Icu World Cheerleading Championships 2017

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Apr 26, 2015
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The championships are just in a month away so time to open up a thread for them. This year is the first year when juniors get to change to compete at the ICU worlds. They have two dance divisions: Pom and HipHop and the cheer divisions have two different levels: Advanced (level 4) and Elite (level 5). The competition is now three days instead of two (Wednesday till Friday). Also Paracheer will be a new division this year.
This year there will be also semi-finals on Thursday, mainly due to the large amount of teams in Elite divisions. Is is not stated yet how many teams will advance to the finals, my guess is 10 like in the Worlds but it could be less as well. I believe the scores from semi-finals won't count (like in Worlds) but I am not sure about this, couldn't find information. Also from now on, the winners of Advanced divisions (junior) and Elite divisions (senior) are required to compete at the level higher in the next world championships in 2018.
Here is the link for the schedule overview: http://cheerunion.org.ismmedia.com/...hips/docs/ICU_2017_WCC_Schedule-Tentative.pdf

The ICU score sheet is in total 100 points per judge and divided as follows:
- 10 points cheer
- 25 points stunts
-25 points pyramids
-15 points baskets
-10 points tumbling
-5 points performance

In the premier divisions the USA has dominated this competition but other countries are catching up, in fact USA coed lost in 2015 to Chinese Taipei but gained the title back last year with this amazing performance: . Like in previous years, they send a national team, which consists of mainly current or ex college cheerleaders, both NCA and UCA background. They will come together two weeks prior the competition and put a routine together in that amount of time. This applies obviously also for All-Girl The two day competition could actually benefit them because the team members are very used to the two-day competitions.
In my opinion the strength of team USA compared to Chinese Taipei is the execution in all categories plus tumbling difficulty. Chinese Taipei has very high difficulty in pyramids and compared to other teams than USA, they are strong in partner stunts because their stunts have been traditionally unassisted and this the requirement to get the highest scores on that category. This is also what other teams behind them have been lacking. Finland was 3rd last year and their strength is beautiful execution but they lack difficulty, especially in tumbling. But like said, if their partner stunts are unassisted plus they HIT, they can go up. Norway is strong as well but so far they haven't been hitting at ICU. Germany has a national team as well and they are strong in partner stunts but at least last year they routine was too low paced. Canada has been 4th many times, time for them to go up as well? However, I do believe that if USA hits, they will win.

In All-Girl, the strongest teams have been USA,Finland and Norway by taking all the medals in the past years, all of the teams have national teams so very interested to see what kind of routines they enter to the competition.

I tried to find out which junior teams are representing their countries but could only find out the ones from USA and Finland (Germany has all girl junior national team). If you know any, please link them in the thread.
Here are the ones, which I found:
Usa junior all-girl:
USA junior coed: (couldnt find a newer one)
Finland junior all-girl:
Finland junior coed:
 
Sweden is represented in coed premier by a national team and by teams from programs in all girl premier, senior pom and junior all girl elite. We dont have anything junior coed teams right now som no coed team in junior for us.

In junior we are represented by gothenburg cheer one bobcats.


In senior allgirl by a team from the same program called wildcats who has been team sweden for a couple of years now.


The coed team i dont have a video of though.
 
For Team Canada:

Junior All Girl

PCT Cobras Vengeance

Junior Coed

Cheer Sport Star Spotted Sharks

**both these videos are from December. I didn't look too hard for more recent tbh**

I think both these teams will have to have made substitutions to fit the age grid for ICU but I don't know that for sure.

Some people I coach with this year are on Team Canada Coed Premier. They had a camp last weekend and from what I understand, they're gunning for the podium. I've seen a few video clips floating around instagram, they look good!

Team Canada All Girl did a demo a few weeks ago
 
Canada all-girl looked very clean and definitely scoring very high on tumbling section. However, I would have expected that they would have some level 6 skills in their cheer section but maybe they will add them.

All juniors who are born after 1 January 2000 are age eligible compete at ICU Junior Worlds. Those Canadian team looked very strong but the score sheet is different than in Worlds and no spring floor either so interesting to see how they do.
 
Canada all-girl looked very clean and definitely scoring very high on tumbling section. However, I would have expected that they would have some level 6 skills in their cheer section but maybe they will add them.

All juniors who are born after 1 January 2000 are age eligible compete at ICU Junior Worlds. Those Canadian team looked very strong but the score sheet is different than in Worlds and no spring floor either so interesting to see how they do.

I don't know if that demo was their routine or not. I know that they put that together in only a day or 2, so I'd suspect it will change a bit.
 
Canada all-girl looked very clean and definitely scoring very high on tumbling section. However, I would have expected that they would have some level 6 skills in their cheer section but maybe they will add them.

All juniors who are born after 1 January 2000 are age eligible compete at ICU Junior Worlds. Those Canadian team looked very strong but the score sheet is different than in Worlds and no spring floor either so interesting to see how they do.


Due to the late announcement of Juniors, the Canadian Junior teams were chosen based on videos of age-eligible teams that were sent in. I know our gym sent in videos, and they were basically competition runs from this season. I think the process may change in future years when there is more time to put this together. Though I think sending a current team makes life easier on underage/younger athletes in terms of parental supervision if needed. I know the regular TC teams by virtue of having older athletes can worry less about a team full of minors and parental supervision

I can't wait to watch all the teams again
 
Event schedule and competition order are released!
Event schedule:
http://cheerunion.org.ismmedia.com/...p/Championships/WCC/2017_ICU_WCC_Schedule.pdf
Competition order: http://cheerunion.org.ismmedia.com/.../Top/Championships/WCC/ICU_2017_WCC_Order.pdf
Interesting fact is that there are only three Elite level teams competing both in Junior allgirl and coed so everyone gets a medal.
Edit. Same with coed advanced

Probably because they're new this year. Give it some time - I'm sure it will grow quickly
 
Of course I'm flying home from Vancouver during Team Canada's Junior teams. Maybe I'll be able to watch from the airport.....
 
Anyone else watching live the juniors? I have seen many clean performances and HIT routines :rays:
 
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