Picking teams for a competition

[Saleem]

With the recent debate on a certain competition's team listing and how teams should decline their acceptance, I am interested in how different competitions handle accepting teams.

What I think is the only procedure that makes sense to me
1. Set an early registration deadline (some bonus, less fee, choice of order in competition, etc)
2. Set a registration deadline
3. Committee chooses X teams and 3 alternates.
4. Committee privately notifies the X accepted teams and gives each team 1 week to confirm it is able to be attend.
5. As/if teams suddenly find that they all have finals that week, someone is in India, etc, the committee turns to the alternates one by one.
6. Within a week (ideally), perhaps two, the committee has a finalized, confirmed list of teams and releases it publicly.

The only drawback to this procedure is that bits and pieces of your lineup may be released through the rumormill. But honestly, the BTF community is a small fraction of who is coming to your competition, and no one cares if it was rumored a week ago.

This procedure ensures that if a team thought they were def able to make it 6 months before the competition but now 2 months before, they can't, no one has to scramble to announce sudden losses in teams and new replacements. The WORST thing is when a competition lineup comes out and it has like 3-4 big names, and by the time the competition comes, they've all had to drop.

What competitions follow a procedure like this? Who doesn't? Is there anything better?

 

[Meistro]

1. Set an early registration deadline (some bonus, less fee, choice of order in competition, etc)

i think boston does this. if you register early you can choose your place in the lineup.

 

[hkgidha]

With the recent debate on a certain competition's team listing and how teams should decline their acceptance, I am interested in how different competitions handle accepting teams.

What I think is the only procedure that makes sense to me
1. Set an early registration deadline (some bonus, less fee, choice of order in competition, etc)
2. Set a registration deadline
3. Committee chooses X teams and 3 alternates.
4. Committee privately notifies the X accepted teams and gives each team 1 week to confirm it is able to be attend.
5. As/if teams suddenly find that they all have finals that week, someone is in India, etc, the committee turns to the alternates one by one.
6. Within a week (ideally), perhaps two, the committee has a finalized, confirmed list of teams and releases it publicly.

The only drawback to this procedure is that bits and pieces of your lineup may be released through the rumormill. But honestly, the BTF community is a small fraction of who is coming to your competition, and no one cares if it was rumored a week ago.

This procedure ensures that if a team thought they were def able to make it 6 months before the competition but now 2 months before, they can't, no one has to scramble to announce sudden losses in teams and new replacements. The WORST thing is when a competition lineup comes out and it has like 3-4 big names, and by the time the competition comes, they've all had to drop.

What competitions follow a procedure like this? Who doesn't? Is there anything better?

This REALLY helps us at Texas Showdown Bhangra Competition! We needed a strict guideline to help us with the team line-up! What do you think of us doing a number system the night before or the day of the meeting to choose the order?

 

[Vivek]

I think the way Boston has done it, if you register early you get to pick from a set of spots...(could be 2, 5, 7, 9, or something like that), And the rest are picked out of hat. Picking the order when the teams aren't present (unless they're late to the banquet) has always left doubt and suspicions in the minds of teams.

 

[Basim]

This REALLY helps us at Texas Showdown Bhangra Competition! We needed a strict guideline to help us with the team line-up! What do you think of us doing a number system the night before or the day of the meeting to choose the order?

Regarding choosing the order for team's to perform, I believe it is most fair for this to be done out of a hat as Vivek suggested. It is often done at a team mixer the night before the competition in front of everyone, where a team respresentative is chosen to come draw a number. I agree that doing it this way elminates suspicion on behalf of teams on there being a rigged competition.

Once again, best of luck with the competition. I'll try my best to make it to Dallas that weekend!

~ Basim