In short: judges score on a 100-point system, the highest and lowest scores are dropped and the rest are TOTALED — not averaged. Time and rule penalties are applied PER JUDGE, before the drop. On a first-place tie the ICU adds the dropped marks back in; USASF does not break the tie at all.
Scoring a cheer competition with JudgeMate
Criteria-based scoring, configured by you
JudgeMate does not implement the ICU, USASF or IASF score sheets. It gives you a criteria-based model you configure yourself — including the two things that actually differ between the federations: how the panel is combined and what happens on a tie.
Sum or average, your choice
The ICU totals what is left after dropping the high and low; other codes average. Both are settings, not different products — and the sheet says which one is in force.
Deductions per judge, before the drop
Time and rule penalties applied to each judge's sheet, in the order the rules require. Applying them to the total instead gives a different answer.
Tie rules you pick
Not broken at all, dropped marks added back, or fewest deductions — with place numbering to match, including the 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd convention the USASF rulebook spells out.
A legality official who does not score
A separate role that reports violations rather than marking a sheet, because a legality call can disqualify rather than deduct.
Advancement with ties
Set how many teams move on; a tie on the cut line puts both through, which is what every rulebook that mentions it says.
Results kept private
Public visibility is a setting, not a default — because the ICU rulebook keeps scores for coaches and captains rather than the audience.
Protocols the same day
PDF results with a per-judge breakdown, ready for the coaches before they leave.
Formats and judging
What a team performs
Cheerleading routine
The full routine, scored on the panel's sheet. Timing starts with the first choreographed movement or the first note of music — whichever comes last — and ends the same way.
Game Day
Four segments in one performance: a band chant, a sideline chant of 30 seconds or less, a crowd leading cheer of a minute or less and a fight song of a minute or less. The segments are not timed individually, but the whole routine including transitions may not exceed three minutes.
The cheer portion
In the ICU sheet the cheer portion is worth 10 of the 100 points and is judged on the ability to lead the crowd — not on difficulty. It is the part of the sheet that most reliably separates cheerleading from a tumbling display.
Divisions
Youth, Junior and Senior brackets, split by all-girl and coed and by level — Median, Advanced, Elite. The 2026 World Championships ran 33 divisions.
How the score is built
The order of operations decides the number. A time penalty is one point for five to ten seconds over and three points for eleven seconds or more — per judge, not once. A rule violation costs five points per judge unless the rule names a lower figure. Applying those to the total instead of to each judge's sheet gives a different answer, because dropping the high and low changes which marks survive to be counted.
What is not shared is who sees it. Under ICU rules, scores and rankings go to coaches and captains at the conclusion of the competition — individual score sheets are for the exclusive use of each judge. Cheerleading is one of the few judged sports where the rulebook makes the results private rather than public.
Building skills — stunts and pyramids, judged by a panel judge who specialises in them
Tumbling skills — standing and running, with difficulty driven by how many athletes perform them
Overall routine — the performance as one piece
Deductions — a panel judge specialty in its own right
Legality — a separate official who does not score
Themis and CheerReplay pair 4K video with the deduction sheet. JudgeMate does not do this and does not claim to.
Three federations, three answers
Cheerleading is judged on a hundred-point sheet by a panel, and that is where the agreement ends. The ICU drops the highest and lowest mark and TOTALS the rest. USASF does not break ties for final placements — the standings show the tie. IASF does break them, but only for teams moving into finals, and the first step is fewest performance error deductions. Software that picks one of these and calls it 'cheer scoring' is wrong on two competitions out of three.
Where it is competed
Three world-level events, three rulebooks.
ICU World Cheerleading Championships
The championship of the International Cheer Union. The 2026 edition ran more than 5,000 athletes from 50 countries across 33 divisions.
The Cheerleading Worlds
Run by USASF and IASF for club all-star teams, on the USASF/IASF rulebook — the one that does not break ties for placements.
ICU International Cheerleading Cup
Run on the same sheets and by the same panel as the ICU World Championships, across Youth, Junior and Senior divisions.
What the rules govern
Most of the cheer rulebook is not about scoring at all.
The clock
Timing starts at the first choreographed movement or the first note, and ends at the last of the two. Teams take the floor within 20 seconds of being introduced and leave it immediately after the dismount.
Music
The coach or a team representative plays it — one named person at the music table, pressing play and stop.
Legality
Skill legality is a separate discipline with its own officials and its own appeal path. It is not a heavier deduction; it is a different question.
Where the sport is going
Comparative over rubric
The move to comparative sheets changes what a judge does: instead of placing a team inside a fixed range, they weigh it against the field. A tool built for rubrics does not become a tool for that by adding a column.
Video against the deduction
Synchronised video review is now standard at the top of the club circuit. It is the clearest example of a capability that a scoring product either has or does not — and pretending otherwise is quickly checked by anyone who has used it.
Europe below the world level
Most cheerleading competitions are national and regional, run by clubs and federations that adopt one of the three rulebooks. That is the layer where a general scoring tool is useful and where nobody is well served today.
How the rulebooks diverged
Judges by specialty
USASF does not appoint 'a judge'. A Cheer Panel Judge Official specialises in one of four things: Building Skills, Tumbling Skills, Overall Routine, or Deductions. Alongside them sits a Legality Official — and the federation says it plainly: legality officials are not scoring judges. A legality call can end a routine's day; a deduction only costs it points.
The tie question
Nothing separates the federations more clearly than what happens when two teams end level. USASF Senior divisions will not break ties for advancement or for placements, and the rulebook gives the example in full: 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd. IASF International Open divisions will not break ties for final placings either — but they will for teams moving into finals, in two steps: fewest total performance error deductions, then the higher combined stunt/pyramid and tumbling/jump score. The ICU adds the dropped high and low marks back into the total instead.
Towards comparative sheets
IASF is moving its qualifying events onto a comparative score sheet — one that credits a team for harder skills performed with better technique, rather than filling a fixed rubric. That is a different kind of judging from an absolute rubric, and it needs a different kind of tool.
Tools & Resources
Calculators, vocabulary, and platform research for competition organizers
Open the scoring calculator
Run the scoring formula across a full round. Verify results and model tie-break scenarios before you publish.
OpenBrowse the competition glossary
Every scoring, judging, and movement term used at competitions, defined in plain language.
OpenSurvey competition platforms
Multi-platform surveys: the free options and the full landscape of competition software.
OpenExplore every resource
Software comparisons, organizer playbooks, calculators, and the glossary — direct links.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- ICU International Cheerleading Cup — Event Rules & Regulations and Divisions 2026 — International Cheer Union
- The Cheerleading Worlds 2026 — Rules & Regulations — USASF / IASF
- USASF All Star Officials — role definitions — USASF
Run your next cheer competition without a spreadsheet
Set the panel, the deduction role and the tie rule once; the sheet and the protocol follow.
Built for club, school, national and regional cheer competitions.