Who found BDB's 2nd place a shock?

[ajwdad]

I am not shocked, which means that I understand judging is subjective. The best corp and show came in second because a single judge decided that he should choose the winner. BTW, that is way semis were close. Same judge... BDB consistently beat VC the entire year, except for the first show, and beat them by 1.3 in the quarters, but again, that one judge. If I sound disgusted, I am. Cadets marched a good show, BDB won Disney, but you cannot beat biased judging, and that is what happened.

[blueazn17]

Hello,

Thank You for posting this! I was going to start this thread after finals, but it didn’t seem appropriate with my emotions running high.

I marched 2nd mellophone with the “Blue Devils B” this 2008 season.

We had a great tour and an almost undefeated season (minus Stockton…and finals). Our 4-way race for first was very close until we reached the 1st show of our finals tour; we pulled ahead with a “1.5” lead.

At finals, the minute I heard that we had gotten 2nd place I knew something was wrong. We had blown a “1.35” spread between SCVC since quarter finals left to lose by “0.05” . Not to name any names but a guy in green really did kill our corp.

It was the same judge for both shows at the respective position

Note: Judges switch from Perc 1 to Perc 2 and vice versa between semis and finals

Judge 1

Semis: Perc 2 gave SCVC “+1.0” pts better than BDB (SCVC: 19.30, BDB: 18.30)

Finals: Perc 1 gave SCVC “+0.7” pts better than BDB (SCVC: 19.70, BDB: 19.00)

(Unlike his counterpart)

Judge 2

Semis: Perc 1 gave SCVC “+0.2” pts better than BDB (SCVC: 19.70, BDB: 19.50)

Finals: Perc 2 gave SCVC “+0.1” pts better than BDB (SCVC: 19.20, BDB: 19.10)

REMEMBER: we only lost by 0.05

I found Judge 1’s score differential absurd

Somewhere in there one judge killed our lead and the season. With this major upset, I have lost all faith in DCI scoring.

I have decided to quit DCI after two good seasons because of my inability to cope with such a heart-breaker season.

Through this post, I am not dissing the Vanguard Cadets in anyway. They had a phenomenal showing at finals (from what I heard).

Watching their encore run through...they were very clean (from an Open Class standpoint and in my opinion).

Their members were very respectful towards us and showed great sportsmanship to our corps when we said our congratulations.

Congratulations Vanguard Cadets…the ’09 BDB will be coming to take your title.

One last time…

TRUE WHAT?!

TRUE BLUE!!

in the words of the great Paulsky

"That's why we're the B corps..."

Edited August 14, 2008 by blueazn17

[EndzoneEric]

With this major upset, I have lost all faith in DCI scoring.

I have decided to quit DCI after two good seasons because of my inability to cope with such a heart-breaker season.

Wow.

[blueazn17]

Wow.

I forgot to mention i'm going to UC Santa Cruz starting next year 3 hrs away from MARS (the practice site)

So it's not just the heartbreak.

[Michael Boo]

From the recaps it looks like they got screwed pretty hard in percussion. Neil Fox (Perc 2) had them within a tenth of Vanguard Cadets but Neil Sylvia (Perc 1) had them at a .7 spread.

Different perspectives. One is on the field and one is in the stands.

[DCIHasBeen]

Different perspectives. One is on the field and one is in the stands.

Regardless, and I didn't get to Open class thanks to my hotel room not being ready until 4am, BDB's drum line was their greatest strength this year. I think I made a comment earlier in the season about those kids being able to play on par with the A-corps. Which makes that result more surprising.

[ChwyNiblet]

Personally I think Surf got shafted.

[bdhornline]

yeah i marched bdb baritone this year...and we got screwed over at finals...it frustrates me how one judge could change the outcome of something like finals so quickly

[ajwdad]

Mr Boo;

it happened twice with the same judge in a different position. Check out the semis. The corp did complain about that judge, but DCI decided not to take it seriously. So, when judging went from 1 show a day (quarters) to 2 shows a day (semis and finals), the best judges probably were selected for the Worlds. I personally think that it shows a serious flaw in how judges are selected and certainly how scores are generated.

I cannot blame the guy above for leaving BD, but unfortunately, judged sports and contests have these kinds of heartbreaks. It happens in the olympics, and much better run organizations than DCI, but in most of those cases, the organization tries to improve and takes inputs from their members seriously. I would say to take a really deep breath, remember all of the great times, and true benefits of drum corp, and then make a decision in a month or two. Emotions are high, and that is not usually a good time for decision making. Also, i encourage you to write to DCI and tell them directly about your feelings, and also your thoughts.

thanks to both BDB and Vanguard cadets for a wonderful season! You guys were outstanding.

Also, i thought both surf and teal were outstanding. Citations color guard was very very good as well..

Best,

Different perspectives. One is on the field and one is in the stands.

[DCIHasBeen]

yeah i marched bdb baritone this year...and we got screwed over at finals...it frustrates me how one judge could change the outcome of something like finals so quickly

It's pretty easy, actually ... The judges are aiming to put a score into a certain range. It starts lower in the season, and gets higher as the summer progresses.

By the end of the season, the judges are separating corps by very, very small margins ... Ranking them one tenth between corps in a lot of cases. If one judge decides to open up a gap, that can really have an impact on the overall score ... So one judge can essentially drop a corps in overall placement.

Edited August 15, 2008 by DCIHasBeen