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I don't think you are being fair here and being a bit disengenous towards BD. They write designs that are meant to win. PERIOD. As far as meant to please crowds, I personally have many times(not always) been VERY pleased with their show. I would easily put say 2017 in my top 6 of all-time performances from any corps.

That's exactly how I look at it. At Stanford in 2018, it was really exciting - not only because Vanguard beat Blue Devils for the first time since 2007, but because Vanguard had THE show that could beat Blue Devils all season long, and they only lost to them twice (at the 1st and 3rd shows of the season). That was a remarkable feat, and really the most successful anyone has been against Blue Devils perhaps since 2011 Cadets. We also have to look at our biases. I have a huge pro-Vanguard bias and thus a huge anti-Blue Devils bias. I want Vanguard to beat them every year. For years, I discounted BD's success as just them winning the political game rather than what they were doing on the field. When I finally realized that was totally bias driven it has changed everything for me re: BD. I still want Vanguard to always beat them, but now I can enjoy BD's shows and marvel at what they do and their success. As I said above, finishing in the top 2 from 2007-today is so remarkable. It should be impossible, but they've done it. That has to be admired. Lastly, I wholeheartedly agree with your top 6 for 2022.

Interesting that you did not include the 2021 Boston Crusaders in your calculation, since that was their most talented drum corps in their history...in all three sections. In any event, 2022 is the fifth year of this design team and caption head group. That fact, along with the 120+ returning vets might well make the competitive landscape interesting this summer.

14 is the new 12!

That's pretty bad. I mean real bad.

I don't even know where to start with a reply. I remember back in 2019, you trashing the design team at Boston literally at the start of that season. That's fine if you want to continue to poo-poo on their design team and talent. I know the resolve of these folks and quite frankly it's comments like these that will make it so much sweeter when they do break in the not too distant future.

Hahaha! I love it and if The Cavaliers need a place to stay they can stay on my land. Plenty of space, camp out, and have some bbq.

Yes, he is with the Blue Devils. He also taught Star of Indiana in the early 90s, and I believe he may have won a title as a marching member of the Madison Scouts in 1975.

I can see it now. Drum Corps International proudly presents, Drums Along the Prison Yards.

Post like this is why you and others like Ms. Terri Schehr and Jeff Ream are among my favorite posters on DCP. I always enjoy reading your post and thoughts and i have learned so much about the activity from you guys.

You, the IT guy, are asking me, a dumb biologist, an IT question? 😎 IDK how to help. It works on my Apple notebook.

I think if people took a close look at the total Blue Devils organization they would develop a new appreciation for all they do. They are the largest drum corps organization in the U.S. and perhaps the world today. I cannot think of another organization that runs an A, B, and C drum corps, a concert band for youth in the area (Diabolo Wind Symphony), winter drums lines (including the RCC group), guard activities (including their amazing special needs guard), their Yamaha School of Music for local students and private lessons, and more. If you took out the A corps (155 marching members) I would venture to guess they deal with 400+ kids year around that are mostly from the NorCal region, and some from SoCal as in the case of the RCC members. They have a large organization and work with a LOT of kids from ages 11 or 12 all the way up to 21. The provide many many opportunities for youth just in their region of the Bay area. I think that is something we can all jump on and appreciate. Of course, their ability to recruit nationally and internationally for the A corps is one of the reasons they are always considered a top contender for DCI Gold. It is easy for fans of other corps to attack or be critical. When you win a lot there will always be the attitude out there of "anyone but BD." We saw this with the Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers, the New York Yankees back in the day. Part of the fun in DCI is that the top contenders are all amazing, but if they can topple the Blue Devils, well that says a lot. It's not easy to beat the Blue Devils but if you do then your corps must have really been good, and that's how I think fans should look at it. Sadly some resort to insults and try to point out any flaw they can when their corps loses to Blue Devils. Obviously personal preference will always be a factor in who you like and who you want to win. That is natural. But at some point you have to be objective enough to evaluate quality in marching, playing, drumming, guard, visual analysis, and overall GE to fully understand scoring vs your personal preference. For me, it's tough this year to do a real prediction for Finals because of what happened the last few years of the pandemic. But in general I would say the top 6 will be BD, Bloo, Crown, SCV, Boston, and Cavaliers in some order. I think all the rest will be equally exciting and look forward to an amazing summer with lots of great shows. Maybe we get a 1988-like year and the Madison Scouts win!!!! 🙂

No. I should have said 2020-2022. My fault.

Having difficulties filling spots is not that surprising. 165 members is one challenge but I’m wondering if recruitment issues may be pandemic related, at least indirectly. Right now thirty five corps are listed for prelims in August. Of the thirty five, fourteen were inactive on 2021. There are more places to march this year. Many if not all band circuits were inactive in the fall of 2020, and many schools had a hiatus on music performance programs until this past fall. A great deal of recruitment is through bands. A lost year has to hurt. These factors did not magically disappear when the 2021 school year began.

Link to this spreadsheet is from the Reddit discussion. Has openings broken down by Corps. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19vPuwuvdsZbZKURtC44aP5b6cXg0MapKNI4PcuGEd5o/edit#gid=0

As a BD Honk, 2009-2013..........i consider those the golden years of DCI lol. The hate that was spewed towards BD in those years was highly entertaining. The contradictions and double standards towards BD...................accusations of paying off judges from posters who claimed to be tapped into the highest levels of DCI, yet somehow in this era of camera phones, video/audio, no one could produce a single shred of evidence this was happening. Gee i wonder why lol. Yea DCP was in rare form those years. Watching grown adults get so upset over a 11-12min show performed by a bunch of 18-21 year olds lol. But it did get better starting in 2014. DCP was showing BD lots of love these past several years. Still my favorite DCP highlight was in 2015 when BD added the young lady Clara to the "INK" show. The BD haters were out in full force counting members hoping and praying Clara would put them over the maximum number, so they could complain and get BD disqualified or something lol. It was just hilarious to see. The other highlight same year, were the haters shortly after finals that claimed BD added Clara to the show at the last minute, because they were terrified of Crown, so BD needed a 10 year old to win. Except for the fact that in the BD360 series that year, there is a vid from the Family Day in mid-June where BD talks about discovering Clara. She was in the plans from day one lol. Over the years i have learned to appreciate the BD haters. I realized the haters are extremely important to the Blue Devils Brand, because in order for them to hate and cause discontent, they have to mention BD. And as long as they are talking about BD positive or negative, it keeps them relevant. Any publicity is good publicity.

Public service announcement: if you ever get the chance to see Sousas life movie “Stars and Stripes Forever” with Clifton Webb… don’t. Bad history in spots and Robert Wagner can’t fake playing a sousaphone for …… And they never mention Sousa being with Boys of 76 drum corps…. 🤬 Have it in my collection 🙄

Thrower is Canadian. He should be honoring his homeland with a Rush show

If that’s true, they do love the British rock of the 60’s.