I think the level 4 divisions have had the toughest competition this year, especially the senior all-girl divisions. There are a lot of good teams:

Cheer Divas - this senior routine is the most creative I've seen so far this year at any level in NorCal. If they can put together a mistake-free routine - look out!
Roseville - really awesome earlier in the year; no idea what happened at Jamz last weekend, it didn't look like the same routine or even the same team!
Athletic Perfection - don't know what's happened at their gym, but it's like a totally different program this year - solid and clean. Difficulty is the only place they can be beat.
Cheer Odyssey - not the most difficult routine, but they've beaten several of these other teams when they make mistakes
Power - great routine despite so far having a hard time putting it together on the floor

In the junior divisions, I've seen fewer good routines. I don't know if it's because the younger age has a harder time being clean or what.

Pyramids - the team that won at Jamz last weekend - AWESOME routine, super clean, just need to save those scary falls :/
Cheer Divas - good routine, just not very clean, if this team went to level 3 they would clean house I think, and I think the level would suit them better (not enough tumbling for 4)
Starstruck - another good routine that's just not clean
Airborne - nice and clean, could benefit from some upgrades in difficulty

If you've seen the results from these competitions (the recaps with the scores) you'd see that these are really close divisions - sometimes a point or less out of 500 seperating the top 2 or 3 places.

I love the ideas of teams made up purely of those who can do the skills for their level - similar to gymnastics. There's nothing that irritates me more than watching a bunch of girls squat/stand on the back of the floor during a level 5 performance because they don't have even a back handspring.

Just wondering.....

(in regards to "more mentions" post. Have those teams competed against anyone when they have taken first? It seems that some gyms go to smaller comeptitions so that they do not have to compete against others. Not being rude just something I noticed.)

I agree I've noticed the same thing. Take a look at the upcoming Athletic Championship competition this weekend in San Mateo.... At most there are only two or three teams in each division and quite a few teams competing againts themselves. The only division that continues to have the largest number of teams competing is Junior Level 2.

Out of all the teams I think Airborne is really good.

To the posts by both noticed too and just wondering, regarding the comment by more mentions, I think it's unfair to assume that just because there aren't many teams competing at a particular competition that the owners/coaches planned it that way. I believe gyms sign up early for competitions, plan them out, and how are they to know who and who isn't going to compete in them? Looking at the schedule for Athletic Championship, for example -- do you really think a top notch team like Stars Extreme purposely looks for "small competitions" so they have nobody to go against? Come on ... And isn't it true that in the last Jamz competition there were cases of just two teams going against each other?

I think the explanation that there are now MANY competitions to choose from and extra levels is the best I've heard for the reason why there aren't many teams in various categories. It's unfortunate when there is no competition, but it happens. If only we all had a crystal ball and knew who was signing up for what, huh?

Another reason some competitions have more in each category than others is that some combine the large and small categories. So you have small teams going against large teams (all Jamz regionals do this, but they separate them at nationals). Think GSSA combined them too? Anyway, the ones who separate them so you don't have a small gym having to compete against a large gym end up with less teams in each category.

Also, one more point -- it doesn't matter to us if we go against five or one if the one is a worthy opponent. So it's not quantity but quality. I think you would all agree with that.

You can't choose who will go to what competition, be we have had many occasions where we don't compete against our local rivals because they know which competitions we will be going to from past experience. I learned this right from the horses mouth. No here-say. But hey, what can one do. All I can say is this, you truly can't count wins if you don't go against the big dogs. Trust me, even though we are big right here where we are, we can't say all too much cause we haven't gone against the BIG DOGS either. But we're gettng there. Slowly but surely. We just wish we could compete against our locals one day. Really see who's who in our area. Would be kinda cool........ there's just too many competitions.