Battle for 12th Spot

[wesleyrp]

Color Guard for one. I'm afraid the Scouts guard alone will keep them out of finals.

I felt that Scouts should have made finals from the afternoon show but the Crossmen were right there as well. I agree the visual design of the X-men is better and tougher than Madison, but Madison is stronger music wise. I tis going to be interesting. I really feel the Colts are out. They did not have the sound quality needed of a top 12 corps, nor is the show anywhere near as difficult as Scouts or X-Men I think Colts will be 14th and will be good at the end of the season even if they don;t make finals.

W P

[prodigal bari]

Color Guard for one. I'm afraid the Scouts guard alone will keep them out of finals.

CG will not overcome the serious design probs Colts have right now...and it is too late to fix those problems. (Although you are right about it being a factor w/Madison and Finals.)

[bass5]

For what my opinion is worth I'd say the Scouts have the most cleaning yet to do of the 3 corps (Scouts/Xmen/Colts).

As they were all within .5 of each other yesterday that to me means the Scouts are sitting in the better position.

I really like the Xmen show visually but the Scouts show looks more difficult to my aging eyes and musically I'd say the Scouts could even

pass a couple others if they keep up the pace of progress they've had in the last couple of weeks.

I'd really like to see Scouts AND Crossmen in the final 12. I certainly don't think that is out of the question.

Edited July 20, 2008 by bass5

[Musical_Spinner]

I see crossmen keeping that 12 spot based on guard alone. A .9 difference in guard between Madison and Crossmen will keep the spread open. I just don't see Madison catching them in that caption. They would have to really do some work to catch them there or they would have to make up for it in other places.

Who thinks that is possible that Scouts can make up a .9 difference in guard in other places to beat em out?

[TexasPRfan]

I think this will remain interesting. Having seen both of them twice in 3 days (Dallas & San Antonio), here are my thoughts:

Scouts have a MUCH stronger hornline, a more demanding drill, and they march a heck of a lot better RIGHT NOW.

Crossmen have a MUCH better guard, and are much more visually effective.

Crossmen can seal the deal by improving their marching & individual technique (which will also help their brass playing), and work on project more volume in their hornline throughout the show.

Scouts can challenge, but the guard must continue to improve, and they absolutely need to find a way to close out the show. The last 2-3 minutes (drum break to the end) are far below the quality of the rest of the show. The first 8 minutes are quite #### good - reminiscent of Scouts you would expect even. The musical arrangements & drill are lacking in the last sections of the show. Possibly the the most pointless drum break drill I've ever seen. I'm not sure they can salvage the last 3 minutes - but I won't rule it out, either.

Scouts have improved by leaps & bounds, so I think this will remain very tight. If Scouts had gone on back to back to Crossmen, without a break, the order might have been different.

The strengths & weaknesses of each are so disparate, it's hard to say, but I'm going to say Crossmen by a hair - unless Madison can somehow fix the last 2-3 minutes of their show in less than 3 weeks.

Harvey

[audiodb]

After seeing the programs from yesterday, I'd have to say that the 12th spot at finals is going to either Crossmen or Madison. (I think Blue Stars and Glassmen are locked in IMHO)

Colts and Spirit simply don't have the programs/design this year to put them in on Saturday night.

Colts were clean early season which had them scoring well in June....But those more demanding and well designed programs are cleaning up and passing them.

Spirit - Aside from percussion - They are challenging with the semi-finalist corps in the captions.

What do you think?

Totally disagree.

First of all....in stark contrast to early-season, Crossmen were clearly the cleaner of the corps 12th and down in San Antonio. But where do they go from here?

I don't like the changes Madison has been making....but the judges sure do. They were the second-dirtiest corps in world-class in June, but not so now. Must be some know-how among their teaching staff.

Colts are getting demonized for being "dated", which I can't say I fully understand. Nevertheless, they do have some performance issues musically that leave me thinking they're a long shot in this fray. They are only half a point back, though....

Spirit cannot be completely written off. It's not just an unbelievable drumline. Their horns are performing pretty well now too. That seems to slip under the radar, as the music book doesn't stand out. Now, they can't make the cut with things being the way they are now visually....but I can't imagine things staying the way they are visually. There's so much room for improvement there. What if they actually make such improvement?

Even Troopers could be in this, IMO. The guard is obviously playing catchup, but all other captions are vastly improved over last year, and capable of grappling with the corps in this pack. Failing to cash in on that yesterday, though, does leave them in danger of falling into a 16th-place rut across most captions.

[Pinwiz]

Scouts have a MUCH stronger hornline, a more demanding drill, and they march a heck of a lot better RIGHT NOW.

Crossmen have a MUCH better guard, and are much more visually effective.

Crossmen can seal the deal by improving their marching & individual technique (which will also help their brass playing), and work on project more volume in their hornline throughout the show.

I'll give Madison that they're louder and the drill's more difficult, but I wouldn't say that Madison's show is better. There's still some serious design flaws that they just can't fix without throwing out half of the show. At the very least the closer needs significant rewrites.

Crossmen's show is the better one of the two, and they have the better guard.

Madison can catch them, but they have to be CLEAN. Very CLEAN. Crown's colorguard CLEAN. Bree Van de Kamp's kitchen CLEAN. They can't afford any dirt.

And who knows if Colts have more changes up their sleeve?

This isn't over yet, and I hope that it stays close until Semis.

[BigSnareline]

As much as I'd like to say the Scouts will get that 12th spot I'm not so sure after seeing them and Crossmen live yesterday. I do think Madison has better horns, drums, and drill. Madison's pit is far better than the Crossmen. Crossmen have an incredibly entertaining Guard. That is what puts them over the edge. I can't really complain either way - they are my two favorite corps. By the way - did anyone see the Crossmen guard member go down for the count in the afternoon show? I was there and was concentrating on the drumline. I never even saw her go down. I had no idea anyone was hurt till I noticed the paramedics. They didn't get her out of there until after Spirit was finished. I payed more attention to the ambulance and crew than to Spirit.

Edited July 21, 2008 by BigSnareline

[Scout]

I see crossmen keeping that 12 spot based on guard alone. A .9 difference in guard between Madison and Crossmen will keep the spread open. I just don't see Madison catching them in that caption. They would have to really do some work to catch them there or they would have to make up for it in other places.

Who thinks that is possible that Scouts can make up a .9 difference in guard in other places to beat em out?

But you have to remember that a .9 difference in guard calculates to only a .45 difference in total score. And .45 is much easier to make up than .9.

[ajlemm]

These last few weeks are going to be fun!

Does anyone see Xmen, Madison, Spirit or Colts overtaking Glassmen? Glassmen's show has been doing well, but it has been incrementally staying in that 11 spot while it seems the 12 spot is slightly decreasing the spread against G'men. Maybe two of the corps in contention for 12th will end up in Finals and Glassmen wouldn't?