The amount of free spaces are slowly dwindling as another representative has been added to both Team UK & Ireland and Team USA for Polaris Squads 3.
Team captain Darragh O’Connaill will have another Irishman in his lineup as he is joined by Polaris veteran Tom Halpin. He will be experiencing a change of pace from the last Squads event, where lost a decision to Ashley Williams for the Featherweight title, and will now be back to working with him in the same team. Halpin is yet another veteran of ADCC 2019 and like Ross Nicholls, he had to earn his way to the event by storming through five different opponents at the European trials. One advantage Halpin will have over everyone else in both teams is that he will be the only person who has earned a victory in a Squads match, as he was responsible for Team UK & Ireland’s 1-0 victory over Team Europe in the first event.
His counterpart on Team USA is a young and extremely talented grappler hailing from Brazilian Fight Factory in Texas, William Tackett. Having only just had his twentieth birthday, Tackett is the youngest grappler competing for either team so far but despite his youth and relative inexperience, he has been known for defeating older competitors for years now already. Tackett owns submission victories over the likes of Fellipe Andrew, Manuel Ribamar, and Aaron ‘Tex’ Johnson already, and has managed to win a decision against his fellow Team USA representative Nick Ronan as far back as 2019. He might not be as much of a known quantity as some of his teammates, but Tackett will certainly be one to watch in the fast-paced Squads format.
