Pitch Book / PGF Season 9 / Las Vegas
Professional Grappling Federation logo
Built around official PGF material

Live standings, athlete profiles, and PGF brand assets sourced from pgf.world.

Friends In Vegas.
Enemies By Friday.

A two-day playoff documentary built in the spirit of Drive to Survive: self-shot intimacy, real friendship, and the moment competition forces the room to change.

2 shoot days
Las Vegas setting
5-athlete ensemble
Playoff stakes

PGF World Positioning

Professional Grappling Federation is the fastest and most exciting jiu jitsu on earth. Follow the PGF 2026 Season standings, weekly matchups, breaking news, and replay coverage from Las Vegas.

This deck now uses the official PGF logo, direct athlete-page links, and a live leaderboard snapshot so the pitch stays inside the visual and editorial world PGF already presents publicly.

Story Thesis

This is not just a bracket recap. The episode is about identity under pressure. Thursday lets the audience fall in love with the group dynamic. Friday tests whether that dynamic survives direct elimination. Vegas is not background; it is contrast. Bright city, open night, food, jokes, activity, spectacle, then the next morning it all collapses into the smallest possible space: one athlete, one match, one consequence.

Episode Tone
Intimate
Narrative Engine
Friendship vs elimination
Reference
DTS episode 7
Delivery
One premium short doc

Official Standings Snapshot

Homepage leaderboard captured from pgf.world on March 17, 2026.

Rank Athlete Team Points
1 Kevin Beuhring Twisters 24
2 Jett Thompson Kings 23
3 Austin Oranday Kings 19
4 Chuy Magana Kings 18
5 Elijah Carlton Twisters 15
6 Shawn Melanson Phenoms 14
7 Travis Haven Twisters 14
8 Andrew Kochel Phenoms 12
9 Jared Fekete Kings 9
10 Jake Straus Twisters 8

Featured Cast

Season 9 snapshot anchored to the live pgf.world homepage and athlete pages on March 17, 2026.

#1Alabama Twisters

Kevin Beuhring

24 points

Season 9 visible record: 5-0-1 through Mar 11

The current leader. Quiet pressure, technical confidence, and the burden of staying on top when everyone is hunting him.

Open official athlete page

#2Las Vegas Kings

Jett Thompson

23 points

Season 9 visible record: 4-0-2 through Mar 11

The defending 2025 PGF champion. He is not chasing relevance, he is trying to prove the crown still fits.

Open official athlete page

#5Alabama Twisters

Elijah Carlton

15 points

Season 9 visible record: 4-0-2 through Mar 11

The veteran finisher. The room gets quieter when the most experienced guy stops smiling.

Open official athlete page

#7Alabama Twisters

Travis Haven

14 points

Season 9 visible record: 3-2-1 through Mar 11

The qualifier winner who earned his way in. Less mythology, more hunger.

Open official athlete page

Outside top 10Philadelphia Phenoms

Derek Rayfield

Not in homepage top 10 on Mar 17

Season 9 visible record: 0-3-3 through Mar 11

Last season’s free-agent surprise. This year is about proving he belongs before the window closes.

Open official athlete page

Character Photos

Official PGF athlete-page images where available, supplemented with PGF World video thumbnails for featured athletes who were not exposing headshots cleanly on the public athlete page markup.

Kevin Beuhring

Kevin Beuhring

PGF World feature clip framing Kevin as the man on top after week 3.

Source

Jett Thompson

Jett Thompson

Official PGF athlete image for the defending champion.

Source

Elijah Carlton

Elijah Carlton

PGF World matchup thumbnail featuring Elijah Carlton.

Source

Travis Haven

Travis Haven

Official PGF athlete image for Travis Haven.

Source

Derek Rayfield

Derek Rayfield

Official PGF athlete image for Derek Rayfield.

Source

Beat Sheet

  1. Cold open on Vegas night, phone footage, room lights, city noise, and short lines about what it means to fight friends.
  2. Arrival and reset. Hotel check-in, gear bags, small jokes, first hints that the room is already measuring itself.
  3. State of the race. Graphics and interview snippets on the standings, team identities, and what the playoff means for each athlete.
  4. Day activity in the desert. Red Rock hike or a comparable daylight outing to get real side-by-side conversation.
  5. Long lunch. Who is relaxed, who is performing relaxed, and who starts talking style matchups.
  6. Night out. Bowling or Topgolf over a club. You need faces, jokes, misses, and a little competitive leakage.
  7. Private night confessionals. Self-shot hotel clips, room solitude, text messages home, taped wrists, real nerves.
  8. Morning of playoffs. Coffee, mobility, silence, bracket talk, and the end of the social mask.
  9. Semifinal faceoffs. Cross-cut each athlete describing what the other does best and why that is dangerous.
  10. Final and fallout. The ending is not just who wins; it is how the group feels after one result changes the hierarchy.

Key Visual Language

  • Phone-shot vertical diaries mixed with polished verite camera coverage.
  • Desert daylight against neon night, then stripped-down playoff morning realism.
  • Close hands, taped feet, eye contact, scoreboard glances, and reaction shots over excessive match coverage.
  • Vegas as atmosphere, not tourism content. The city should feel seductive on Thursday and irrelevant on Friday.
North Star

Off the mat: closeness. On the mat: isolation.

2-Day Production Schedule

Thursday / One Day Out
  1. 9:00 AM Arrival b-roll, hotel exterior, athlete check-in, room setups.
  2. 11:00 AM Individual sit-down interviews, 12 to 15 minutes each.
  3. 1:00 PM Group lunch with embedded camera and two roaming operators.
  4. 3:30 PM Red Rock hike or similar outdoor activity with athlete pair walk-and-talks.
  5. 6:30 PM Sunset scenic pickups and short one-liners on looming matchups.
  6. 8:00 PM Night activity, preferably bowling or Topgolf for playable competition and dialogue.
  7. 10:30 PM Mandatory self-shot hotel diary clips from each athlete.
Friday / Playoff Day
  1. 7:00 AM Wake-up verite, coffee, body maintenance, gear layout.
  2. 8:30 AM Short pre-fight interviews: what changed overnight, who they least want to face.
  3. 10:00 AM Travel to venue, bracket setup, warm-ups, corners, reaction coverage.
  4. Match window Semifinals and final with emphasis on faces, corners, breath, and aftermath.
  5. Immediately after Winner sit-down, loser decompression, friend-to-friend fallout.
  6. End of day Final ensemble image: same group, different emotional temperature.

Place References

These image references are here to help the deck sell the Vegas look: city-at-night excess, Red Rock desert space, and the clean early-morning tonal reset before competition.

Las Vegas Night Energy

Las Vegas Night Energy

Use for arrival, neon, hotel-corridor, and Thursday-night contrast.

Red Rock Day Exterior

Red Rock Day Exterior

Use for the one-day-out activity block and walk-and-talk sequences.

Vegas Sunrise Reset

Vegas Sunrise Reset

Use for the emotional turn from spectacle to playoff morning.

Shot Priorities

  • Vegas establishes: hotel corridors, elevator doors, city glow, desert sunrise.
  • Arrival details: duffel bags, room keys, rashguards, phones, bracket checks.
  • Group coverage: trailing walk-and-talks, table tensions, laughter that cuts off too fast.
  • Private coverage: mirror looks, shower steam, room silence, hand tape, family texts.
  • Match day: feet bouncing, jaws tightening, coaches whispering, post-match separation.

Interview Framework

  • What changes when the opponent is someone you actually like?
  • Which of these guys knows your game too well?
  • Who do you least want to lose to, and why?
  • What part of your life would the audience understand better after one honest night in Vegas?
  • Are you trying to win this playoff, or are you trying not to become somebody else’s story?

Character-Specific Prompts

Kevin

Does leading make you calmer or more exposed? If Jett is right behind you, what separates you from him right now?

Jett

How much of your identity is tied to being the defending champion? What would back-to-back actually prove?

Elijah

What do younger athletes misunderstand about playoff grappling? What does composure really feel like when a match starts going bad?

Travis

You came through the qualifier route. Do you still feel like you are proving you belong every time you step on the mat?

Derek

Last year you were the surprise rise. This year you returned with expectations. What does proving it again mean now?

Group

Who is funniest? Who gets weird on fight week? Who would take a loss the most personally even if he pretends he would not?

Editorial Promise

The episode should feel premium without becoming fake-premium. That means minimal narration, no overexplaining the sport, and no generic motivational packaging. The camera earns intimacy by staying close to ordinary moments: deciding where to eat, joking in the car, a long pause after someone asks who they least want to lose to, and the silence before the bracket starts.

The audience should leave feeling like they know these five men better and understand exactly why friendship makes the playoff harder, not softer.

Deliverable

  • One flagship documentary episode.
  • Vertical diary cutdowns from each athlete.
  • Character-specific short teasers.
  • One playoff-day trailer built from Thursday night and Friday morning footage.

Research Sources

PGF World YouTube channel PGF World homepage and standings Kevin Beuhring athlete page Jett Thompson athlete page Elijah Carlton athlete page Travis Haven athlete page Derek Rayfield athlete page Jett Thompson signs with Las Vegas Kings PGF 2026 Breaking News - Derek Rayfield Returns Chewjitsu Qualifier Winner Travis Haven

Note: recent BTS uploads exposed metadata but not usable caption text via direct pull, so this pitch relies on verified standings, athlete pages, and the channel’s published framing rather than transcript quotations.