Yeah, I was in the transition era too. I'm just saying . . .one year at one of the major regionals one of the corps had a contra take a tumble at the end of the show, which also took out at least 10 to 12 other members (they were all going backwards). They scored a perfect score in GE Visual that night. Needless to say our staff went bonkers during the critique.
All's I know is if they were still on the tick system, the scores would still be in the low 90's just like they were back in 1980.
By the way, when I read your second paragraph, meditation music and wind chimes started playing.