college-phan

I sorta view Mandarins in a tier by themselves right now with Phantom and Cadets above them and Cavies and Blue Stars below them. That can quickly change as the season progresses, but I need to see some more additions and tweaks of their show before I move them up to the PR-Cadets tier. Of course, could be very wrong here as I am not a judge, but I’m not convinced they’re quite to that level (just design and execution wise) just yet.

That’s gonna be key imo. Personally I’m not the most in tune with Perc scoring and all, but I can only hope the staff is working to make some changes that’ll make Finals a Phantom v Cadets battle for fifth. Going to be hard to win that if they aren’t on a somewhat equal playing field in percussion.

Considering the gap I’m referring to is between BS and Phantom, not Cavies and Phantom, I think you’re actually reading my previous comment wrong. Plus gotta include GE in that analysis. EDIT: to be clear, definitely understand the confusion

Phantom is building a sizable lead in GE and Music, wow!

Bad run for PR’s perc? That’s a huge drop for them relatively speaking

I gotta say, the headpieces have REALLY grown on me

Can’t say too much more because I don’t want to spoil anything. I think it’s going to be a great addition, but knowing what I know about this forum, some might not be pleased. However, it fits imo, so all is good if you ask me. All I’ll say is to trust the design staff and look forward to some really cool new stuff when they’re ready!

They actually just finished up the T-Rex cloning project! It’s gonna be a great addition to that company front in the closer!

Not sure exactly when they’ll be added, but I’m hearing about some bigger changes that are in the pipeline. There’s one thing that I’m especially eager to see incorporated. It’ll probably be a little bit unpopular with some on here, but I think it’ll be a net positive with the way they’re planning on doing it. Personally, I’m an huge fan of this one specifically. Exciting things on the way!

these are certainly uniforms. that’s about all i can say

2019 was a 9+ point gap at Finals between the two, so I’m feeling real good this evening haha

After seeing all the shows tonight, I’ve gotta say Phantom has by far the best pacing of any of the corps I’ve seen. No offense at all to the other corps, but everything with Exogenesis just feels right, like a well produced movie. Good on the staff for putting together something that is both competitive and digestible!

Very interested to hear/see Cavs today. I’ve heard a lot of mixed opinion on their show this far, so it’ll be interesting for sure to see how this goes.

Everyone is going to have their opinions y’all. At the end of the day, this is a wholly subjective activity; just enjoy the shows and we’ll see what happens with the scores as a secondary cherry on top. Stars and Phantom wholly exemplify this. They have very different designs and vibes. Phantom won’t be a lot of people’s cup of tea (as demonstrated by a lot of the predictions after Concert in the Park). Blue Stars are very quirky this year and a lot of people won’t be in love with it (as evidenced by stuff last night). Judges are the same in their analysis. Everyone has thoughts and a lot of those thoughts will butt heads. That doesn’t have to be a source of animosity, it’s just difference of opinion. Regardless, both corps are extremely talented and pushing for their first top-six finish for the first time in a long time. All in all, enjoy the shows you enjoy, feel free to share your thoughts on show designs, have thoughtful conversations with people that love this activity, and let’s have a good season!

I gotta admit, I’m a bit confused where this idea that this show doesn’t have a lot of growth potential is coming from? Unless I just missed whole sections of the show, there was plenty of evidence that the show as it is right now is the foundation for whatever it’s going to be in August. Be it choreography, music, drill, etc., it seems to me that it’s been created in a way that it’d be easy to change or add on things later on into the season. I think some people are just shocked about how starkly different this is from Phantom’s normal style (and even last year’s show), so that’s how they’re grappling with it? Idk. How is everyone viewing this?

Phantom. Is. Back. Cannot wait to see how this show improves over the season!

Phantom sounds like Phantom again. It’s amazing.

1. Phantom/Stars 3. Cavies 4. Colts/Troop Basing this on the low amount of info I have on all the corps except Phantom and Cavies

Phantom has kinda struggled the last few years with utilizing modern electronic capabilities in their shows, so I think it’s pretty cool that they’re just making a whole caption dedicated to that stuff! Really demonstrates a commitment to putting a top-tier product on the field and making sure percussion leadership isn’t bogged down with this aspect of show design and performance. Innovative stuff from Phantom! https://twitter.com/phantomregiment/status/1673332811070095361?s=46&t=jbITjAKcpN6SmusR_7W7rw

If anyone was able to go to the community performance tonight, let us know what you think!

1) Devils - They’re winning it all until they aren’t; strong design and will certainly be clean by Indy. 2) Boston- Extremely strong design and plenty of talent that will almost certainly land them in the top three, love that hornline sound and the percussion is on fire, but I’m not going to predict them to take first over the Devils just yet. 3) Bluecoats - Wild card pick tbh because I haven’t heard much from them (except that their uniforms are terrible), so I’ll just put them in third for now, but they could end up anywhere in the top five. 4) Crown - Huge step up from last year’s show with an of course great hornline and a stronger percussion, but idk, I’m just very uninspired by the design from what I’ve seen (doesn’t seem very innovative or new, just a rehash of some great stuff they’ve done in the past). 5) Phantom - I love the modern show design and the brass has continued to grow leaps and bounds since JD came back and is very clean for this early in the season; it’s also an extremely visual-focused show and I have a lot of faith in the new visual staff to fix Phantom’s recent aversion to visual cleanliness. 6) Cadets - Could easily end up all the way at 4th, but I took the safer pick based on my limited info and put them at 6th. 7) Blue Stars - I really want to boost the Stars on up the rankings, but something always holds them back from being a perennial contender in the top-six and with how competitive this year seems it will be, I have to put them at 7th for now. 8.) Cavies - Aggressive, very Cavalier show, but I need more before I boost them up after last year when they had a very Cavalier show and it just plateaued (due to sickness, staff, etc.), but they could easily surprise us. 9) Mandarins - I could see them pushing on up in the rankings, but they have a bit of turnover from last year so I’m not totally convinced they can do so with an ultra-competitive season. 10) Blue Knights - Much much much improved show design from last year, but they seem very dirty right in comparison to the corps above them in my rankings; that doesn’t mean they will be in August, but just basing this prediction off what I know now. 11) Colts - Honestly just making a safe bet here and picking Colts to continue their trajectory from last year; similarly, this could be Crossmen, Troopers, etc. 12) Crossmen - Seem very much reinvigorated from last season design-wise, but again, this could be Troopers, Colts, etc.

I strongly advise everyone to withhold judgement until after you see the visual design. The music is much different from Phantom traditionally, but so is the visual, and I mean that in the best way possible. You can’t really understand this show without the visual production. Plus, the music will of course grow on us all as it usually does! This has potential to be a phan phavorite show by the end of the season while also being very competitive on the score sheets! I think we all need to remember where Phanton was four short years ago haha. We would’ve begged for days like this!

Love the Rach ballad, but yeah I agree. It almost came across to me like they felt they *had* to incorporate something from the classical realm into the repertoire. Sounds great (I think the ballad is better than last year) but it’s a bit different from the rest.

Officially? No, I think Phantom said they would not be, for whatever reason. Usually, however, you can find someone live-streaming it on Facebook or Twitter. Worse comes to worse, someone will post it on YouTube later tonight, or at least I guess someone will. I’d be very surprised if no one posted anything.

Agreed! I guess it’s the price of progress, sadly. I think straight-leg has had a limiting impact on the visual scores for the past couple of years, if I’m to be honest. Just wasn’t getting the technique clean enough to boost scores, the impact of which was only exacerbated by the white uniforms. Bent leg should go well with white though and be easier to clean (or at least make somewhat uniform). Time will tell!