By John Dorn
On Oct. 18 at the Jubilee Family Worship Center in Rochester, Good Fight will host the Rochester Rumble tournament—a modified-rules event with no points, no advantages and no referee decisions.
The tournament will crown a gold, silver and bronze medal. The designations are as follows, according to the official website:
GOLD MEDAL: All Good Fight gold medalists are considered true submission champions! To win 1st place you will have to submit each and every one of your opponents. Your journey to the top spot of the podium will not be an easy one. All of your hard work, dedication and commitment to training will be tested at The Good Fight. This is what makes The Good Fight tournament THE most difficult & prestigious tournament to win.
SILVER MEDAL: Additionally, in order to win a 2nd place silver medal you MUST have submitted at least one other opponent in your bracket. This is mentioned to explain there is NO winning by default.
For example: if there are only 2 guys in a bracket only a 1st place gold medalist will be awarded. This is because 1 guy will win and 1 guy will lose. The loser will NOT receive the 2nd place silver medal just because there were 2 guys in the bracket. This would be considered winning by defaut, which is not allowed.
For this reason: sometimes it is necessary to run a 2-man bracket. However, we will try to make a 2-man bracket into a 3-man bracket by utilizing our ‘wild card’ rule. So, this example serves to make the point, so there is no confusion at the tournament.
BRONZE MEDAL: Finally, in order to win a 3rd place bronze medal you MUST have submitted at least one other opponent in your bracket. Again, this is mentioned to explain there is NO winning by default.
For example: if there are 3 guys in a bracket we will run it as a 3-man round-robin. Most often the result of this is one guy wins 2 matches and 1 guys wins 1 match. This being the case only 1st & 2nd place could be awarded. There would be no 3rd place because there is NO winning by default.
For this reason: sometimes it is necessary to run a 3-man round-robin bracket. However, we will try to make a 3-man bracekt into a 4-man bracket by utilizing our ‘wild card’ rule. This allows the opportunity for a competitor to win 3rd place.
Good Fight dubs itself “The most well-organized submission-only BJJ tournament circuit around.” Fighters are welcome to sign up and participate in the tournament for a fee on the tournament’s site. Fighters travel from across the region to this submission-only tourney. Rochester Rumble is one of 10 tournaments put on by Good Fight across the country, with others in Alabama, Florida, Maine and more.
The first weigh-ins begin at 8 a.m. and the final fights are slated to start at 5:45 p.m.
By John Dorn 
Capital Region MMA - John Dorn 