The Summit and The D2 Summit are two of the most coveted competitions in the country. Athletes from all over come to Walt Disney World every April and May to compete at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in hopes that their team will come home Summit champions.
Seeing your team's name on the Varsity TV Summit Bid Reveal on Monday nights is an exciting moment after you had an amazing competition weekend.
Now that you have the bid, your parents are probably going to have a million questions about the kind of bid and what it actually means for your team.
That's why I'm here. This is going to be your cheat sheet, your crash course to all things Summit bids. This will break down each type of bid offered, how they correspond with what round you compete at, and even the financial aspect.
Types of Bids
Getting a bid to The Summit or D2 Summit has become increasingly difficult over the years due to the amount of teams that you're competing against to get a bid in your respective division.
There are four types of bids that we'll discuss. Let's start off with a Wild Card.
Wild Card Bid
Image Source: Varsity TV 2019-2020 Summit Bid Reveal
This type of bid is typically given at one-day events or what they will call "Challenges". They also will give them away at "Classic" and "Showdown" competitions as well. That's for another post.
The Wild Card bid allows teams to enter the Wild Card round, typically on the Thursday or Friday of the competition, depending if you're at the D1 or D2 Summit. The Wild Card round is where teams will compete for a spot in the Final Round on that Sunday. From then, the top 5 teams within that division will then move on to the Finals. No teams will be selected to move on to Semi-Finals.
While gyms for the most part except Wild Card bids, it's better to get an at-large or paid, just so you don't have to compete on Friday. Wild Card rounds usually have larger team divisions which means it's even more difficult to get into Sunday's finals round.
For the parents, this bid doesn't save you any money. You will have to pay the full amount for your athlete to compete at the Summit or D2 Summit. Typically, it'll run you around $600 just to register your athlete to take the floor. With a Wild Card bid, you can upgrade to a Partial Paid (new this season) or Paid bid. It's easier to get a Wild Card bid compared to an At-Large, but it's harder to upgrade to a Paid bid.
At-Large Bids
Image Source: Varsity TV 2021-2022 Summit Bid Reveal
The next tier we're looking at is the at-large portion. This type of bid is given at two-day events such as Grand Nationals, Super Nationals, Nationals, or even two-day Showdowns.
The At-Large bid allows teams to forego the Wild Card round and automatically go to the Semi-Finals to compete for their chance to advance to finals. The number of teams that advance to Finals from semi-finals is usually split up as follows:
All divisions that have 10 or less teams will have no more than five teams advance.
Divisions with 11-19 teams will have no more than half of the division advance.
All divisions that have 20+ teams will have no more than half of the division advance. In these types of situations, it all depends on the number of teams that are in the division. For example: If there's a division with 30 teams, the top 12 will move on to Sunday.
With the introduction of the partial paid bids last season, at-large bids don't get any money off either. Participants must pay the full amount in order to compete. All the at-large bid really gets you is skipping the Wild Card round. You can upgrade to partial paid or paid with an at-large bid, however, it's just more difficult to do so.
Partial Paid Bid
Image Source: Varsity TV 2021-2022 Summit Bid Reveal
This was a bid that was introduced in the 2021-2022 season. Not a lot of competitions gave these bids out, and if they did, it was normally one or two.
The Partial Paid will work the same as an At-Large; You will forego prelims (Wild Card) and compete in semi-finals. That's really it. There's nothing fancy to it.
But for parents, your checkbooks will breathe a little sigh of relief. Partial Paid does cover a portion of your balance for your athlete to compete. How much? I'm not sure, the number changes usually depending on the size of your team.
With a travel package (Can be discussed in another blog post), the partial paid will cover up to 50% of the package price you decide to choose.
Paid Bid
Image Source: Varsity TV 2021-2022 Summit Bid Reveal
If you receive a paid bid, you were one of the highest scoring teams across the entire competition weekend. These bids are given out at national, grand national, and super national events. The higher in tier (grand, super) you attend, the more paid bids that are up for grabs.
Teams still have to compete in semi-finals to advance to finals with this bid. With a paid bid however, this does give your team priority when it comes to scheduling the semi-finals performance order.
Parents, don't you worry about paying for your athlete's registration! This paid bid has that taken care of! Per athlete with a Paid bid, you receive a near $700 credit for your travel expenses. That credit will definitely come in handy if you plan on staying on WDW property! You still have to pay for flights, and your admission into the WWOS Complex, but you're saving yourself a good chunk of money from your athlete(s)!
Overall..
If you have the chance to attend The Summit or D2 Summit as a spectator, athlete, coach, personnel, I highly recommend it. As someone who's been both a spectator and a coach, it truly is one of the most exciting, yet stressful times of your life. Your teams have worked so hard to get to this point and they want to show the judges how hard they've been working and that they deserve a spot in the Finals.
We're just getting started with bid distribution, so let the fun begin and may the odds be ever in your favor that you get paid this season!
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