What’s This All About?
If you’ve ever competed in West Coast Swing (WCS), you know one thing: getting to the final round is tough. And if you’re just starting out or haven’t competed much yet, you might want to check out the Newcomer’s Corner first — it gives a quick intro to how these competitions work.
Competitions come in all shapes and sizes. You can dance in different divisions, with partners of different skills. So here’s the question this article is here to answer:
See, competing isn’t the same as social dancing. It’s a skill on its own — more structured, more intense, and a bit nerve-wracking. And since WSDC points (those precious things that determine your division progression) are pretty hard to earn, wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to make sense of all your results, not just how you did in the final?
Well… now there is.
🎉 Introducing the Omega Score 🎉
It’s a new way to measure your competition performance — not just from the final, but from all rounds. It gives you a fuller picture of how you did, whether you made the final or not. Keep reading to find out how it works, why it matters, and how to use it to track your progress over time.
Introduction
Let’s be real — most of us brave souls who step onto the West Coast Swing competition floor won’t make it to the finals every time, let alone snag those coveted WSDC points. And even if we do, it might not happen often enough to really track our progress in a meaningful way.
Enter John (I made him up, in case you wonder) — our heroic Novice leader. In 2024, he danced his heart out at three events: Detonation, Bristol Swing Fiesta (BSF), and Midland Swing Open (MSO). Let’s take a look at how he did:
Detonation
Prelim: Yes, Yes, No (20 points)
Semi: No, Yes, No (10 points).
BSF
Prelim: Yes, Yes, Alt2 (24.3 points)
Semi: Alt1, Yes, Alt1 (19 points)
Final: 7th place 🎉 (1 WSDC point).
MSO
Prelim: Alt2, No, Yes, Yes, Alt1 (28.8 points)
Each judge’s mark is converted into points. Whether you advance to the next round depends on your total points and how your score compares to those of other competitors. The table below shows how marks are converted into points. If you visit scoring.dance, the \(\Sigma\) column is the total number of points translated from the judges’ marks.
If we only tracked final placements, poor John might as well have skipped Detonation and MSO entirely. And get this: he scored 24.3 points and made it to the semi at BSF, but nearly 30 points still wasn’t enough at MSO?! Rude…
Clearly, just tracking WSDC points isn’t cutting it. We can do better!
Finding Order in Chaos
Before we dive into anything, here’s a quick reality check: there are so many things you can’t control when you compete. Maybe the music was a dud. Maybe you and your partner didn’t click. Maybe you were hungry, had a headache, or your old knee injury decided it was time for a comeback tour. Or maybe you danced like a legend… right when the judge was tying their shoe, only to look up just in time to catch your worst pattern exit of the night. (Okay, some of these things you actually can control…)
The point is — competition results can be influenced by all kinds of random, subjective stuff. And judges’ marks? Also subjective.
But — and this is important — I believe that even in all that chaos, we can pull out something meaningful. Something that gives you real feedback, even when you don’t make the final. That’s the core idea behind everything in this article:
It’s not the same as social dancing. You can be an incredible dancer on the social floor and still find competitions tough. Or you might be laser-focused on competing and accidentally suck the joy out of social dancing.
But if you do choose to compete, there’s one thing we can probably agree on:
It’s difficult to improve what you don’t measure.
Now, we’re not pretending we can control for and measure every single factor (because… we can’t). But with enough data over time, patterns start to emerge — and that’s where the real insights live. So, let’s talk about how we might actually measure our competition performance, in a way that’s fair, flexible, and actually useful.
Defining Objectives
Here are the key things we’d love to account for when measuring competition results more fairly:
| Competition size | WSDC uses Tiers for a reason! A big comp is a different beast than a small one. |
| Round size | Going from a crowd-packed prelim to semis is a huge deal. That deserves recognition. |
| Role | If there are twice as many followers as leaders, it’s not exactly fair to lump them all together. |
| Which rounds actually happened | Not every comp has a full set of prelims, semis, and finals. Sometimes it’s just one or two! |
| Your relative performance in each non-final round | Because that’s really what we’re trying to measure here - that’s the whole point! |
| WSDC points earned | A handy shortcut for gauging your final-round success. |
As for things like division (Novice, Intermediate, etc.) or comp type (Jack & Jill vs. Strictly) — we’re already covered there, since those are separate competitions anyway. If divisions are combined (like a Novice/Intermediate Strictly), we assume the higher division applies — because lower-level dancers are going up against more experienced ones.
Our goal with this final metric — let’s call it \(\Omega\) (omega = final) — is to keep it as simple as possible, while still handling all the edge cases that come with real-life comps. Let’s say that
- You’ll score a 0 if all the judges gave you a “No” in the prelim round. Tough crowd.
- You’ll get a 100 if every judge gave you a “Yes” in every round and you crushed it by winning 1st place in the final. 🎉
Here’s a fun little quirk: even if you take 1st place, you still won’t get the full 100 Omega points if just one judge gave you a “No” in an earlier round. And that’s totally on purpose! We want Omega to reflect how you did throughout the whole comp — not just how you finished. Non-final rounds matter too.
Also, whether you place 6th or 10th in the final doesn’t really change much if you’re walking away with the same 1 WSDC point. Sure, we could factor in your exact placement… but in reality, unless it earns you more points, it doesn’t make a meaningful difference. That’s why Omega sticks to the WSDC point system — simple, consistent, and already widely used.
What Now?
- Ready to crunch some numbers? Head over to Practice page to learn how to calculate Omega for your competition!
- Feeling a bit overwhelmed? Don’t worry — the Examples page page is packed with case studies to help you get the hang of it.
- And if you’re feeling especially brave, check out the Theory page page for all the juicy methodology details. 🧠
Have fun, and may your scores always be higher than your anxiety levels! 😄