Did teams need a Full Paid bid to win The Cheerleading Worlds 2022, The Summit 2022, or The D2 Summit 2022? Full Paid bids are highly sought after – both for bragging rights and to help with astronomical competition registration fees.

Long story short, no, a team did not need a Full Paid bid to take home a championship title. And even though Full Paid bids are the least common bid type available, they were the most common bid for a champion team to have.

Let’s start with the basics. To attend Worlds or a Summit event every team needs a bid. There are a few different types of bids event producers award.

Types of Cheerleading Worlds bids:

  • Full Paid: Teams receive $650 per athlete and two coaches on a bid-winning team and are generally only available to teams in the United States.
  • Partial Paid: Teams must pay for a portion of their Worlds registration fees and are usually only available to non-USA teams.
  • At-Large: Teams must pay for their entire trip to Worlds and are available to teams in every country bids are awarded.

Types of Summit and D2 Summit Bids:

  • Wild Card Bids: Teams compete in Prelims and pay full price. Advancing teams skip Semi-Finals and go straight to Finals.
  • At-Large Bids: Teams compete in Semi-Finals and pay full price.
  • Partial-Paid Bid: Teams compete in Semi-Finals and pay a portion of their registration fees.
  • Paid Bids: Teams compete in Semi-Finals and do not pay their registration fees. They also receive priority in the performance order for Semi-Finals.

The Cheerleading Worlds 2022 Bid Breakdown

In the case of The Cheerleading Worlds 2022, there were more bids available than teams. For the past few seasons, if a team wanted to go to Worlds, there was a bid for them. While winning an at-large bid isn’t exactly hard, winning a Full Paid bid remains competitive. Only 22.69% of awarded bids for the 21-22 were Full Paid.

The Cheerleading Worlds 2022 bid distribution:

  • Full Paid: 135 / 22.69%
  • At Large: 430 / 72.27%
  • Partial Paid: 30 / 5.04%

We wanted to know how many World Champion teams had a Paid Bid to The Cheerleading Worlds 2022. There were 29 World Champions at The Cheerleading Worlds 2022. Of those, 20 teams had a Full Paid Bid, five teams had an At-Large bid, and four teams had a Partial Paid bid.

The Cheerleading Worlds 2022 Champions and the bids they won:

  • Full Paid: 20 / 68.97%
  • At Large: 4 / 13.79%
  • Partial Paid: 5 / 17.24%

We knew that all of the winning teams would not have a full-paid bid because they are largely unavailable to international teams. Only one team outside the United States had a Full Paid Bid (Cheer Sport Great White Sharks). But we’re not surprised to see that the majority of World Champion teams also had a Full Paid bid.

Of the teams with an at-large bid, only one was in a USASF senior-aged division (Famous Superstars Gold).  The three remaining World Champion teams who won with an at-large bid were International-division teams from the USA (GymTyme Gold, Stingray All Stars Cobalt, and CheerForce Nfinity).

All of the teams who won with a Partial Paid bid were from outside the United States (Partial Paid Bids are not available in the US).

The Summit and The D2 Summit Bid Breakdown

We see the same pattern with The Summit and The D2 Summit bids. Of course, both Summit events have an additional bid type, Wild Card bids, which present a unique opportunity for teams to skip the Semi-Finals round.

Summit and D2 Summit Paid Bids represent a far smaller percentage of total bids compared to Cheerleading Worlds Bids. Paid bids represented about 11% of all Summit bids and D2 Summit bids, as compared to the Cheerleading Worlds’ 22.69%. All of this to say, it was harder to win a Paid Bid for The Summit than Worlds.

The Summit 2022 bid distribution:

  • Paid: 142 / 11.34%
  • At Large: 664 / 53.04%
  • Partial Paid: 60 / 4.79%
  • Wild Card: 386 / 30.83%

*Does not include International Divisions because we couldn’t verify all bid types

The D2 Summit 2022 bid distribution:

  • Paid: 134 / 10.89%
  • At Large: 495 / 40.21%
  • Partial Paid: 64 / 5.20%
  • Wild Card: 538 / 43.70%

Teams with paid bids also didn’t win as often at The Summit/D2 Summit as they did at The Cheerleading Worlds. 57.14% of Summit teams and 66.67% of D2 Summit teams won with paid bids, compared to 68.97% of Cheerleading Worlds teams.

The Summit 2022 Champions and the bids they won:

  • Full Paid: 24 / 57.14%
  • At Large: 13 / 30.95%
  • Partial Paid: 1 / 2.38%
  • Wild Card: 4 / 9.52%

*Does not include International Divisions because we couldn’t verify all bid types

The D2 Summit 2022 Champions and the bids they won:

  • Full Paid: 25 / 66.67%
  • At Large: 9 / 19.05%
  • Partial Paid: 1 / 2.38%
  • Wild Card: 4 / 11.9%

Final Thoughts

Many factors influence who wins major end-of-season events. Location, division, and team size also impact the opportunity to win paid bids. Several teams do not have bid events in their home state and have fewer opportunities to win bids. In the past, bid distributions favored senior-aged teams over international teams, and certain divisions receive priority over others.

You may not have needed a Paid Bid to win a championship, but it is more common than not and a decent predictor of who will lead the pack.

This is a pretty basic look at how bids and end-of-season wins are related, but hopefully interesting nonetheless!

Appendix:

The Cheerleading Worlds 2022 World Champions

ProgramTeamDivisionBid
CheerForce San DiegoNfinityInternational Open Small Coed 7At Large
Famous SuperstarsGOLDLimited Small Coed 6At Large
GymTyme All-StarsGoldInternational Open 7At Large
The Stingray All StarsCobaltInternational Global 6At Large
Cheer Sport Sharks - CambridgeStar Spotted SharksInternational Open Small Coed 5Partial Paid
Flyers All StarzNOTORIOUSInternational Open Large Coed 5Partial Paid
Flyers All StarzKARMAInternational Open Non-Tumbling 7Partial Paid
Rebels Cheerleading AthleticsSmokeInternational Open 5Partial Paid
Unity AllstarsBlackInternational Open Non-Tumbling Coed 7Partial Paid
Central Jersey All StarsTeam GunzExtra Small Coed 6Full Paid
Central Jersey All StarsBombshellsSenior Open 6Full Paid
Cheer Extreme - RaleighSMOEXSenior Open Small Coed 6Full Paid
Cheer Sport Sharks - CambridgeGreat White SharksInternational Open 6Full Paid
CheerVille Athletics HVAnarchyLimited Extra Small Coed 6Full Paid
GymTyme All-StarsChromeInternational Open Large Coed 7Full Paid
ICELady LightningSmall Senior 6Full Paid
Louisiana Cheer ForceGoldInternational Open Small Coed 6Full Paid
Macs Allstar CheerSenior StarzSmall Coed 6Full Paid
New Jersey Spirit ExplosionFAB5Limited Extra Small/Small 6Full Paid
SC CheerFearlessExtra Small Senior 6Full Paid
Spirit of TexasRoyaltyMedium Coed 6Full Paid
The California All Stars - CamarilloSMOEDInternational Global Coed 6Full Paid
The California All Stars- San MarcosSparkleInternational Open Non-Tumbling 6Full Paid
The Stingray All StarsOrangeLarge Senior 6Full Paid
Top Gun All StarsDouble OInternational Open Large Coed 6Full Paid
Top Gun All StarsTGLCLarge Coed 6Full Paid
Top Gun All StarsLady JagsMedium Senior 6Full Paid
Top Gun All StarsRevelationSenior Open Large Coed 6Full Paid
Twist & Shout TulsaAdam & EveInternational Open Non-Tumbling Coed 6Full Paid

The Summit 2022 Champions

ProgramTeamDivisionBid
ATAOxygenL4.2 Medium Senior CoedAt Large
California PrideHailL2 Medium JuniorAt Large
Champion CheerSol6L6 Small JuniorAt Large
Champion CheerLightningL4.2 Small Senior CoedAt Large
Cheer Athletics - PlanoFurycatsL5 Large JuniorAt Large
Cheer Athletics - PlanoJagsL6 Large JuniorAt Large
CheerVille Athletics MJPhantomL5 Small Senior CoedAt Large
Dakota SpiritApolloL5 Small SeniorAt Large
Express CheerExceptionalL4.2 Small SeniorAt Large
Python All StarsMojave PythonsL4 Senior OpenAt Large
Rockstar Cheer CharlestonOutKastL1 Small JuniorAt Large
Rockstar Cheer Rhode IslandKid RockL2 Small Junior - AAt Large
WolfpackSenior SpiceL5 Large SeniorAt Large
CheerForce San DiegoChaosL5 Small Junior CoedWild Card
Rival AthleticsRevengeL4 Small JuniorWild Card
Star Athletics ATLBoomL5 Large Senior CoedWild Card
Tribe CheerSmokeL5 Small JuniorWild Card
SCV All StarsJunior BlackL3 Small Junior - APartial Paid
American CheerSR BLACKL3 Medium Senior CoedFull Paid
Cheer Express AllstarsLady CamoL4 Small SeniorFull Paid
Cheer Express AllstarsBomb SquadL3 Small Senior CoedFull Paid
Cheer Express AllstarsSenior HeatL2 Small SeniorFull Paid
Cheer ExtremeC4 BombSquadL4 Medium Senior CoedFull Paid
CheerForce San DiegoFrenzyL3 Small SeniorFull Paid
Express CheerExtremeL2 Small Junior - BFull Paid
ICEHaloL4 Senior Open CoedFull Paid
Louisiana Cheer ForceScarletL2 Medium SeniorFull Paid
Power House All StarsGodspeedL1 Medium JuniorFull Paid
Prodigy All StarsMoonlightL6 Small Junior CoedFull Paid
SC CheerScarletL3 Medium SeniorFull Paid
Stars Vipers San AntonioCOBRASL5 Senior Open CoedFull Paid
The California All Stars - Las VegasBlackJacksL4 Small Senior CoedFull Paid
The California All Stars - Las VegasJ-SpadesL5 Large Junior CoedFull Paid
The California All Stars - LivermoreJ FabL3 Medium JuniorFull Paid
The California All Stars - LivermoreSwaggL4 Medium SeniorFull Paid
The California All Stars - MesaVogueL1 Small SeniorFull Paid
The California All Stars- San MarcosWhite GoldL1 Medium SeniorFull Paid
The Stingray All StarsGreenL6 Large Junior CoedFull Paid
The Stingray All StarsPlatinumL4 Medium JuniorFull Paid
The Stingray All StarsUVL4.2 Medium SeniorFull Paid
Tribe CheerChiefsL5 Senior OpenFull Paid
World EliteLegacyL3 Small Junior - BFull Paid

The D2 Summit 2022 Champions

ProgramTeamDivisionBid
Cheer Nation AthleticsMiss Twi5tL5 Large SeniorAt Large
Koach All StarsMidnightL5 Large Senior CoedAt Large
Maine Stars4.2 LegendsL4.2 Medium Senior CoedAt Large
Pro ScoutsMoonlitesL2 Medium SeniorAt Large
Reign Elite CheerReign Elite MajestyL1 Small Junior - AAt Large
Royal AthleticsRoyal JewelsL4 Senior OpenAt Large
South Georgia AthleticsWeather GirlsL6 JuniorAt Large
West Coast Fame Allstars CheerOBSESSIONL1 Small Junior - BAt Large
Athletic Cheer ForceAir Force OneL4 Senior Open CoedWild Card
Cheer Strike AllstarsMedusaL5 Senior OpenWild Card
Cheer XcelDynastyL1 Small Junior - AWild Card
Shine AthleticsLady SpiceL1 Small SeniorWild Card
York Elite All StarsLady OnyxL1 Medium SeniorWild Card
Cheer Craze All StarsNinjasL5 JuniorPartial Paid
Apex CheerChromeL1 Small Junior - BFull Paid
Aspire Cheer AcademyForceL5 Senior Open CoedFull Paid
Cheer TymeHeart StoppersL3 Small Junior - AFull Paid
Dream AthleticsBlackoutL4.2 Small Senior CoedFull Paid
East Jersey EliteLady BlackL4.2 Medium SeniorFull Paid
Extreme All StarsJUNIOR 3LITEL3 Medium JuniorFull Paid
Extreme All StarsX5L5 Small Senior CoedFull Paid
Fusion AthleticsRecklessL2 Small SeniorFull Paid
Icon AthleticsRevengeL3 Medium Senior CoedFull Paid
Intensity AthleticsSupernovaL4 Senior Open CoedFull Paid
NFINITE All StarsCODE BLACKL3 Small SeniorFull Paid
NFINITE All StarsREVIVALL2 Junior Small - AFull Paid
Port City AthleticsCairo CrewL3 Small Senior CoedFull Paid
Quest AthleticsBomb SquadL4 Medium Senior CoedFull Paid
Southern Elite AllstarsShock WaveL4.2 Small SeniorFull Paid
Spirit AthleticsCrushL5 Junior CoedFull Paid
TAIScorchL2 Junior Small - BFull Paid
TAIEruptionL4 Small JuniorFull Paid
TAIIce QueensL4 Small SeniorFull Paid
The Champions All StarsFuelL4 Medium SeniorFull Paid
United Rock Nation All StarsKNOCKOUTSL4 Medium JuniorFull Paid
Virginia Royalty AthleticsDynastyL6 Junior CoedFull Paid
WIDCHAILSTORML2 Medium JuniorFull Paid
WIDCBlack IceL3 Small Junior - BFull Paid
WIDCWHITE OUTL4 Small Senior CoedFull Paid
WIDCWEATHER GIRLSL5 Small SeniorFull Paid
XCABombsquadL1 Medium JuniorFull Paid
XCALady BulletsL3 Medium SeniorFull Paid