How to Find the Right BJJ Tournament for You

January 20, 2025 3 min read

Competing in BJJ is arguably the greatest catalyst for growth. It exposes your strengths and weaknesses more than anything else can. But not all athletes know how to find the right BJJ tournament for them.

I’ve watched several athletes step away from competing just because they walked into a buzzsaw of a competition. Not all tournaments are created equal. And in this post, we’re going to go over how to choose the right BJJ tournament for you.

Overview

We’re going to cover most of the prominent brands in the BJJ tournament world and sort them by difficulty. Brands we will discuss include:

Fuji
Grappling Industries
AGF
NAGA
Jiu Jitsu World League
GrapplingX
IBJJF
ADCC

You might also be wondering, “What makes a tournament hard?” It’s a mixture of two main factors.

The quality of opponents – Some tournaments naturally attract higher-level athletes.
Bracket size – This is arguably more important in determining difficulty. You will absolutely run into some tough competitors in an “easy” tournament. But what truly makes a tournament harder is the size of the brackets.

When you have a larger bracket, not only is there a greater chance of encountering high-level talent, but you also have to consider the number of matches in a short amount of time. It adds yet another layer of competition to navigate.

Now that we’ve gone over these factors, let’s break down each major tournament brand.

Easy Difficulty Tournaments

Before diving into these brands, let me preface this: There is no such thing as an “easy” tournament. All difficulty is relative to how challenging the sport of BJJ is. That being said, these brands are generally the easiest:

Fuji
AGF
GrapplingX

If you’re a new competitor, try to find one of these three to compete in first. You don’t want to dive right into high-difficulty tournaments.

Medium Difficulty Tournaments

Grappling Industries
Jiu Jitsu World League
NAGA

These brands are considered medium difficulty. However, some tournaments can vary depending on the context and athletes.

For example, Grappling Industries is generally medium difficulty, but the Grappling Industries tournament at the Arnold Classic in Ohio each year is extremely challenging. With 20+ man brackets and everyone competing to win, it’s no walk in the park.

Hard Tournaments

IBJJF
ADCC
Jiu Jitsu World League

These brands are the hardest. We included Jiu Jitsu World League in this category because it has the most variation. There are plenty of medium-difficulty JJWL tournaments, but events like JJWL Worlds are extremely difficult.

How to Choose

Choosing the right tournament might not be as simple as going based on belt rank. Lower belts who are seasoned competitors will want to attend harder tournaments. But if you’re, for example, a purple belt who has never competed or hasn’t competed in a while, the easier side will likely be better to start with.

Weigh your options and assess your competition skill level.

Conclusion

Choosing the right tournament for you is very important. Competition is not easy, and if you jump right into a very hard competition, it may deter you from competing again. In our opinion, this would be a death sentence for your development as a grappler.

Remember, competition is the greatest catalyst for growth. So evaluate your options and get out on the mats!

FAQ

Porrada is a Portuguese term commonly used in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and Brazilian culture to describe a tough, intense, and gritty style of training or fighting. The direct translation of porrada from Portuguese to English is "beating" or "brawl." It embodies the spirit of going all out, giving your maximum effort, and pushing through challenges. In BJJ, practicing porrada means training with high intensity and determination.

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There are two main ways you can get started with training: 1) You can find a BJJ gym near you and do a trial day, or 2) you can create your own mini home gym and start training with friends. Option #2 is how our team at Porrada got started! We ordered 1-inch thick puzzle mats in a 10’x10’ square and began training using online resources. If you do start with the second option, we recommend eventually finding a gym down the road in your career. It will help you by allowing you to roll with more people and receive high-level instruction.

BJJ is quite similar to wrestling. Both start standing and use takedowns as a method to score points. Both use very similar mechanics overall. The main differences are that there are no pins (you can be on your back in Jiu-Jitsu), BJJ involves submissions, and the points system for each is very different. BJJ grants points for takedowns/sweeps, back control, mount, guard passes, and knee on belly. Wrestling grants points for takedowns, escapes, and back points (back exposure for freestyle).

BJJ is a very unique sport in many ways. There are so many incredible benefits to training Jiu-Jitsu. The biggest reasons we advocate for it are the mindset training and the added ability to defend yourself. In BJJ, you are forced to humble yourself over and over again, every single day. This sport is a great way to mature rapidly and generally become a better person (in our opinion). You will also have a better ability to defend yourself than 99% of the population—a pretty big bonus.

You’re never too old to start training! We see people on the mats of all ages and sizes. Large and small, old and young can, and should, train BJJ. If you are on the older side, it is perfectly acceptable to take it slow and learn at your own pace. You don’t always have to go full speed—don’t worry. There are typically also classes that separate people by goals. Certain classes are for those who want to compete, some are for general instruction, and some are specifically for self-defense teachings. There is a place for everyone on the mats.