Bluecoats in 7th?

[noduttingoutloud]

Without the penalty the Vanguard was only .4 behind Bluecoats last night. Entirely possible the achilles heel that is the Bluecoats vis program could drop them to 7th.

With the top 3 cleaning up their field music (brass & perc) scores, Bluecoats are falling in every caption.

Here is my prediction

1. Cadets

2. BD

3. Phantom

4. Cavaliers

5. Crown

6. SCV

7 Bluecoats

8. Boston

9. Blue Knights

10. Colts

11. Glassmen

12. Spirit

[PR ROCKS]

The thing is Bluecoats are good enough to finish very high, but so are 6 others. My prediction is that you can't really predict.

[Rocketman]

Not gonna happen! 5th is as low as they'll go!

RM - 7th?

ampssuck

[bandbuck]

Just remember that Bluecoats have moved up during finals week for the past three years. Don't fret....they'll be fine! (I hope!)

Go Blooooooooooooo!

[93Bluecoat]

Without the penalty the Vanguard was only .4 behind Bluecoats last night. Entirely possible the achilles heel that is the Bluecoats vis program could drop them to 7th.

With the top 3 cleaning up their field music (brass & perc) scores, Bluecoats are falling in every caption.

Here is my prediction

1. Cadets

2. BD

3. Phantom

4. Cavaliers

5. Crown

6. SCV

7 Bluecoats

8. Boston

9. Blue Knights

10. Colts

11. Glassmen

12. Spirit

I can see where you are coming from and it IS certainly possible for the Bluecoats to finish in 7th.....just as its possible for PR, Cavies, Crown, or SCV, however your reasoning is flawed in nature, hence you have no arguement. You assume that corps like Crown, SCV, and PR will clean their presumably better visual programs, in order to surpass Bluecoats. This assumes, of course, that the Bluecoats will not clean at all in the same time AND they have inferior visual programming. You acknowledge the fact that the Bluecoats "achilles heel" is the visual program, but don't acknowledge their presumed strengths (music program, that was consistently in 1st place in July) as being a catalyst to push them forward. Therefore, there's not much to your arguement.

The person that says their prediction is that you can't predict.....was right. Good job.

I'd say the Bluecoats show in design and execution is top 3 and finishing in 7th is unlikely for that reason, but that's just a guess. I think we'll all know a little more after quarterfinals on Thursday. We can talk then.

DW

[dciguy01]

Bluecoats in 3rd and I will stand by that prediction.

[Blueemrld8]

Bluecoats in 3rd and I will stand by that prediction.

Can you explain ur reasoning? Im not being sarcastic, but i am new to the activity and would like to know what you base ur oppinion on.

(this goes for anyone who wants to chime in)

Thanks

Hoping for third, but realisticly thinking 4th

Edited August 5, 2007 by Blueemrld8

[Laurakemb]

1st or 7th, Bluecoats are seriously entertaining this year and are already on my list of favorites.

I understand this is a competitive activity, but I wonder if maybe people sometimes put a little too much emphasis on placement?

[wickerbill]

I doubt this will happen, but who knows what will happen with so many corps so close together? The thing is, I don't see any shame in being seventh this year with the quality of the top 7. Only thing I can probably guarantee is that whoever is in 7th won't be too far behind 4th, 5th, and 6th place scoring wise.

[perc2100]

Without the penalty the Vanguard was only .4 behind Bluecoats last night. Entirely possible the achilles heel that is the Bluecoats vis program could drop them to 7th.

With the top 3 cleaning up their field music (brass & perc) scores, Bluecoats are falling in every caption.

That's possible, however:

1. Bluecoats are VERY strong in their music scores. Gunning for high brass (them winning the Ott trophy, IMO, is a very realistic possibility), having Top 3 in percussion and Music Ensemble are very real scenarios.

2. SCV seems to have a lot more ground to cover if they want to pass anyone for Top 6. The Music performance scores have been solid 7th or so all season when going up against everyone, and their GE has been hovering in the 7th or 6th mark. Bluecoats need to clean marching, and hope that their marching performance can make up for their guard and what some judges feel is a not quite there yet visual design.

That being said:

SCV _HAS_ been climbing pretty steady the last week or two. The scores have been coming up, and last night they showed that they COULD make the push and possibly give Bluecoats a scare. Their guard is exceptional, the Visual design is one of the best in DCI this season, and their marching is very strong. GE wise it's a wash, as I think with the right judging panel (and only a .2 difference to Bluecoats last night) it could go either way. Can SCV's superior visual GE program make up for their lacking music GE program? Possibly (I'll address that in a moment). However, can SCV's obvious visual strength and comparable GE make up for their music deficiency? That's the real question. Bluecoats, for now and all season, are without a doubt better musically. SCV has a long way to go to make up the deficit in music to Bluecoats (and Crown and Phantom, for that matter). The question will be if SCV can come close enough in music, and hope to over compensate with visual.

On the plus side, if SCV can clean their brass and percussion better as an ensemble, it will help their GE scores a little bit and might give them the edge. Their rep. was only .1 back (so design wise they're hanging), but their performance was .3. A cleaner performance score could push them on top of GE (also, if they could just march a little bit cleaner that would also push them over the top).

On the Bluecoats side, GE wise it seems like they've come close to maxing out their design. A non-Bluecoats fan could say they're getting desperate with some of the additions they made in the last few weeks (some of the guard work/characterization stuff that plays cheesy, addition of more narration, etc). Some could argue that Bluecoats are trying pull smoke and mirrors with their additions to try and mask a simple show idea that's maxed out it's potential weeks ago. I don't know if I agree or not, but I could see a judge thinking that. For them it's going to all come down to their visual. Their guard is still holding them back a quite bit, and because of that weakness, they're probably also negatively effecting the visual ensemble scores. Performance wise, Bluecoat's visual is fairly strong vs. SCV. But unless their guard improves visual will be low, and will be vulnerable to SCV moving up Finals week. Visual comp. is a pretty big difference (last night .3 in favor of SCV), while both color guard sub-captions were either .2 or .3 in favor of SCV. As mentioned earlier, Bluecoats seemingly have the music captions wrapped up vs. SCV (and a few others, for that matter), and SCV's only shot at that, IMO, is the music ensemble scores. If SCV can get tighter as a corps musically, they could help keep the music deficit to a minimum. Conversely, if Bluecoats can play stronger and max out their music scores, they can widen the gap and keep Vanguard below them.

So it will all come down to which corps cleans their weakest caption more, and which corps gets their strong captions stronger. SCV definitely has a decent change at passing Bluecoats, and I could see SCV as high as 5th (in front of Phantom and Bluecoats) or as low as 7th. I can see Bluecoats anywhere from 4th to 7th (I really think Phantom and, especially, Crown are wild cards at this point; either one, especially Crown, could pull something really special finals week and make a surge).

Either way, it will be very interesting. Of course, I can't say much about performance since DCI sucked last night and I missed seeing everything due to not being able to log in last night at all <**>

Edited August 5, 2007 by perc2100