Academy and Spirit

[ssorrell]

Although I do agree to an extent that the corps can let it all hang out on finals once they make that 12th place mark, but I certainly do believe that the drop in score has much more to do with numbers management than anything else. Sure, corps can relax without the pressure of missing finals once they are in the Saturday show, but the staff will still press them to be as clean as possible.

In many cases, the score dropped by 3, 4, or 5 points...or even 9+ points in 1976. There's no way I'd begin to believe that the corps let it all hang out so much that their execution slipped almost a full 10 points in one night. It's more an indication that the judges aren't going to pin themselves into a corner by starting off too high on the biggest night of the season. It's the safe thing to do, and it's certainly not an indication that the corps was points worse than the previous performance, although for some reason even seasoned drum corps alumni and fans seem to believe that very thing.

The numbers game...gotta love it.

[Piper]

Very rarely do judges award a perfect score in any caption. If they "max out" the sheet and the next corps preforms better, it's the judges who are screwed. They like breathing room.

[liebot]

Also, come finals night, scores don't really matter as much. They're a concern earlier in the year because you can kind of compare scores from show to show. Finals night, it doesn't really matter what score you get, just what corps you beat. I'm sure Spirit would've been content with a 6-point drop in score if they had jumped over Glassmen or Colts. By the same token, I'm sure Cadets would've been content with a 95 if it meant they beat BD and won a championship.