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Blue Devils 2018


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On 9/30/2017 at 12:20 AM, 84BDsop said:

That's ok....I'll do it for you...'cause I don't particularly care if people get ticked off (you can always do the same for YOUR fave corps, y'know).page

 

From a post on my Facebook page (written for those who aren't corps people)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those who know me and who are NOT drum corps people...let me give you a not-so-brief list of stats of the group I am an alum of...the Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps (who won their 18th world championship yesterday).

After reading this, you might start understanding why I have drum corps running on my laptop in my office so often.

Buckle up...this is long, and for good reason.

----------------------------

BD competitive stats (updated August 13, 2017)

Since 1973

Caption wins (captions basically being section awards for best general effect (how you "sell" your show), brass, drums, marching & maneuvering/visual, color guard):

GE: 16
Brass: 24
Drums: 13
M&M/Visual: 19
Guard: 18 Note that I could not FIND guard results on the recaps for 10 of the 45 years we've been going to finals. The first guard award I show is 1978. I found no record of guard awards for 73-77, 80-83, or 90. If anyone knows those, let me know and I'll update the spreadsheet.

Interesting to note that the guard did not have their own separate caption points until 2000. Prior to that they were lumped in with the vizh scores.

Ave placement per caption (all 45 years)
GE: 3
Brass: 3
Drums: 4
M&M/Visual: 3
Guard: 2

Ave placement per caption (Finals only)
GE: 2
Brass: 2
Drums: 3
M&M/Visual: 2
Guard: 2

The improvement in caption placement from 1973 to 1974 was amazing

GE: 22 to 7 (9 in finals)
Brass: 27 to 8 (12 in finals)
Drums: 16 to 9 (7 in finals)
M&M/Visual: 32 to 13 (11 in finals)
Guard not counted in that time frame.

Most caption wins in a row:

GE: 4 (07-10)
Brass: 4 (79-82)
Drums: 4 (83-86)
M&M/Visual: 6 (12-17)
Guard: 8 (08-15)
Additional stats:

The corps has only placed out of finals one time – the very first trip in 1973.

Has not placed lower than 5th since the 9th in 1974.

Last time they finished out of the medals was 2005.

They have failed to medal only 9 times since the first trip to DCI in 1973.

In 46 competitive seasons of Drum Corps International, BD has won 39% of them.

7 of those were undefeated...2 of THOSE back to back. The average performance season is between 25-30 shows...so those 2 back to back undefeated seasons were 51 wins in a row).

In the 42 seasons since (and including) winning their first title in 1976, BD has taken 2nd place 10 times...by a TOTAL point differential of 5 points.

The average margin of victory over BD in those 2nd place years is 0.5

The largest difference was 1.85 in 2002 -- the ONLY time the point differential was over a point....the lowest was 0.025 in 2008.

Of those 10, only 4 were over half a point.

Yet MORE proof that to beat BD you have to bring your "A game"...on steroids.

I can't imagine that any other corps in the DCI era can match this record. Un-effing-real!

Quite frankly, you’d be VERY hard-pressed to find a major pro sports team or other competitive org in a large activity with a record anywhere NEAR this.

Couple this with the fact that BD loses a fairly large percentage of their membership (about 35% on average) to ageout (meaning those members have reached the maximum participation age of 22) at the end of every season – 60 members aging out after 2017 ALONE (that’s 40% of the corps...no WAY a major sports team could recover from that between seasons) – yet they continually maintain the competitive quality year after year after year and it’s pretty #### clear that the Blue Devils are, across the board, quite possibly the most dominant competitive organization in any large-scale competitive environment....period.

(For my fencing friends...BD is probably more dominant in their field than the Italian fencing team is in theirs....and THAT says a lot.)

A large part of that is the very solid financial ground the org sits on. Another large factor is the consistent staff, especially at the top – no revolving door at BD (a lot of corps changed major staff positions on a frequent basis, looking for that magic formula...BD found it years ago and has not had a major staff change since the mid 90s). And, of course, there’s the fact that success breed success, with hundreds trying out each year for those coveted spots...BD can afford to select the best who come to audition.

that seems like a long thing to put on your facebook but what does it really mean for you? 

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On 09/30/2017 at 12:20 AM, 84BDsop said:

That's ok....I'll do it for you...'cause I don't particularly care if people get ticked off (you can always do the same for YOUR fave corps, y'know).page

 

From a post on my Facebook page (written for those who aren't corps people)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those who know me and who are NOT drum corps people...let me give you a not-so-brief list of stats of the group I am an alum of...the Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps (who won their 18th world championship yesterday).

After reading this, you might start understanding why I have drum corps running on my laptop in my office so often.

Buckle up...this is long, and for good reason.

----------------------------

BD competitive stats (updated August 13, 2017)

Since 1973

Caption wins (captions basically being section awards for best general effect (how you "sell" your show), brass, drums, marching & maneuvering/visual, color guard):

GE: 16
Brass: 24
Drums: 13
M&M/Visual: 19
Guard: 18 Note that I could not FIND guard results on the recaps for 10 of the 45 years we've been going to finals. The first guard award I show is 1978. I found no record of guard awards for 73-77, 80-83, or 90. If anyone knows those, let me know and I'll update the spreadsheet.

Interesting to note that the guard did not have their own separate caption points until 2000. Prior to that they were lumped in with the vizh scores.

Ave placement per caption (all 45 years)
GE: 3
Brass: 3
Drums: 4
M&M/Visual: 3
Guard: 2

Ave placement per caption (Finals only)
GE: 2
Brass: 2
Drums: 3
M&M/Visual: 2
Guard: 2

The improvement in caption placement from 1973 to 1974 was amazing

GE: 22 to 7 (9 in finals)
Brass: 27 to 8 (12 in finals)
Drums: 16 to 9 (7 in finals)
M&M/Visual: 32 to 13 (11 in finals)
Guard not counted in that time frame.

Most caption wins in a row:

GE: 4 (07-10)
Brass: 4 (79-82)
Drums: 4 (83-86)
M&M/Visual: 6 (12-17)
Guard: 8 (08-15)
Additional stats:

The corps has only placed out of finals one time – the very first trip in 1973.

Has not placed lower than 5th since the 9th in 1974.

Last time they finished out of the medals was 2005.

They have failed to medal only 9 times since the first trip to DCI in 1973.

In 46 competitive seasons of Drum Corps International, BD has won 39% of them.

7 of those were undefeated...2 of THOSE back to back. The average performance season is between 25-30 shows...so those 2 back to back undefeated seasons were 51 wins in a row).

In the 42 seasons since (and including) winning their first title in 1976, BD has taken 2nd place 10 times...by a TOTAL point differential of 5 points.

The average margin of victory over BD in those 2nd place years is 0.5

The largest difference was 1.85 in 2002 -- the ONLY time the point differential was over a point....the lowest was 0.025 in 2008.

Of those 10, only 4 were over half a point.

Yet MORE proof that to beat BD you have to bring your "A game"...on steroids.

I can't imagine that any other corps in the DCI era can match this record. Un-effing-real!

Quite frankly, you’d be VERY hard-pressed to find a major pro sports team or other competitive org in a large activity with a record anywhere NEAR this.

Couple this with the fact that BD loses a fairly large percentage of their membership (about 35% on average) to ageout (meaning those members have reached the maximum participation age of 22) at the end of every season – 60 members aging out after 2017 ALONE (that’s 40% of the corps...no WAY a major sports team could recover from that between seasons) – yet they continually maintain the competitive quality year after year after year and it’s pretty #### clear that the Blue Devils are, across the board, quite possibly the most dominant competitive organization in any large-scale competitive environment....period.

(For my fencing friends...BD is probably more dominant in their field than the Italian fencing team is in theirs....and THAT says a lot.)

A large part of that is the very solid financial ground the org sits on. Another large factor is the consistent staff, especially at the top – no revolving door at BD (a lot of corps changed major staff positions on a frequent basis, looking for that magic formula...BD found it years ago and has not had a major staff change since the mid 90s). And, of course, there’s the fact that success breed success, with hundreds trying out each year for those coveted spots...BD can afford to select the best who come to audition.

A fine example of Facebook mainly being for the narcissistic minded. :bluedevil:

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32 minutes ago, 84BDsop said:

A new stat I have added to the list...

 

Of the ten highest scoring championship programs....BD owns 6 of them.

 Whew, for awhile there, I thought you might have missed another BD milestone listing of BD's complete and utter domination of a competitive activity like no other in the entire world.

 Incidentally, 84BD sop... did you march any other DCI Corps before you secured a spot in BD, and if so, who might that have been ? I consider the Blue Devils as Drum Corps International 's featured annual All Star Drum Corps. Maybe I shouldn't. But I  can't help it. Its my observation assessment..  Sort of like Major League Baseball's selected All Star team playing the other 27 baseball teams during the season... or the NCAA's All Star Basketball team playing in the NCAA Tournament vs. the other teams. My guess, such All Star teams would similarly dominate that sport most seasons too... but of course, none of these sports have open All Star selections like this that play the others in the league either after the All Star selections are made by that All Star team either.. So I guess we'll never know if any other team could so dominate a competitive activity to the degree BD has with DCI.

Edited by BRASSO
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41 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 Whew, for awhile there, I thought you might have missed another BD milestone listing of BD's complete and utter domination of a competitive activity like no other in the entire world.

 Incidentally, 84BD sop... did you march any other DCI Corps before you secured a spot in BD, and if so, who might that have been ? I consider the Blue Devils as Drum Corps International 's featured annual All Star Drum Corps. Maybe I shouldn't. But I  can't help it. Its my observation assessment..  Sort of like Major League Baseball's selected All Star team playing the other 27 baseball teams during the season... or the NCAA's All Star Basketball team playing in the NCAA Tournament vs. the other teams. My guess, such All Star teams would similarly dominate that sport most seasons too... but of course, none of these sports have open All Star selections like this that play the others in the league either after the All Star selections are made by that All Star team either.. So I guess we'll never know if any other team could so dominate a competitive activity to the degree BD has with DCI.

The snark aside....no.   I was a rook-out to BD AND the activity...my only Jr corps year.

 

I came from high school and college programs that were still largely marching squads of 4 and facing direction of march....those first couple of months in Concord were a STEEP learning  curve.

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33 minutes ago, 84BDsop said:

The snark aside....no.   I was a rook-out to BD AND the activity...my only Jr corps year.

 

 

 Good for you. Things have changed in DCI since you marched over 30 years ago too.  So my guess, the overwhelming vast majority of the 2017 Blue Devils performers were not brand new rookies this season to the activity. Of the 60 BD age outs this past season, my guess only a small number were " new to the activity " in 2017. But thats just my guess here too. I do not know this for certain however, thats true. I do know however.. for just one example... the Blue Devils marched  this summer with more than a handful of former marchers that previously marched another G7 Corps,  Phantom Regiment. I would imagine that BD had lots of marchers similar to this from other Corps too, and do so every year. This is why I refer to the Blue Devils as" Drum Corps International's featured DCI All Star Drum Corps". I don't state this to be " snarky " however... 'just as what I would consider to be an observation assessment, thats all.

Edited by BRASSO
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BD has always had a high percentage of people coming to it from other corps...sometimes from corps that had won the previous year (I marched with an 83 Cadet, and there was at least one 'Coat from '16 in the corps this year.)

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9 minutes ago, 84BDsop said:

BD has always had a high percentage of people coming to it from other corps...

 Yes,  no doubt.  Also, while there are unusual small numbers of exceptions, the overwhelming vast majority of marchers come from other DCI Corps that had not previously been in a Corps with a better than a 50-50 chance of marching a DCI Championship Corps. That lure, of course, is strong for many marchers who currently march in Corps that compete on the field with the Blue Devils.

 Same as it ever was. Some things, despite the changes we hear of all the time in the activity, never change at all. This is but one of them.

Edited by BRASSO
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