Hey BTF,
Here's my review of MCB this past weekend. This is not on behalf of CMU Bhangra, just my personal opinions on how the competition and weekend went from a captain's standpoint.
It's a little long, so if you want to skip the general schedule of the weekend and go straight to my overall comments, just scroll down.
First off, congratulations to Virsa, Shan-E, and NJ!
Overall, I had a pretty good weekend at MCB. Here's a run-down of the actual schedule/logistics of the weekend.
When we reached, our liaisons came out to greet us, help us to our rooms, and explain the logistics of the evening.
We chilled in the hotel for a little bit, then headed over to the mixer, which started late.
The mixer venue was really nice, and the food was solid. Props to the committee for having fruit at the mixer. We love to see healthy food at competitions. The Indian food was good too.
The mixer games were alright, but seemed to drag on a little bit, even though they were pretty short. The cool part was that the committee paired off teams and had them play the mixer games together (we were with AEG). It was a good way to get teams to interact and meet each other. I also liked that the activities during the mixer were short enough that we could relax and eat, then head back to the hotel to practice.
We were misinformed as to how show order would be chosen. We were told it would be totally random, but ended up being that the order in which teams chose their position in the line-up was random, so when we were picked first, we weren't fully prepared (that worked out for us in the end, though).
Once the mixer ended, we were able to get practice rooms in the hotel, which were essential because we had dancers out of town (cancelled flights) and were scrambling to redo formations. There was a lot of miscommunication with regards to practice rooms and stuff, so it was a little stressful and practices ran late, but we really appreciated having the space.
The next morning, our liaison brought us bagels, and he even got us some extra pastries (which we saved for later), but we had to buy some more bagels because we didn't have enough for all our dancers.
When we got to the venue, we quickly got to our dressing room, which was solid. Tech time was running late, but we didn't mind too much because it gave us some time to warm up a little more.
We were misinformed about tech time. We were told we would have 2 minutes to set up, 1 minute to clean up, and 15 minutes to dance, and only found out that we would have only 15 minutes total when we got on stage, so we weren't able to go over everything that we needed to.
After tech time, we got back to the hotel with plenty of time to rest and get ready for the competition. One of our liaisons brought us Subway and also helped out with random stuff during the day and while we were preparing (got us Got-2-B, stuff like that).
Preparation and performance went well, though the fact that the show started an hour late was irritating, especially since we got back so late. We almost missed the judges' meeting since we were initially under the impression it was at the hotel (I'm pretty sure some teams missed their meetings).
We only got back to the hotel at 1am, so we didn't bother trying to go to the after-party.
My overall review of the weekend is as follows:
Pros:
- Shoutout to one of our liaisons, Hardeep. He helped us out a lot and chilled with us afterward. Our other liaison was around initially but we lost track of her after a point. She still responded to texts though, and helped out when she could.
- Proximity of venue and hotel. The venue was a < 5-minute drive from the hotel, which was really convenient. Also the venue itself was sick.
- Sound on stage was really loud, so we never had an issue during the performance. It did drown out our laalkare, which was a little disappointing because we have a lot in our set.
- Hotel was amazing. The location and the hotel itself were great. Leo's Coney Island (nearby diner) was nice for easy access to food 24-hours.
- Judges - I feel like there's been some positive and negative feedback about the judges, but for CMU, we had a great experience with the judges. When we got into the meeting, they were very friendly and welcoming. They gave us very constructive feedback as to what we did well and could have improved, and answered all our questions.
Cons:
- Judges and MCs mostly speaking Punjabi. At least for the mixer and judges' meeting, it would have been nice for everyone to speak in English, since a large portion of our team does not know Punjabi. I also feel that during the show, it was alienating those of us who didn't speak Punjabi. I'm not sure what make-up of the audience was, but it seemed to be mostly Punjabi, so I guess this was okay.
- Competition started and ended really late.
- Afterparty didn't really happen, especially since the competition ended so late.
Other:
Also, I was a little surprised that the MCB committee allowed multiple teams to switch in different teams from within their organization or academy so last minute. I know that some teams drop out of competitions when they see a line-up in which they don't think they have any shot of placing, so the fact that the line-up kept changing after teams already paid registration fees (and basically couldn't drop) was a little ridiculous. I'm not sure what the circumstances were behind all that, but it was a little unsettling, so if someone from the committee could explain why that was allowed/what happened there, that would be much appreciated. Don't get me wrong; I definitely did enjoy having all the great teams there.
Suggestions:
In addition to a judges' meeting after the mixer, have a Google Hangout with judges (if they're available and willing) a month beforehand. Other competitions have done this (WBBC and Bell), and it's incredibly helpful for giving both the teams and judges a very clear view of the vision and style of the competition. It also helps teams prepare for the competition better, since finding out things the night before doesn't really help. And if the judges can't all fly in on time due to weather or whatever reason, since things always come up, it ensures that teams get to speak to all judges beforehand so they feel more at ease and well-informed.
If anyone has any questions or wants clarification on any of my points, please let me know.
