Polaris announces UK vs. Europe team event

Europe’s premier submission grappling promotion is going to be putting on its first ever team event.

Polaris were scheduled to put on a blockbuster Grand Prix on April 4th, but the Coronavirus pandemic limited international travel to the UK and the event was cancelled. Since then they have returned with a UK based tournament, but the promotion has announced today that international athletes will be returning for an interesting new team format.

Polaris were the original Quintet champions and now they are about to put their own spin on team grappling. While Quintet traditionally features a 4-team elimination tournament, Polaris Squads will feature a team from Great Britain and Ireland versus a team of Europe’s best athletes. The show has announced a unique elimination and scoring process as per a press release:

“Polaris Squads will pit two teams of eight against each other in an 80-minute grappling contest split into two 40-minute halves.

Each team will have four members under 75kg and four members under 95kg. Squads is a winner-stays-on format, with all submissions legal. Each team will send their representative to the stage to battle it out. A submission victory brings one point to the team, and if a -75kg player submits a -95kg player, he will earn three points. Bouts are five minutes in length. In the case of no submission, both players are out. Team Captains can choose any of their team to compete, but once played, a team member becomes inactive until the whole team has been used once, then can be used again. The team with the most points at the end of the second half is the victor.”

Polaris’ champ-champ Ashley Williams has been signed on for team UK and Ireland (h/t Jitsmagazine.com). It remains to be seen who will line out for team Europe but sources close to the promotion have indicated that the team will feature a mix of established grapplers and UFC stars.

Polaris Squads goes down on September 27th and will be exclusively aired on UFC Fight Pass.