Let me first say that I was not at this competition, but from some of the things I had heard, my interest was peaked. I will say that finding out that your team would be ineligible for a paid bid to Summit at the check in is absolutely ridiculous. If there was truly nothing that stated this prior to the comp, then the teams this affected should have the ability to pull out with a refund of monies paid. I feel certain no one would want to do that after they had traveled so far/long and paid for hotels, but the option should have been there. I feel certain this will affect who goes to this comp for Summit bids next year.
That being said, I was very surprised/disturbed by the stacking I saw on at least one team in the L5 division with "new" athletes. After comparing their showcase video with their performance video on Sunday, I am just shaking my head. We all talk about things USASF should be "policing"... THIS is the thing that they absolutely need to take a look at. I said it last year and I will say it again. There needs to be a maximum number of people per team that are allowed to be used on multiple teams to get AL or Paid bids.
I am thinking somewhere around 2. This will allow for injuries/illness without actually changing/raising the abilities of a team and changing them into something THEY ABSOLUTELY ARE NOT! Using athletes from other teams so that the team is more competitive (with the intention of NEVER using them on this team at Worlds) is basically "stealing" money from the EPs. So sick of these gyms "working the system" with their questionable ethics/morals. Basically they are letting their athletes on these teams know that "you are not good enough on your own to get the bid/get paid so we are going to fix it so you can by bringing in better athletes." Then these kids get to Worlds and are embarrassed/shocked at their placements because they are truly not the team that was portrayed from the get go. I am appalled that the parents of these kids aren't bothered by this either. Just because you can get around the rules, doesn't mean you should.
