I had a long day with my friends, we went to a lot of places today because you know, it's a Sunday, everybody's day-off. But I don't like to discuss about that just now. I wanted to share my views about the recent conclusion of the 2008 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Cheerdance Competition. The UAAP Cheerdance competition is one of the most anticipated cheerleading competition every year. Major universities of the country competes for the title including University of Santo Tomas (UST), University of the Philippines (UP), De La Salle University (DLSU), Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), National University (NU), University of the East (UE), Far Eastern University (FEU) and Adamson University (AdU). Usually the event is held in Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City.
Before anything else, I would like to say, SAMSUNG YOU ANNOY ME! They are this year's major sponsor and they require each school to give a short dance for them while waving their flag before the competition proper starts. Gah! It's annoying. Moving on, this year the University of the Philippines successfully defended their title from their last year's victory, while long time cheerleading rival UST came in second. Since the game's establishment in 1995, there are only three schools who has grabbed the championship title. FEU with 1 title, UP with 5 and UST with 8. UST also holds the most number of straight wins, a record of 5 from 2002-2006.
Even though I don't like my school very much when it comes to academic excellence (I'm a bad ass), I always have faith in UST's capability to bagged non-academic titles, and this includes the annual cheerleading contest.
I'm not being biased because I came from UST, but I definitely do not think UP deserves the title this year. Don't burn me with this as this is only my personal view. If you will go watch the UP Pep Squad here and the UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe here, you will notice that each has their own strength. UP did quite a good job in their energetic and original-not-so-original stunts but they obviously look messy on the floor. They have made a lot of obvious mistakes but is still impressive nonetheless. UST on the other hand executed their might in almost a flawless manner. It's so clean but it's also a bit boring. They played safe this year. But looking at the it thoroughly, I say UP should have been in the second place.
UP got a score of 93.30 while UST got 93.25, a really tight fight. Choreography constitute the biggest criteria with 50% share followed by synchronization 30%, Audience Appeal 10% and Costume for 10% as well. UP dominated all but the synchronization which they failed terribly and which UST enjoyed the highest score.
I don't exactly know how to explain it technically, but I truly feel this year's competition is highly influenced by politics which some of my friends also share. Note that most of my friends study in UP. It's not right to accuse, but we see this year as a great advantage for UP because it is their centenary celebration. They are celebrating their 100th year of foundation. They are so special this time President Arroyo even gave them the title of being the official national university of the country a few months ago.
Well anyway, congrats to all the winners and to those who did not win. There's still a lot of next time guys, don't give up. The result had been made, no chance of having it changed.
No trackbacks.
Comments