Dear Bhangra community,
Westcoast Bhangra would like to sincerely apologize to Virse de Shokeen (VDS), Cal Bhangra, and all competing teams for an error made in VDS’s and Cal Bhangra’s scoring averages. On the master score spreadsheet sent out to all teams by Union of Bhangra Judges (UBJ) on Sunday morning, Cal Bhangra’s scoring average was an 86 and VDS’s scoring average an 84. This resulted in Cal Bhangra winning the match-up title against VDS and then continuing on to win the “Best of the West” title through deliberation between the 4 match-up winners.
After VDS voiced their concerns about an incorrect average, we investigated further to find these claims to be true. We have since recalculated the averages . We indeed found that was an Excel error in the formula for the “Average” column for Cal Bhangra (an issue with the cell being used). The correct average for Cal Bhangra should have been an 83.2. Both Cal Bhangra and VDS have our utmost and sincerest apology for this mistake. To make up for our shortcomings, we have decided the following:
This was NOT a judging bias. UBJ was not involved in scoring calculations.
We want to emphasize that this was an honest mistake in the spreadsheet formula created by the West Coast committee and has nothing to do with the judges’ raw scores. Please do not blame the judges or Union of Bhangra Judges for this simple cell error. UBJ simply forwarded our spreadsheet to teams as they completed the UBJ Feedback Form. We are supportive of UBJ and are very thankful for how helpful they have been over the past few weeks. The judges themselves did a fantastic job at WBC and were very professional when it came to scoring each team according to the rubric. The WBC committee takes responsibility for our mistake and are incredibly sorry that this happened. We will take every precaution necessary to ensure that next year’s competition will not run into the same issue.
VDS will be declared the winner of the match-up between VDS & Cal.
The difference in averages between VDS and Cal Bhangra was 0.8 points. Because we had told the teams that match-up winners will be decided on a points based system, we must recognize VDS as the match-up winner.
Both VDS and Cal Bhangra will receive a match-up winner trophy, prize money, a refund for registration fees, and a waiver for future registration fees.
- As VDS is the match-up winner, we will award VDS with the prize money and a trophy.
- However, because we had originally announced Cal Bhangra as the winner of the match-up and awarded them a trophy, we have decided to give $500 to Cal Bhangra as well. We understand that this is at the fault of the committee and believe this is the fairest way to approach this situation. We will also waive registration fees for next year should they wish to compete at Westcoast Bhangra 2018. We hope that this resolves all issues going forward.
There will be no overall winner awarded this year. However, we feel it is important to report the following rankings of overall score:
First: VDS (84) Second: Cal (83.2)
Because VDS should have been recognized as the match-up winner at the competition, both VDS should have been in deliberation for overall winner with the other match-up winners. Because VDS was not considered for deliberation, it is impossible to state which of the 4 teams would have won overall winner had VDS been a part of deliberation.
We do recognize that VDS did have the highest overall points at our competition, but because the overall winner was decided by deliberation, it is impossible for us to announce that VDS is this year’s winner. Furthermore, it is not possible to re-do a judges deliberation meeting after the competition is over. To accommodate the issues listed above, we have decided that we cannot fairly declare an overall winner for this year.
The $1000 prize money for first place will be split amongst the 4 matchup winners that should have been in deliberation:
Match-up winners (Bruin Bhangra, Bulldog Bhangra, Norcal Naujawan, Virse de Shokeen) will each receive an additional $250 in prize money on top of the $500 they will be receiving for winning in their match-ups.
We would also like to acknowledge that the incorrect average came to our attention yesterday. We have been working towards an appropriate solution since then. While we understand that Bhangra is a competitive art and that emotions can run high, we hope that any additional concerns are brought to us directly and hope we can all be respectful to each other going forward. We hope that these action steps demonstrate how much the West Coast Bhangra committee cares about all parties involved with our competition, as well as the betterment of the Bhangra community.
Thank you to the judges for being professional and forgiving about this. Thank you to UBJ for helping us so much over the past few weeks. Thank you to teams for bringing such incredible passion to the stage. I hope all of you, especially the teams, are able to forgive us for this error and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend at West Coast Bhangra 2017.
Our sincerest apologies and love for the Bhangra community,
Westcoast Bhangra Committee