During part 1 of this review, I gave my
thoughts on all of the matches (both preliminary and main card) and I also gave
some recommendations for matches I would like to see in future Metamoris
events. If you haven't already read part 1, then you can find it HERE.
In this part, I'll be talking about all
the other stuff such as the stream, production, price etc. I will also talk
about stuff which I liked and stuff I thought could have been done better.
Let’s get into this.
Stream
This was actually the first time I
purchased Metamoris, and I have heard about a lot of people who suffer with
stream issues during every Metamoris event. I've heard horror stories about
people's picture freezing, audio issues, ridiculously slow buffer times, and
even in some cases being signed out from the stream and not being let back
in.
Personally, I had no problems with my
stream. The only thing I had was it stopped and buffered for about one second
during Clark Gracie's match, but that was literally it. Both the quality of the
picture and the audio was perfect in my case.
I've never really had problems with any
Jiu-Jitsu event I've ever streamed, however. In the past, I have streamed Copa
Podio (May 2013), the World Jiu-Jitsu Expo (November 2013), and Polaris
(January 2015) and they were equally as great. I thought the visuals for
Metamoris were slightly better though.
Price
The price I paid for the stream was $29.95
(which is approximately £19). This also included an additional 30 days’ worth
of replays. Personally, I didn't watch it again after I first watched it, but I
thought it was a great touch.
I had no problems with the price either. I
paid £15 for Polaris back in January, so and extra £4 was not an issue for an
event like this I think.
Production
In terms of production, it was another
outstanding performance from Metamoris. Honestly, the production of this event
was second to none! It was very professional in the way it was shot, with the
use of excellent camera angles and lighting. Also, all the replays were put
over great, on par with any professional sport broadcast.
For the audio, this was equally as good.
There was no cracking or hissing coming through the audio, and you could
everything in which the commentators were saying.
Whilst we’re talking about the
commentators, I found the configuration a little bit strange. You had the main
three commentators, Bas Rutten, Jeff Glover, and Rener Gracie (he disappeared
sometimes), and every now again Keenan Cornelius, Xande Ribeiro or one of
the other athletes would come in for a bit and give their guest commentary for
a while and sometimes would interchange with each other. I thought it was a
cool idea on paper, but in reality, I felt it came across a little
sloppy.
Another thing on the commentators, I'm a
big fan of Bas Rutten, but I don't think personally he was right for the
position. I can see why they would pick him, as he is a familiar face to MMA
fans and that seems to be an avenue in which Metamoris is going, but I don't
think he knew enough purely about Gi Jiu-Jitsu. In that area, sometimes it felt
as if he was a little bit lost, so I think somebody other than Bas would be
better next time.
Also, Metamoris did actually feel like a
special event. Everything from the promo clips before the start of every match,
to the announcer, to the arena, to the people playing the drums, it all added
up to a very special experience. When you were watching, it felt like you were
watching a real professional sport event, and not just another Jiu-Jitsu
stream. I think that is something everybody else fails to do apart from
Metamoris.
Improvements
Crowd
This was one of the more noticeable things
from the night. I just don't really understand why they did it. To shut the
event off from media is one thing, but from the fans? The hundreds to thousands
of people who are willing to pay to watch and provide so much energy to the
event as a whole? I just didn't really get it. I still don't in all honesty.
In short, for the next Metamoris event,
have it open to the fans.
The Rules/Draws
When you hear people talk about Metamoris,
this is something which comes up every time. Everybody seems to have the
'perfect' set of rules which will improve the event for spectators, but really,
it's impossible to say. Under any set of rules a match can be boring, but I
guess it's finding the right balance which is the issue. Creating a set of
rules which makes it both exciting for BJJ and non-BJJ practitioners.
The obvious way would be to make the
matches no time limit, but this is obviously impossible, due to time
constraints, and again, trying to keep the matches exciting. I think an
overtime system would be a good thing to have. So if there is no submission, by
the end of the 20 minutes, then they will fight again for an additional 5 or 10
minutes.
Okay, so let’s talk about draws. The fact
is... NO ONE likes to see a draw! Everybody wants to see a clear winner and a
loser. It's as simple as that.
I know they had judge’s decisions for
Metamoris 2, but that created a whole other world of problems with people
fighting to get a decision victory rather than a submission. It’s hard to find
a solution to this problem, but there needs to be more incentive for the
fighters to go for the submission. Whether that be financially or whatever, but
there needs to be something in place because too many times you see people out
there who just want to go the distance and not get the submission.
Final Words
I don't want anybody to think from my last
paragraph that I didn't enjoy Metamoris. In fact, I had a total blast. I
thought it was a great show, but I just would like to see them change a few
things, especially with rules, and listen to the fans more.
I look forward to the next show.
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