TEMPE, AZ — The Southwest Regional Open, held last Saturday at Desert Sky Sports Complex, drew 47 registered competitors and 19 actual competitors, according to event director Tara Hollings, who described the turnout as “about what we expected, honestly.”
The adult male blue belt lightweight division had five registered entries. One showed. He warmed up, received his gold medal, took a photo, and drove home. He has since posted the medal on Instagram with the caption “the grind pays off” and received 83 likes from people who were not there to witness it.
The purple belt absolute division, which had seven registrants, produced a bracket consisting entirely of byes until two competitors met in the final. One of them had already competed three times that day. The other arrived at 1:30pm despite being scheduled for 9am and was still allowed to compete following a prolonged discussion at the registration table that nobody wants to describe in detail.
“We keep registration open online until Friday,” said Hollings, standing near a folding table with a laptop, a printer, and a look of specific exhaustion. “People sign up and then they have a thing. Or they cut weight and then they don’t make weight and then they don’t want to move up a division. Or they just don’t show up and we never find out why. That last one is the most common.”
Three no-shows in the gi women’s division cited travel, one cited a family event, and one — who had driven to the venue, parked, and walked to the front door — decided the vibe was off and returned to his car. He was registered in the men’s division. He has since re-registered for the next event.
The kids’ divisions ran on schedule and had full brackets. Organizers noted, not for the first time, that this is always the case.