The First Annual Power Cheerleading Head to Head Elimination Cheerleading
Competition or more simply put, the Elite Eight was held on Friday
Nay 8 at Saunders SS in London, Ontario. This night should be remembered
as a historic first for competitive cheerleading in that this competition
is the first ever, elimination "Tournament Style" competition
for cheer teams.
Note. Due to some scheduling difficulties, or more appropriately, some re-scheduling
difficulties, this years Elite Eight, ended up as a 5 team show down. It
was still extremely successful and will no doubt grow to become one of the
hottest tickets in Competitive Power Cheerleading.
This Year's match ups and placings
1. Saunders Sabres
2. CCH Crusaders
3. Westmount Wildcats
4. MM Robinson Rams
5. JP II Jaguars
How it works.
1. Take 8 teams and seed them based on current year wins and comp
placings as well as previous track record and expected probable relative
strength.
2. Insert teams into a Championship/Consolation tournament playdown
"grid".
3. Plan for drop-outs by having playdown match up grids designed
for 7, 6 or 5 etc teams. The ideal plan is to have every team play a minimum
of 3 match ups.
4. At the competition, 2 teams square off in each round. The teams
perform, the judges judge, then the ordinal rankings determine which squad
had more "firsts" relative to the other. One of them goes to the
Championship round and the loser, to the consolation side.
5. Each team is required to be in the gym and court side while their
opponent is performing. Both teams are on the floor when the result is announced
(takes about 2 minutes). All squad members shake hands with the opposing
team, and then leave the floor to prepare for the next round.
6. All teams in the competition accept that this is a win/lose situation.
There are no tears, no appeals and no looking back. Your actual "score"
per judge is irrelevant, only your placing relative to your opponent matters.
This is how it is when you want it to be a sport.
If you are interested in applying to the '98-99 Elite 8 or would like to
run a similar competition and would like some tips. Please call PCA.