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DCIdad

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Posts posted by DCIdad

    St Louis, MO - July 15, 2018

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, jordsterr said:

    This weekend was my first real read of Mandarins and BK.  From different nights, different venues and different broadcast systems, it seems to me BK is better musically, and Mandarins better visually.  Anyone feel that way?

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

    Sioux City, IA - July 10, 2018

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted

    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.

    • Like 5

    Sioux City, IA - July 10, 2018

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted

    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

    Cedarburg, WI - July 3, 2018

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by DCIdad

    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. 

     

     

     

    • Like 1

    Drum Corps Map and Daily Rundown

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted

    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.

    Riverside, CA - July 1, 2018

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted

    1 hour ago, 2muchcoffeeman said:

    I'm going to violate the terms of your question, since I wasn't in attendance. My impressions are via livestream, and the most recent stream was Pasadena, not Riverside. But I'll take a stab at it.

    Everyone is going OMG! about Mandarins because of where Mandarins have been, not because their 2018 product is stronger than all the competition on the field this year. You saw the same thing with Academy two seasons ago. They were the it corps of 2016 because they finally pushed into contention for a finalist spot, and a lot of fans got super excited about it -- which was fine; we should be super excited about kids achieving new levels of excellence. Same is happening w/ Mandarins this year, imo. They are the it corps of 2018; doesn't mean they are out-achieving everyone else on the field. Note that Troopers narrowed the GE gap with Mandrains slightly between Pasadena and Riverside. So maybe it was just these judges.

    BK put its final segment of the show on the field between Stanford and Oceanside. I don't know if they performed it at Oceanside, but they did at the Rose Bowl and at Riverside. So the BK product is more complete than it was in the earlier Calif. shows. Translation: BK has raised its own game. You saw BK open the gap from Mandarins just a tad on Sunday, and my guess is this is early evidence that BK is solidifying the additions of the past week and beginning to achieve them at a higher level. They snatched a visual subcap that Mandarins had won the night before. All of which figures into GE.

    I can't judge how clean Mandarins' feets and beats are, and maybe they're really clean. But as far as design goes -- by which my own personal definition is "take me from one place to another place; give me a point-A-to-Point-B experience" -- Mandarins feel kinda one-dimensional. It starts dark, stays dark, and ends dark, even though they tossed in some voiceover to ram home the idea that "no, it's not really dark, see? she came back to life!" The fact that they had to add narration to make that point obvious is a clue, to me, that the performance design isn't communicating well enough. Maybe they'll fix this with something more ogranic than narration. But for now, Mandarins seem like a whole lot of mood and a whole lot of volume, but they don't seem like much of an idea.

    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. 

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