Saturday, October 9th was a day that will be go down in history for Northwest Sports Submission Grappling & Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as over 590 competitors and 75 teams took to the Liberty High School in Hillsboro, Oregon to compete in the all-day 2010 Oregon Open, an event which brought out some of the best grapplers from the NW and beyond. The Sub League (SubLeague.com), Cage Culture, and the National Guard have been working together to keep Sports Submission Grappling alive and well in the NW and this event proved it.

Impact Jiu-Jitsu had 14 first place victories and with an astounding 85 people competing, took 1st Place with 127 total team points. SBGI took 2nd in the team standings with 57 competitors & 18 first place wins totaling 111 points. NW Martial Arts (NWMA) took the 3rd spot with 50 competitors and 7 first place wins for 71 total team points. Chris Burke from NWMA got the fastest Tap Out of the day with a 7 second Armbar in the No-Gi division. In the Gi-Division, teammates Ryan Gordon & Thomas Lamar (SBGi-Montana) tied for fastest Tap Out @ 34 seconds, both via Guillotine choke. Rhonda Barnett of Horizon Martial Arts got the fasted tap in the Women's Gi while Amber Smith from Gracie Technics/Oregon Pound took the honors in Women's No-Gi.

The day opened with some stiff Gi competition to set the pace of the entire event. Brent Primus from NWMA took 1st place in the Men's Brown Belt division, while Nick Gilardi from 3rd Eye JJ trailing in the finals of the Men's Purple Belt Medium Heavy division came from behind to submit Christopher Stearns by Kimura.

Another great Gi win came from Amanda Loewen from SBG who took 1st in the Women's Blue Belt Absolute division. Dominic Batara and his sister Kyra Batara (Purebred & Universal BJJ) took first place in both of their respective Gi & no-Gi divisions. Kyra competed against boys and even escaped a tight triangle to eventually beat and win first place in her No-Gi division. 

The siblings won 1st place medals in the Worlds BJJ Championships in Riverside CA earlier this year, & look to be a family force in any future NW grappling tournaments.

A number of MMA fighters took part in the Oregon Open including UFC veteran Rick Story and pro female fighter Lil Patricia Vidonic, plus a ton of Amateur MMA fighters looking to try their hand at grappling. Rick Story representing Brave Legion in Vancouver out pointed BJJ black belt and former WEC fighter JT Taylor in the finals of the Men's Absolute Division 14-0. Story's toughest match of the day was his first one against John Diggins of SBGi and which went to overtime before Story pulled it out. (Vids of these matches are below).

As for his UFC career, Story has won 4 fights in a row in the Octagon and next faces Johny Hendricks at The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale on December 4th in Las Vegas.

Pro female fighter Lil Patricia Vidonic took 2nd in the Women's Advanced No-Gi division falling short of Team Quest's Rehanna Kerridge. Patricia did have a fight planned in Chicago coming up so was just out to "have some fun" as she put it but unfortunately the fight has been cancelled. 

Lil Patricia has just come back from being filmed for a new reality show entitled The Ultimate Women's Challenge which will be hitting the airwaves later this year.

The Sub League's next event is the United Combat Sports Submission Tournament taking place on Jan 22nd at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem. United Combat Sports will be holding a Pro/Am MMA show the same night so mark the date on your calendars. On Feb 12th, the Sub League 2011 season kicks off in Hillsboro with the first of 2 qualifying dates to get into the Sub League Championship to be held May 7. For more info on upcoming events and how to enter or attend, visit SubLeague.com.