FlamingMarshmallows

Hot takes, wild guesses, no shame 1) Bloo 2) BD 3) Crown 4) Vanguard 5) BK 6) Cavies 7) Stars 8 ) Boston 9) Crossmen 10) Cadets 11) Splanta 12) Mandies

I disagree, a lot actually. I think people are tired of huge props, both audience and judges. But maybe more important of a factor than size, I think, is color (how flashy they are) and staging. Coats, Devils, and Spirit, to me had the most annoying and distracting props. Too much, too colorful. Their presence takes the visual focus away from the corps itself. SCV's on the other hand, were just as big (less of them though), but they served just as stages for the performers and didn't distract from what they were doing. Because they were black/dark grey. And Crown and BAC both had "props" that weren't really props, but served to set more of a landscape. (Crown's bone jungle, and BAC's "tree" jungle). I think those were both nice touches. They were off to the side and not distracting. They interacted with them a bit, so they weren't just sitting there doing nothing. I also think awareness on full brassline amplification is on the rise, and I wouldn't be surprised if some regulations make it through this year. (Looser than last year's proposal) I'm not saying DCI will be going back to a more traditional style, but I do think there's more and more discontent with just a few aspects of this new era, and that some things are going to be scaled back.

1. Bloo 2. SCV 3. BAC 4. BD 5. Crown 6. Cadets 7. Cavies 8. BK 9. Mandarins 10. Phantom 11. Stars 12. Spirit GE: Bloo Brass: SCV Visual: BAC Guard: Bloo Percussion: SCV Predictions based of course on nothing more than general trends and a LOT of speculation... ;)

Wow, ok. First of all, what gives you the right to criticize the judges, or determine 'good judging' from 'bad judging'? Judging is not a simple process, because much of the drum corps activity is subjective. Sure, there's some things you can measure objectively, like cleanliness and execution. But GE? Analysis of the book? There's a lot of grey area. Even seemingly objective subcaptions are often influenced by subjective opinions about what surrounds it, and how it fits into context. That's avoided as much as possible, but it can never be eliminated. I don't mean to start some full-blown argument here. Really. Looks like we're both pretty new in terms of posting. But, I can't tolerate such harsh disrespect of the people who do so much for our activity. Of course there's some bias involved, and judges have to work really hard to ignore it. But guess what? You're not a judge. You're a Cavies fan. I'm not a judge either, and I'm going to step back and let them do their job. As I understand, you absolutely cannot confidently come to any conclusions by comparing scores from one competition to another. It's far more accurate to look at the point margins between two corps. So, for example, Phantom was also at both Rockford and Minneapolis. You'll see that their percussion score went down more than a point too. Fair's fair. Nobody's being targeted, this comp's percussion was just scored lower overall. Please, in the future, think about what the judges do for the activity before you make wild, harsh accusations.

Sooo yea just gonna ignore Blue Stars? Ok. Ignoring that, I'm saying Cadets for worst and Vanguard for best.

Gotta save Lieutenant Dan.

Right? Historically, it's like combining Crown visual design and drill with Cadets percussion with '90s Blue Devils brass. I looked into it once I realized I haven't liked Crown's shows the last 2 years but I've really liked Boston's. Now I know why - visual team moved.