Meistro & Co. I think you're talkin about 2 different ideas here:
1 - No more celebrity teams
2 - We can't look at a lineup and predict winners anymore; judging is very vary-ing and unpredictable
On Point 1 I partially disagree. I think there are definitely celeb teams out there like SGPD, VCU, Sher Foundation, DRP, Empire. These are teams that people love to see, "omg DRP is up next they're gonna be hype". They have fans who have never met them and have no affiliation, but cheer for them and talk about them. They are teams that newbies in bhangra, people not "in the circuit" and non-dancers know of. Basically, they have fans from the non-BTF crowd!!
However, the are just way more teams, and yeah they aren't treated that much differently and they don't act too different like maybe KJ back in the day. Celeb status just doesn't mean as much anymore? Like I do see what you were saying about they're not the center of attention anymore. I can see this as a good thing and a bad thing. Good for new and developing teams and good to keep bhangra field fair, keep everyone else motivated. but bad in that they should get status for what they do I mean these teams have talent and they worked HARD for their achievements - they should be rewarded and respected as so. They do deserve a swagger and somewhat of an ego. Bad at wording all this... but hope i make some sense!
On Point 2, I agree about judging but I think it's also partially that teams (esp college) you never know what they're gonna bring. Teams change, develop, evolve. An average team can come out with one amazing routine. And all it takes is 8 hot minutes to win...
Lets take SGPD for example; im sure at comps they're not just chilling with teams that they feel are as good as them. Im sure they make an effort to interact with smaller, newer, unestablished teams. We are all peers. Its like school.
That is exactly how it is. I was just at Groundshaker, on a baby new unestablished team, and we were treated as equal... which was weird in a way b/c we're thinkin heyy we're just newbies.. we came to experience it and perform. These other guys came to compete and win - but SGPD, PANJ, PPA, Shan-E these veteran teams w. veteran dancers (and organizers) made effort to talk to us, treated us just like everyone else... It
was sort of like school! Haha
If I wasn't so in awe of being backstage around these guys (yeah, I was in awe :-[
) then I would have felt my team was just the same as every other team- though my team
isn't. Again partially this is good and partially this is a bad thing.