2018 Spyder Invitational BJJ Championship Finals

The Year Long Tournament: A Timeline of Spyder

Spyder boasts an ambitious, year-long tournament process, and next week will see the grand finale of the 2018 Invitational and crown two new champions.

Oct 25, 2018 by Chase Smith

The Year Long Tournament: A Timeline of Spyder

Spyder is the Korean jiu-jitsu event that you NEED to be paying attention to.

It's not only the premiere invite-only tournament in Asia, but also one of the most exciting formats in the world. Boasting an ambitious, year-long tournament process, next week will see the grand finale of the 2018 Invitational and crown two new Spyder Champions. Not to be overshadedThere are also as well as two incredible super fights on the card as well, including Werdum vs Hulk!

Watch The Spyder Championship Finals LIVE Nov. 3 on Flograppling

The brackets for Nov. 3, 2018, Championship Round

The Opening Round - February 2018

Anyone who made the podium in the opening (that's gold, silver, and a lone bronze medalist) advanced to the next round of the tournament in July.

In the under 76kg weight class it was Hugo Marques who walked away with the gold medal but it wasn’t easy for the Soul Fighters black belt.

Marques had a back and forth battle with Atos brown belt Jonnatas Gracie in the semi-finals that saw him barely fight off two deep submission threats. The match wowed the fans in attendance and had them chanting on their by the end - an early contender for best match of the year.

Watch Hugo Marques Vs Jonnatas Gracie

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Semi-Finals

Hugo Marques defeats Jonnatas Gracie via points 4-2 (FOTN)
Victor Nathiel defeats Insung Jang via ref's decision

Third Place

Jonnatas Gracie defeats Insung Jang via points

Final

Hugo Marques defeats Victor Nathiel via ref's decision

Marques, Nathiel, and Gracie advance to July's Tournament (Only Marques made the return trip, though).

The +76kg bracket was just as exciting, it featured some quick submissions but ultimately was dominated by Kaynan Duarte from Atos.

After a narrow victory over another Club Feijao purple belt it was all Kaynan from there. He secured a slick kneeler victory in the semi’s and won a dominated 2-0 victory in the finals over 2017 brown belt World Champion Vinicius Ferreira. After only a few tournaments at brown belt Kaynan has cemented himself as the competitor to beat in the brown belt division.

+76 Semi-Finals

Vinicius Ferreira defeats Victor Hugo via adv 2-1
Kaynan Duarte defeats Sanghyun Lee via kneebar

Third Place

Victor Hugo defeats Sanghyun Lee via points 6-0

Final

Kaynan Duarte defeats Vinicius Ferreira via points 2-0

Duarte, Ferreira, and Hugo Advance to July's tournament

The Quarter Finals – July 2018

The major storyline surrounding the quarterfinals of the Spyder Invitational BJJ Championship in July was series of thrilling upsets that saw some of the sport’s best black belts taken out by lesser-ranked opponents. Victor Nathiel and Jonnatas Gracie did not make the return trip to Korea for the -76kgdivision, allowing for two more open spots to be filled by Paulo Miyao and Insugn Jang.

Insung Jang vs AJ Agazarm

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2018 Abu Dhabi King of Mats champion Charles Negromonte lost to Vinicius Ferreira, who took third at the 2018 IBJJF World Championships in the brown belt division. The result came via judges’ decision. Vinicius has since been promoted to black belt.
2018 Worlds middleweight silver medalist Tommy Langaker was submitted by Victor Hugo via triangle.
2018 featherweight world champion Jamil Hill lost to Johntha Alves of Atos / Art of Jiu-Jitsu– a recently-promoted brown belt who took silver at the most recent Worlds at purple belt. The match was decided by one advantage.
2017 ADCC silver medalist AJ Agazarm was beaten by Korean brown belt Insung Jang in 0-0 match decided by 1-0 advantage. Jang was promoted to black belt shortly after the event.
Though both black belts, Dark Horse Masahiro Iwasaki knocked out the champion of the first round Hugo Marques by a lone sweep in the final minutes, which earned him a berth in Nov. 3 Championship event.

NOTE: Every athelte that one a match in the quarterfinal event earned to bid to November's Finals (the naming convention may seem strange, but there are of course two semi-finals, which they lead to the conclusion or final. This saves the event organizers having a semi-finals event that would simply be two matches, with the option of the third place matches).

-76kg

Johnatha Alves def Jamil Hill 0-0, 1-0 adv
Masahiro Iwasaki def Hugo Marques 2-0
Insung Jang def AJ Agazarm 0-0, 1-0 adv
Paulo Miyao def Matheus Gabriel 8-6

+76kg

Kaynan Duarte def Matheus Godoy 3-0
Vinicius Ferreria def Charles Negromonte decision
Victor Hugo def Tommy Langaker via triangle
DJ Jackson def Craig Jones decision

The Finals, Nov. 3, 2018

Based off of what transpired in July, the semi-final matches have been set for November 3rd, but unlike previous Spyder events, they are not concluding the event after the semi-finals category finishes and instead are running straight through the finals and third-place matches, giving a conclusion to the epic 2018 tournament.

See the brackets below.

-76kg Semi-Finals