- Jun 3, 2014
- 2,406
- 4,946
THIS. Why not just call them the Open Small/Large Coed/All-Girl 5/6 division? All divisions allow international teams to participate in, so why the special "international" label?I always kind of wondered why the international divisions at worlds were labelled "International" and why they had the # per country rule when every other division at worlds doesn't have that rule despite the fact that international teams can most certainly enter those divisions as well. I understand that foriegn teams probably have a lot of older people on those teams than younger ones so the division fits them better, but in theory, Worlds is an international competition, yet we only have one age bracket that accomodates the international teams.
I am absolutely, positively, 10000000% against making more division in cheer but would a solution be making two open divisions? An open division at worlds that followed the 10-best-teams-no-matter-what rule as the rest of the divisions do and then have a strictly international division where the international teams can have their 3 per country rule? American teams cannot enter the international open division but international teams can enter the open division if they so chose. Most of the international teams say they want to compete against the best of the best but they don't want more than three US (and Canada tbh) teams to move on because there will fill the top 10 slots. Most international teams can't have it both ways. They can really only have one or the other.
Again though, I'm whole heartedly against creating new divisions (and I think we need to get rid of the small, medium, and large divisions - atleast in the AG divisions - if we are going to start using ratio scoring) but i feel like this would clear up a lot of criticism coming from both sides.
I may get some hate for this, but I'm against the 3-per-country rule. People argue that it's expensive for teams to travel from afar and not be given a higher chance of qualifying into finals, if that's the case... then you're clearly not ready to compete amongst the best of the best. And if you're not ready, what do you do? Just don't go!! Simple.
I come from a region of the world where there have only been a handful of teams that have attended Worlds. After watching some of the recordings of other international teams at this past Worlds, I can confidently say that a number of teams from this region are capable of scoring better and yet, they're not attending. I've spoken to some of the members of these teams, and they said that they want to look comparable to teams in the U.S. before forking out $$$$$ to travel and compete. They could probably gather the funds to compete at Worlds next year, but they don't just want to compete at Worlds, they want to compete and actually be good competition for the U.S. teams.