You are correct, you have to stay at MGM unless you live within 75 miles...However everything else is great about this competition. Also, they are giveing out 11 bids (2 paid, 6 at large and 3 dance).

This will be our 4th year attending the American Grand comp. My son loves this one. If you only had one comp a year to choose to go to this is the one my son would choose every time. The comp has gotten bigger every year . Last year they finally moved it to the Grand Garden Arena. Frankly I liked it better in the convention ballrooms. It has also attracted much higher profile teams. This year I hear it's even going to be bigger with even more teams attending. (CA, Cali allstars, mavricks, CheerForce, So Cal Elite , Cheer Extreme to name a few.) I'm not a lover of Vegas but a few of us discovered the wonderful shopping and do some of our xmas shopping there when not watching the teams perform. It's quiet at that time of the year and the hotels are not as expensive. 2 yers ago when we went to NCA it was NAS CAR weekend in Vegas and the hotel rates were $250.00 a nite and up.
Last year we also went to Jamz. Not my favorite comp and just dosen't attract as many good teams. Very expensive, badly run. Very late kids competing after midnght. Didn't like all the clowning around by the staff during awards. I felt it took away from the kids.

Not everyone is going to like the same things that's why there are so many comp. companies to choose from.

So good luck to everyone this year and make us all proud !

in 2000 they didn't have levels. Our senior prep and junior competed against advanced teams our senior team also did I just can't remember what they placed. The levels were brought in in 2002 I believe if not 2003. Basically guys if you have a problem with a cheer gym (pyramids) go to danny and morton and talk to them. THis boardc is suppose to enhance cheer not make it seem like a gossip driven sport! Best of luck all gyms out there!

I thought they (CG) went to American Championships in the 2003-2004 season, in Anaheim. I think that's the competition an earlier post was talking about, not the one in Vegas. I didn't realize some of these competition companies have been around for so long... which one (in California) has been around the longest you think?

That's right, 2004-2005 cheergyms went to AC in Anaheim. Knew they went, but wasn't sure when. How did they do under that kind of scoring (which is so different than GSSA and USA)?

Wow, I'm impressed you have results from a couple years ago. It's a tough competition, hard to get in the top three, and you had one or two teams in each program in there, pretty good! If I remember correctly it's a two day competition too (which I think is even more difficult). But I think that is why I personally like AC Showcase in Anaheim (haven't been to Vegas); with that much competition to go against, it really gives you a feeling where you stand against top teams. I don't know of any other competition here in California that has that many gyms attend, and I don't think that will change this season. Weird though, the one in San Jose, not that many teams on the schedule.

Good point. I think it's just that it would be great to have one competition here in California that most gyms go to. Otherwise you have many to choose from, yes, but no real way to see how you stack up against everyone, since we're all scattered at various comps, going against little to no competition most of the time. But based on posts such as yours, this I guess won't ever happen because teams just want to do their own thing, which is perfectly fine too. Can't blame people for tryin though.

Here is the definition of boondocks

Boondocks refers to a remote, usually brushy rural area. The expression was introduced to English by American military personnel serving in the Philippines during the early years of the 20th century. It derives from the Tagalog word bunduk (Bisayan Bukid) meaning "hinterland", that is, inland area. It also carries the implication that it is "backward" or "unsophisticated"; hence taga bunduk "people who live in the hinterland": i.e., people who are backward or unsophisticated.

Does not say anything about a long A$$ hallway....HMMM...is means that the place is backwards or unsophisticated....

It's been discussed here many times that CG doesn't really "dig" the American Championships judging style because it very heavily rewards difficulty and choreography over cleanliness. Just from watching the routines you could tell they were going to get almost none of the extra points (I forget what they call it, skill merit or something), because it required going out there on a limb - 5 or 6 body positions in a stunt, a lot of groups with flyers in the air, ratio of tumblers to total team members, etc. So while they'd go on the floor and hit a clean routine, they'd end up 10-15 points behind the leaders because these things were so heavily rewarded, and they'd gone with clean routines that they know would hit 99 times out of 100.

Nelson has very candidly posted that he doesn't really care for their judging system, and prefers the systems like USA, that reward choreography and cleanliness over difficulty. It's not a big secret - why take your entire program to a nationals where they likely won't score well, with the exception of a few teams who are going to have some big-time competition (Cheerforce, Cheer Athletics, etc).

You go to the competitions that your athletes and families like, and those tend to be the ones where they win. It's not that hard to understand.