PhantomPhanatic

I thought the first minute of Cavaliers show was full of enough mistakes to have them 5-6th. The baritone solo fracked 3 times alone!!! They should not have been 3rd at all. That was pure favortism judging last night. I agree - Cadets gave the throw down performance of the night between them and BD - but Phantom, Cadets, and BD should have been within a point last night. Almost all of BD show is loud playing, and drum transitions. No lyricism at all. I think I counted ONE eighth note in the ballad - with most of it being quarter notes and half notes. Cadets actually have some great music - if only they'd lose the narration that disrupts it. Phantom percussion in 3rd was ridiculously wrong - but J. J. Pipitone was judging and I'd expect nothing less. He has dogged Phantom all year. Also, Dave Carbone was judging and we know he wanted to give it to BD. He had them .1 ahead of Phantom in the subcaption of musicality. Are you kidding me?!?!?! Tonight I have a feeling Jeff Prosperie is judging and it will come out the right way. (Ok everyone is going to say - he worked for Phantom before).......this is true - however - when PR added some drum stuff earlier this year, he actually had them second to Cadets or BD at a show - deservedly so - as the line hadn't cleaned up all the new stuff yet. I heard last night what went on - and all I have to say is if it's a repeat tonight - the Sanford Award better go to Phantom Regiment for the 2nd year in a row! If Phantom doesn't move ahead of Cavaliers and find themselves somewhere in the Top 3 - if shows are performed similar to last night - then it will be a travesty.

I agree - I'm so happy to see the Colts in finals. Michael Cesario has done great things with Orwell this year for this corps. I hope the Colts reclaim that 10th spot - I thought they'd for sure have it from the Glassmen. BRING IT COLTS!

In 96 Phantom was 4th after QF - and had the same exact score - 94.6. Blue Devils were first - but had over a 98. Now they only have a 97.2 I smell a Phantom surge in Semis and Finals!!! Cavaliers will be the corps knocked out of the Top 3. :)

Bluecoats may have deserved a high place in brass - but he shouldn't have boxed himself in with a 9.9 with 3 corps left. It was bad numbers management. I think you may be wrong about PR or Coats not in the Top 3.........funny things happen on Friday and especially Saturday. Oh - and the quote................GOLDEN! In the theater - when she said "Well I had Blue Devils first in showmanship...." I yelled "but I bet you had Cavaliers in first overall" before she said "But I had to give it to the Cavaliers........" I think the fact that DCI still lets her and her husband (and Dallas Niermeyer) still judge is atrocious. They are Cavaliers groupies. If Marie or Gary aren't judging Visual GE tonight and tomorrow - I guarantee Cavaliers won't win Visual GE.

My top 15 from QF.........with a few predictions in my explanations.......... 1st (T) Phantom............Best GE - I'm sorry but any caption where they were 5th or 6th was just wrong! 1st (T) Carolina...........Their amazing guard will keep them flying high. I like the narration that talks about the Green Machine! :) 3rd - Cadets (I would put them here without the narration - their music is AWESOME! Maybe they will surprise us and not talk in finals!) 4th - Bluecoats...........I dunno about this show. It's pretty boring to me - but they do play very clean. (Granted they aren't moving as fast as PR or Cadets while playing) 5th - Blue Devils - Ugh - their music is junk - it means nothing to the theme. I like the variations of wings Phantom uses.....Blue Devils wings are all the same (except color) which makes it even more boring than hearing them play LOUD all the time. I figured out almost the whole show is either extremely loud in your face playing, or a percussion transition - nothing really with a melody. I'm not sure any of the notes in the ballad are less than a quarter note until the tubas kick in towards the end. 6th - Cavaliers......1st half of show is cool - 2nd half doesnt seem to flow at all..........their visual is down from normal - but they won Visual GE last night because Marie Czapinski was judging - they won't win Visual GE again in semis or Finals (unless she or her husband are judging) 7th - SCV.......they have a good idea but dont get the theme EUREKA with the music at all. Their drill is good! Just not sure this show REALLY makes sense 8th - BK.........good - not great - but better than Boston 9th - Boston......In their usual spot. Nothing spectacular - just a clean show 10th - Glassmen..........Got a bye with Colts off performance for QF - don't expect to hold this position come Saturday. 11th - Colts.......Oops - we can't do that again. I expect they will reclaim 10th tonight - if not - on Saturday night 12th - Spirit.........Spirt will stay ahead of Academy due to their drumline and Academy's awful guard. 13th - Academy..........will stay behind Spirit due to their last place guard finish in Semis (just a guess) 14th - Crossmen.........will probably lose to Madison in semis 15th - Madison.........will jump ahead of Crossmen in semis - but not good enough to make finals

Phantom seems to be distancing themselves from Bluecoats and Carolina. I'm sure they will have more surprises in Semis and Finals. Even though it seems they gave Cadets their 2 points back (gag) it doesn't matter. Phantom had this exact same score in quarterfinals in 96, and the spread from 1st - 4th (which is where Phantom sat at 11 years ago as well) was about one point higher. GO REGIMENT! Always a bridesmaid and never a bride - not this year!

YES!

I'm sure that they are carefully choosing what words they will release on the DCI website. This is absurd!!! Cadets deserve the penalty. It's unfortunate for the kids, but this just goes to show you that every corps director can stall the show now with no penalty!

HAHAHAHA!!!! That is just too funny!

Keep the wedge! It's a classic Phantom move. Just like Madison should keep incorporating the fluers de lis (horrible spelling im sure) in their shows. Every corps has their special "things." How come no one on here ever says "Blue Devils - quit with the F warm up and battery jam out session" It's their thing - more power to them! Every corps that has a tradition - keep it up! (Except Cadets - I think Hoppy has thrown out all traditions)

I bet the visual and guard judges more have experience from having been in a corps than most of the music caption judges (except percussion judges maybe.) A lot of music judges are probably current or retired band directors who had a competitive marching band, etc... and who themselves may or may not have marched in a corps. I would say - contact DCI directly - after this weekend! :) and ask them what they do. Probably give them a month or so to regain their sanity from all the madness this week in Pasadena!

I've noticed that Phantom, Crown, and Bluecoats all have opted out of having kids do I & E events. I know Phantom did this last year for more rehearsal time with the corps. Did Bluecoats and Crown do this last year - or did they see the good it did Phantom last year and copy it this year? Either way - it's a good strategy and should prove very beneficial for all 3 come thurs-sat.

Just as it won't be easy for Bluecoats to stay ahead of Phantom - as we have seen the usual late season surge come through for Phantom. These 2 corps will be side by side come finals night - unless one of them sneaks into 3rd and puts the Cavaliers inbetween them. I think SCV and Carolina will be out of the Top 5.

Right - this quote makes sense. You can tell by the separation of 10 points over the average of all the regionals that Bluecoats are A LOT better than Phantom. Oh wait - they are separated by .005 just from regionals, and if you averaged in their scores on the other head to head matchups - Phantom would actually have a higher score I believe. So it seems to me that they are pretty close, and one (as of Saturday) isn't "a lot better" than the other.

I agree - I think the Top 7 will shuffle and this is still anyone's game for a championship from Cadets, Cavies, BD, and Phantom - as they were only separated by 1.35 points on Saturday. This weekend is going to be like musical chairs for the Top 3. Someone will get knocked out by a bully! haha.

Dallas Niermeyer's bands weren't great at all - but he's considered to be one of the best Music judges by many. Your theory is wrong, sorry.

With your reasoning - there's NO way that Phantom should have beaten Blue Devils in finals last year. There's NO way they would have come up from 4th place in 96 to tie for the Championship. So how about I don't give you a break. :)

Prosperie has not judged a lot this year which makes him pretty unbiased. I have a feeling he'll be doing finals again. I think his 19.4 was possibly a tad high - but I think the real problem is the other judges are too afraid to pop a high number, even 5 days before quarterfinals. I think Phantom's drum score should have been higher than BD - but BD and Phantom should have both had higher overall percussion scores. I think same goes for the brass and guard captions. For some reason - it seems some of these judges who judge captions like Brass, Guard, and Percussion are judging like a GE judge. GE is really the only caption where I can see scores being held back knowing that the big surprises are to come this week and that shows are not fully developed. The performance captions like percussion, brass, etc... should be popping 19.3-19.6 a week before finals weekend - because some of these corps are already performing at that high of a level. When PR popped that 19.2 on July 27th in drums - that was a right score to do. They held that record for a while, and it took another week for brass or guard to pop a 19.2

I didn't see the encore either on the Indy webcast.

Phantom's wings are better. Will be funny if the 2 shows with wings finish Top 2.

As far as Indianapolis - that webcast produced no problems for me other than that little pause for a second at the end of Phantom's show. :( It turned off right before drum majors took the field for scores. Was it supposed to show scores as well?

Phantom will sneak into the Top 3. :)

The above quote is off the DCI site. Many times you can check the official DCI site (as this isn't) to answer many questions that are posted here. They will show the entirety of the shows for Top 17, with clips from the first 5.

How can you say "BD - it's their turn?" That's dumb - look at Phantom - when is it their turn? Judges don't judge based on "it's their turn." What are you talking about? The last head to head meeting was July 21st - hardly comparable to now - that has no validity as to now with all the changes each corps has made. And are you serious - Phantom getting OVERSCORED in finals?!?! That's right - all 10 of those championships they have are from overscoring. Oh that's right - they've only been blessed with one championship. Hard to validate an overscoring comment with that fact.

I wouldn't place Phantom in 3rd with what you are saying. They've been in the Top 3 a third of the time over the last 30 years. If you want to say three "non champions" in the Top 3 - then say Bluecoats, Crown, and Blue Knights or something - it's not a surprise with Phantom in the top 3. I would still put Phantom up there in the upper echelon or "The Top 5": Phantom, Cadets, Cavaliers, Blue Devils, SCV) And yea - it does discount the 96 tie that should have been an outright championship for Phantom. :)