‘I was wrong’ – Anonymous CJI donor revokes $1 million previously awarded to New Wave

The anonymous person backing CJI has decided not to give a $1 million prize previously awarded to Team New Wave.

Just when the dust seemed to have finally settled on CJI 2, the drama continues.

In a recent Reddit post that has been subsequently confirmed by tournament organizer Craig Jones, the anonymous donor behind CJI has changed his position and will not, in fact, award $1 million to the CJI 2 second-place squad, Team New Wave. (Although the donor’s identity remains anonymous, Jones has often referred to this person as a man).

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Head coach John Danaher and Team New Wave collided with their cross-town rival, The B-Team, in the final of CJI 2. Neither team was able to secure a submission in that matchup, and although Team New Wave had won three of the five bouts on the judges’ scorecards, the overall team scores were tied. The B-Team was then determined to be the winner under tie-breaker rules, which held that the team that won the last match would win the team matchup.

That decision was met with outrage from both New Wave and many fans, leading the anonymous donor to award the $1 million prize to both The B-Team and Team New Wave. Since then, the donor has reviewed the rules and available information, ultimately concluding that The B-Team was the rightful winner and that Team New Wave has no claim to the $1 million prize.

In his post on Reddit, the donor explains:

• The rules as written were ambiguous. Under one interpretation, Team New Wave won the team event; under another interpretation, The B-Team won the team event.
• The athlete contract specifies that any ambiguities shall be decided at the sole discretion of CJI.
• CJI head judge Miha Perhavec made clear in the rules meetings that, if the team scores were tied and the teams were even on submissions, the winner of the last individual match would be declared the team winner. Under this interpretation, The B-Team wins the team event.
• On the night of CJI 2, Team New Wave argued about the scoring of individual bouts, and not the team tie-breaker. This indicates that they took no issue with the team tie-breaker ruling.
• The donor made his initial decision to award Team New Wave the $1 million based on incomplete information.