...And idied at the bolded! Their theme really was Matrix? I saw the performance, but couldnt really tell what they were going for since the steps didnt match anything and they didnt have enough theatrics to explain it. Why was the one girl stepping on the board they were holding? What part of the matrix was that? :confused: *KanyeShrug*

LOL

I don't know. It's the use of props even if it doesn't make sense.

Your great-grandmother told you to be careful when Zeta Tau Alphas befriend you?

This made me laugh.

But you know what he means...

I certainly do, k_s, I certainly do.

That comment was more funny than someone being referred to a Latina sorority because of jaundice.

I equate passionate with feeling strongly about something. Remember I work in social services. Passionate is the buzz word. :p

Thanks for clarifying. Makes sense. :)

My friend sent me this article. I think it's an excellent example of the passion you're talking about (particularly for younger BGLOers). Behold the stupidity in the comments section: http://www.thehilltoponline.com/step...smay-1.2163798

I just read on FB that Sprite has declared co-first place winners due to an unresolvable scoring discrepancy. :cool:

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/object2/...29158_7147.jpg
Post #1

Sprite wroteabout an hour ago
The Sprite Step Off was initially created as a way to recognize talented college students and give out scholarships to help support their higher education. If we put on some entertaining step shows and brought people together along the way, all the better.

After the National Finals Competition this past weekend in Atlanta wrapped, we got together to do our post-competition review and found a scoring discrepancy in the sorority results. After looking at it and looking at it AGAIN, we determined there isn’t a definitive resolution.

Sprite is all about preserving the honesty and integrity of this competition. Because the scoring discrepancy can’t be resolved and due to the really tight margin between the first and second place sorors, we feel that the only right thing to do is to name both Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Tau Chapter & Zeta Tau Alpha, Epsilon Chapter, co-first place winners of the Sprite Step Off.

With these revised results, we’re gonna increase Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Tau Chapter’s scholarship prize to $100K, consistent with what Zeta Tau Alpha also got for their first prize winnings.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make The Sprite Step Off happen. And to one last stroll in the name of unity...


^^^^This is from from the sprite step off facebook page/group thingy. Apparently they're trying to right the "wrongs".

That same "scoring error" happened at in regional round in Chicago.

"wrongs"??

Do you think there was no scoring error?

Welcome to the world of stepshows. They are learning that this isn't just an MTV spectacle.

While I respect their review, which often happens for stepshows and especially young stepshows, their show has absolutely no credibility. The money is great but there's not "BGLO cred" beyond that.

Is that the one where they they required a step-off for third place?

I would call a scoring error a wrong--a BIG wrong.

They announced a tie between Phi Beta Sigma and Alpha Phi Alpha for 1st place and told the teams they had to do a step off to determine who would take 1st place. They announced this tie before the other sororities had a chance to step.

The drama with the sororities came in when Sigma Gamma Rho came in 4th place, Alpha Theta Omega 3rd, Zeta Phi Beta 2nd, and AKA 1st. The crowd, from the reaction I observed and well as the one I gave, was shocked that Sigma Gamma Rho had not placed in 1st or 2nd place. They put on an excellent show.

After the competition was over, the news came in later that night that there was a scoring error and that Sigma Gamma Rho placed 2nd which bumped Zeta Phi Beta to 3rd. Some of the SGRHOs that were sitting with me at the show stated that they felt they just placed them anywhere after the judges made the scoring error, and that their members (who were present during the show) believed that SGRHO had actually won 1st place.

They also had an issue with the fact that Judges from each NPHC were not represented. I believe there were only five , with two coming from one of the other competing sororities. Sprite's rules never said that there had to be 9 judges.

Wow.

Sounds like the scoring and judging was a hot mess. The parts that MTV2 won't cover, I suppose.

Next year's Step Off (if it happens) will be interesting to say the least...

I also heard it happened in NYC and that is why they allowed the Phi Beta SIgma team that performed in NYC at that regional Step Off to compete as a wild card entry in ATL.

THANK YOU for explaining this.

The article I posted, and comments section, made it seem like a fishing expedition against ZTA.

The Sprite fan page on facebook has been out of control since the incident in Chicago. I can only imagine what the comments look like now that the competition is over and there is a "tie" for 1st.

Has this been posted yet? I can't keep up.

Argh, shimber me timbers. Me wonders whether Sprite will do this next year. The profit may be outweighed by the troubles and cost. Welcome to the world of step competitions, Sprite.

More importantly, if we are going to support the event like this with the D9 on all the advertising, then we need to demand some creative control and have a say in how things go. Please tell me how Chili (TLC), Luda, Monica, Ne Ne (Desperate Housewives of ATL), etc. are going to judge a greek stepshow? LMMFAO!!

Oh and the MC should also be greek or at least have gone to college. I hear that the MC for the national competition was very distasteful and made comments about AKA having weaves and ZTA having real hair. WTF!!!

Seriously though, do you have to be Greek to judge a Greek step show? Do you have to be beautiful to judge a beauty pageant. Do you have to be a singer to judge AI..., etc.

Well, you do need to understand music if you're going to be giving pointers and judging people on their musical abilities.

I think it would have been helpful for them to have someone judging who knew what s/he was supposed to be looking for during the show.

I was looking at the competition rules, and this struck me:

"All team members must be 18 years or over, a member in good standing of a nationally recognized service-oriented fraternity or sorority, and in good academic standing at an accredited 4 year college or university."

How is it that a NPC group met the eligibility then? I always see NPC sororities stating that they are social organizations, not service.

If that's the case, then Kappa would've been ineligible, because Kappa is a SOCIAL fraternity. FWIW, four of the five NPHC fraternities are also in the NIC, which is a collective body of social fraternities.

But the whole social/service element of NPHC orgs is another discussion in itself.

I think you can safely say that all of the D9 are "service oriented" without claiming to be service organizations. It's all in the semantics. We describe ourselves (see our website) as social and service since being about service since the beginning and being founded as a professional org initially, not a social one, but we don't claim to be a service organization in the way that Gamma Sigma Sigma is for example.

Bottom line, this show was targeted to our audience and being D9 exclusively at first, as demonstrated by Sprite advertising. It wasn't until later that people started realizing that it wasn't just NPHC. Even now, some folks who haven't been following closely are shocked to find out that it wasn't just a D9 production.

Ideally, AI judges, beauty pageant judges, and America's Best Dance Crew judges have expertise, experience, or knowledge in the subject matter. Inexperienced judges have been criticized in other realms before, as well.

Every stepshow that I respected enough to attend had Greeks and/or people who have some knowledge of stepping as judges. I'm very picky about which homecoming and other competitive shows are worth my attendance. :) I attend stepshows relatively rarely and wouldn't attend one where celebs were judges for the sake of celebrity---especially for "the largest national step competition ever."

Some may wonder whether all of this would've been an issue had an NPHC org won. :D I say, yes, it would've if people didn't think the particular NPHC org should've won. Stepping for money has always been surrrrrrrrrrious bidness. :)

Exactly. Since one of the scoring categories is usually originality and/or creativity (or something like this) and you seldom attend stepshows or have no idea about what goes into stepping, how can you recognize when a theme or steps have been done by others before or are overdone? You're all excited as a judge because you think this step team just brought something new but they haven't, not even close.

Watch out. GSS is going to win next year! :rolleyes:

Well said. This is what I was trying to articulate to some people this week. They just didn't get it. It boiled down to, "oh that's just another hatin' AKA." :rolleyes:

@ the part in bold: I think that was my biggest gripe with the performance.
As for your 3 and 4, I agree that this is problematic. I have a low tolerance for these types of things when they bring in celebrities to judge who really have no knowledge or experience in the particular area they are judging. Makes me question their credibility in making these decisions.

Kind of like Ellen being an AI judge. Love her to death, but I don't think she knows anything about music and singing.

Do we know for sure that the judges didn't know this? Just asking?

But there are a whole lot of greeks who don't have a clue either. Which is why there is usually some controversary about who won even in NPHC sponsored shows.

I think it's a fair assumption, with the numerous "borrowed" steps/transitions throughout the show. It looks like these judges glossed over the "creativity/originality" section.

I agree; however, when it comes to the big shows (Stomp the Yard) and even the undergrad shows, those involved in organizing these shows contact the alumnae chapters to provide the judges. Usually our Basileus will do it and if she can't, she will ask someone else in our chapter. This builds up a nice "judging resume." She and others in my chapter have now judged many many shows in our area and I'm sure this is happening in other cities as well, although possibly not always (although I don't think I've ever heard of undergrads doing the judging). But I think seeking BGLO alumnae is the best way to go since there SHOULD be more maturity and honesty there but the alumnae chapters should ask members to judge that frequent stepshows and/or who have stepped themselves.

I would add on from my own personal. I get asked to judge shows because I have a resume of being in shows and judging other shows. You just don't ask anybody in the grad to judge a show because some in the org really don't know or have the experience.

Those of us that have been, especially those of us that were step masters know what to look for and what has won and lost because we are always looking for steps to institute in our routines if a frat from another region used a step or show that won (Never copy a whole show because what won for your frat in the eastern area may flop in the south.) So you see shows you see nuances, you see if the judges were hating or not.

The same argument can be made for NIC and NPC orgs as well. Theoretically, all fraternities and sororities can be service oriented, but the fact is, we are, by Internal Revenue Code, if nothing else, social fraternities and sororities.

That may well be, but nothing in the eligibility rules indicated that you did not had to be a member of an NPHC org to compete. I'm sure if that was the case, such would have been clearly indicated in the rules.