DCIdad

15 mins according to the schedule

Unfortunate close-up of guard member who steps on his flag for the finale

I wasn't a fan of the tarps forming red lines, but now that they turned them over and they have splashes of color they are much better.

Now that Stars, Phantom, Mandarins, Crossmen and Scouts have all performed tonight, what order would you rank them in?

I think that's what the scoring has mostly told us. Will be interesting to see what happens next week with everyone together.

So 8th to 11th has a .850 spread currently with Blue Knights, Phantom, Stars and Mandarins vying for positioning. Academy, Crossmen and Spirit also hot on their tail to make top 12. Will be interesting to see how things shape out tonight with all but BK and Academy performing here.

Similar experience a week ago, but with dogs.

Things are getting interesting. Dead tie for GE between Mandies and Stars. Brass scores also super tight between those two and Crossmen.

Betty? I hope so.

Anybody at this show?

Battalion just performed. They have a great show! Interesting to see them get good so quickly. Good things to come from this corps.

Re: Stars/Mandarins scores First - full disclosure: I am a huge Mandarins fan with a son currently marching with them and another previously marched with them. Tonight was a great result for the Mandarins. A 4.3 point improvement is enormous at this stage, and beating the Stars head-to-head is also huge. On one hand, you can't draw too much of a conclusion from this result (or any single result), especially with the potential flaws in scoring due to a partial judging panel. It definitely proves Mandarins are more than just on the map this year, but it doesn't show that Mandarins are clearly ahead of the Stars. On the other hand, I'd take the head-to-head competition as a better proxy than the previous non head-to-head scores from different competitions with different judging panels. In addition, having seen both shows (albeit only Stars via Flo), I believe the Mandarins show has more upside out of the two. (But remember, I'm biased) Will they capitalize on that? Only time will tell. The good news is from here on through San Antonio they square off in 5 shows. How they compare head-to-head will definitely become apparent by the time San Antonio show is done and dusted.

Way to go Mandies!!! 4.3 point gain is amazing - largest point gain of the season for any world cup corps! * With only 1 show in the previous 7 days they've really been working on cleaning some things up and have added a few new wrinkles. Looks like it paid off. * note: this ties BD's point gain between show 1 & 2

I'd say SCV fits right in there with them

How are the Bluecoats supposed to know if someone is actually booing?

1 Santa Clara Vanguard 82.700 2 Blue Knights 75.600 3 The Academy 73.150 4 Troopers 70.050 5 Pacific Crest 65.700 6 Oregon Crusaders 64.100 7 Seattle Cascades 60.750

Saw their sendoff show. I'm not qualified to gauge the technical side, but it's quite an entertaining show.

I was hoping that they'd have a good year with adding the female corps member. They showed a lot of grit last season making finals by the skin of their teeth, and it would be good to see them at least competitive but so far we haven't seen it. For me, I just don't find their show very interesting.

No, they aren't, and watching a youtube clip of their show I don't know that it's recoverable. Phantom score edges out Mandarins for 8th, but barely. Crossmen still trailing. The more we see, the more it appears that the battle for spots 8-12 will be hectic. Can't wait until San Antonio.

Mandarins will be at Rancho Cordova (Sacramento area). Parade starts at 10.

So almost 3.5 pts gap between 7th & 8th, and 2 pts gap between 14th & 15th. But less than a 3 pts spread between 8th and 14th spot. Hold onto your hats its gonna be a wild ride. Mandarins in a sweet spot right now. I assume this is the highest they've ever been positioned, but all it takes is a couple of shows with little or no progression and they'd be at the bottom of that grouping. Each of the corps in that group will still be fighting for spots likely clear up until Indy.

That makes sense. I was wondering. Also, if I'm not mistaken this score puts Mandarins into 8th leaping BK and Phantom who had the night off.

Thanks for the insight. I have only really seen the Mandarins performance. We've had flomarching issues and haven't really seen the BK show yet. I know that a show being a crowd pleaser doesn't directly translate to GE but I'm told the two are often analogous and I've heard similar praise for the two shows so I was surprised by the GE gap. However, your theory sounds plausible. I'm told this show is a huge step up for the Mandarins in terms of complexity. We'll have to see if they can grow into that difficulty level, clean the show up, and continue to keep pace with the improvements of the other corps. Like all (or at least most) corps, they have additional elements to add and how well they do so will also be a key to their ultimate success. As a Mandarins dad, I'm definitely pulling for a top 10 finish. Fingers crossed that they stay in that position.

Wasn't there last night but from all of the reviews I read, I wasn't expecting a full point difference between BK and Mandarins in GE. Thoughts from anyone in attendance?

I think I heard he owns a construction company? But don't quote me on that.