Worst of the West? Clever?

So I'm not much of a complainer but....... ha, okay okay I'm kidding. I'm usually the first to speak my mind about an issue I'm having a hard time tolerating. Ex: "OMG this line is taking forever" or "WHAT THE #$@% ARE YOU DOING!?" while driving. I do complain but I don't make excuses. Last weekend was the Best of the West competition in Anaheim, CA. Another tourney, the NABJJ American something-or-other, was happening in Torrance at the same time and I chose the Anaheim one (even though it's much farther from my house) because my teammate said it was better and I had also heard good things about it. Normally a no-gi only competition, this was the first year they added gi and having only been a blue belt for a week I figured I'd test my skills at a smaller competition. Weigh ins were at OTM and even though an OTM had opened up in the valley right near me, they weren't participating and I had to drive in 405 traffic to get to the redondo location. Apparently we were going to be getting a shirt and mouthguard free at the weigh ins since we were getting it taken care of ahead of time but that wasn't the case. I paid the extra $20 bucks to add no-gi since I decided last minute to enter it and we were on our way home. Next day I got there and it was stuffy as a purgatory. They had cancelled the MMA convention that was going to be happening at the same time and the competition was moved from the Anaheim Convention Center to a small high school gym. They were running late and that was expected. Finally I was called at around 4 when women's was expected to start at 3. Anyway, I go to the mat and check in with them. 5 minutes later they're calling my name over the PA and I went over and clarified that I had been standing there the whole time. "Oh, duh!" the guy said after admitting he was an idiot, pretty much. Don't consider me harsh right now because after I go into more detail you'll fully understand. They start the first match and I notice it's only five minutes so I tell them it's six minutes for blue belt. He ASKS the girls before they start the match if they want it at six and they give him a weird look and say yes. The first match was the two other girls in my bracket and I was the by. Amanda wins over Jill and I'm up next. They try to hand me the red belt when Jill is wearing a black gi and I'm wearing a white gi. I push his hand back and tell him there's no need for it. I make sure it's six minutes and start the match with Jill and won with a cross choke from guard. I go to check the bracket to make sure they get my name right. Turns out I was meant to fight Amanda since she won the first match and Jill was the loser. I guess that works out in the end so I have more matches. I have a break while two other girls fight. Turns out the only weight division that existed was the one I was placed in which was heavier than I would normally fight. The other girls were only able to fight in the open? and the guys that were putting together the bracket put it as the two lightest girls on one side. Kristen won that side. I have my match with Amanda after again having to tell them it's 6 minutes and again having to deny the red belt and lose on points. I get second and they don't have anymore third place medals so Jill gets a second place medal as well. Doesn't concern me, I know, but I'm complaining about how the tournament was being run, remember? So the way the two guys made the open bracket was that I had to fight Hannah who hadn't fought yet. I had just gone so I needed a break. Within that 5 minute resting time Hannah's dad in the stands got up and starts yelling about how his daughter hadn't even fought yet. He then throws the gold medal they gave her since she didn't get put in a weight division and it hits some random guy in the back. Some brazilian dude who was coaching for other people was helping out with the bracket since the guys working the tournament couldn't figure it out. Hannah leaves since her dad was pissed about waiting and the guy running the whole tournament comes over and snatches the bracket out of the Brazilian guy's hands and says "No no no, no one touches the bracket but my staff" and his staff even admits they had no idea what they were doing so they handed it to someone who knew. The brazilian man figures that with whoever was left for the open I would have to fight Amanda again or the girl that Kristen won for third. Only third. My friend Benny stepped in to say that since Amanda and I fought in the final, we should be on separate sides of the bracket. Mr. tournament manager says he's been doing this for 13 years and that's totally not the case. I left considering it was a bunch of idiots yelling at each other and I probably wasn't going to get a fight anyway. Second day I really was considering not coming back but I did because my teammate Edwin was fighting no-gi as well and I was nice enough to carpool with him and drive since he just got his license and would have had to drive 40 miles. He was DQ'd in the final for having a straight ankle lock that I guess was about to turn into a knee bar cause the kid turned funny reacting to the foot lock. Funny that he had done the same thing on the same guy a day earlier in the gi. I also overheard a guy asking a ref about whether such and such was an illegal move and he responded "it depends on the ref, some yes some no." I don't know if that is standard at tournaments but aren't all referees briefed before the tournament to ref the same and have the same standard across the board? Guess not. Anyway, my no-gi matches were two hours late this time (whatever, it happens) Well when they had us in the bullpen some guy basically announced that they messed up our brackets and that they were redoing them as he spoke and the next competition we could enter for free. My bracket was set and I was again the lightest one. First match I got a triangle. Second match was against I am not kidding you, Sasquatch. I admit I messed around a lot and didn't get right to business but I felt like I was fighting a large creature. She neck cranked me and even though it's in the rules as a DQ the ref didn't do anything. She was squashing me, rolling around like a whale trying to pass my guard, pulling my arms and legs every which way, powering through every submission I attempted and rolled me into a ball and I'm pretty sure if a suitcase was nearby she'd be stuffing me into it. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to laugh my ass off or cry really hard while watching the video after. The second place medal I got for that bracket was completely different than the medal I had gotten on Saturday. In fact, it read "US OPEN." They had run out of medals and started handing out whatever they had up their you-know-whats. So it was run by incompetent people and to add some more complaining, there was a rule made that only one coach could be up against the barriers. One very impatient rude woman was in charge of monitoring the barrier and making people sit down. Edwin was about to go up and she asked whether I was coaching. I said no not yet and she said for me to sit down so I did. When I was coaching Edwin and taping his match he had the DQ and I made sure to film it even after the match was technically over just in case there were some misunderstandings that could be settled with proof of video. Angry rude lady then yells at me to sit down. After I said I was coaching she continued to question me asking for my wristband, who I was coaching blah blah blah. Throughout the day she was a nazi and pestering coaches-- not a very pleasant addition to the already frustrating process of the day. So I came out of it with two entirely different medals after winning my first blue belt match ever and my first no-gi match ever and a lotttttttttttt of huffing and puffing. Pictures and video of a rare sighting of big foot:

Highlight I made on the Flip cam program!

Las Vegas Open

Drama-rama

I can't go into details but drama sucks. Hopefully my training hasn't suffered because of it since I'm heading to Vegas tomorrow for the IBJJF Vegas Open. I'm not very happy with IBJJF right now considering they've been the most unorganized I've ever seen them. I believe this is the first year this competition is happening so there aren't very many people in each division and since it's gi and no gi all in one day I'll probably be competing at the crack of dawn or black belts will be at 2 in the morning. Whatever, it's vegas, right? When I originally signed up it was Thursday and the deadline was Saturday. At the time there was no one in my division and very little in a lot of the divisions so I assumed they just hadn't been updating the list frequently. Yes and no. It went to full capacity on Saturday before the intended deadline and there was still no one in there. I made the decision to move up a weight class to medio since there still was no one in leve with me. IBJJF finally got back to me and moved me and then I looked after that was corrected and a girl showed up in my division. Whatever, I'd rather have two other girls than one even if they are heavier than me. Smaller competitions I've been matched with girls in heavier weight classes before, it's not a problem at all. I'm bummed that this tourney is rather small and that it's rather unorganized, I think. I leave early tomorrow morning to head out with my mama and sister and picking up my best friend Jessi in Vegas who's already there visiting family. When the issue came up with having no fights I freaked a little and others kept saying "Whatever, bro, it's Vegas! or DUDE YOU GET A MEDAL WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING. My response was, I'm broke, I don't turn 21 for another half a month, I don't drink and I want to fight. Things are somewhat settled so hopefully I can just get out there with a somewhat empty head and play my game. Stoked to have new music to jam to while warming up including La Roux and Emily Haines. I'll let you know the results, though.