BRASSO

Guard, theme, visual design really made things difficult for Phantom this year. PR's brass line was good, but not as good as that of Crown's and Blue Devils this year. And their visual.... theme.... guard were subpar this year compared to last year. They were nipped by Boston Crusaders and Blue Stars( both improved Corps this year )after being in a fierce battle with them most of the summer. Phantom Regiment has more shows than any other in my favorite top 20 of all time too, so it's not like I'm not in Phantom's corner. This year they seemed to get the score and placement they deserved. Had they nipped Boston and Blue Stars by a few tenths, I 'd have seen how that could have happened as well too though. Phantom had the liuck of the draw last year with both percussion judges at Finals predispossed to like Phantom. This year, two of the judges in the draw for Finals were not so predisposed to them going in to the Finals. Blue Stars and Boston seemed to have gotten a tad more favorable draw at Finals than Phantom. ( Boston did not the last 2 years at Finals ). These judging panels mean only a difference of maybe a point at most and usually less. But when the Corps are really close, those few tenths can mean the difference in a placement or two and the margin separation. between these Corps. And that's what we had this year in the battle for 7-9th, it seems to me.

2006 Blue Devils " The Godfather ". 'Wasn't all that impressed with it that year.... thought it very good, but not in the realm of great. BD came in 3rd with this show that year. I watch and listen to it now on Fan Network and realize how awesome this show was and how underrated I had it back then.

What is "getting tedious " in my view is the incessant whininess in some quarters over the Blue Devils undefeated 2009 season. As the Eagles song says ..." Get over it ! "

They already have " demand " factored into the judging captions at several subsets as an evaluation criteria among other criteria used in the evaluation process. Some of the frustration here lies in the fact that apparently some of the posters on DCP are are under the misunderstanding that " degree of difficulty " is not part of the judged criteria. When in fact, it is,.... and has been for several years now.

The Blue Devils were undefeated in 2009 and won by a convincing margin at Finals.. The Blue Devils lost a heart breaker at Finals in 2008. One of the percussion judges that evaluated BD believed in his view that the BD did not perform as well as they had earlier in the quarters and sem's. He was neither sanctioned, not chastised, nor did it "result in losing his job " (nor should it have resulted in that).. And there were few if any Blue Devils honks on here after Finals whining about the placements either. ( and losing to a Corps they had beat 16 straight times before Finals Night) The BD's simply sucked it up in the off season, and came out this year more determined and focused than ever.... and went undefeated and won going away leaving no room for doubt this year. I 'd say that pretty much sums it all up for 2009.

a famous quip from a pol to his supporters years ago...... " Be sure to vote early... and often ".

If this was true, why then didn't the Blue Devils Title in 2008, after winning both the Quaterfinals and Semi's and not having lost to Phantom Regiment all year in 16 previous head top head match ups prior to Finals Night ?

'94 Blue Devils were ( and remain ) one of my all time favorites. They won Finals by .7 tenths. '82 Blue Devils more than doubled their point margin over their competitors over that of the '94 BD. ( by 1.7 points )...... even more dominating in my opinion.

Agree. '82 Blue Devils won Finals by 1.7 points, and the competition season was longer, and the competition fierce, more Corps, and more head to head matchups. They got my vote. ( close would be 2002 Cavs... winning by 1.85 points over 2nd place Corps )

' 88 Madison Scouts were a surprise upset in '88 beating SC Vanguard by 2 tenths for the Title. A compelling case can be made for '82 Blue Devils though it seems to me. They won by a convincing 1.7 points over SC Vanguard.

True. Any poll that doesn't include the '75 Madison Scouts unfortunately can't be taken seriously. '75 Madison Scouts were not only undefeated by they also won convincingly at Finals by a point and a half ( over SC Vanguard ). As a competitor's noted Brass Arranger, is quoted as saying ( on " Brass Roots " video ) the first time he saw them early that season, turning to his fellow staff members and saying flatly....." We can't beat THAT ! " ( and of course, he was proven right ).

Not according to the Hawthorne Muchachos... ( haha!) But yes, the '75 Madison Scouts were undefeated for all intents and purposes.

Physician, Heal Thyself. In the meantime, thanks for the cup of coffee, although it tasted a bit bitter if you really want to know.

What are the number of age outs at Boston this year ? There is a thread on DCP here regarding age outs, but nobody seemed to know Boston's age out number. anybody know ?

"Spirit " would freak these people out too. Even though " spirit " could refer to " enthusiasm ", I'm not so sure they'd think of it in this vein.

I went with '89 Phantom Regiment..." New World Stymphony ". It's still refreshiing to think that after 20 years, it still gets good results. It's sometimes hard for a Corps back in the 80's to do well in these type polls. 90% of the people who vote have seen the 2nd place Corps of the lasat few years, but probably less than half of the voters saw ( say ) '89 Phantom Regiment live, and this is understandable that there would be a tendency for the older decades Corps to not fare as well. So, this was sort of nice to see.

INT went from existing to not existing to somewhere in between.

From show one to Finals, Blue Stars improved their score by 23.85 points ( if we use Semi's... by 24.20 points ) Crown improved their scores from show one to Finals by 24.45 points. So by this measure, you're correct in that Crown would be " most improved " with a .250- .600 tenths margin over that of the Blue Stars.

The funniest take off on " expressions " was when the North Star came out in the late 70's with the Guard near the end of the show donning big large cardboard fake faces with gigantic smiley teeth on it. There is so much " emoting " cheesy, grinning smiles now in all these guards, that such a prop by the North Star was WAAAY ahead of it's time, in my opinion.

Crown is not even close to the" most improved " award. Crown moved up 2 positions, and with a 1.4 point increase in score at Finals over 2008 's score at Finals. The " most impoved " award goes to the Troopers. The Troopers moved up 4 positions to make the Finals for the 1st time in over 20 years, and increased their point scoring from 2008 to 2009 by more than 3 times that of Crown's point improvement from last year.

6/26/08 Boston beats Blue Stars 6.260 points 8/09/ 08 Blue Stars beat Boston 3.150 points 6/26/09 Phantom Regiment beat Boston 6.200 points 8/09/09 Boston beat Phantom Regiment .800 points These are Corps in the 7-9 placement range. This is actually where one sees the MOST volatility in scores among the Top 10 most years from the starrt of the season to the end.

' Agree with their placement this year...... but still dig their music, and it definately won't be my 9th pick on my 2009 DCI replays on my iPod, that's for sure.

Your internet comment seems fishy here Michael, and thus I've forwarded it along to the appropriate Government autthorities.

Looks like I'm in the minority in this vote grouping. Sentimentally, I wanted to vote the Troopers the highest in the grouping, but in the end, I had to go with the Blue Knights a bit over Glassmen, then Troopers. The Troopers theme just didn't work for me as well as the other two. That said, I'm thrilled to see the Troppers back in the Top 12.

SC Vanguard was way out front for me in this grouping. Cavs then nudged out Bluecoats.