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bchorn

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Profile Information

  • Your Drum Corps Experience
    None
  • Your Favorite Corps
    Carolina Crown, Bluecoats, Cadets, pre-2008 Blue Devils
  • Your Favorite All Time Corps Performance (Any)
    1989 Santa Clara Vanguard
  • Your Favorite Drum Corps Season
    Best top 5 finishing corps: 1989
  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Austin, TX

bchorn's Achievements

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  1. This lineup order is confusing. The press release for last year's Southwestern Championship lineup included the following blurb. Once seeded in score order, corps were randomly drawn within groups of three (First through third, fourth through sixth, etc.) However, this year's press release doesn't include such a blurb. Did they change the rules for determine lineup order? Plus, on the rankings tab, Blue Devils are currently listed fourth...so shouldn't they be in second to last group of performers? Or is the score average from the entire season used to determine lineup order? Edit: read somewhere else on DCP that scores from just last weekend were used for seeding.
  2. I'm fascinated by the discussion regarding whether Drum Corp costs more today than it did 30-40 years ago. Using the CPI Inflation Calculator I calculated the following multipliers for people to use to determine if drum corp cost more or less back "in the day". Year Multiplier 1975 4.77 1976 4.5 1977 4.21 1978 3.92 1979 3.54 1980 3.09 1981 2.82 1982 2.64 1983 2.57 1984 2.46 1985 2.38 1986 2.33 1987 2.25 1988 2.17 1989 2.06 So if someone paid $700 in 1975 to march in drum corp, that would be $700 * 4.77 = $3339 in today's dollars.
  3. The Mediabox has Blue Devil exclusive content (like warm ups and other behind the scenes stuff) on it. But for actual video and audio performances that is produced by DCI itself, you can only get that content from DCI itself.
  4. A better question would be....why is every non-Blue Devil world champion since 2006 on the most downloaded video performances list but none of 4 Blue Devils world champions???
  5. My frustration is due to the fact that the Blue Devils typically aren't even in my top 5 of entertaining shows of the finals and yet they still place 1st or 2nd. The Blue Devils are my least watched corp on my Disc 1 from last year's World Championships. People will say that's just because I'm a BD hater but in reality I really want to like the Blue Devils. I absolutely hate it when I only watch 5 of the top 6 corps. I still don't get the 1930 show whereas I've watched Carolina Crown and Cadets from that year 10x as much. Whatever they are doing I wish I could get so that I would enjoy them more. Again, I think the disconnect seen in the fan vote from last year DCI Austin reflects this frustration from others as well.
  6. But it's not just me. I've read many other people say the same thing about Blue Devils regarding the last 6-8 year period. Again, if it was just me or few people here or there, then I wouldn't be saying ANYTHING. But I'm hearing this same discontent from a large contingent of people.
  7. This is more than just a dislike of ONE winner. This is dislike of MULTIPLE winners by one corp over a short period of time. In my 25 years of watching drum corp, this has never happened before. Yes, I may have not liked a winner here or there but rarely did I dislike the same top 5 corp year after year. So don't try to spin this as a "people have always disliked the winner since the dawn of time" because I have never experienced this before. So please, don't try to convince me otherwise.
  8. Well, I'm not so sure about Top Corps ALWAYS playing to the sheets but I will say this. I have been watching Drum Corps for 25 years since I was in high school and never have I been as disinterested in the DCI World Champion as I have been the last 4 times when the Blue Devils won. I'm not saying my years of experience makes me a better fan. I'm just pointing it out to show that the Blue Devils are approaching their show design differently from others. If it was just me, then I wouldn't be posting like I have. But when I dig around on drum corp sites, I notice similiar discontent by others. I notice things like BDs getting 7th in the fan vote while the judges place them 3rd. I notice things like only 10% of the audience stays behind for this year's champion versus 50% for last year's champion. Or when I'm walking out of the stadium on finals night all i hear are fans shouting B#######! All these little things tell me I'm not alone in my discontent with the BDs. And here's the really sad part, I WANT to like the Blue Devils. I am a bandwagon fan who has no strong allegiance to any corp. All they have to do is make an entertaining show like Cadets 2011 or Phantom 2008 (the last two non-BD champions) and then I'm on the bandwagon.
  9. Guardling, The World Championship show of 2012 was NOT a wildly popular show. This is the point I've been trying to make this entire time on this thread. I never said that NO ONE liked the World Championship show of 2012. Of course, there are people who liked the World Championship show of 2012 above all others. My concern is that I feel that DCI will suffer if it continues to award a World Championship to a show that is not wildly popular. My point in bringing up the fan vote from DCI Austin last year was to point that the judges like the Blue Devils more than the fans. I'm not saying that no one likes the Blue Devils. I'm just saying that the Blue Devils have a recent history of being more popular with the judges than with the fans. Again, I'm not saying that the Blue Devils are not popular. My concern is that other corps are going to start "playing to the sheets" like the Blue Devils and not care about making wildly popular shows because that's the winning formula the Blue Devils have used the last 6 years to place in the top 2. If 2013 turns out to have more shows like the Blue Devils than Carolina Crown, then I may just give up on drum corp as a whole after 25 years.
  10. If it was just a poor showing by the Blue Devils at this year's encore, I wouldn't be saying anything. But when you combine that with the fact that... * there have been constant criticisms of the show all year long on BD about it not being entertaining * many people saying they prefer Crown's show over BD's show all season long * many people saying they don't like the direction the Blue Devils have gone with show design since the mid-2000's. * the bloggers from the finals said Crown was definitely the crowd favorite. * Blue Devils had an abnormally low fan vote at last year's Austin show. * Blue Devil's show designers admitting they don't care about entertaining the crowds. ...and you'll have a hard time convincing me that the Blue Devil's had as popular a show as Crown this year or the Cadets from last year.
  11. So you are saying that Michael Boo overestimated how many people stayed for the last year's World Championship encore performance but he got it right this year because people just don't watch encores anymore??? Come on...just admit you are in denial that more people liked last year's Cadets show than this year's Blue Devils show. There wasn't nearly the backlash from the Cadets winning last year like there was this year with the Blue Devils.
  12. The %'s I'm referring to are Michael Boo's estimations from the Finals Blog for both years. Here's the link to the 2012 blog. 11:30Michael Boo: Unfortunately, perhaps only 10% of the audience is left in the stands to witness it. Michael Reed from yesterday's Semifinals blog concurs with that figure. 11:30Michael Boo: If anyone wants to get a great seat for the run-through, they can pretty much write their own ticket. Here's the link to the 2011 blog. 11:21Michael Boo: I think at least half the audience is staying on to hear the encore. 11:21Michael Boo: That says a lot. The fans sure didn't seem to be in a rush to get to their car last year. I had a 9am flight the next morning but I certainly would have stayed if Crown had won.
  13. So 2012 increase in attendance has been directly attributed to the Blue Devils? I haven't heard that. Could it be that the higher attendance in 2012 is the result of 2011 having one of the best finals in recent history? The 2011 finals was certainly the reason why I spent $1000 on airfare, lodging, and tickets to my first finals in 20 years this year. Flawed fan voting? I was at that show in Austin (hence the large airfare to finals) and the Blue Devils were a real dud that night. I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt because they were the first corp to perform but then the Cavaliers came in right after BD and ripped the roof off the house (hence the #1 vote). If the voting was so flawed then why did the fan voting practically mirror the judges placements for all but two of the corps? Did the judges get it wrong to for the other 6 corps as well? I have no doubt that BD sells more souvenirs because they have been a perennial power in Drum Corp since their inception. But can you explain to me why only 10% of the finals crowd stayed around to hear the encore performance when the yankees of Drum Corp just won their 15th championship? The year before the Cadets had 50% of the crowd remain and they are probably equal in popularity with the Blue Devils. Could it be that simply a lot more people enjoyed the Cadets last year than they enjoyed the Blue Devils this year?
  14. Haha...I was in section 640 and the crowd definitely was rooting Crown. I'm sure people will say I'm biased but check out the finals blog. 10:10Michael Boo: HUGE audience reaction. The fans are really pulling for this corps, alá Phantom Regiment in 2008. It's like the audience is willing them to win. 10:10Mike Ferlazzo: Every year, there's a people's champ Michael, and even if Crown doesn't win the competitive title, they are clearly the people's champ this season. 10:16Mike Ferlazzo: AMAZING!!!! And the crowd, and Michael, are going nuts!! 10:16Michael Boo: Big standing ovation. 10:17Mike Ferlazzo: Just like in 2008 with Phantom, the crowd is trying to will Crown to victory. There are no similiar comments about the audience during the Blue Devils performance.
  15. I'm not so sure that Blue Devils please plenty of crowds. At the Austin show last year when they had fan voting via text message, the Blue Devils were voted 7th by the fans. Also the rare fan vote highlights what I think why people are frustrated with the Blue Devils. The judges placed BD 3rd while the fans voted BD 7th. The BD had the largest disconnect between judges and fans at this show. Fan Vote Difference 1. Cavaliers 1 0 2. Cadets 2 0 3. Blue Devils 7 4 4. Carolina Crown 3 -1 5. Bluecoats 6 1 6. Phantom 4 -2 7. Santa Clara 8 1 8. Blue Stars 5 -3 Here's something else I noticed. If you look at blog from the finals last year, Boo said that rough 50% of the crowd stayed to watch the Cadets encore performance. However, this year, Boo blogged that only 10% of the crowd to watch the Blue Devils encore performance. That's a huge difference and I guarantee you that if Crown won a lot more than 10% would stayed. I was in the audience and the crowd was definitely rooting for Crown.
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