The Craig Jones Invitational 2 is almost here, bringing together some of the best grapplers in the world under one roof for a weekend of high-stakes action. With stacked teams from all around the world ready to face off, it's hard to know exactly how this Quintet-style tournament will unfold. We don't know brackets, we don't know the orders teams will go, and we don't know who's going to heat up for those classic submission runs.

Keep in mind that the tournament will run so that you'll get a lot of cross-division matchups. Anyone on one of these teams could end up facing anyone else and the only way to win is by submission, so submission ability and submission defense did factor into this ranking. Submission defense also factored in, as the ability to hold a lead or stymie another team's top guy could be key to a team win here.

Here’s how we rank every team and weight heading into the event.

-66kg

1. Diego Pato
2. Fabricio Andrey
3. Dorian Olivarez
4. Ethan Crelinsten
5. Max Hanson
6. Owen Jones
7. Gavin Corbe
8. Geo Martinez

This is a really good weight, with every team having someone that you can like for one reason or another. Pato is the top dog here as the WNO champ and ADCC runner-up, with his prodigious submission ability giving him the potential to run a team on his own on his best day. After him, Fabricio is my next guy here but not without a caveat - while he can do amazingly well going up in weight, he's not as much of a submission artist as some others (though his flying armbar is obviously elite). Hokage's best role at CJI may end up being someone who can knock out a bigger favorite if he can't find his way to those subs. After him is Dorian, another guy who does very well moving up and fighting in open classes. He tends to be someone who does better the longer the match is, so only eight minutes isn't ideal - but he will likely have the gas tank for multiple elite opponents. I went with Max over Owen based on activity, but this will be Max's first time at -66kg in a long time so let's see if that's a factor. We all believe Owen can be great and he has shown that when he hits the mats, but the body of work isn't deep enough to bump him higher in a ruleset that will favor experience and adaptability. I had to put Geo low because he's on the older side for -66kg and that could be a real issue. However, no one is more synonymous with delivering crazy moments at a team BJJ event than Geo Martinez so if he does it again I won't be surprised.

-77kg

1. Mica Galvão
2. Dante Leon
3. Jozef Chen
4. Ronaldo Junior
5. Kenta Iwamoto
6. Pawel Jaworski
7. Deandre Corbe
8. Alan Sanchez

I very much went back and forth here with Dante and Mica because of Dante's submission win over Mica, but I think it's proper to keep Mica on top. He brings an incredible submission ability, he's beaten much bigger people, and has the dynamism to finish early against elite guys. One red flag - when he does lose it tends to be by submission, something you can't say for Dante. It's a real 1a/1b here. I think Jozef is very dangerous as well but he doesn't have the same experience level as the other guys above him so he slots in third. Ronaldo and Kenta are likely going to act as good "stoppers" who will be tough for anyone to submit and can take out a star opponent in an eight minute draw. Pawel Jaworski is kind of the opposite, very good submission artist but he also could end up tapping so it's sink/swim for the young Polish black belt. While I do think very highly of Deandre, he will be giving up size compared to these other guys (which isn't ideal) but he has the submission game to overcome that.

-88kg

1. Giancarlo Bodoni
2. Lucas Barbosa
3. PJ Barch
4. Jacob Couch
5. Elijah Dorsey
6. Chris Wojcik
7. Lucas Kanard
8. Paul Ardilla

The king at -88kg is Giancarlo Bodoni until proven otherwise, having won back-to-back ADCC titles at the weight (the first & only man to ever do that). After him, I went with Lucas Hulk but I am still a little wary over his activity levels the last few years. Still, his run to the semifinals at CJI 2 can't be denied and he did that with submission victories so we know he still can hang with another of this new generation. PJ has the positional game to slow down the more dynamic submission hunters if need be and the arsenal to find submissions on his own, and I really like that we will see him without that draining cut down to -77kg. I went back and forth on Elijah or Chris for 5/6 but I went with Elijah - he's just so hard to submit and I think he is big enough that the weight won't be a big problem compared to other -88kgs. I also can't get out of my mind the AIGA loss Chris took by armbar earlier this year, but this is a chance for him to right that ship and prove again that he's a world class submission hunter. Even though Lucas Kanard has that submission win over Victor Hugo, I had trouble moving him up over anyone here (especially since he's been submitted by Wojcik before). He's still got a lot of first-time matches in this field but everyone who works with the guy raves about his potential.

-99kg

1. Nick Rodriguez
2. Luke Griffith
3. Kaynan Duarte
4. Michael Pixley
5. Declan Moody
6. Ryan Aitken
7. Charles Negromonte
8. Taylor Pearman

Nicky Rod down at -99kg is really one of the most under-appreciated team moves coming into CJI 2 and I think he is already the best -99kg guy as soon as he can make the weight. The CJI 1 champion went all submissions through his bracket and unless you can match some of that physicality and size tapping him is nearly impossible. Kaynan, though double gold last year, is a huge question mark. He had tons of submission wins at ADCC but since he has looked rough and just dropped his last match to Nick. We have also seen him get submitted by smaller guys, which is a potential team result swinging result under the ruleset. The next three guys are all very close, Michael, Declan, and Ryan. All three have submission offense, very solid submission defense, and world-level experience. If you wanted to move those around, it would be understandable. I favor Michael in the pit because of his takedown to submission hold ability and how we've seen him rise to the moment. After those three, I slotted in the two -88kg guys who are bumping up.

+99kg

1. Felipe Pena
2. Victor Hugo
3. Dan Manasoiu
4. Marcin Maciulewicz
5. Kyle Boehm
6. Brandon Reed
7. Belal Etiabari
8. Pat Downey

Easy call here at the top - Felipe Pena has proven himself as the top heavyweight in the world and his ability to get to the back and submit is going to be a big ace for Team Atos. There's a lot of interesting matchups for him, including in the weight against Hugo, but many will come against the -99kgs like Nicky Rod and Luke. Victor owns a submission win over Dan, so he slots in above the ADCC medalist. I favored Marcin over Kyle for his leg locking ability but Kyle (and Brandon Reed below him) are both going to be very hard to submit though Kyle will be a little small compared to some other heavyweights. At the bottom I have to plug in Pat Downey, who has the least experience in submission grappling and will be tasked to submit someone more experienced anytime he takes the mats.

CJI Team Rankings

1. New Wave Jiu-Jitsu
2. Atos Jiu-Jitsu
3. The B Team
4. Pedigo Submission Fighting
5. Team Australia/Asia Misfits Squad
6. 10th Planet
7. Team Europe Misfits Squad
8. Team Americas Misfits Squad

After all the individual rankings, I tried my best to figure out how that all shook out for the teams. Team New Wave will walk in with the best guy at two of the five weights and no one lower than third here, with everyone a threat to start ripping off submission wins. I genuinely think guys like Mica or Luke could solo some of these other squads by themselves if they really get going. Because of that, I am going to put them first here leading into Las Vegas. After them, I favored Atos because they have the best heavyweight, the best leg locker in the field (Pato), and everyone else in a top-4 spot. Next is B-Team led by Nicky Rod and PSF, the highest ranked homegrown squad. One team I'd look at to overperform here is 10th Planet - no one ever does better coming together as a unit than the freaks and they have performed magic on those mats when they need to deliver for their squad.

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