Client: Brand & Event Production Since: 2024 Events: Grappling Series 1 & 2 — Vienna, 2024, 100+ competitors each
A combat sports brand built from the name up — and two events put on the mat
Two events, 100+ competitors at each — a combat sports brand taken from name to mat in one season
There was no brand. No name, no mark, no format, no plan — just the intent to build a combat sports promotion in Vienna and do it properly. A promotion is a harder brand problem than it looks: it has to read as serious to athletes who have competed under established banners, credible to gyms deciding whether to send their people, and legible on a poster, a medal ribbon, a mat corner and a phone screen at the same time. And unlike a logo on a website, the first event either happens or it doesn't — the brand has a date attached to it from day one.
M73LAB built the whole thing. We found the name — Combat Elite Championship, CEC — and drew the identity around it: a heavy italic wordmark with the cut-through E, built to hold at the size of a medal stamp and at the size of a wall. We wrote the concept and the business plan behind the promotion, then defined its first format as a standalone sub-brand: the CEC Grappling Series, No-Gi, with its own lockup so the series could grow without renaming the parent. From there it was production rather than design: event posters and a registration flow running on Smoothcomp — the platform grappling competitors already have an account on, which took sign-ups, seeding, brackets and results off a spreadsheet and out of our inbox — a superfight card for every headline matchup, the full social campaign, and CEC-branded medals and ribbons for every division. Then we organised and ran the events themselves — two of them, Grappling Series 1 on 6 July 2024 and Grappling Series 2 on 17 November 2024, both in Vienna, both with youth and adult divisions on the mat.
Combat Elite Championship — found, checked and shortened to a mark that works as CEC.
Heavy italic wordmark with the cut-through E, in light and dark, drawn to hold at medal size.
Concept and business plan for the promotion — what it is, who competes, how it pays for itself.
CEC Grappling Series established as its own sub-brand, No-Gi, with its own lockup.
Posters, Smoothcomp registration, superfight cards per matchup, and the social rollout around both dates.
Two events organised and run in Vienna — 6 July and 17 November 2024, youth and adult divisions.
Name found and trademark-ready wordmark developed: CEC — Combat Elite Championship
Brand identity in light and dark variants, built to survive from medal stamp to venue wall
Concept and business plan written for the promotion as a whole
CEC Grappling Series defined as its own sub-brand and lockup, so the format can scale without renaming the parent
Two events organised and delivered: Grappling Series 1 (6 July 2024) and Grappling Series 2 (17 November 2024), both in Vienna
Over 100 competitors at each event
Registration, brackets and results run on Smoothcomp, the platform grappling competitors already use
Youth and adult divisions run at both events, each with its own podium and awards
CEC-branded medals and ribbons designed and produced for every division
Event posters, registration flow and a superfight card per headline matchup
Full social media campaign around both events — announcement, matchup cards, results
Combat Elite Championship came first, then the mark that had to carry it. A heavy italic wordmark with a cut-through E — enough aggression to belong on a fight poster, simple enough to still read stamped into a medal or printed small on a ribbon. Drawn light-on-dark and dark-on-light, because a promotion's logo lives on black posters and white paperwork in the same week.
The first format under the new brand, and the first date the promotion had to actually deliver on: a No-Gi grappling event in Vienna, with youth and adult divisions. Poster, registration page, social announcement and superfight cards for the headline matchups — then a podium and a certificate for every division that competed.
Headline matchup 
For the second event the campaign got its own visual system: one card per headline matchup, shot and built to the same template, so a feed full of them reads as one event rather than five separate posts. Sponsor logos sit in the same place on every card.
The headline matchups filmed and cut vertical for the feed, plus a reel carrying the whole day. Footage is what a promotion trades on between events — it is the only part of a Saturday in Vienna that keeps working in a phone six months later.
Event reel — CEC Grappling Series 2
Superfight 1
Superfight 2
Superfight 3
Superfight 4
Superfight 5
Superfight 6
Every division that competes goes home with something, so the medal is not an afterthought — it is the piece of the brand an athlete keeps. CEC-stamped medal faces on a ribbon carrying the wordmark end to end, produced for both events.
The part that is organisation rather than design: brackets and scoring on Smoothcomp, referees briefed, divisions called in order, a room kept moving from the first youth match to the last adult final. Both events drew more than a hundred competitors and ran youth and adult divisions on the same day.
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