The first CUPSI tournament was organized in 2001 by Robb Thibault. It was held at
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Seven teams competed in the first tournament. The number of teams participating in CUPSI has grown since then with 53 teams competing in 2014. The 2016 competition will take place at the University of Texas at Austin on April 6–9. The increase in attendance coincides with the growth of slam poetry itself. Poets such as
Individual World Poetry Slam champion Rudy Francisco have noted a general trend in the prevalence of poetry slam in everyday life. Several videos of poems performed at CUPSI having gone viral on the internet, including Lily Myers's poem "Shrinking Women", which was viewed by over three million people within a year of its posting, and Patrick Roche's "21," which gained over three million views in its first two weeks after publishing. Poems from CUPSI have been featured on several popular political blogs and news sites, including
The Huffington Post,
Upworthy, and
Jezebel. Many of these videos were filmed and published by
Button Poetry. == Format ==