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Wait, how would one demonstrate this?

To be fair, the first time I ever saw a senior corps was the Renegades, who did immediately hop onto their bus post show and start drinking.

That's chicken and egg. Do both, you'll succeed at both; ignore one, both fail. But yes, I do consider every season (not just the show, the entire experience) to be a recruiting video for next year's corps. That's the whole reason that experience is now blasted all over social media with every corps, to start to sell that behind the scenes part of the experience.

Just wanted to chime in that I fully agree on that Cadets 07 notion. Literally remove all the voices so the brass just plays loud following a 4 or 8 count rest, that show would have been dripping with GE! Add in that and move Finals out of California that year, and Cadets probably would have taken gold!

I fully agree with this.

Well that definitely wasn't my intention. I didn't mean to be condescending, consider anyone irrelevant (though I think purist is a correct term in this context), and I do consider myself knowledgeable of what is on the field today and long ago. But I'm sorry you were offended. ::hugs::

Last time I went to Indy, I had just graduated college and couldn't afford a plane ticket so me and a buddy drove 27 hours straight to get to Finals. So with that in mind, I can pretty much vouch for the White Castle and the Steak n Shake and that's about it. Also a Taco Bell in Illinois, but I don't recommend that one. Also try not to be sober for the White Castle, it'll help a lot.

I see a lot of people talk about "the old days" and "before we had electronics" and "g bugles" and "why are they dancing?" and "where's the drill" and "why is there a stage?" and so on. I'm personally a fan of the new stuff, but this isn't about me defending it. I want to ask the purists on here, was there more that could have been done with the old style(s)? Go back to 1999, or 1989, or any year that you consider to be "the last year of real drum corps", and take that into the present and beyond. Was there more that could have been done within that box of rules? Ideas that weren't explored, music that got lost, drill that never saw the light of day, etc? Or would we have seen the same ideas perpetuated over and over forever? If the latter, is that the goal? Just something that's been on my mind. I'm curious to hear the thoughts.

Preface: In marketing, we define success as the pass/fail of a measurable goal (note that word measurable). And goals aren't meant to be made on the fly; they're individual checkpoints along a predetermined long-term strategic path. Looking at the above, short answer would be "did we achieve our goal?" Yes = successful, no = something less than that (90% isn't 100%, but it's still an A; 70% isn't 100%, but it's still passing). But it's important to remember that long term strategy component of the goal. Every answer above has merit, be it high scores, high placements, member experience or fan appreciation. And each of those things plays a super important role in corps longevity, which I think is the ultimate goal of every corps. Above all, I think that member retention and the amount of new members auditioning is the ultimate indicator of a corps' long term success year to year, all of which is impacted by scores/placements/experience/fans. So honestly, my answer to define success is 1) whether or not more members return for auditions in November/December, and 2) did the number of new people auditioning increase. So by my definition, we'll know the success of the 2017 corps sometime in January of 2018.

I have a lot of incredible memories from Finals week in 08, but one of the ones that stands out is the first time I saw Crown, at Quarters. I had heard all season how ridiculously loud that hornline was. My buddy and I are stoked to see them, the show kicks off, and I distinctly remember he and I looking at each other and saying "ya, this was overblown, they're not that loud." And then they play that first big hit, you know the one I'm referring to, and I actually felt the sound hit my face. It was awesome!

I'd love to see BK top Cadets, but I don't think it'll happen. The gap's too big. I'm going to go with 1 and 5. Also don't forget about 9. Cavies top Bloo.

Underrated show! One of my favorites!

This was surprisingly easy for me. Crown 08 was on a different level. But if you're asking me to pick a 2nd-place 4th-place show, ya, that gets super tricky.

Carolina Crown 2004.I can't believe it hasn't been mentioned yet. Honorable mention to Blue Knights 2015.

Probably can. Joking aside, this is a classy post. Glad to hear the event went well and the corps from across the country were well received.

A thread so nice you posted it thrice.

Adjusting house lighting is never going to happen, but I feel confident lighting effects are going to make a play in the next few years. We have enough stages already, all those stages need is a roof to make it happen. Big tents, or even a stage like we saw for the pit in Blast are all possible.

Instructions aren't clear. Is this supposed to be AP style or MLA? Single or double spaced? Is there a margin or font requirement? Also Cavaliers 2000. All these years later, Niagara Falls is still my favorite.

Unless gut feeling counts, I definitely fall into that 99% and I have no qualms about it. Frankly I just want to be entertained. Obviously some shows that I love from the 9th-place-and-lower crowd I wish I could see performed a bit cleaner, but once a show breaks about 88.0 in terms of score they all just fall into that gut feeling place for me.

Hard to tell though. The line at the SCV booth was a big circle, while Bluecoats line was much more jagged.

19 pages, I didn't read them all. Bluecoats have an excellent, truly entertaining show. And it's scoring well. Two weeks left and they're already mid-low 90s, it'll probably finish in the 95-96 range. Any show that finishes around a 95 is awesome and is receiving a truly outstanding score, something that 99% of drum corps shows will never achieve. It's important to remember that something can be great - nay, outstanding - in this activity, even if it doesn't win. Just because someone is better within our subjective game of inches doesn't detract from how outstanding a show and a corps truly is.

No need to apologize. When I see Cavaliers get four pointed by Blue Stars, when I see Cavaliers score drop almost 8 points, when I see Cavaliers tie with Mandarins, I laugh and assume it was an error that will be corrected shortly. DrumScorps is 1000x better than any method of finding scores from the past, and (almost) everyone on these boards appreciate what you're doing. Thank you, DrumScorps!

If I remember right, when Crossmen didn't make finals in 2005, Spirit put their drums in the shape of the Crossmen cross during Finals retreat. Couldn't find a picture to confirm that though.

They both conducted themselves very well.

Percussion judge judges percussion. Brass judge judges brass. Vocal judge judges vocals. Seems pretty simple. ....wait.