I have to agree with the OP. What a great weekend...and a great season overall.
Absolutely the strongest top 12 (on avg) that I can remember.
What I take away from this past week:
Open Class & World Class together again. In my opinion, this was a huge success. I loved seeing
all the corps together, being judged on the same sheets. BDB, OC, and SCVC were all amazing this
year and represented Open Class very well (and BDB's drumline actually placed 17th...higher
than 5 World Class drumlines).
Spirit of Atlanta - I had seen this show a couple of times during the season, but it wasn't
until finals week that I absolultely fell in love with it. They won't fly under the radar next season.
A powerhouse in the making.
Carolina Crown - At the beginning of the season, I HATED the Rock/Rach concept. Thought it
was (cheesy) and all that, but they blew me away this week. Congrats to Crown for sticking
with the concept and making it work.
Live Coverage - As a FN subscriber, I got to watch the World Class Semi's live. Plus I get
the Open Class Finals VOD. For the Prelims, we got the warm-up live (bonus!) until moving to the local
movie theater for the top 15! And the cherry on top was the live coverage of the awards. For those
of us that couldn't be in Indy this week, all the live coverage was appreciated!
Now, if we can just get the Finals LIVE on PPV...
and finally...watching the awards and seeing all those "kids" out there on the field, performing the
Battle Hymn of the Republic...it struck me what a productive, inspiring, and character building activity
this is. I hadn't thought about it in those terms in a while. Those musicians and performers on the field
dedicated themselves to achiving excellence. And they achived it through hard work and dedication...
and therefore should be celebrated.
Congrats to all the Performers, Staff, Mgmt, and Fans on one of the best Drum Corps seasons of all time.
Cali.