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Tournaments

While there are numerous local and regional tournaments administered regularly by private individuals and academies, there are two major entities in jiu-jitsu circles. First, is the Sport Jiu Jitsu International Federation (SJJIF), a (nonprofit) organization with international federations and tournaments. Second, is the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF), a for-profit company that hosts a number of major tournaments worldwide. These include the Pan American Championship, European Championship, and the Mundials. California, New York, and Texas are the three states in the US which host tournaments most frequently. Other promotions within North America, such as Battleground Grappling Championship, American Grappling Federation (AGF), North American BJJ Federation (NABJJF), and North American Grappling Association (NAGA) host tournaments nationwide, but visit these states multiple times within a tournament season.

Another tournament to spring from the founding Gracie lineage is the Gracie Nationals or Gracie Worlds. Founded in 2007 by Rose Gracie, daughter of Ultimate Fighting Championship creator and Brazilian jiu-jitsu grandmaster Rorion Gracie. Gracie Nationals/Worlds followed the guidelines of other major tournaments of the time, implementing a points systems

In 2012, the Gracie Worlds introduced a new submission-only format, removing certain judging systems that many interpreted as an outdated scoring system. Rose spoke about this change when she said, "Today's tournaments aren't what my grandfather envisioned. There's so many rules that it takes away from the actual art of jiu-jitsu. We don't see many submissions. We see cheating, we see decisions made by a referee. We need to stand together against this and support a submission only kind of revolution." Cheating in jiu-jitsu, Rose said, comes in many forms. " will earn a point, then hold for the entire match so they can win with that one little advantage they got at the start," Rose said. "That's not jiu-jitsu. That's cheating." Mark McDonnell from Gracie Botany agrees.

This discontent with points-based and advantage-style competition has been echoed throughout the jiu-jitsu community, leading to many prominent submission-only style events. At these events, the winner of a match is determined only by submission, and these tournaments at times have no time limit, or are timed with a result of double disqualification if there is no submission victory. This form of tournament have yet to become widespread, but is gaining in popularity especially amongst MMA competitors. Metamoris, a grappling competition event run by Rose's brother Ralek Gracie, has helped advocate this tournament form. Another notable example of a submission-only format is the EBI Eddie Bravo Invitational, which was the first televised event of its kind, and is now being featured on UFC Fight Pass. Other submission-only events have cropped up all over the world including TUFF invitational, Polaris Pro Grappling based in the United Kingdom, Submission Underground backed by longtime MMA star Chael Sonnen, and the QUINTET promotion, devised by Japanese MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba and based around teams of five players each representing a different gym or background.

At tournaments, especially those hosted by the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF), some athletes engage in a practice called "closing out". This occurs when two athletes, usually friends or members of the same team, meet in a match but refuse to fight. Tournament organizers can minimize the chance of close-outs by placing athletes from the same team on opposite sides of the bracket, a practice which makes the finals the only match in which they could possibly meet (assuming each team has no more than two competitors in a given bracket). When two athletes close out a match, they agree which one of them will technically forfeit to the other. As this most often occurs in the final matches of tournaments, this usually means deciding which of the two will win the gold medal and which will win the silver. Notable examples of closing out include Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida forfeiting the finals of the Absolute division at the 2018 IBJJF World Championship to his friend Leandro Lo, who had suffered a shoulder injury during a previous match, and frequent close outs between the brothers Paulo and Joao Miyao, who often compete in the same weight division. Proponents of close-outs claim it fosters team unity and allows competitors to train as hard and as freely as they can with their teammates. They say that facing a teammate in a competition would make them hold back in training. Critics of the practice say it diminishes audience enjoyment of tournaments where it is allowed, and some tournaments, notably the ADCC, ban it.