All-Star Champions League April 2-3, 2016

[CatFan22]

The League event is getting worse each year. Year 1 was fantastic, and I was so excited for a company like Nfinity to become involved in a competition. They involved the athletes in the planning via regular conference calls over several months. The red carpet was fun and crowded and the kids felt like rock stars, the prom is a great way for the kids to meet and put the competition aside and have fun, and it seemed like Nfinity was making a huge effort to recognize and appreciate the athletes. The venue was good and even though there was no arena seating, you had assigned seats and there was a priority viewing area, so there was no need to get there hours before and everyone with a ticket had a seat. The concept of Champions League is fantastic - where else can you watch the top teams in the world all in one day?! Everyone gets a chance with the play-in round, so it is exclusive but also open to all. There were 2 rounds - they judged difficulty during the day and performance at night (while making sure difficulty stayed the same). There were no divisions - one overall winner and two runner-ups - one all girl and one coed. There were some kinks but I was so excited to see how this event would evolve - and I could not be more disappointed.
The red carpet this year was useless - there was no entry unless you had a coach pass. It was located 3 floors below the lobby. The athletes literally walked the red carpet in front of no one - why even have a red carpet if there is no one allowed to watch?! I'm glad they still have the prom because I feel that is a great thing for the kids. As far as the League event, being forced to arrive at 5pm when the event started at 8, with NO RE-ENTRY was inexcusable. Several people who bought tickets, picked up their tickets in the morning and HAD THEIR ORDER CONFIRMATION with them when the doors opened were told they couldn't get in because they weren't on CL's printed list. The poor girls working the table were just doing what they were told, but it was a cluster. The woman who is in charge of the EP was so rude and disrespectful - you literally could not go to the bathroom at 5:30 without her coming to take your belongings off your seat and she was yelling at parents and saying we were liars. If you are going to make people come 3 hours before, you have to be a little bit accommodating with saving seats since some parents have to get their kids ready. Our area (3 separate gyms) was not saving aisles of seats. We were not saving unused seats during the performance - they were all claimed by 6:30 - well more than an hour before the event. During the performance many of us gave up our seats to people when their team was on so that they could get a better view of their kid. There was no need for the EP to behave the way she did. I heard horror stories of people getting nearly trampled getting in the doors. They allowed people to stand directly in front of seats that people had been sitting in for hours. There was plenty of room for a priority viewing area that was not utilized. I understand the difficulty the EP was faced with due to the Nuclear Summit and things couldn't get delivered (like tickets), but go buy wristbands and number them rather than hand out xerox paper tickets. I knew people were going to copy them and sell them/give them to friends as soon as I saw them.
I actually appreciated the commentary and thought there was some very good constructive criticism that could be very useful heading in to Worlds (I only heard our team and it was after the fact - you couldn't hear it live), but the location of the commentators was in a poor spot. I thought once the League event started that it ran very well. I was not able to see the regular competition but it also seemed like it was well run (ETA I wasn't there and just saw @mamabear post so maybe not!). It's a shame that what could have been a marquis event has gone downhill each year. We need a variety of competitions and I very much want CL to succeed.

Totally agree with you on all of this! The paper tickets were just ridiculous. Most of us made it a point to go over earlier on Sat to pick ours up and they were out of the letter entry we were supposed to have, so they hand wrote our correct letter on the back and initialed it and said that would be fine. Heck, anyone could've done that. And then, because of the xeroxing debacle, when everyone went back over to there to enter for the event, you had to stand in yet another line to have your ticket re-verified against their list to make sure it was legit. They wouldn't let us in unless it was swiped with a yellow highlighter. We didn't go over until about 7pm, so I didn't expect to get good seats. But, we were told there would be a priority viewing area and there wasn't one. There was a section in the middle back that had a bunch of empty seats that could have been used for priority seating, but they said that was for coaches only. And the no re-entry was absurd to expect people to sit there for 5 hours and not move and not leave. Plus, the credit card machines were down at the concession stands. So, they were only accepting cash, but all the cash machines were outside the hall. But, then some of our other parents entered a little later and they weren't even checking tickets anymore, so anyone could have just walked in. This was after the J5's went, but before the League teams started performing.

The seating arrangement was horrible and the lights were on over the seating on the sides, which kind of dulled the atmosphere. I sat to the side towards the back and just moved closer when each of my girls' teams performed. This could be a really great event and an amazing show with all these teams if it was done right. CL needs to take some tips from The Majors on event production and atmosphere.

Also, the first year in Atlanta, they had a separate Champions League pro shop set up outside the performance hall along with pro shops for all the League gyms so people could shop prior to going into the event. This year, the only CL pro shop they had set up was inside the Hall A for the Levels 1-5R competition, which required a separate $20 ticket to enter. So, those people who were only there for the CL main event in the Hall B would have to buy another $20 ticket in addition to the $44 ticket they already bought, just to buy CL merchandise. I know of parents who actually bought the extra $20 ticket just so their kid could get CL apparel. There's no way in heck I was doing that.

 

[littlestALLSTAR]

Totally agree with you on all of this! The paper tickets were just ridiculous. Most of us made it a point to go over earlier on Sat to pick ours up and they were out of the letter entry we were supposed to have, so they hand wrote our correct letter on the back and initialed it and said that would be fine. Heck, anyone could've done that. And then, because of the xeroxing debacle, when everyone went back over to there to enter for the event, you had to stand in yet another line to have your ticket re-verified against their list to make sure it was legit. They wouldn't let us in unless it was swiped with a yellow highlighter. We didn't go over until about 7pm, so I didn't expect to get good seats. But, we were told there would be a priority viewing area and there wasn't one. There was a section in the middle back that had a bunch of empty seats that could have been used for priority seating, but they said that was for coaches only. And the no re-entry was absurd to expect people to sit there for 5 hours and not move and not leave. Plus, the credit card machines were down at the concession stands. So, they were only accepting cash, but all the cash machines were outside the hall. But, then some of our other parents entered a little later and they weren't even checking tickets anymore, so anyone could have just walked in. This was after the J5's went, but before the League teams started performing.

The seating arrangement was horrible and the lights were on over the seating on the sides, which kind of dulled the atmosphere. I sat to the side towards the back and just moved closer when each of my girls' teams performed. This could be a really great event and an amazing show with all these teams if it was done right. CL needs to take some tips from The Majors on event production and atmosphere.

Also, the first year in Atlanta, they had a separate Champions League pro shop set up outside the performance hall along with pro shops for all the League gyms so people could shop prior to going into the event. This year, the only CL pro shop they had set up was inside the Hall A for the Levels 1-5R competition, which required a separate $20 ticket to enter. So, those people who were only there for the CL main event in the Hall B would have to buy another $20 ticket in addition to the $44 ticket they already bought, just to buy CL merchandise. I know of parents who actually bought the extra $20 ticket just so their kid could get CL apparel. There's no way in heck I was doing that.

Totally agree with you. After attending the Majors, which was a well planned production, CL was an abysmal failure. We've attended all the bigger comps this year from Athletic Championships RI to NCA and UCA....never once did I think a EP got it as wrong as they did this weekend.
My one compliment is for the nice backpacks given to division winners.
On another note, nice to meet so many FBers this weekend! Love putting faces to the names.

 

[renaa_rooo]

Scores!

 

[icequeen]

Teams who were scoring in the 96-98 range at NCA and only scoring 94-96 range here with some hit routines.

 

[cheernerd5678]

Teams who were scoring in the 96-98 range at NCA and only scoring 94-96 range here with some hit routines.

It's not the varsity scoresheet though. You can't compare scores between comps because of comparative scoring but you especially can't compare them on two different scoresheets. Nobody really knows what the champs league scoresheet is but it's not a varsity comp.

 

[Cheeranswers]

Scores!

mad knowing stars should have gotten 2nd

 

[astaley22]

mad knowing stars should have gotten 2nd

Yeah I was wondering why SE had zero deductions when the out of bounds was literally zoomed in on by the cameras..

 

[Cheeranswers]

Yeah I was wondering why SE had zero deductions when the out of bounds was literally zoomed in on by the cameras..

it was sooooo obvious. the scoring at this comp was awful. not just in this division

 

[notimeforthat]

Not a complete list....where is WC Suns and Ody?

 

[mamabear]

The Top Gun athlete who got hurt during the performance , just posted on his public Twitter that it is his ACL and that both meniscus were torn. My heart breaks for him and the team.


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[icequeen]

The Top Gun athlete who got hurt during the performance , just posted on his public Twitter that it is his ACL and that both meniscus were torn. My heart breaks for him and the team.


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He seems upbeat about the whole thing especially since he's joking about tumbling on one leg. I counted about 40 kids in the team picture from UCA so hopefully they have been working with the stunts and jump right in.

 

[Fiercecheermom]

Not a complete list....where is WC Suns and Ody?

It appears that they may no longer be in the "League". Obsession is missing as well.

 

[Fiercecheermom]

It's not the varsity scoresheet though. You can't compare scores between comps because of comparative scoring but you especially can't compare them on two different scoresheets. Nobody really knows what the champs league scoresheet is but it's not a varsity comp.

Aloha has their own score sheet.

 

[DancerDude0118]

The Top Gun athlete who got hurt during the performance , just posted on his public Twitter that it is his ACL and that both meniscus were torn. My heart breaks for him and the team

His ACL AND both menisci? How is his femur still connected to his tibia and fibula at this point (not a serious question)?

I know he main bases the centre stunt during elites and has a speciality standing tumbling pass on top of his running tumbling pass... yikes.

 

[cheerislife1]

I was very unimpressed with the champions league. this was our gyms first year attending and we will not return for another year.
i think the whole competition in general is very overrated. it just seemed like another local competition for us. nothing special about it at all. the big selling point for this competition was that it was going to be in the movie theaters and everyone wanted to get a chance to be in the movie. No one from champions league ever officially announced that it was not going to be a movie this year. all they kept doing was pushing that it was going to be a live feed. alot of competitions this year do live feeds. there is nothing special about that. they should have announced to everyone that it will not be a movie this year.

i also dont think it was fair that they took 5 all girl teams from the play in round to the league competition but only 2 coed teams. i know that they want equal number of coed and all girl teams in the league but why? it put the coed teams at a huge disadvantage going into the play in round.

overall this competition was a huge let down for me.