As I always said when I write a review, this is my personal opinion in my personal blog, and I always write about the good and the bad things, with the aim to state what it should be kept as well as what it should be changed for coming years. You may agree or not with me, but that is my opinion.

You could sleep in the Halle, which had couches, showers, kitchen and even a living-room with books and games. That didn't cost any extra money either!

There were not medailles, but there were very cool designed Tshirts, and in girl cut!, for all the participants and there were Acai and Acerola drinks for the winners of certain things such as "best technical fighter" or "faster submission"

The fight system, each against each if there were 5 or less in the division or pool system if 6 or more, was really good. Using this system, you make sure that it wins the best and certainly not the one who may be lucky in her first fight. It also gives the chance, specially for beginners, to collect so much experience as possible for future competitions.

And they filmed all the fights! which is a great thing to do, specially if you are there alone without your team or just with your coach, or you just don't have a video camera.

So I have to CONGRATULATE  Vanessa and her team for her great job!

Another thing I liked a lot and enjoyed very much was to see Elisabeth Olbert, from O'Neto Team in Vienna, fighting. I have known her for nearly 2 years and she is a good fighter and a great friend. She showed that her jiu jitsu has just reached the next level. I love training and fighting with her. Pure technique and flexibility! Congrats Liz!

--

Things I didn't like? Well, I heard that someone was angry, I believe at me, for wearing a hair spin to hold my hair. I know they are not allowed for good reasons as injury risk, but it is absolutely not my job to check that. A fighter has enough to do with being fit and focused on her next fight. It is the job of the referee to check this kind of things, like piercings, rings, hair spins, length of the Gi and so on. So no offense to the referees, which in general terms did a great job, but I will not take the fault of someone' else.

And well, the thing that I really didn't like (and I think I was not the only one) is that the rules were not respected. The written rules that I was handled the day prior to the competition as well as explained again during the rules meeting, clearly stated that fingers on the face, grabbing the noGI cloths, slams or attempts to slamps, hit/knocks of any kind and stalling are COMPLETELY forbidden and would lead to warning and to disqualification. So why the hell did I had to put up with all those things and repeatedly during the SAME fight? In case that it is not clear enough, my opponent did each and every of those forbidden "techniques" on me during the same 30 minutes long fight, some of those more than one. And she not only didnt get disqualified, but she was not officially warned either. She was only "told" not to do it again, several times...

So I would like to know, what did you want her to make to get her disqualified or at least warned? an injury?

Well, I try to see always the bright side of the things and there is no misfortune that doesn't bring some good with it, so even if i went home with a broken toe and some bruises not typical of this sport, I was happy to have shown my opponent and the spectators that grappling/bjj is a sport where does not win the strongest or biggest opponent but the one with a better technique and leverage. And I may not got her to tap, but I was dominant, tried several submissions and played clean. It was definitely one of my hardest but also most satisfying fight of my life :-)

But please referees and organizators, don't let that happen again. It is not fair and it is dangerous, for the obvious reasons why those techniques are forbidden in first place.

My personal achievement, Gold noGI -55kg, Gold noGI -62kg, Gold Gi -58,5kg and Silver Gi Absolute Class. Thanks to my trainer Samuel Sanvicente, Andre Nunes and the helpful seminars with Dean Lister and Ezequiel Zayas. And thanks to my sponsors GiDirekt and ArteSuave !!!

(more pics and videos coming soon)