Ripley's Believe It or Not

[CrunchyTenor]

You know, just for fun I took a look at last year's scores to see what happened in the first week of the season. Here's what I found out. BD and SCV were about the same, as were most of the top 7 last year compared to this year. If there is any inflation going on, it gets leveled out within a week.

After scoring a 75.90 at their first show, BD went up a total of 3.85 over the next 5 shows. That's an average of 0.77 per show increase. Cadets scored 70.7, then went up 9.10 (average 1.82/show) over the next 4 shows, pulling ahead of BD. (For argument's sake, I'm ignoring the head-to-head aspect of competition.)

In that first week, Cavaliers went up 6.05 (1.51/show); Regiment 6.90 (1.38/show); SCV 2.3 (.46/show); Crown 5.8 (1.93/show); and Bluecoats 6.6 (1.65/show).

So, what's more believeable? West Coast inflation, or the catching up that midwest/east corps accomplish? In one week, that supposed West Coast inflation was wiped out, or the other corps improved 2-to-3 times faster. Either way, by week's end the judges had it evened out.

Garry in Vegas

[XxDrumCorpsFanxX]

hmmm thats pretty interesting actually. Never looked at it like that before. .

[MagicBobert]

You're doing it wrong man, here's a reference for you.

Steps to Correctly Posting A DCP West Coast Inflation Thread:

1) Someone babbles that west coast scores are obviously inflated.

2) Flaming ensues.

3) Someone posts statistics.

4) Flaming ensues.

5) More statistics are posted. Previous statistics are refuted as garbage and irrelevant.

6) Flaming ensues.

7) Return to step 5

If you're gonna do it, you gotta get the order right.

Edited June 23, 2008 by MagicBobert

[CrunchyTenor]

<--- non-conformist.

Garry in Vegas

[CorpsMan97]

If the logic behind this is that within a week the judges will start to see all of the corps rather than just some corps on a specific coast, and therefore level off the score a little bit, this year it may take more than one week. With fewer judges at every show the chances are smaller that Judge A will see BD and Cadets within a week because if there are 100 dci judges in DCI to pick from and a show only uses 5 now rather than 10, or whatever, they still are picking from the 100 and chances are lowered that the same judge will be seeing a whole variety of corps. For example it goes from having 3 music judges to 2 and 4 visual judges to 2. To add to this, I am sure DCI will try to get as many different judges out for early season shows as possible because you don't want a judges first read of any corps this season to be July 7th AND so that if this new judging method sticks for years, you have all judges with experience in the field with these new sheets and slightly differently weighted scores (no pun intended).

[jwillis35]

This is a good way of looking at the West Coast inflation theory. At some point the corps must go head to head. That always answers any questions more so than comparison does. It could very well be that their 75 is the Midwest 72 and the East Coast 70. There has never been any proof because we don't have head to head for true evaluation. Sometimes our theories could be a bit more believable when a corps like BD would come East early, or Cavies and Madison would go West early.

Probably the only unfortunate aspect of this is for the West Coast corps, believe it or not. It is easier for their fans to see the scores as they are now, then in two to three weeks, when they have only gained marginally, to say "why have we only gone up 2 points to Cavaliers' 4 points?" Of course, this happens all the time no matter where people are from. They get the sense that their is a steady incline that will take place, and if another corps' progress chart looks a certain way, the by gosh their corps' chart should look the same or better. Why? Because to many fans they feel the variables are the same. But they are not, and this is the unfair but realistic and factual truth about drum corps. Each show is not created the same, with equal amounts of talent and ability, and they are not rehearsed under the same conditions, and they are not funded by similar budgets.

I say this also, because in my old days (1980s) we used to believe that BD and SCV came out with high scores because they were just better...which they usually were in those days. They were the best in the 70s for the most part, and aside from Garfield, they were in the top 3 most years in the 80s as well. So sometimes the scores were likely deserved.

These days it is difficult to tell. BD continues to be a top 3 giant year in and out, but there are a number of corps that can be competitive at any given show with the current top 3.

[2000Cadet]

You're doing it wrong man, here's a reference for you.

Steps to Correctly Posting A DCP West Coast Inflation Thread:

1) Someone babbles that west coast scores are obviously inflated.

2) Flaming ensues.

3) Someone posts statistics.

4) Flaming ensues.

5) More statistics are posted. Previous statistics are refuted as garbage and irrelevant.

6) Flaming ensues.

7) Return to step 5

If you're gonna do it, you gotta get the order right.

[arno0940]

In a couple of the reviews from the CA show from last night - many people are questioning/complaining about how the BD and SCV won by such a margin over the Mandarins when the Mandarins had a full show on the field and the other two corps did not.

This analogy makes me think to the "east vs. west". From what I've read most midwest and east corps have full shows on the field, yet the BD and SCV are scoring higher with incomplete shows on the field. (I know different shows, different sides of the country etc.)

Kind of off topic- but somewhat related. Are incomplete shows (drill and guard work etc.) ever reflected on the judges sheets?

[brassboy]

Kind of off topic- but somewhat related. Are incomplete shows (drill and guard work etc.) ever reflected on the judges sheets?

No, I don't think so. The West Coast has NEVER (at least not in my memory of the past 20 years) been in the practice of using a timing and penalties judge (even though they list one on the recaps), which is where a corps would take its "hits" for having an incomplete show.

[bluecoats88]

No, I don't think so. The West Coast has NEVER (at least not in my memory of the past 20 years) been in the practice of using a timing and penalties judge (even though they list one on the recaps), which is where a corps would take its "hits" for having an incomplete show.

they would only get hit with penalties if the show was under the minimum length. so even though they have an incomlpete show, as long as they reach the minimum time mark they would receive no penalty. So standing and playing their closer instead of marching would conotate an incomplete show but would still meet the length requirement. so no penalty. They might have lower GE scores than normal, but if the rest of their show was chock full of things to make their GE high, then a little standing wuoldn't hurt the score too much.