor on defense thinks he’s out and makes gestures to the referee to stop the action, that means the escape is NOT complete. Keep escaping keep moving until the referee is clear that an escape has been achieved.

*These rules are subject to change at anytime before the official rules meeting.