I spent most of yesterday at the 1st Copa Ontario BJJ event which was held in Toronto, Ontario. The event was hosted by Jorge Brito, Josh Rapport and Toronto BJJ. Watching the event take place over the course of the day I was impressed in several ways;

The setup – The way the event was set up was identical to the larger BJJ events such as the World Championship and Pan American Championship. It brought back a lot of the feelings and memories I had experienced at many of those international tournaments. I’m sure the competitors enjoyed the layout of the gymnasium.

Referees – Each of the referees (on six mats) were well versed and experienced. Coupled with the clean look of the mat area it definitely added to the event’s professionalism.

Authentic BJJ Scoreboards – This was a very nice touch and I think I’m going to pick some up for our tournament in November. The only things missing, that would have made me think I was in Brazil, were the green and yellow belt that the competitors usually wear so that the audience could easily tell who was up in the scoring. Oh yeah, and the announcements were in English instead of Portuguese although the announcer did have a Brazilian accent which was cool.

Overall it was a great day and I look forward to bringing many more people to their next event. Thanks to Jorge Brito and Josh Rapport for setting it up.