BJJ Stars 10: Battlefield is slated to have one of the most seismic and unpredictable open weight brackets in recent history. The event, which takes place on April 22 in São Paulo, Brazil, features a 16-man absolute bracket with $40,000 on the line.

That bracket will include four IBJJF world champions, the reigning BJJ Stars middleweight champion, and gold medalists from other major events including Pans and Brasileiros.

Earlier this week, BJJ Stars promoted Fepa Lopes explained the seeding format for BJJ Stars 10: Battlefield.

According to Lopes’ explanation via Instagram, the eight top seeds have been predetermined, and broken into two categories. The top five athletes are Mica Galvao — the reigning BJJ Stars middleweight champion — and the four IBJJF world champs:

• Kaynan Duarte
• Victor Hugo
• Erich Munis
• Fellipe Andrew

The other three top-seeded athletes will be the Brasileiros champions of years past:

• Gutemberg Pereira
• Mauricio Oliveira
• Patrick Gaudio

That leaves eight athletes who will each face one of the above-listed athletes first.

Three of them are IBJJF Pans champs, and are guaranteed to match up with one of the three Brasileiros champs in the first round. They are:

• Adam Wardzinski
• Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu
• Devhonte Johnson

The remaining five athletes — none of whom have earned a major black belt title — will be pitted up against one of the top five seeds in the first round. Those remaining seeds are:

• Otavio Nalati
• Uanderson Ferreira
• Guilherme Lambertucci
• Pedro Lucas
• Vinicius Liberati

The specific first-round matchups will be drawn from a hat at the live weigh ins on Friday, April 21 on BJJ Stars YouTube and Instagram pages.