A lot of tamasha has been said surrounding Alamo City Bhangra. The Buckeye Mela directors came on the pod to address what actually happened and dispel some of the crazier things that were said.

00:00 Introduction

01:22 Explanation of the Events Leading to the Incident

03:02 The Incident and its Aftermath

06:21 Allegations of Threatening Behavior

08:28 Discussion on the Punishment

10:20 Communication with Judges and Point Deduction

12:47 Revealing the Point Deduction to the Judges

13:11 Turning off the Livestream

14:00 Discussion on Livestream Practices

15:42 Conclusion and Appreciation

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Speaker: 00:00:00

Well, sup y 'all.

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: 00:00:01

Welcome to another episode of the Bhangra

podcast.

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: 00:00:02

And today I have the two Buckeye Mela co

-directors here to talk to us about.

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: 00:00:09

what happened, and I'm just gonna give

them their space to allow them to address

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everything that they want to address.

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So why don't you introduce yourselves.

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Okay, hi everyone.

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: 00:00:19

I'm Saranya.

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I'm one of the co -directors for Buckeye

Mela this year.

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Hi, I'm Sheel.

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I'm one of the directors this year and was

also last year.

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Yeah.

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and yeah, and so essentially the point of

this episode is really, like not even a

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full episode, it's just kind of like a

mini just statement by you guys for more

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or less.

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Lots of folks had a lot of questions and

concerns about Alamo's, I don't wanna even

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say Alamo, but like the cap of Alamo's

behavior.

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And since there's a lot of misinformation

floating around, we just wanna give you

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the...

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space to address whatever you think

happened, at least from your point of

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view.

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So wherever you wanna start, whatever you

wanna say, feel free to go ahead.

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Sure.

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: 00:01:09

So the run of events was pretty much this

team was running late to their tech time

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and we were trying our best to stick to

schedule because we were running late.

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And as you know, 16 teams, it becomes kind

of hard to accommodate for teams that are

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running late.

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: 00:01:27

We informed the captain of that who was

not happy to hear that we were going to

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cut their tech time by like two, three

minutes.

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: 00:01:36

Because obviously they were running really

late and the response we were given was

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something along the lines of like we are

not starting or tell she'll not start

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until I'm ready Whatever they get on

stage.

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: 00:01:48

We say you're you're getting like 13 12

minutes rather than the 15 He yelled I

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don't know what he said she'll what did he

say?

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So yeah, so.

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specify who the he is for folks

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yeah.

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Yeah, it's Ricky, one of the captains of

Alamo.

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: 00:02:08

But yeah, we were just to give a little

more context into what Sonia was

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mentioning.

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We were on walkies with one of our board

members who was walking teams up from the

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dressing rooms to backstage and they

weren't ready.

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: 00:02:22

I think they were still stretching out or

something.

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: 00:02:24

We said, hey, we've given you extra time

at this point.

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: 00:02:27

We need you guys to get backstage.

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Otherwise, if you're not there in.

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However many minutes, I don't even

remember.

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We're going to start cutting time.

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We brought them backstage.

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And then we said, OK, hey, you're getting

13 minutes because we've already been

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delayed at least five or 10 minutes

because of you.

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And it's not like they weren't there.

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They'd been at the venue for enough time

to get ready.

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And then so the way they wanted their tech

time to run was they wanted so their

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entire set itself was 10 minutes.

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And they wanted to use the first.

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portion of the minutes for setup, to set

up the stage.

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And so I had spoken with the captain

beforehand.

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He said, okay, give us the first five

minutes to start like setting up and you

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can just play it as soon as it hits the 10

minutes.

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And so I talked to our production team and

they said, okay, we're just gonna play it

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at that 10 minute mark.

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So only three minutes.

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Three minutes passed, they didn't look

ready at all.

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So we said, okay, we're giving him one

more minute.

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We didn't even tell the captain that.

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I don't even think he knows yet.

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Mm -hmm.

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gave them another minute and then started

the whatever the mix.

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They weren't happy, but they continued

setting up.

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I don't think they'd said anything to us

at this point.

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This was during their technically the mela

part of their set.

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And then the music started.

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And then this is when I think Saranya to

correct me if I'm wrong.

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I don't even fully like it's kind of a

fever dream.

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I think they started dancing and then like

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as the captain danced over to our side of

the stage in formation, I think he was

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screaming at us and screaming at our

production team, not board like the actual

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venue production team.

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And then danced to the other side of the

stage and was screaming at another team

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and like a fusion team that was off stage.

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Yeah, am I missing anything?

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Saranya yeah.

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No, that's pretty much it.

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I don't really know if during the dancing

part anything was said.

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I only heard because I had a headset on to

listen to the music and stuff.

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I only heard what was said after that,

after their tech time technically ended.

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And just to bounce off of what she said,

we ended up giving them the full 15 just

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because it was just kind of I was just

adding on another minute at that point.

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So like, let's just give them the full 15.

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Sure.

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But then their tech time ended, which is

when shit happened.

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Yeah, so the music cuts.

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Ricky comes off stage and he's just like

yelling the N -word, calling Sheel the N

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-word, saying, are you happy?

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Are you happy?

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Like you ruined my tech time.

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All the lighting cues are messed up.

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Bombing the N -word while telling his team

to clean up and get off stage.

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That's pretty much it.

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And this was in front of our production

crew in terms of the venue, our

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videographer.

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our photographer and several people on

Legends board who are like representing

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Legends at our comp.

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But then he.

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I'm just going to, sorry, can I interject

here?

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: 00:05:45

You mentioned the lighting cues.

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I do want to add that every team was told

prior that we needed all of their lighting

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cues in their mix by Thursday because the

venue didn't have enough time to program

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the lighting cues in because they had

another show on Friday night and their

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team wouldn't have enough time.

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So if they didn't get it to us in time,

their cues weren't going to be done, which

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is what ended up happening because we got

their mix heading Friday afternoon.

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Saranya, yeah, continue.

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But that's the part I was there.

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I can speak on because I was there for.

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But yeah, then they ended up exiting stage

and then I'm not really sure what happened

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after that.

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so one of the questions and one of the

things that were floating around was that

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Captain of Alamo was threatening to hit

somebody with a kunda or like waving it

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around, brandishing it, I don't know,

whatever words you want to use.

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: 00:06:42

Can you confirm or deny that?

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Not gonna lie, when I heard that,

that's...

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Kind of the wildest thing I've heard in a

long.

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I mean, I'm gonna dispel this rumor.

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That's, at least from my knowledge, that's

fake.

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Yeah, no, that never happened.

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I didn't even, I don't even think that was

a threat that was given up.

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: 00:07:08

With what, yeah.

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Mm -hmm.

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the tech time or not the tech time the

video viewing room and then like wouldn't

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leave.

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And they asked for me.

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: 00:07:17

At this point, I'd stepped out to go call

the judges and tell them about what had

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happened.

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: 00:07:23

I didn't say like I told the judges

specifically that we did not mention the

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: 00:07:28

team to the judges.

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: 00:07:29

We said, Okay, what what should we do for

consequences?

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: 00:07:35

What did, oh yeah, okay, so we got them on

the phone and then we were like, okay,

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what do we do?

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This happened with a team.

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And then they were, a couple of them said,

I think one of them said DQ is a

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possibility, maybe two.

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And then a couple of them were generally

against the DQ because they'd seen this

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happen in the past.

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and they thought a DQ would be unfair to

the rest of the team.

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Okay.

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which is kind of along the lines of what

we went from.

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And then I think the consensus from the

judges was that, or across the board for

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judges was that they should, they wanted

to do a 10 point reduction.

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I think originally it was 10 points and

then they said, okay, let's, let's try a

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five point reduction.

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: 00:08:23

And then if there's, if they give you more

like shit up it to 10 or DQ them.

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: 00:08:30

And then we,

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Hitu, Saranya and I talked, or yeah, with

also our judging chair.

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And we decided that it wasn't fair to the

rest of their team to give them the full

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10 points because they traveled from

however far just for one person's mistake.

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So we stuck with the three.

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: 00:08:53

So then question then so why not five?

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Okay, so and like I'm I'm not trying to

like press y 'all or hear the moment first

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time like Just reference So generally even

like I think even specifically on this

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: 00:09:11

rubric It was mentioned that a pagh

falling off or Chunni falling off Which is

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: 00:09:16

not enough like Chunni's falling off like

it's almost guaranteed to happen at pretty

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: 00:09:20

much every

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: 00:09:21

Pagh falling off once every like five or

10 comps.

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: 00:09:25

But that's a minus five.

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: 00:09:27

What was the rationale for going down to

minus three?

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Again, it was, sorry, you got it, you got

it.

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: 00:09:34

Yeah.

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I think we were set on the minus five, but

then we spoke to the Alamo liaisons

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actually, and they were the ones that were

like, this team has been really nice and

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like, just because one guy messed up, like

don't make their punishment super harsh.

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And at that point, I think we kind of were

like, they were trying to plead to not

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penalty them at all.

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And we were like, no.

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So we just kind of rationed to bring it

down to three just because she, this

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person was very adamant on the fact that

like they were very nice throughout the

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weekend up until that point.

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And it was just mainly Ricky who behaved

that way.

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: 00:10:18

That was.

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to add that, sorry, that almost every team

member came up and apologized to us in

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between the whatever happened and when we

talked to the captains about their

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punishment.

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So, you mentioned that you did not tell

the judges what team it was, and you kind

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of kept it very vague.

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: 00:10:45

Did they ever, I guess, when did they find

out what exactly the point deduction was?

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: 00:10:54

Because it's from the conversation I had

with the judges a few days ago.

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It seems like they found out pretty much

like after the competition.

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: 00:11:01

Is that more or less like deliberate?

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: 00:11:06

Okay.

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: 00:11:07

think it was coded into the Excel sheet.

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: 00:11:10

They would have had to go through each

square and find the deduction in each

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: 00:11:15

team.

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: 00:11:16

But yeah, we had it done from the back

end.

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: 00:11:19

Okay, and another thing that some folks

were peeved with was turning off the

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livestream for their team.

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: 00:11:29

Was that something like what happened

there?

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: 00:11:32

Quite honestly, you gotta do it.

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: 00:11:35

didn't address that with any of the three

directors.

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: 00:11:38

He kind of just asked, I think, Sheel for

our videographer's phone number and just

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talked about it with him.

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The reasoning we were given for the live

stream being shut off for their

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performance was due to them not wanting to

publicize their performance because they

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wanted to perform at another comp and they

didn't want to like give away what they

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were doing.

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But in terms of the live stream, we

actually had no idea until they got on

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: 00:12:01

stage and

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people were texting us that like, Hey, why

is Alamo not being streamed?

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We had, we had no clue.

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Got it.

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: 00:12:07

Okay.

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Okay.

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: 00:12:14

Sure, all right.

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: 00:12:17

All right, that's really all the questions

I had.

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I mean, I really literally just wanted to

like give you the space to say your piece

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and dispel whatever the heck happened.

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: 00:12:26

Is there anything else you wanted to

address at all?

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I don't think so.

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: 00:12:30

I think we got the facts across.

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The rest would just be not useful.

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I mean, I've got words, but it's not going

to be useful for anyone to hear them.

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: 00:12:41

Sure, absolutely.

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: 00:12:43

Okay.

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: 00:12:44

All right, cool.

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: 00:12:45

Well, if that's everything, well, thank

you all for coming on.

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: 00:12:49

I appreciate it.

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: 00:12:50

I understand, like, you don't have to do

this.

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: 00:12:54

I mean, thank you for considering the

podcast as a platform to conduct this.

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: 00:13:00

I usually don't do gossip shit, but I felt

like this was a little bit different.

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So.

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: 00:13:08

One happy guys come on.

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: 00:13:10

Thank you again for coming on.

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: 00:13:11

And I mean, I hope more conversations like

this and like just bad behavior is called

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out like this.

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Cause I think ultimately I've seen teams.

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I don't even say teams because it was in

this case is one bad one, one bad egg, but

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there are plenty of teams and captains who

attempt to throw around their weight and

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bully committees.

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: 00:13:30

and.

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: 00:13:31

should be like not just be taken lightly

and kind of brush them under the rug This

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was.

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: 00:13:38

Bro, it's 2024, what the heck are you

saying the N slur for?

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: 00:13:41

Like it's crazy, that is genuinely crazy.

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: 00:13:45

And like everything, all the other

behavior that you've told me kind of

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behind the scenes, yeah, not okay

whatsoever.

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: 00:13:51

But yeah, I genuinely appreciate you guys

taking the time to talk to me and talk to

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the rest of the Bhangra Circuit about

everything that happened.

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But yeah, cool.

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Bye bye.

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: 00:14:03

Yeah dude.