GuardOne

I just checked the historical scores on wgi.org and holy cr**, Miamisburg has made every scholastic finals cut (except maybe one) since like 1985. What's that? Like a quarter century??? That in itself is a testament to an incredibly strong, well organized, long lasting guard/band/school program. Whatever you're doing Miamisburg...it's working. Keep up the great work and thank you for bringing us enjoyable programs year after year after year.

A well constructed show, strong training and enough vocab? Yup! But squeaky clean??? Come on now.... I have to say that there were very few guards that made finals that I would consider "squeaky clean". I could sit here and list a number of dirty flag lines that were blatantly dirty on Saturday night. Even in the upper ranks of the classes. Of course, I guess that would depend on your definition of "squeaky". And to those that managed to be clean WITHOUT the use of a solid colored flag, good on ya'! Solid colored silks definitely help hide errors and there were a lot of those on the floor. Even with them, a few guards were not only far from squeaky clean but in fact, disappointingly dirty. Obviously, cleanliness is not always necessarily a prerequisite for a finals slot.

You're right, they don't publish them or endorse them but they need to use some sort of system to get groups slotted for prelims. It's the same principle that guardbuzz uses but there's only 1.5 points per week projected after the latest regional score instead of the 2 points guardbuzz uses. Using that methodology, IO lines up as follows: WGI Rank Unit Name 1 Alter Ego 2 Diamante 3 Ventures 4 Top Hats 5 Black Gold 6 Ars Nova 7 The Academy 8 The Cast 9 Juxtaposition/First Flight 11 Univ of Alabama/Etude 13 Rhapsody Independent 14 USF Winterguard 15 The Pride of Missouri State 16 Salem Blue/Rhapsody 18 Emanon 19 The Pride of the Netherlands 20 Independence 21 Lealta 22 Corona Light 23 Americas Independent 24 Sonnor 25 Act 1/Sitao 27 Ancora/Blue Devils 29 Lulabel 30 Eklipse 31 The Phoenix 32 Thurrock Academy 33 Fever 34 Identity 35 Catalyst 36 Intensity 37 Velocity

WGI fixed the schedules. "First highest score after the THREE round winners". NOW....it makes sense!

Fantasia will win because it's an "even numbered" year. In this decade, they've won in '00, '02, '04 and '06. With the exception of SJR's victory in 2003, Pride has won the "odd numbered" years ('01, '05 and '07). It's a done deal!

MYSTERY SOLVED! THANKS! Still tripped up on the four round winners from three rounds. LOL!

Thanks for the insight. I had heard about the 1.5 thing also so that very well maybe true. Maybe it is different for IO because there's only 3 rounds and they don't have 8 rounds to slot the "top 8" in. 'Cause I have too much time on my hands :), I took the latest scores for all IO guards based on guardbuzz and added the 1.5/wk increment (instead of the 2.0 "guardbuzz" increment) and resorted. The top 8 in order are: 1. Alter Ego - 4th last in Round 3 2. Diamante - 3rd last in Round 2 3. Ventures - 3rd last in Round 1 4. Top Hats - 2nd last in Round 1 5. Black Gold - 5th last in Round 2 6. Ars Nova - last in Round 3 7. The Academy - 5th last in Round 3 8. The Cast - 2nd last in Round 2 You can see, seeds 1, 6 and 7 are in the same round, same as seeds 2, 5 and 8 and seeds 3 and 4. It's all very shady if you ask me. ;) And what is with the schedule for SO and IO finals???? IE. First, second, third etc score AFTER THE FOUR ROUND WINNERS - but, there's only THREE rounds in semis. How are they going to get four round winners out of three rounds?

Does anyone have ANY idea how this sh** works anyway? IO positioning is all over the map. I had heard it was based on placement at regionals but if that's the case, that's not evident. Confused...

I can be of a little help. The beginning of Black Gold's show (before the techno piece) kicks in is the theme from the TV show Nip/Tuck. That's all I know for sure. Sorry!

WOW! This night sounds really amazing with a ton of high quality groups coming to perform. I'd love to bring our guard (Ventures) but it's the same evening as IO prelims so we'll be a li'l busy :) I guess, given the small window of time you have to put this exhibition on, someone has to miss out on all the fun. :( Ah well, good luck to ALL the groups in Dayton this year!