We have noticed a couple of teams at ACIC 2018 who have infractions (some with severe multiple infractions) and did not achieve their ideal placement in the competition. It is our goal to achieve a zero-infraction competition, but this cannot be achieved without the cooperation of coaches and the team stakeholders.
Our judging procedure involves a panel of judges where teams are scored against a 100-point system (except for novice divisions which are scored against 85 points due to basket tosses not allowed at novice level). The highest and lowest score for each team will be dropped and the remaining judges scores will be totaled to determine the team score. Infractions are applied, if any. In the event of a tie, the high and low score (and per judge penalties, if applicable) will be added back into the total score. If a tie remains, the ranking points from each judge will be used to break the tie.
Any team in violation of the rule book will be assessed deductions. To assist team choreographers and coaches, we have stated in the rule book under “Infractions” that any teams with questions concerning legality of a move or trick to send a video of your skills to the official event email. We are sure many of the teams are familiar with this and taken advantage of this service as we have received quite several emails seeking legality clarification.
In addition, we have also put in place an infraction review process where the music staff represent of the team will be notified after the team’s performance if there are any infractions applied (so s/he can inform the coach). During interval, the coach can meet the infraction judge to query the infraction if they feel is not correctly applied. The infraction judge will assess and review the query via a video recording of the routine. If infraction is found to be incorrect, the infraction will be retracted immediately. If the infraction judge saw any rule infraction during video review that was previously missed out, it will be applied. This process caters an avenue for retraction of infractions due to human error (which is unavoidable with the limited view of the infraction judge), provides a positive learning experience for the coach should the legality be applied, as well as added transparency to the judging procedure. This process is optional. The coach may choose to meet with the infraction or not.
After the competition, teams will receive the the judges’ score sheets as well as their infraction sheet (if any). In addition, teams will receive a division ranking sheet with the names and scores of the teams’ final placement. The results found online is the same division ranking sheet which the team receives (which does not show if team have received an infraction).
All the above information can be found in the rule book and/or competition handbook and we hope all participants take full advantage of it. As an event organizer, nothing is more painful seeing a team infracted despite a stellar performance and lose a chance to medal. As competition organizers, we provide all possible avenues to assist the team but at the end of the day, the onus is upon the coach to read and know the rules and make use of the avenues provided if you have queries (which is perfectly normal and okay). We can’t emphasise enough that reading the information package, rule book and competition handbook in detail is imperative.
There is one thing we do not tolerate at our competition, pre, during and post, online and offline and that is poor SPORTSMANSHIP. Cheerleaders have traditionally and always have been ambassadors of sportsmanship and we expect cheerleaders and coaches to understand the importance and take it upon themselves to uphold this fine tradition which started from our predecessors. Despite personal disappointment with the results, we should always respect our competitors and give credit when due. To quote John Wooden “The true athlete should have character, not be a character”.
Addendum 3/4/18
We have not mentioned that in addition to medaling top three teams in each division, we have an additional award system which we pioneered to award teams based on their scores. A gold award will be given to teams scoring 80% and above, silver 65% to below 80%, bronze 50% to below 65% and merit to below 50%. The introduction of the award system is to introduce the concept to teams to challenge to compete against themselves and achieve their personal best. After all, there can only be 3 teams to podium at each competition but everyone can be a gold award winner.