Akshaya
Member
- Messages
- 6
First of all, congrats to all the teams that were accepted to compete this year at Bhangra Blowout 25!
While MBT completely respects the board’s decision, we’re extremely disappointed at being denied the opportunity to compete this year. We aren’t trying to be "sore losers" and understand the hard work that the BB board puts in to this competition having competed the last two years. We rather want to start a conversation on further refining the process of how lineups are chosen for competitions of Blowout caliber. The concept of having a nationals was discussed briefly last year but we just wanted to bring this up again in light of our situation with Blowout.
In any other sport, you have to win several games to even be considered for the championship. Within the Bollywood fusion and raas circuits, there is a clear cut point system to get to nationals (Bollywood America, Legends, etc). With Blowout being called a “collegiate championship” in Bhangra, why should it be treated any differently? Why is there so much more subjectivity & uncertainty within the Bhangra circuit?
We as a collegiate team have worked so hard to prove ourselves this season (as have the majority of these other teams). To us, Blowout is the “best of the best” and everything we have done thus far has been focused towards this goal. With a second place at Boston Bhangra Competition and first place at Aa Dekhen Zara, we feel like we’ve proven ourselves to be a strong contender as one of the top collegiate teams this season deserving of a spot in this lineup, and were the only collegiate team this past season to have acquired two placings so far.
There are obviously many factors that go into picking lineups, the audition video probably being the most important to any board. It can also be argued that our audition video should have been so good that the board should have had no reason but to select us. Prior placings in a season don’t necessarily determine the success of any given team, but when we spend an entire season working towards this goal and are denied this opportunity over a team that has never even competed before, for example, we’re rightfully frustrated.
It’s great that many competitions nowadays are trying to diversify lineups to allow new and upcoming teams the opportunity to compete. But is Blowout really the stage to do this? Many competitions are also run by Indian Student Associations or dance teams at various universities. Lineups are chosen based on the vision of each competition board which is respectable. But is it fair that we allow say, a raas team, to determine our fate on such a big “championship” stage? The Blowout lineup had also been extended beyond eight teams in the past in 2016, so we were disappointed that a consideration could not be made again this year.
My only proposition is to make Blowout an invitational for future years (like a Elite 8 & WBBC) to hold collegiate teams accountable for actually competing within a season and rewarding them for their successes even against independent lineups.
I’m interested to hear the thoughts of others on this subject.
Again, congrats to all the teams that were accepted and best of luck to you guys and the Bhangra Blowout 25 board for all the competition preparations!
While MBT completely respects the board’s decision, we’re extremely disappointed at being denied the opportunity to compete this year. We aren’t trying to be "sore losers" and understand the hard work that the BB board puts in to this competition having competed the last two years. We rather want to start a conversation on further refining the process of how lineups are chosen for competitions of Blowout caliber. The concept of having a nationals was discussed briefly last year but we just wanted to bring this up again in light of our situation with Blowout.
In any other sport, you have to win several games to even be considered for the championship. Within the Bollywood fusion and raas circuits, there is a clear cut point system to get to nationals (Bollywood America, Legends, etc). With Blowout being called a “collegiate championship” in Bhangra, why should it be treated any differently? Why is there so much more subjectivity & uncertainty within the Bhangra circuit?
We as a collegiate team have worked so hard to prove ourselves this season (as have the majority of these other teams). To us, Blowout is the “best of the best” and everything we have done thus far has been focused towards this goal. With a second place at Boston Bhangra Competition and first place at Aa Dekhen Zara, we feel like we’ve proven ourselves to be a strong contender as one of the top collegiate teams this season deserving of a spot in this lineup, and were the only collegiate team this past season to have acquired two placings so far.
There are obviously many factors that go into picking lineups, the audition video probably being the most important to any board. It can also be argued that our audition video should have been so good that the board should have had no reason but to select us. Prior placings in a season don’t necessarily determine the success of any given team, but when we spend an entire season working towards this goal and are denied this opportunity over a team that has never even competed before, for example, we’re rightfully frustrated.
It’s great that many competitions nowadays are trying to diversify lineups to allow new and upcoming teams the opportunity to compete. But is Blowout really the stage to do this? Many competitions are also run by Indian Student Associations or dance teams at various universities. Lineups are chosen based on the vision of each competition board which is respectable. But is it fair that we allow say, a raas team, to determine our fate on such a big “championship” stage? The Blowout lineup had also been extended beyond eight teams in the past in 2016, so we were disappointed that a consideration could not be made again this year.
My only proposition is to make Blowout an invitational for future years (like a Elite 8 & WBBC) to hold collegiate teams accountable for actually competing within a season and rewarding them for their successes even against independent lineups.
I’m interested to hear the thoughts of others on this subject.
Again, congrats to all the teams that were accepted and best of luck to you guys and the Bhangra Blowout 25 board for all the competition preparations!