MikeRapp

Simply not possible today. The season is too short, and the top third has so much more money and staff.

Popping out of the picture.

That has to be a three point penalty.

They all work hard. Most work smart. This is not a huge activity, all of the instructors know each other and many have worked together on other staffs. I wish it was as easy as just working harder, but you have to have the marching talent and experience to hit the ground running. There are a half dozen corps that can create a medal winning show and execute it from opening night, because they largely restock their rosters with the best marchers and players from other corps. Everyone else is fighting to make finals, because of how DCI scores the season. It is functionally impossible to move from 12th to top three in seven weeks.

I never said anything about order of performance in Indy. And I’m totally calm.

Given how DCI scores the season, and the fact that we are now only two shows from finals, the corps that perform today have a chance to increase their scores relative to the rest of the field. This isn’t a situation where eight unrelated corps show up in Iowa to do a show; its half of World Class getting scores that add to their aggregate for the season. This isn’t two one day shows, it’s one two day show. As such, I think it is understandable but arguably unfair that half of the world class group gets to add to their previous score, while the other half is literally sitting and watching.

If so that seems patently unfair to corps that were rained out yesterday. Is this one two day event or two one day events? And who “wins” this event when half of the corps didn’t even get scored, including the top three scorers of the season?

It’s not just about working hard. Blue Stars work hard. Scouts work hard. Music City works hard. You aren’t gonna beat a corps that marches an average of three years older than you. Just ain’t gonna happen. It’s the one main fundamental weakness of the DCI concept. It is like having no salary cap in baseball. The Brewers could work their tails off but they can’t acquire the talent necessary to win world titles. The hardest working, best trained AA team will get their ### handed to them by the Red Sox every single night. Look at the history of the BD marching members. How many of then started with BD? And how many of them aged out as BD rookies? It’s a huge number compared to almost every other DCI corps. You don’t go to Bd to learn how to march and play. You go there to win a guaranteed medal and age out. Its a system that almost guarantees that the rich remain richer. In a seven week season it is physically impossible to get a largely high school aged corps anywhere near the level of ability and execution of a largely college aged corps.

For starters, they won’t be scored.

Very bad news for corps hoping to gain ground heading to Indy. Definitely impacts Crown and their quest to battle for third.

If and when DCI has significant media rights fees, then we can actually discuss this topic I’m a meaningful way. Things seem to be slowly moving in that direction, with Flo. Unfortunately, Flo has such limited resources that even hard core followers feel they are getting a poor product for the money. Live entertainment of ALL types has changed almost fully in the last decade. I’m in nashville, and music has suffered from all of those changes. Pro sports is no longer a live experience, it’s almost entirely about media rights and merchandise.

There are many good reasons Blue Devils has a significantly larger budget than Madison. The most important is, they have spent money and time building their organization. DCI isn’t a franchise. It’s not pro sports. You can’t enforce salary caps, player transfer rules, etc. DCI is, by definition, simply the combination of its disparate members. Everything they do, including judging criterion, members have agreed to. Madison isn’t being treated unfairly. They are subject to the same limitations that all corps operate under. There is no doubt that DCI scoring is an imperfect system. But it’s the best of all the others. So long as shows are judged in the manner they are judged, you will see more experienced, accomplished marching members choosing to join corps that have more resources and higher expectations. IMHO the only way to beat BD at their game is to make the activity larger, because that means there is more money, more highly trained educators, more people at shows, more merch sales, and more notoriety. Expanding the notion of what a dci show is has already dramatically expanded the field of world class competitors. Look at Music City, Mandarins, Academy, these are all corps that have benefitted from a broader interpretation of what a successful show is. The more successful corps, the more shows and the more money there is for everyone. If the current trend continues, touring expenses should go down because corps won’t have to go from one coast to the other to put together a significantly sized tour. Heck we might even have true regional championships, and then some real drama at nationals.

The Nashville Predators do freakishly amazing projection mapping onto the surface of the ice during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But it is very expensive and the equipment has to be focused over the top of the ice.

Stick a tarp in the end zone as Boston and BC did. That’s good enough for me. Do not tell me you have to have kids marching over tarps to have a great design.

Bout right. I don’t think Bluecoats will finish 1.5 points behind BD and I think the gap between Crown and BAC will be closer. Won’t be surprised at all if Boston hits 95.

I’m throwing the tarps out with the bath water. They are a cheap design crutch. If you just cannot communicate your concept without a tarp, then may I suggest you are not a very good designer.

At this point we’re dealing with an entire season of judging , and the shows are being judged by the same judges that have seen all of these corps many times before. When you get this late in the season and groups that have perform together multiple times and up in the same placement over and over again, with a spread of about a point, it is very unlikely that much will change from this point forward. I just think that the top three are certainly set and have been set for at least the last two weeks. It’s going to be Santa Clara for gold, blue Devils for silver, and bluecoats for bronze. I could see Boston climbing relatively Crown to fourth place, but I don’t see them over taking them. That’s not the way I see it, I think they are the fourth best show on tour, but the judges don’t see it that way.

Imo tarps are the one thing that has migrated from WGI almost solely because designers are spending two thirds of their year designing WGI shows. Tarps could go away entirely and DCI wouldn’t lose a thing. They are a distraction at best, both to fans and corps, and at worst they are a mine field waiting to explode in shows. Any designer who forces kids to have to drag tarps around the field AND march over them should be pulled into an office and told to be a better designer. When I see corps setting up for their show and tarps being dragged out, I immediately begin to wonder if this will be the show where disaster happens. And the thing is, it always happens at least once during a season. Stop using tarps. Just stop.

That’s fine, but that shouldn’t impact GE as much as it apparently is. Clarity of sound and tone should be almost exclusively rated in the music captions.

I guess you have to walk your percussion up to the front of the field and rattle through as many routines as possible in 30 seconds or your content just isn’t hard enough.

I’d like to hear some judges’ tapes on Session 44. Someone here said, Oh there’s too much follow the leader again — to which I say BS. There’s almost NO follow the leader in this show. I get that Crown wows the judges with their tonal consistency, but that should t keep them this close to medaling. There is no way this should be considered one of the best three shows of the season.

Everyone rightly knows I am a homer for Bluecoats, but I couldn’t agree more. I’m not a judge, so my opinion matters nil, but to me these two shows are on different levels.

From the general look of things, the top four are set. Give or take, a full point now separates first, second, third and fourth. Instead of gaps closing, gaps here have solidified over the last two weeks. The drama will be whether Boston can overtake Cavaliers for fourth. They are essentially tied heading to Indy.

Is there a reason BD never plays the Massillon show?

My favorite show this season is Session 44, but there is no denying the audacity and confidence of Babylon. It just never stops, never lets up, and the ending dares you to not jump to your feet. You could make these two shows different, but not better. They are both 11 minutes of sheer spectacle.