The results of the 2022 ADCC World Championships have made it abundantly clear; the ADCC Trials winners are some of the most legitimate contenders in the ADCC athlete pool.

Fifty percent of the ADCC World Champions crowned at ADCC 2022 won a trials in the 2021-22 season. Of the eight champions, four had earned their place at ADCC 2022 by winning a trials event. Two additional finalists had earned their spot by winning an ADCC Trials.

Across all prior ADCC seasons, no more than two trials winners had claimed ADCC gold in the same season that they won the trials.

In 2017 and 2019, for example, every single athlete who stood atop the ADCC podium had been invited to compete.

At the 2022 World Championships, Diogo Reis, Kade Ruotolo, Giancarlo Bodoni and Amy Campo all won gold within 12 months of winning trials for the first time.

Mica Galvao and Brianna Ste-Marie also appeared in the final after winning their first ADCC Trials.

This is a new phenomenon among ADCC standards. Between 1998 and 2019, it was exceptionally rare for a trials winner to earn the top of the podium, or even to make it to the final, in his or her ADCC debut.

That was the case for Kaynan Duarte, who won trials in 2017, and fell in the second round. He returned to ADCC to win his entire division in both 2019 and 2022.

It was the case for Craig Jones, who had to win trials twice before a stellar fourth place performance in 2017 earned him an invitation back in 2019, where he earned his first of two silver medals.

Andre Galvao had to climb a ladder before his legendary double gold performance in 2011. He took third after his trials victory in 2007, then returned to trials in 2009, setting up his second place run. Then, in 2011, he went back to ADCC on invitation, taking double gold to set up his record-setting superfight run.

The 2022 season, with four trials winner ADCC debutants appearing atop the podium, was — at the very least — an exception to the rule. But, given the circumstances surrounding the organization, it may be a change in the trend.

The 2021-22 ADCC Trials were — across the board — record setters. The trials in North America, in Europe, in South America, and in the Asia & Oceania regions, were the largest in history.

In more and more divisions, athletes have to fight through five, six, seven rounds of matches to earn their right to compete at ADCC.

With that volume of matches, it’s not just technique or athleticism or determination or cardio that will get any given athlete through the gauntlet and into the big show. Every trials winner has to have it all.

The strategy, the understanding of the ruleset, the wrestling, the submission game, the ability to fight off a score, the endurance to battle through seven rounds of grappling; each of the athletes who won ADCC Trials and went on to win ADCC in the same year demonstrated that they had every single ingredient becoming of an ADCC champ. And they demonstrated that — not at the world championships — but at the trials months earlier.

And among the eight ADCC Trials, the East Coast Trials are king.

In November 2021, 12 of the semifinalists across the five male divisions went on to qualify or to later receive an invitation to ADCC. Two of them won ADCC less than a year later.

With the growing magnitude of ADCC, the invitation process has become more selective than ever. Therefore, dozens of former trials winners have been funneled back into the ADCC Trials cycle in the 2023-24 season. Athletes like Nicky Ryan, Ethan Crelinsten, Keith Krikorian, and William Tackett, and Oliver Taza — each of whom have competed in more than one ADCC Trials final — have all been told to return to the ADCC Trials process for their ticket to the ADCC World Championships.

With a roster like that, anyone who wins — whether it’s one of the ADCC veterans, or some unknown entity having the day of his life — must be considered a priority seed headed into ADCC.

Whoever emerges from, for example, the 77kg division featuring veterans such as Nicky Ryan, Oliver Taza, John Combs, and Jon Blank — not to mention dozens more up and comers and more than 200 competitors overall — should be considered a threat to the mantle currently held by Kade Ruotolo, the reigning 77kg ADCC champ who won trials in 2021.

The 2023 ADCC East Coast Trials are coming to FloGrappling this weekend, on Oct. 14-15. The five male winners will stamp their tickets to ADCC. The three female winners will guarantee a high seeding position in the 2024 West Coast Trials. And every athlete who perseveres through these impossibly loaded divisions will be a legitimate contender for an ADCC title when the ADCC World Championships return to Las Vegas on Aug. 17-18, 2024 at the T-Moblie Arena.