All-Star Summit Block Schedule

Welcome to our Cheerleading Community

Members see FEWER ads... join today!

All the stages usually have had a Summit specific backdrop with mountains, very different from worlds.
Cheer-Theorys-2018-Ranking-by-Summit-Bids.jpg

That's so much nicer than the castle backdrop, and at least makes it look different from UCA, which I'm sure teams who attended both comps (and paid top dollar) might appreciate. It must take a lot of effort to wheel in those mountain things lol. I know they just had a college competition, but if you want to run every cheer competition in America, it's your job to make it all work. If anything, it seems like it would be easier to transition to the Worlds set for next week if they actually put this one up, but what do I know about backdrops. It's just a backdrop, and many people might say who cares. But I bet if Worlds was this week they would have found time to change the set. I'm not one of those people who thinks all the levels should be treated the same and I know Worlds is the more important event, but even if this was a local competition, I would still think you should change the backdrop between two totally separate competitions.
 
Last edited:
I am not a huge Summit watcher but there are 2 things I find interesting to do after Summit:

*Check out videos of smaller or lesser known gyms/teams who placed super well but I have never really heard of.

*Compare gym Summit placements to previous Worlds placements. It's interesting to see which gyms do well at Worlds levels and see if that success is mirrored with levels 1-5.
 
Compare gym Summit placements to previous Worlds placements. It's interesting to see which gyms do well at Worlds levels and see if that success is mirrored with levels 1-5.

Very few gyms contend for top spots in Levels 1-4 while also being top contenders at Worlds. Hats off to the few gyms who are true contenders in both and very well-rounded, including gigantic gyms like Stingrays Marietta, Cheer Athletics Plano, some of the California All Stars locations--- and then medium size gyms like Spirit of Texas, Central Jersey All Stars, and Cheer Express who got just about all their teams into Finals and contended for top spots. (California All Stars might have had an even bigger presence at Summit in a non-Covid year; some of their teams didn't attend, including some strong Level 2/3 teams. A few other gyms were absent as well.)

The two main Cheer Extreme locations also did great, but some of their Summit divisions have very few teams in them (in one division, they were the only team), and there's always talk from the peanut gallery about them crossing down their best Level 6 kids--- which kind of reiterates my initial statement that it's truly difficult to be a top contender in both the upper and lower levels. I don't want to single out CEA, they're probably not the only one utilizing what people perceive as overboard crossovers. But my main point is, the above mentioned gyms will be a focus at Worlds and most of them have multiple Worlds teams.

Gyms like Diamonds, CheerVille, South Bay Divas, All Star Revolution, SCV (not so much this year) tend to contend for the top in several divisions at Summit but have less of a presence at Worlds. Iowa Elite Cheer, Raglan Coast, Wolfpack, Power House All Stars were great at Summit, but they don't have Worlds teams you hear about.

You could compare this a little bit to Simone Biles, who had poor results in the lower levels of gymnastics. She went on to become the greatest gymnast of all time, and those dozens of kids who beat her in Levels 8-Jr Elite--- we don't know them.

One of the concerns when they created the Summit is that it might cause kids to repeat levels for more years than they normally would have if there was no Summit. Yes, you can stay in Level 3 longer to perfect and gain more Level 3 skills that might help you at Summit, but the tradeoff is that you might be losing out on an opportunity to breeze past Level 3 into a higher level. The track to be at the top of Summit vs the track to be at the top of Worlds isn't totally the same, so again, I'm very impressed by the small number of gyms who are strong contenders in both lower and Worlds levels.

__

On another note, I would love a judge's take on this scoring system. There's no perfect system, but when there are 3-way ties and tons of teams separated by 0.1 or 0.2, you wonder how easy it is for judges to even use this scoring system. If you give one team 98.8 and another team 98.6, and then a third team comes along and should be ranked in between those two, does the system easily enable you to give them a 98.7, or is it more like throwing darts when you score them and they might end up with a 98.9? I have seen literal carbon copies of routines this season score 97.5 at one event and 99 at another. In some divisions 98 is an amazing score that will contend for the win, and in another division 98 gets you 15th place. I get the reasons for this scoring system, I just don't fully trust these crazy tiny margins in a competition with a lot of teams.
 
Last edited:
Very few gyms contend for top spots in Levels 1-4 while also being top contenders at Worlds. Hats off to the few gyms who are true contenders in both and very well-rounded, including gigantic gyms like Stingrays Marietta, Cheer Athletics Plano, some of the California All Stars locations--- and then medium size gyms like Spirit of Texas, Central Jersey All Stars, and Cheer Express who got just about all their teams into Finals and contended for top spots. (California All Stars might have had an even bigger presence at Summit in a non-Covid year; some of their teams didn't attend, including some strong Level 2/3 teams. A few other gyms were absent as well.)

The two main Cheer Extreme locations also did great, but some of their Summit divisions have very few teams in them (in one division, they were the only team), and there's always talk from the peanut gallery about them crossing down their best Level 6 kids--- which kind of reiterates my initial statement that it's truly difficult to be a top contender in both the upper and lower levels. I don't want to single out CEA, they're probably not the only one utilizing what people perceive as overboard crossovers. But my main point is, the above mentioned gyms will be a focus at Worlds and most of them have multiple Worlds teams.

Gyms like Diamonds, CheerVille, South Bay Divas, All Star Revolution, SCV (not so much this year) tend to contend for the top in several divisions at Summit but have less of a presence at Worlds. Iowa Elite Cheer, Raglan Coast, Wolfpack, Power House All Stars were great at Summit, but they don't have Worlds teams you hear about.

You could compare this a little bit to Simone Biles, who had poor results in the lower levels of gymnastics. She went on to become the greatest gymnast of all time, and those dozens of kids who beat her in Levels 8-Jr Elite--- we don't know them.

One of the concerns when they created the Summit is that it would cause kids to repeat levels for more years than they might normally would have if there was no Summit. Yes, you can stay in Level 3 longer to perfect and gain more Level 3 skills that might help you at Summit, but the tradeoff is that you might be losing out on an opportunity to breeze past Level 3 into a higher level. The track to be at the top of Summit vs the track to be at the top of Worlds isn't totally the same, so again, I'm very impressed by the small number of gyms who are strong contenders in both lower and Worlds levels.

__

On another note, I would love a judge's take on this scoring system. There's no perfect system, but when there are 3-way ties and tons of teams separated by 0.1 or 0.2, you wonder how easy it is for judges to even use this scoring system. If you give one team 98.8 and another team 98.6, and then a third team comes along and should be ranked in the middle of those two, does the system easily enable you to give them a 98.7, or is it more like throwing darts when you score them and they might end up with a 98.9? I have seen literal carbon copies of routines this season score 97.5 at one event and 99 at another. In some divisions 98 is an amazing score that will contend for the win, and in another division 98 gets you 15th place. I get the reasons for this scoring system, I just don't fully trust these crazy tiny margins in a competition with a lot of teams.

I can’t be mad at gyms like CEA for utilizing crossovers, even if it does seem excessive at times. The rules allow for it, so it’s fine with me. Can’t be mad at a program for utilizing a strategy that puts their best kids on their top teams. If the peanut gallery wants to be mad at someone for that, they can be mad at the people who allowed it to happen. Not a program that’s just following the rules they were given.

I find it similar to how people condemn CEA for reusing choreo. It’s not a popular choice on Twitter, but it’s a good strategy. No it’s not the most innovative approach, but why wouldn’t you rely on choreo that 3/4 of your team already knows because they did it last year? The rules allow for it. The score sheet doesn’t care. All good in my book.
 
Very few gyms contend for top spots in Levels 1-4 while also being top contenders at Worlds. Hats off to the few gyms who are true contenders in both and very well-rounded, including gigantic gyms like Stingrays Marietta, Cheer Athletics Plano, some of the California All Stars locations--- and then medium size gyms like Spirit of Texas, Central Jersey All Stars, and Cheer Express who got just about all their teams into Finals and contended for top spots. (California All Stars might have had an even bigger presence at Summit in a non-Covid year; some of their teams didn't attend, including some strong Level 2/3 teams. A few other gyms were absent as well.)

The two main Cheer Extreme locations also did great, but some of their Summit divisions have very few teams in them (in one division, they were the only team), and there's always talk from the peanut gallery about them crossing down their best Level 6 kids--- which kind of reiterates my initial statement that it's truly difficult to be a top contender in both the upper and lower levels. I don't want to single out CEA, they're probably not the only one utilizing what people perceive as overboard crossovers. But my main point is, the above mentioned gyms will be a focus at Worlds and most of them have multiple Worlds teams.

Gyms like Diamonds, CheerVille, South Bay Divas, All Star Revolution, SCV (not so much this year) tend to contend for the top in several divisions at Summit but have less of a presence at Worlds. Iowa Elite Cheer, Raglan Coast, Wolfpack, Power House All Stars were great at Summit, but they don't have Worlds teams you hear about.

You could compare this a little bit to Simone Biles, who had poor results in the lower levels of gymnastics. She went on to become the greatest gymnast of all time, and those dozens of kids who beat her in Levels 8-Jr Elite--- we don't know them.

One of the concerns when they created the Summit is that it would cause kids to repeat levels for more years than they might normally would have if there was no Summit. Yes, you can stay in Level 3 longer to perfect and gain more Level 3 skills that might help you at Summit, but the tradeoff is that you might be losing out on an opportunity to breeze past Level 3 into a higher level. The track to be at the top of Summit vs the track to be at the top of Worlds isn't totally the same, so again, I'm very impressed by the small number of gyms who are strong contenders in both lower and Worlds levels.

__

On another note, I would love a judge's take on this scoring system. There's no perfect system, but when there are 3-way ties and tons of teams separated by 0.1 or 0.2, you wonder how easy it is for judges to even use this scoring system. If you give one team 98.8 and another team 98.6, and then a third team comes along and should be ranked in the middle of those two, does the system easily enable you to give them a 98.7, or is it more like throwing darts when you score them and they might end up with a 98.9? I have seen literal carbon copies of routines this season score 97.5 at one event and 99 at another. In some divisions 98 is an amazing score that will contend for the win, and in another division 98 gets you 15th place. I get the reasons for this scoring system, I just don't fully trust these crazy tiny margins in a competition with a lot of teams.

Not to nitpick but I feel like CEA gets called out often re: crossovers.

I think that is because they are super transparent about the fact that most kids in their gyms are on more than one team. They are the only gym to come out and state "We double team our kids because -----." So people now have something to criticize. (Which is normal.)

The interesting part: A whole lot of gyms use the max allowed amount of Worlds crossovers on their Summit teams. It just does not get the same criticism because they aren't very open about it.

Something else that isn't new but typically only gets called out when certain gyms do it: College cheer athletes on Summit teams.

By all means critique, but when you have followed cheer for awhile you start to notice that they're far from the only program taking full advantage of the limits and age grids as they are currently set.
 
See also:

Junior age grid is now up to 17.

Depending on the gym/state/level, you're going to have an advantage if you are able to pull in a good 15-20 decent to good high school aged athletes to make up your J3-4.

Ex: Think of the top high school teams in your state and what all star level they equal out to - an all star Junior 2 team of experienced HS kids > a J2 with kids in elementary or MS with varying levels of cheer experience.

I am sure this could happen in Senior 2-3 too.
 
Last post and I am going to complain a small bit here but:

Next season, can we be done with Circle Formation Of Elite Stunts with One Group/Person Highlighted in the Middle?

In the hour of Summit I watched, I saw elites in a circle what seemed like every third routine across two or 3 levels.
 
Not to nitpick but I feel like CEA gets called out often re: crossovers.

I think that is because they are super transparent about the fact that most kids in their gyms are on more than one team. They are the only gym to come out and state "We double team our kids because -----." So people now have something to criticize. (Which is normal.)

The interesting part: A whole lot of gyms use the max allowed amount of Worlds crossovers on their Summit teams. It just does not get the same criticism because they aren't very open about it.

Something else that isn't new but typically only gets called out when certain gyms do it: College cheer athletes on Summit teams.

By all means critique, but when you have followed cheer for awhile you start to notice that they're far from the only program taking full advantage of the limits and age grids as they are currently set.
I also think that having some of their more high-profile Worlds athletes crossing down to lower levels makes CEA an easier target for the twitter anons. They’re definitely not the only gym to do this, but with how popular some of their flyers are I think it makes it a lot more noticeable to spectators.
 
Just chiming in on the backdrop. This was my CP's first year in the Field House. She's literally been in every other venue over the years. We were both disappointed that all the photos look like UCA pics. We've never even been to UCA but that's all I could see. That castle look is so familiar because of the competition being aired on TV.
 
Back