PR ROCKS

Bumping this one up for my friend John. These are great great seats for all three nights and the best price of any I have seen on DCP. Help my buddy out and buy these tickets.

I don't know if the Cavaliers will win, but peaking early is not the reason behind the scoring circumstance. Changes to the show, off night, etc...but this corps and their staff is way to smart and way too good to peak early. I actually don't like the whole peak early concept, because I really don't think that happens much if at all - with any corps. Just because scores dip on a certain night or corps A passes corps B doesn't indicate someone peaked. Some judges are more reserved in the numbers they give out and if you get the right combination of several judges that all tend to score their caption lower you will see a dip. Spreads between corps is a more accurate indicator of where a corps is. If Blue Devils had been with the Cavies at that show I doubt they would have scored much higher because the spread would have probably been relatively the same as previous shows...not always true because some show changes really work and escalate your score/spread and some hurt...but most likely it would have been a similar spread.

Scores are up. PR is within a point of Cadets, 2.5 over Vanguard.

Opry Mills IMAX Theater in Nashville, TN

They are winning simply because the judges - who have far more experience and training than most of us here - think they are the best at this point in the season. The judges must not be too bored. PR is my favorite corps, but all biases aside, you have to let the judges pick the winner. If a particular corps bores you or isn't your taste, don't listen to them or watch them online or on CD/DVD. I think they all bring something worthwhile to the table.

Jason Hall and Jeff Prosperie for percussion.

Why is this discussion so heated? Bluecoats and Carolina Crown out-performed their programs Saturday and beat Phantom Regiment in the eyes of the judges and in the eyes of a lot of people that were on DCP Saturday night while they were watching the webcast. The origin of this post was to give an opinion, which is cool, but the fact is PR was beaten by two corps with very high quality shows that were performed extremely well. I'm sure there were areas that both of those corps could have done better in - just like PR. If you disagree say I disagree and move on. Why is there a need for anything to digress like this in this poll? We all know Phantom doesn't aspire to 6th place, but guess what? Bluecoats and Carolina Crown are in it to win it also. Phantom didn't have their best show...granted, but there are some very good corps out there this year and on a given night Phantom could perform very well and still place where they did...possibly one step lower. To me that means that the quality of all the corps is high and the fans reap the benefit.

How do you stay ahead of a corps that you haven't beaten once in head to head competition all year? Bluecoats are great and may well beat Phantom Regiment, just wondered if I misread what you were trying to say or if you had bad information. So far Phantom Regiment has not lost to Bluecoats...unlike last year.

Good point to use San Antonio scores to compare since it is on the same weekend, however the scores the original poster used for 2006 were not from Atlanta...he must have gotten them from the comparable weekend from last year. At Atlanta last year Cavaliers were at 93.025 - I think - and Blue Devils were at 93.000. Phantom was third at 92.000.

How would you know when the judge was being inconsistent or the corps performance was inconsistent? Corps have off nights and they have nights where they really turn it up. I'm not saying judges don't also, but how would you ever know ?

Well, I already knew Cadets and Carolina Crown were having incredible years, so I'm more impressed with the score Crossmen got!

Scores are up.

If you look closely you will discover that Mandarins were not in Allentown or Atlanta, and Pacific Crest was not in Atlanta and will not be in San Antonio. Mandarins got a performance time after Intermission also this Saturday. DCI I'm sure is doing groupings using scores from relatively closely dated contests and then conducting a drawing for order - just like they did in Atlanta. Academy was not in Atlanta but got a good score where they were this weekend. I think that is fair enough even if the luck of the draw plays into it. Would you rather these 3 West Coast corps do a coast to coast tour and then disappear because of finances? I would rather they be allowed to develop hopefully to be able to do a full tour and be allowed to grow right now. Blue Devils and Santa Clara Vanguard both do a full tour, but they are well established. Cascades appear to be at all of the regionals, but they didn't begin competing until two weeks later than everyone else. Give me a break, DCI is not playing any favorites.

Congratulations, Blue Stars...I've seen your show and it's great. I've seen Phantom Regiment's show also, and even if they were doing a 8 to 5 roll step during their Firebird, their show overall is much more difficult. I hope that Blue Stars make a run for finals, and I thank you for your opinion, but my opinion is quite the opposite.

Really none of those would be all that surprising, but I don't think Cavies are gonna be below 3rd. Phantom could take 3rd (as could Bluecoats), but they could also conceivably be as low as 7th this week. I doubt it, but with a group of corps this tight it could happen. I don't think that will be the case as the season moves on though.

Tonight: Blue Devils Cadets Cavaliers Phantom Regiment Bluecoats Santa Clara Vanguard Carolina Crown Blue Knights I believe the top three will stay that way through this weekend, but lots of swapping between 1-7 could start in San Antonio and for the rest of the year.

I never would have dreamed that living 40 miles from Murfreesboro TN would be such a great thing.

That's a very encouraging spread for Regiment. Still a long season.

Wasn't that Mat Tomsa? His nickname was "Fetus." He is still in the brassline.

It has turned into a perfect day weather wise for rehearsal in the area and for the show.

Cavaliers may not win, but they won't go down without a fight and you can bet their final version of their show will be strong.

Cut the guy some slack, comparing spreads makes more sense than comparing scores from different shows on different dates. Don't knock him for being smart enough to figure it out. By the way, it's great to see Bluecoats doing so well and being strong enough to compete for number 1.

First of all, if both judges gave Crown a 16.9 (the higher score), that would raise their score by .65. That would move them into 3rd place, not second place. Secondly, aren't the two percussion judges judging different aspects of performance from different vantage points? It would be more unrealistic if their scores WERE the same.

I apologize for not posting earlier that the tickets have been sold. Thanks for your interest.

Glad to see the weather is apparently cooperating