RedPhantom25

I want any corps to walk into any show and be able to get first regardless of their identity. I.E. If corps are going to be in finals I want them to have an impact in their show.

This statement reminds me of statements made on behalf of a certain 10th place corps in 07 and a 12th place one in 08.

That was also the end of June...far from the final product.

You are correct, but I also was a huge Troopers fan this summer for the first time in my life. I thought they had a better design, I thought the Colts show lacked direction in design. The Colts show promised to the members wasn't the show they ended up performing. That's why I created this poll. Even myself, being a huge supporter of the Colts was curious and was proud to see that any of the corps of through Crossmen had the potential to be finalist.

I don't think I've ever agreed more with a statement on DCP. I agree that Troopers have to bring next year. 2007- Colts, 2008 Madison. both corps fell out the next year. Getting there is nowhere near the challenge of staying there and advancing. Great post!

Just because you weren't in Indy doesn't mean the entire dcp community shares that with you. Also drum corps is an activity based as much around consistency as performance. I don't think this poll is irrelevant simply because someone wasn't at one performance.

They still were able to perform one last show. The Colts didn't have that luxury. The members weren't frustrated by their placement so much as their inability to perform one last time. Semi Finals wasn't nearly conclusive because they were all pulling for one more run on Saturday. That's why I thought Colts were among the most underrated.

Those who were not in Indy for Finals Week, but voted in this poll anyway, are telling us which of these three Corps they liked during the season, not which one " deserved 12th " based upon anything they did or did not do in Indy during Finals Week. I didn't ask who deserved it. If you read what I wrote I said I wanted to see if fans agreed with the judges.

There has been a lot of discussion over the battle for 12th place between Troop, Colts, and the Academy. I would like to get a reading of exactly how many fans agreed with the judges' final placement of these corps. I am also interested to see how many people actually feel Trooper's identity and history helped give them an advantage over the competition.

Exactly...everyone loves an underdog story. The Colts know all about that with 2007. Not even Colts members could remain bitter with troopers for more than 5 minutes.

I have one.... Colts were not only in competition with this year's Troopers, but 40 years of their history. I won't say Colts were better than Troop because I think it was a close and exciting match, but there was simply no way Colts were making finals over Troopers. The simple fact that Troopers were the Troopers secured that spot, which I think is disappointing.

Ebb Tide-Colts

It's interesting to see the Colts so high considering that they're only marching around 135 and have quite a few holes. How much of an impact do you think corps numbers have on scores? Based on these scores it seems relatively futile to an extent.

1. Color guard isn't performing well. 2. I feel there is limited potential from a design standpoint. 3.The simplicity in all areas has maxed out its possible potential.

I agree with you. I should have been more detailed. I was also taking into consideration that Colts and Spirit have a much better blend. The sound is consistent. Madison has a lot of individual sounds sticking out from the rest of the ensemble. Overall Madison's hornline just isn't as clean as Colts or Spirit. They may sound more exciting, but that also depends on a person's taste or their individual bias towards a particular corps.

Colts do have a great line and they do stand still a lot at the big moments. 1. The Colts jazz ran many of their impacts last year and weren't being recognized and awarded for the difficulty. This year they have decided to start simple. 2. Drill is in the process of becoming more demanding and effective without going too extreme like in 08. I think overall Colts and Spirit have a much more mature sounding hornline. Both corps have a better and darker quality of sound in comparison to Scouts who often sacrifice tone for volume. Colts lack some volume in some impact moments of the show because the drill is so spread out (the ballad in particular), which is definitely a downfall of the drill.

I was at the Dubuque show last night. Scoring caught me a little off guard. Even the recap shows some scattered scoring. Scouts, Spirit, and Colts were all pretty even, which I also was able to witness in Madison. I was expecting similar scores, but Scouts and Spirit seemed to have pulled further away which I found inaccurate...but hey. I'm no judge.

Why has Crossmen opted to do so few shows in June? Obviously fewer shows means more time to rehearse, but there is obviously a lot of benefit to be performing more. The corps is able to see what the judges are looking for and it's important for the corps to make a statement to as many audiences as possible. Where Crossmen has had one show to date, both Glassmen and Colts, Crossmens' competitors in last night's recaps, have each had around five or six. I'm not criticizing the organization, I'm just wondering why this corps needed so much more rehearsal time while other corps were already competing.

I love Colts. I love them a lot. I have marched there and have a lot of friends I associate with the corps. What they have on the field now is disappointing. The drill is boring and the music is a shadow of what it was in January. They've cut a 3 minute opener to about 15 seconds and 5 sets of drill and the technical passages have been dumbed down. The design team went for something that could be executed effectively and cleanly, but I think (as of now) what we see is a skeleton of what there was during camps and a less memorable and powerful show that I love seeing from the Colts. I hope i'm wrong. I really do.

If I had to say now I would guess Spirit. I saw them last night. Their hornline sound was amazing and they had some of the best feet of the night. much cleaner than Madison Scouts.

http://www.colts.org/news/news.cfm?news_id=345

Bob Smith has been on staff since 2006 (Around 70% of tour) Michael Cesario has designed the the guard uniforms the past two years. I liked 2007, but I agree that 2008's were awful. AWFUL. They are quite impressive this year though. If they are just names then staff shouldn't matter in discussion of any corps. If staff doesn't matter to Colts than it shouldn't matter to Regiment, Cavies, Blue Devils, or Blue Stars either.

You're absolutely right. Colts do need to worry about Crossmen, Spirit, and Scouts, but so do Blue Stars. That is what some of us are saying. Colts are more consistent finals contenders than Blue Stars. Were they better than Colts last? Absolutely. Will they in all likely hood be ahead of colts this year? Probably, but it's hilarious that all of a sudden raving about Blue Stars. Colts jumped from 13th in 2006 to 10th in 2007 and back to 14th in 2008. This sort of stuff happens. if you're going to give Blue Stars a chance then Colts should be given a chance as well. I know a lot of people think Blue Stars have a better staff, but Colts aren't exactly lacking in that department either. Bob Smith is the visual caption. He made Phantom Regiment's visual program. Michael Cesario is the show designer. Michael Lentz is on guard staff. Chris Tomsa is the arranger. These are big names.

Colts didn't peak. The staff thought that constant changes would keep the crowds and judges interested. It worked to a point, but then the members became overwhelmed. On top of that the brass book was destroyed by the original caption head. What audiences heard at semi-finals from the Colts was an entire summer of trying to build up to the original book. There were other aspects of the show that were cut that I personally felt were assets to the show. The opening drum feature was too difficult to begin with. instead of starting easy and working its way up, it started too hard and become and dumbed down version. As a result the drum entrance entrances in the opener (Night and Day) and the Bernstein medley were almost identical. When the drum scores started to drop because of this, the staff decided to cut the drum feature all together and, as a result, 32 set drill feature of jazz running was cut before most people saw it. Though the color guard was the most solid section of the corps score wise, they originally had much harder work. The opener was completely on swing flags, but was, once again, cut before most people saw the show. These are just a few examples. Last year was a mess design wise and from the judgement of the staff. It won't happen again.