UAAP Cheerdance Competition

UAAP Cheerdance Competition

Founded	1994
No. of teams	8
Country	Philippines
Most recent champion(s)	National University (2016)
TV partner(s)	ABS-CBN Sports (ABS-CBN Sports and Action, ABS-CBN Sports + Action HD)

The 2007 UAAP Cheerdance Competition (CDC) held at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Philippines

The UAAP Cheerdance Competition is an annual one-day event of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines for cheerdancing. UAAP Cheerdance Competition is now part of the tabulation to determine the UAAP Overall Championship. The sequence of the performance are determined by drawing of lots prior the competition.

Since 2006, side-court reporters of each participating universities join the main host of the event. Before the announcement of winners and after all squads have performed, a recap is shown during the telecast. Only the Top 3 are announced at the end of the competition. The 2015 UAAP Cheerdance Competition was the most attended UAAP event with a record-breaking 25,388 paying audience.

Participants

School	Cheerdance Team
Adamson University (AdU)	Adamson Pep Squad (with AdU Drummers and Yellers Online)
Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU)	Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion
De La Salle University (DLSU)	DLSU Animo Squad (DLSU Pep Squad: 1994-2007) (DLSU Animo Squad: 2008–present)
Far Eastern University (FEU)	FEU Cheering Squad (with the FEU Boosters and the FEU Drummers)
National University (NU)	National U Pep Squad (with the NU Cheer Squadron and the NU Drummers)
University of the East (UE)	UE Pep Squad (with the UE Red Drummers)
University of the Philippines (UP)	UP Pep Squad (with the UP Pep Squad Drummers) (UP Filipiniana Dance Troupe: 1994-1996)
University of Santo Tomas (UST)	UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe (with the UST Yellow Jackets)

Rules

The competition rules has been revised through the years since it began. The following is based on the most recent rules drafted in 2012.

Basic rules

1. One official team per UAAP-member university
2. 15-25 UAAP-eligible students
3. Max of 5 spotters/propsmen, in all-black garb
4. Up to 2 substitutes 12 hours before the competition.

Performance

1. Routines must have
   • School cheer yelled live. Any stunt, pyramid, and tumbling done during the cheer routine will be judged under the cheer category of each element.
   • Dance Routine
   • Stunts (lifts and tosses)
   • Pyramids
   • Tumblings (standing and running)
2. Maximum of 7 snares and 12 bass drums if the venue is Araneta Coliseum; 5 snares and 6 bass drums if the venue is SM Arena
3. Cheerleaders may not perform outside the boundary line of 15x20 meters performance area

Judges

Prior 2009, the panel of judges compose of representative from 8 UAAP-member schools and a representative from a credible gymnastics organizations. In 2009, UAAP replaced the panel of judges with representatives from various cheerleading, dance, and gymnastics organizations.

In 2013, a different way of composing the panel of judges was made. A single judge was assigned in every element in the cheerleading criteria. For the dance criteria, four judges were tasked to judge this particular criteria.

Criteria

The criteria for judging varies year-on-year. In 2008, the criteria were changed to a more cheerleading-focused point-system, giving a maximum score for each element of cheerleading and/or dancing. For 2013 edition, the criteria were divided into two: cheerleading and dance criteria. Cheerleading criteria were sub-divided into four elements (tumbling, stunt, tosses, and pyramid) with a maximum of 100 points for each element, while the dance criteria, which had a maximum of 100 points per number of judges for dance, were subdivided into four sub-criteria (over-all effectiveness, choreography, technique and execution).

Sponsors

Major Sponsor/s	Competition Name	Year(s)
Jollibee	JollibeeChi-Cheer Kayo Challenge	1994–1996
Nestlé Ice Cream	Nestlé Crunch Ice Cream Cheering Competition	1998–1999
	Nestlé Non-Stop Cheerdance Competition	2000–2005
Samsung	Samsung UAAP Cheerdance Competition	2007–2013
Purefoods, Oishi, Hana Shampoo, Systema	UAAP Cheerdance Competition	2014
Champion Detergent, Purefoods, Oishi, Jollibee, Mcdonald's	UAAP Cheerdance Competition	2015

Results

Every season, the host school for the UAAP Cheerdance Competition may or may not be different from the league's season host school.

Year	Season host	Venue	Champion	2nd place	3rd place	4th place	5th place	6th place	7th place	8th place	Ref.
1994	NU	Araneta Coliseum	UST	La Salle	FEU
1995	Ateneo	Araneta Coliseum	UST	La Salle	UP
1996	La Salle	Araneta Coliseum	UST 91.70	UP 88.86	La Salle 86.43
1997a	Adamson	The competition was suspended for a year.
1998b	UE	Cuneta Astrodome	FEU	La Salle	UP
1999	UP	Cuneta Astrodome	UP	UST	FEU
2000	UST	Araneta Coliseum	UP 92.75	UST 89.12	FEU
2001	FEU	Araneta Coliseum	UP 81.22	Adamson 77.11	UST 76.32
2002	NU	Araneta Coliseum	UST 87.38	UE 84.88	UP 84.00	FEU 80.70	Ateneo 78.60	Adamson 76.80	La Salle 71.50	NU 64.50
2003	Ateneo	Araneta Coliseum	UST 89.50	UP 88.16	FEU 88.00	Ateneo 83.16	UE 78.50	Adamson 72.60	La Salle 69.60	NU 61.80
2004	La Salle	Araneta Coliseum	UST 93.61	UP 90.56	FEU 87.09	Ateneo 85.79	La Salle 84.97	Adamson 84.76	UE 79.52	NU 68.44
2005	Adamson	Araneta Coliseum	UST 90.98	UP 90.76	FEU 88.72	La Salle 76.37	UE 76.15	Adamson 76.09	Ateneo 69.33	NU 64.48
2006c	UE	Araneta Coliseum	UST 94.96	FEU 93.20	UP 91.70	Adamson	Ateneo	UE	NU	La Salle
2007	UST	Araneta Coliseum	UP 92.66	UST 92.16	FEU 91.66	Ateneo 91.63	Adamson 91.62	UE 91.55	La Salle 89.54	NU 84.23
2008	UP	Araneta Coliseum	UP 93.90	UST 85.03	FEU 83.96	Ateneo 83.81	Adamson 81.04	UE 72.89	La Salle 70.07	NU 68.36
2009	FEU	Araneta Coliseum	FEU 86.10	Ateneo 83.40	UP 83.10	UST 81.00	NU	Adamson	La Salle	UE
2010	La Salle	Araneta Coliseum	UP 440.90	FEU 421.40	UST 407.50	Ateneo 393.20	La Salle 375.30	UE 361.00	NU 357.90	Adamson 354.60
2011	Ateneo	Araneta Coliseum	UP 81.00	La Salle 73.80	FEU 72.60	UST	Adamson	NU	Ateneo	UE
2012d	NU	Mall of Asia Arena	UP 92.26	FEU 91.36	NU 85.16	UST 85.56	Ateneo 80.84	UE 79.30	La Salle 81.76	Adamson 77.50
2013e	Adamson	Mall of Asia Arena	NU 87.06	UP 77.52	La Salle 74.56	FEU 73.69	Adamson 69.94	UE 69.88	UST 68.25	Ateneo 64.25
2014e	UE	Smart Araneta Coliseum	NU 84.69	UP 82.25	UST 78.13	Adamson 75.00	FEU 74.94	La Salle 70.88	UE 62.88	Ateneo 61.81
2015e	UP	Mall of Asia Arena	NU 83.50	UST 81.44	UP 76.31	FEU 72.94	UE 72.88	La Salle 67.31	Adamson 64.19	Ateneo 51.50
2016f	UST	Smart Araneta Coliseum	NU 88.88	FEU 82.31	Adamson 81.88	UST 81.25	UE 80.63	La Salle 70.06	Ateneo 64.00

Stunner Awardees

Season	Year	Season host	Person	School of origin
71	2008	UP	Frances Fleta	UP
72	2009	FEU	Sari Campos	ADMU
73	2010	DLSU	Nikka de Dios	DLSU
74	2011	ADMU	Nesza Isabel Salvador	UP
75	2012	NU	Nicolette Erica Ambulo	UP
76	2013	AdU	Ana de Leon	DLSU
77	2014	UE	Camille Isabel Lagmay	UP
78	2015	UP	No award

Notes:

• ^a - The UAAP Board suspended the competition when a member from the UP Filipiniana figured in an accident during practice.
• ^b - In 1998, UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe did not join the competition.
• ^c - De La Salle University was suspended from the league in 2006.
• ^d - Instead of the average score from the five judges, the ranking frequency system was used in ranking and declaring the winners for 2012 UAAP Cheerdance Competition. In the case of NU and UST, NU was declared as the 2nd runner up as 3 out of 5 judges voted for NU as the 3rd placer while 3 out of 5 judges voted for UST as the 4th placer despite of the higher score of UST (85.56) than NU (85.16)
• ^e - Merit-based scoring was used in the criteria: 400 points for cheerleading elements and 400 points for dance elements; for a total score of 800. Scores displayed here are its percentage equivalent (eg. Actual Score divided by 800 then multiplied to 100).
• ^f - University of the Philippines skipped UAAP Season 79 Cheerdance Competition

Group stunts division

In 2011, UAAP introduced the Group Stunts Competition. However, only five members per school competed where Adamson Pep Squad, DLSU Animo Squad, and UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe did not participate. In 2012, six member-schools participated in the Group Stunts Competition. This includes AdU, NU, DLSU, FEU, UP, and UST. In 2014, only Ateneo did not join.

Year	Host school	Champion	2nd place	3rd place	Ref.
2011	ADMU	UP	FEU	NU
2012	NU	UP	FEU	NU
2013	AdU	NU	FEU	UST
2014	UE	FEU	UST	NU
2015	UP	UST	NU	FEU
2016	UST	NU	UST	FEU

Championship table

School	Last Championship	Last Top 3 Appearance	Rank			Total	Championship Rank
University of the Philippines	2012	2015	8	6	6	20	1
University of Santo Tomas	2006	2015	8	5	3	16	2
National University	2016	2016	4	—	1	5	5
Far Eastern University	2009	2016	2	4	9	15	3
De La Salle University	—	2013	—	4	2	6	4
Adamson University	—	2016	—	1	1	2	6
Ateneo de Manila University	—	2009	—	1	—	1	7
University of the East	—	2002	—	1	—	1	7

UP–UST rivalry

Chronology of events

The UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe won the first three years of competition from 1994 to 1996. During those years, UP used to send its own dance troupe, the UP Filipiniana Dance Troupe. In the 1998 season, UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe did not compete and instead joined the 1st Lipton Cheering Cup Competition. Also in that year, UP established a new pep squad, called UP Varsity Pep Squad, as its official delegate to the competition to replace the UP Filipiniana Dance Troupe.

The rivalry between the two squads began in 1999 when UST returned to reclaim the title after their year of absence. However, they only finished second behind UP Pep Squad. In 2001, UP Pep Squad matched the record of UST's three consecutive wins.

In 2002, UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe regained the title while UP Pep Squad finished third. The next three years had UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe in first place and UP Pep Squad as runner-up. In 2006, UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe received their eighth title via five consecutive victories setting the highest score in the history of the competition while UP Pep Squad finished third on that year.

UP Pep Squad regained the title in 2007 and garnered their fifth title in 2008, with UST as second placer. The UP Pep Squad's goal of a second three-peat was not realized in 2009. In that year, UST failed to enter top three for the first time. In 2010, UP regained the title while UST came back in the podium finishing third. UP had another three-peat after winning the 2011 and 2012 editions - the same years when UST failed to enter top three again.

Neither UP nor UST won the cheerdance tilt in from 2013 to 2015. In 2013, UST had its lowest ranking and settled seventh place. As of 2013, UP never placed outside top three while UST failed to get a podium ranking four times in five years.

In 2014, UST successfully rejoined the podium finish at third place while UP placed second. In 2015, after nine years, UST defeated UP by winning second place while UP settled for third. As of 2015, both teams have identical number of championship titles at eight. UP, despite being dethroned, is by far the most established team for having stayed at the podium for 20 years straight.

Controversy

Questions were raised on the results of the 2015 Cheerdance Competition after NU Pep Squad won despite committing multiple errors including falls on their lifts and pyramids. This is in contrast with runners-up UP and UST executing clean programs. The UAAP community in the social media was outraged mainly due to their disbelief of the ranking and allegations of biased judging and corruption. NU claimed that their stunts have higher degree of difficulty compared to other teams. Due to this, UP filed an official complaint for the case detailing several judging inaccuracies but was remained unresolved with UAAP officials. As a response to the unresolved issues and to focus on international competitions, UP Pep Squad decided to skip the 2016 competition.

See also

• UAAP Street Dance Competition
• NCAA Cheerleading Competition
• List of domestic club championship attendance: UAAP Cheerdance Competition in a global context.

External links

• UAAP Official site cheerdancing coverage