Knowing a Judge

[Guppi Top Da]

i have been to many competitions where someone competing has known one or two (and some cases more than 2) of the judges.

Some people have argued:
These judges are very reputable and respectable and would judge without a bias. they will judge solely based on the judging sheet and will not let any outside biases effect their judging. so basically, they believe that those judges would not bias a certain team.

the issue is that sometimes when you know a judge, THEY may know certain things about a routine that they regularly would not. for example, they may know a team has been practicing for 4 hours a day for the last 3 weeks. this would naturally want you to give that team an edge.
also what can happen is that a judge may know something about a routine (a move, a formation, an idea) before the competition. while other judges may not see the SIGNIFICANCE in that move, formation, or idea - the judge that knows the team will.

these are just some random thoughts... and I was wondering what people think. Is it possible to have 0 bias?

 

[Jimmy]

I think you can't have a judge without bias unless it's known for a fact that he/she doesn't know anyone competing. I mean, its hard enough to find someone like that.

 

[sulmoney]

i judged a competition at syracuse, desi dance project, and knew people on 2 of the 3 bhangra teams competing there, cornell and rochester, while i did not know anyone on duke. cornell won bhangra, and some of the duke members felt i was biased towards cornell. i know in my heart and my explanation to the teams that i was not biased, and picked the best bhangra team, but its hard to shake that if you are on the losing side, and its easy to dismiss it as "oh they knew one of the judges, its rigged". it comes with the territory, if you want the best judges, the ones who are close to the scene and know what they are talking about or judging on, that its gonna happen that people know the judges.

as for bias, you just have to put your professional duty in front of your personal feelings, some people can do it better than others i suppose.

 

[Vick]

I think uncles are more easily swayed then younger judges. Like sulman said earlier, I think you can know people and still judge fairly. I've been in the bhangra scene long enough to see all kinds of screw jobs on teams(Sher not placing at Bruin 2008)... You know how much work every team puts into their routine and I think it's your duty to be as fair as possible. But I guess no matter what you do, people will always say that you favored one team over another. I guess since everyone these days knows someone or the other on a team, the only legit judge would be Summy! He hates everyone equally! hahahahaha....

 

[Mukandpuria]

lol @ vick's Summy comment

 

[Varun]

I think a simple way to bypass all these problems with judging disputes would be to just do this: have organizers announce total scores of winning competitors at the end of the show and give all other teams their judging rubrics back to see how their point totals measured up to winning teams. I have yet to hear of a competition that does this.

 

[sulmoney]

actually, i lied when i said i have no biases...i hate canada, especially west canada

 

[Manjot]

actually, i lied when i said i have no biases...i hate canada, especially west canada

BC is where its at!

 

[kinnell]

Another way to remove bias. This method is taken from FOGANA, so please do not mind my gujju-ness.

Essentially, if you have like 5-6 judges, you take the highest score and the lowest score from the judges for a certain team and simply delete them. This should statistically remove most beneficial/deleterious bias towards any team.

 

[HMalhi]

I think it is very hard to have judges that have Zero bias, and certain teams that have a reputation to be good will always have a bit of an edge. I know for a fact that for certain competitions, judges email videos of past performances back and forth (and judge them according to the judging sheets), just to make sure they are on the same page. So even judges who have not been exposed to any teams on the circuit will often be forced to at least watch a couple videos of some good teams from the past, as well as some bad ones. Coming into a competition, any given judge will know what to expect from a couple teams. That being said, I still believe a qualified judge will know good bhangra and place a team with a great dance regardless of what they may know about that team or what they may have heard. But again, it is the whole other topic to discuss exactly what a qualified judge is...

 

[Ramang86]

just because you know the judges doesnt mean they will give you more points. Heck i knew many of the judges out of the comps iv been to but that didnt do anything. I mean i wish i did we could have won but still lol the point is if you suck and the other teams are visibly better than your team then you still wont win.

unless they bribe you to have have sexual relations with them lol ew i wonder if teams would actually do it. hahahha ew yeah go do shit with a baba judge lol gross

 

[JT]

My opinion and possible solution to this would be, if a competition like lets use Bruin for example was going down, having a judge from a team that didn't even apply may work, like if you approached Tony from United or TJ from SIAC, to come help judge the competition, I think that would help cause they would come into the comp not knowing what each team had.... possibly could work, possibly not... or have 1 or 2 fixed judges for all legit competitions, that judged at every comp, so that every team knew what the judge was expecting.... again possibly work and possibly not... my opinon though... it is pretty much impossible though, cause regardless who places and who doesn't you always have some dumbass looking for attention and trying to get recognized in the bhangra world without being on a team, post... COMP WAS RIGGED.

If you threw a comp with SGPD, Duniya, VCU... and a few teams that completly licked and were horrible, this these same people would even then say.... COMP WAS RIGGED.... Nova Soctia Bhangra (no there really isn't a team from NV and it's a province in Canada) deserved to win, they arethe best bhangra team ever...

 

[Waleed]

Interesting thread and a very touchy issue. How about submitting the names and background of the judges to all the teams well in advance and getting an approval from the teams that they will respect the judges' decision? Some judge will always be connected to some team member (six degrees of separation rule) so it would be futile to look for judges that no one knows.

JT, what ever happened to SFU Elite - you guys have been missing in action for a good minute now.

 

[JT]

I agree with waleed, le the teams know who the judges are going to be and have them sign a form stating they will respect the judges decision... and to add, if they win second or third, and they complain and make a fuss, their prize can be revoked.

As for SFU Elite, I'm not 100% sure, you can always post on their facebook page and ask them.