Competitions Selecting Line-ups

[kinnell]

While looking at the conversation revolving the VIBC line-up and definitely the Dance Fusion line-up, I was prompted to start this thread. What factors should competitions hold into account most when selecting a line-up? And why?

Should they select a line-up consisting of:

the BEST teams (based on video)?
the MOST KNOWN teams (based on history)?
the MOST local teams?
the MOST entertaining teams (modern/traditional teams)?
the SEXIEST teams (increases afterparty revenue lol)

Are competitions suppose to pick the best teams for a competition or do they have a right to select absolutely whoever they want. What do you guys think? If your brother is applying to your competition, do you think it's fair to let his team in or is it unethical?

Enjoy.

 

[- Raja -]

I think they should always take a few local teams. and always have 2-3 big teamss to bring the hype up more. DDA's line up looks really goood, its a really good example. as for Masti now thats just TOOOO goood like dream come true hahaahah

 

[Mukandpuria]

i think this was brought up before and what i said was a competitions can choice to pick who they want. there is a lot of factors that the e-board has to deal with to make sure there competitions is a success not only from the teams side but also the audience side.

couple of things a competition has to balance is
-teams
-audience
-staff
-a lot of other factors

example being, have good teams that will make a competition look solid, having teams that are entertaining so the audience will keep coming back, staff as in teams that are not annoying and are easy to work with....all these things and much more do taken into account if not consciously, unconsciously.

for a competition to be successfully in my opinion is one that can balance well and please all the vendors.

 

[Manjot]

Copy Masti! lol

but a mixture is good...local/known/past year winners so on..

 

[sulmoney]

unless you are a competition like masti or avap or any of the competitions that are now breaking the show into categories, selecting a lineup is one of the most difficult things about organizing a competition. there are so many different types of teams (modern, traditional, live, music, coed, all guys, all girls, local, out of town, etc) that finding a perfect balance is difficult, but is one that should be one that people strive to get. ill try to give a couple examples.

a few years ago, one of my friends helped to organize south beach bhangra, and a very prominent all guys team was not accepted. i was shocked to hear it, and when i asked her about it, her response was that if they selected only the best teams, they would have a lineup that consisted of only all guys teams. but, there were only certain allocated spots for all guys teams in the lineup, and they did not make the cut that particular year.

i know i will be in a similar situation for selecting the lineup for desi dhamaka in a couple weeks (plug: early registration ends this saturday at midnight, get them apps in!), and it is frankly not something i am looking forward to haha. it is going to be very difficult, and teams will be left out that i am sure will be upset about it. but, the lineup we are trying to assemble will try to take into account almost all of the things that you mentioned kinnell.

for selecting teams, it is important to have your judging sheet with you, and to analyze each video using that sheet. you want to select a lineup that gives a proper chance to each team to win that competition. for example, selecting gabroo shokeen for bruin bhangra does not really help them out as they have almost no chance of winning that competition based on their judging criteria (a discussion for another day haha). you also want a lineup that will bring people in, so local teams are a must. and you also want a diverse lineup, so having 7 all guys all live teams may work for bhangra masti, but wont work for others. keeping the audience engaged, showing them a range of what bhangra in north america is today, are what a competition should strive to present, and is evident in the lineup. my two cents

 

[MPElive]

Bhangra Masti or any other competition in Toronto is geared more towards traditional teams. However, we always believed the new teams should be given a chance as well (based on the video they provide). When it comes to having local teams, it is important for every competition to have atleast two teams in each category but gotta have the teams coming from outside as well to create more hype and have a balanced lineup.

Personally, I think selecting teams is easier when the competition is divided into categories.

Generally speaking, Toronto Competition Afterparties have never been successful in the past. So we never selected teams based how SEXY they are unless PPA or WARIS applied and they would get into the competition without even registering. LOL

 

[jvirk]

this is a nice post - espeically since i was thinking of posting something similar to this a few weeks ago

i think teams should definitely base team selection on the best videos..but they should also take into consideration what type of competition it is? the crowd (students/family atmoshpere/children, etcc...)

sometimes i dont understand why certain teams dnt get into comps after they beat a majority of the other teams that get into that competition (i wnt mention any comps in our home state)

i def think that when someone(s) is running a competition, they shouldnt take into consideration any friendly ties or family ties, they should be fair because every team is working their rear end off also.

 

[blasianjh]

this is a nice post - espeically since i was thinking of posting something similar to this a few weeks ago

i think teams should definitely base team selection on the best videos..but they should also take into consideration what type of competition it is? the crowd (students/family atmoshpere/children, etcc...)

sometimes i dont understand why certain teams dnt get into comps after they beat a majority of the other teams that get into that competition (i wnt mention any comps in our home state)

i def think that when someone(s) is running a competition, they shouldnt take into consideration any friendly ties or family ties, they should be fair because every team is working their rear end off also.

no they should pick based upon how sexy i am... thats why we didn't get in justin they looked at you... dammmit

 

[jvirk]

hahahaa u bastarddd

 

[sumeetj]

this is a nice post - espeically since i was thinking of posting something similar to this a few weeks ago

i think teams should definitely base team selection on the best videos..but they should also take into consideration what type of competition it is? the crowd (students/family atmoshpere/children, etcc...)

sometimes i dont understand why certain teams dnt get into comps after they beat a majority of the other teams that get into that competition (i wnt mention any comps in our home state)

i def think that when someone(s) is running a competition, they shouldnt take into consideration any friendly ties or family ties, they should be fair because every team is working their rear end off also.

no they should pick based upon how sexy i am... thats why we didn't get in justin they looked at you... dammmit

son it wouldnt get any better if they looked at you either.

 

[kinnell]

Well, there is only one way to settle this, ECU. You guys put up pictures and let BTF be the judge. lol

SCENARIO: Let's say you're on TEAM X but now you have left for whatever reason. You are now the registration chair for a competition. You know that your team is great and you know that they bring something unique to the competition. But should you grab them over a team with a better tryout video?

There is ETHICS when it comes to judging, but is there such for selecting a line-up?

 

[blasianjh]

Well, there is only one way to settle this, ECU. You guys put up pictures and let BTF be the judge. lol

SCENARIO: Let's say you're on TEAM X but now you have left for whatever reason. You are now the registration chair for a competition. You know that your team is great and you know that they bring something unique to the competition. But should you grab them over a team with a better tryout video?

There is ETHICS when it comes to judging, but is there such for selecting a line-up?

that's definately a tough situation right there.. the one team with the better try out video should be picked , but then all these factors come into play wow it just gets complicated lol bc you know you would want to pick team x ahh oh well
and oh yea we should let BTF judge... ay Jindal put a pic up monkey boy

 

[Tarminder]

While looking at the conversation revolving the VIBC line-up and definitely the Dance Fusion line-up, I was prompted to start this thread. What factors should competitions hold into account most when selecting a line-up? And why?

Should they select a line-up consisting of:

the BEST teams (based on video)?
the MOST KNOWN teams (based on history)?
the MOST local teams?
the MOST entertaining teams (modern/traditional teams)?
the SEXIEST teams (increases afterparty revenue lol)

Are competitions suppose to pick the best teams for a competition or do they have a right to select absolutely whoever they want. What do you guys think? If your brother is applying to your competition, do you think it's fair to let his team in or is it unethical?

Enjoy.

Great thread topic!

Here's my 2 cents.....



When picking teams there needs to be balance between a lot of things.


- Picking 1-2 local teams that will help you sell tickets would be nice. For example, for a Toronto competition if a team like Nachdi Jawani applied they could bring in 100-200 ticket sales.

- If the competition is established and knows the personalities of certain teams to be nice, respectfull and courteous backstage (i.e. Bulldawg Da Raaj) then i would bring 2-3 teams like them into the comeptition. A team like Bulldawg Da Raaj is one of the most diverse, well respected Bhangra teams in the community...no one can argue that.

- If a competition is fourtunate enough to have mainstreem teams with a strong history of bringing freestyle/creative performances (UBC Girlz, Sher, KJ, Empire, Boston Bhangra) then that must be taken into consideration. In my opinion the Toronto Bhangra community needs to be exposed to these teams because we are just way to traditional.

- If a team is known to start fights or other problems backstage (i won't name names) and applied, don't accept them for that reason...no matter how well respected they are in the traditional community. With that said, if they are a local team that brings in a lot of ticket sales then it will be a difficult choice.

- Picking 1-2 team(s) that no one knows about at that time is essential. There are a lot of teams out there who are great but don't get the exposure they need. This is where video submissions are important. Let's use an example, in 2007 a team like Punjabi Beat applied to Bhangra Nation 2007...at that time no one knew about them but after Nation 2007 they were able to be accepted into other competitions.

- If there are two teams that have competed tough against each other and bring a lot of non violent hype then i would consider bringing both teams in (assuming if they both applied). There are some historical examples ---> Michigan vs. KJ, Micigan vs. Cornell, LBC vs KJ, KJ vs. Sher vs. LBC vs. Soormay, VIBE vs. UBC Girlz, Empire vs. DRP.


- Picking a Girl Bhangra team(s) is important to spreading our culture - Example --> if out of 25 teams that applied one of them was a girl team then i would strongly lean towards accepting them for that reason. Out of a competition of 10 teams it would be nice to have 2-3 (maybe even more) female bhangra teams.


*** If a competition does not have a lot of teams that applied then possibly go with what you have, and possibly incorporate other things into the competition. Here are some examples --> comedy sketch, guest singer, childrens bhangra performances, guest speaker on the importance of giving back to the community, etc.


- I probably touched base on this before, but having creative gimmicky teams that the audience will love is essential. In my opinion the more creative the performances are the more the audience will love the show. In my opinion having a competition with mostly live teams is not fun to watch (i don't care if this pisses people off and i don't care if its not what the traditional community wants).