MikeRapp
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Posts posted by MikeRapp
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1 minute ago, Cop said:
(new closer silks). They did really well, high energy! They looked like they were having fun. Drums were smoking... AGAIN
Just fwiw, where did the Cavaliers drum line come from? How many were from last season?
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1 minute ago, GREENBLUE said:
Phantom everything’s thru the speakers. Not enjoyable sitting in front that’s for sure
Phantom decided that everything has to be loud, apparently.
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Blue Stars is a strong corps, even when they are a little down they are still for formidable. That said there should be a law against green uniforms unless you are Cavaliers…
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Maybe I’m old school, but I kinda wish they would go back to inserting the corps logo in the bottom left of the screen…
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8 minutes ago, CAtenhut said:
And after struggling all season, the screamer nailed his note both nights in Indy! So happy for him! 👏
Their brass issues seem more to do with age and experience. I can see where the line is in the list of corps and it’s obvious in rankings. I guarantee you we can hear where corps are fielding mostly college aged kids.
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38 minutes ago, NewArpege said:
BC has put out some of the most memorable shows over the past decade, for sure. They’ve snatched the cool jazz corp title from BD on many occasions.
Wonder if they’ll give us a good jagged line type show again. I love to see that with their current talent levels.
A jazz show would be amazing. Session 44 is one of my all time favorites.
A tech show would also be eye popping, think Tron meets Oppenheimer. The modern Machine.
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1 hour ago, Vuitton said:
Yes, you are correct and this is a fair statement.
I think a lot of corps put out magificant shows. BD is never one of my favorite shows. I like Crown, Bluecoats, Boston, Cadets, Regiment, Mandarins, Colts and Blue Stars best this year.
I'm not saying none of these corps put out great shows. They do. I am saying it is extremely difficult to beat BD because not only they are consistant and really don't have any weaknesses, but their staff designs shows that the judges reward more than any other corps does. If this weren't true they wouldn't have been in the top 2 for the past 16 years.
Something BD does better than anyone else — and it’s so easily ignored — is the scale of their shows are designed for big shows. So many corps have props that are too small, in the wrong places on the field, have ugly details seen from the stands, or just don’t read well.
Their marching forms and guard movements are always sized for a big stage, which is literally how stage shows are supposed to be designed. Bluecoats now do this really well (Tilt was the first and then DSU pretty much nailed it), as do Crown and now Boston. So many other corps use props that are too small, and are therefore visually noisy. Pet peeve for me are signs with words—a huge huge distraction. Screams bad design.
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Just now, lawdn said:
They will use it as motivation. They are tough.
I hope so but it likely will impact the judging, it’s human nature.
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13 minutes ago, Cappybara said:
As a BD honk, I agree with you that the door is open, especially based on the Finals panel. But I can also tell you that BD’s staff isn’t talking about other corps at all. BD competes against themselves, not other corps.
When you win every night, that’s the only way to think about it.
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1 minute ago, Vuitton said:
Yep. I thought the same thing. Also, I remember watching Vanguard at Stanford and thinking, "It's over, this show is going to win."
Blue Devils don't need a special show to win. Everyone else needs a show like '08 Regiment, '11 Cadets, '13 Crown, '16 Bluecoats and '18 Vanguard to win, and IMO no one has a show like that this year.
And many still argue that Phantom should not have won the gold medal, that it violated the understood rules of DCI scoring as I described above.
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Boston kinda got screwed, effectively being pushed out of the last block of corps and having “special recognitions” right after their show.
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DCI used to publish this info, and I wish they still did. I suspect they don’t publish it anymore because it would be obvious how winning is directly correlated to those numbers.
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1 minute ago, scheherazadesghost said:
Winning means a lot to some. I just can't tell how important it actually is to the BD organization anymore.
If I won that much, I'd get bored and start helping my competition. Ya know, cause we all win in the arts and competition is a facade.
Winning brings money. And success brings the most talented staff and marching members. BD knows that if they start not winning gold someone else will. And that will impact all three of the above.
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20 minutes ago, Vuitton said:
You're not hurting anyone's feelings. What you're doing is making us all believe you really don't understand how this activity is judged, what separates a championship show from a 2nd place show, and what it takes to beat BD.
I would love nothing more than BD NOT to win, but after 2017 and being outraged yet again that they won, I decided to put all my bias's behind me, actually learn, and start becoming a fan of the activity (from a competitive standpoint). I sought out people who knew more than I and I learned a lot, and it really has given me great insight into why BD always wins.
How many times in the past two decades has BD run the table for the entire season, only to lose in finals? How often has ANY corps had this happen?
Remember Down Side Up? I do. I remember watching the premiere and saying the season is over, we just saw the gold medal winning performance.
Scoring in DCI is an entirely unique concept. It’s a glide path built throughout the season. Scores tonight are not recorded in a vacuum, they are influenced both by what happened before and the fact that the season ends at a predetermined date and time, on a scale that tops out at 100.
So yes, technically Blue Knights could win the Gold tomorrow. Technically that is true. But actually that is not true, it is not possible for that to happen given the way this competition is judged.
It is more likely that BD will win the gold than Knights. And why is that? Because they have won every single show they have done this season, and scoring in DCI is, by design, inclusive of that fact.
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18 minutes ago, MarimbaManiac said:
I mean you're wrong right now. The path is there, as has already been explained based on the sheets. Whether they win or not ignoring that is just ignorant.
I guarantee you that the BD staff is telling the members right now that "THE DOOR IS OPEN FOR THEM TO TAKE IT FROM YOU," - because that's the truth.
There’s also a path for Blue Knights to win the Gold.
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1 hour ago, Cappybara said:
Correct.
They are not supposed to talk before handing in their sheets.
But of course they have now all seen the sheets from last night and of course watched the show. So the scores are now going to partially reflect what happened last night.
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2 minutes ago, Cappybara said:
Considering that in the past 15 years, they’ve done that style of closer in 12 of those 15 years (2011, 2012, and 2018 being the only exceptions), I would say so
Then I could successfully argue that there are about a half dozen of these now, including the second act ballad that is a known pop favorite, with brass bunched together in a small form stage right.
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1 minute ago, scheherazadesghost said:
Might as well be telling Crown, Bloo, and Boston to roll over and accept their fate. Competing against the understand unbeatable Devils simply isn't worth it.
Good luck with that.
I see no real weaknesses in any of the top four. I don’t expect any of the other three to not perform their best. But to win BD has to have an obvious fail. A tear, a key drop or three, tonality on a solo. It could happen, but when has that ever happened in the past 20 years for BD?
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Just now, Cappybara said:
That’s what you said, yes?
I’m asking you, is this now akin to the crown set?
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4 minutes ago, MarimbaManiac said:
I literally just laid out the path in my last post.
BD is not losing the Gold. A half point spread over these three shows tells you that the judges simply see them as better.
All of the other top three shows will receive final score akin to many if not most Gold medal shows of the past two decades. BD is just a half point better than the rest of DCI right now.
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2 minutes ago, Cappybara said:
Is the Crown set old? Phantom kick out?
Is this now what BD does in every single show?
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1 hour ago, 90svet said:
They've been in domes many times, and the MMs are quite experienced. Being in LucasOil is a non-issue for them.
Who knows why they seemed tentative? I suppose we will see tonight if it was an isolated occurrence.
Didn’t seem tentative to me. But when Bloo stops thinking and just performs to the crowd, look out. I don’t see any way they don’t medal, which sucks for either Crown or Boston.
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With SCV out of the running it may be that Mandarins is the right corps at the right time stylistically.
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2 hours ago, gjramsey said:
What happened to the brass finishing around the cut-out props? I liked that better than rushing the pit thing they did last night.
I like the way they frame the art at the end with four tarps. And I never like marching on tarps. But the run to the front and move around as you play fff is really old now.
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DCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS SEMIFINALS
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
I just wish they had more tonality at fff. It just seems like half of their show is literally playing every single note as loud as possible.