My friend Jason from J.walking covers stuff like the recent Ms. Universe pageant with the same intensity that the boys from Patay ang Butiki cover college basketball. He attended Sunday’s cheerdance competition, rooting for the UP Pep Squad, and he gave perhaps the best, most sober analysis of the event on his blog:

UP's routine is a salute to the Iskolar ng Bayan, as UP students are called. There are details that only UP students would know about, and could've alienated the judges; i.e., the Bluebook, the ikot/toki jeepney, the song "Hari ng Sablay," and the cheer "Bayan, Bayan, Bayan Ko." A risky move yes, but one that endeared them all the more to UP folks, if ever that was still possible. So thank you, UP Pep Squad, for taking that risk.

The degree of difficulty in their stunts was so high, and coupled with the many UP icons peppering all over the place, they seemed to have lost focus and wasn't able to pack a lot of punch in a concise routine, which they did in their last two competition pieces. And as mentioned, there were the mistakes, although the TV camera didn't catch the others.

Meanwhile, FEU may have floundered during rehearsals but they perfected the routine competition time, hence they were clearly the champions.

They were inspired by the Sarimanok. (I, together with a lot of folks, have a lot of problem with this because FEU's official mascot is the tamaraw. But that shouldn't get in the way of the cheering stunts they executed perfectly).

Underdogs Ateneo swept the rug under UP's feet after presenting a flawless routine with a degree of difficulty (almost) akin to UP's 2007 championship piece. Grabe, literal na wala silang mali.

He also noted the background of the judges, and how it affected how the routines were scored:

I also noted that the judges, with the exception of Powerdance's Douglas Nierras, were all from nationally and internationally sanctioned cheerleading associations; they would look at the performances at a technical perspective. Hence, I had an inkling on how the rankings would look like.

He also posted video of Ateneo’s and UP’s performance, so go read his post now.