Worlds 2019-2020 Division Competition Days

In the past International Diviosns such as USA competed 3 days due to trials to represent their country. Each country had their top 3 represent them. Is that gone? I am confused.

 

From my understanding, I believe it was only US and Canada who did trials at one point and only in certain divisions. I think it depends on how many teams are in a division representing a specific country and with the increase of divisions in the international division specifically, I don't think it's necessary anymore because there are more options for teams to compete in.

 

That makes sense. Thanks

If I am understanding correctly, then the highest top 10 would move on and not top 3 for each country in traditional International categories like IOSC6 and IOLC7? The other countries can take advantage of the world senior 5 and nontumble world 7 category.

@BlueCat can you confirm if that is correct?

 

Not BlueCat, but in the past, USASF Senior divisions had prelims (sometimes over 90 teams). They would compete day 1, and a certain number would move on to semis (can't remember what). In semis, top 10 would move to finals. There was no country number sent through, just the top 10 overall.

IASF Intl teams used to compete in US/Canadian Trials (Prelims), which sent the top 10 to semis. Trials were only for divisions that had 10+ teams the previous year. From semis, the top 3 from each country would move on to finals, regardless of score. If a division didn't have 10+ teams, there was no need for Trials, as 10 were going to move on anyway. In recent years, teams with PP/FP bids were receiving an automatic bid to semis, if I remember correctly, or competing at the end of Trials. Things seem to change a little each year. When I first started competing at Worlds, PP/FP meant you got cash (for Canadian Teams), but no preference in order of performance.

The problem with the lack of Trials/pre-lims that is being talked about is in regards to the higher number of divisions and the de-saturation of the sport. Teams who aren't as good as others have the option to jump divisions and compete against fewer teams, increasing their chances of making finals/globing due to the low number of teams in that division.

 

The "issue" is that Worlds has pretty drastically increased the number of divisions the last few years and it has caused the typical division size to shrink considerably. This mirrors the trend in the regular season also.

2008 Worlds - 11 divisions
2018 Worlds - 14 (3 added in 11 years)
2019 Worlds - 21
2020 Worlds - 26 (12 in 2 years)

The huge jump the last couple of years is crazy. It was fairly stable for over a decade. We have now added non-tumbling and the until-recently-called-restricted divisions to Worlds which would have gotten you laughed out of the Worlds planning room just a few years ago.

A big part of it is the political/money/influence battle between the USASF and IASF. Each now has incentive to add divisions to pull teams from the other.

There are positives and negatives to division bloat. 2 was far too few and 26 is way too many, IMO. I think that 10 or so division was around the sweet spot.