If you were judging Finals 2010, where would you place the 23 WC corps

[BlooContraGuy]

Oh...it mattered!! And let me just say that you guys were awesome, and not only stirred emotion from the fans, but a great deal of respect from your top tier competition. I remember getting to Hattiesburg to link up with BD at rehearsal and when I arrived I ran into a senior staff and I said, "Man, you guys are kicking ###", to which he replied "Have you seen the Cavies and Bluecoats?" Just goes to show you, that a good dose of healthy respect keeps you energized and in touch with reality. Congrats on a great year!

Wow, thats awesome! Thanks Plan!

[TimbreDeBrass]

1. Cavies

2. Bluecoats

3. Cadets

4. BD

5. Phantom

6. SCV

7. Madison

8. Crown

9. Boston

10. Blue Knights

11. Blue Stars

12. Glassmen

13. Crossmen

14. Troopers

15. Colts

16. Pac Crest

17. Sprit

18. Surf

19. Pioneer

20. Cascades

21. Academy

22. Mandarins

23. Teal

In reply to SFZFAN,

I'm going to have to agree with Howdy on a couple things - with regard to my personal input. As for the random bolding, I bolded every other message/response to make it easier to read :) (maybe I'm just crazy...)

1) Blue Devils in 4th - I think that a lot of us "fans" would like to see this happen, but it just isn't going to anytime soon unless BD craps all over themselves next year (and with recent trends, the future doesn't look like it's going to change much). I would keep them in 1st, because it's just the "way it is". They know how to mask their mistakes, and they are pretty clean overall.

2) Phantom in 5th - I believe Phantom's Percussion line was outstanding and was the corps' redeeming factor this year; the intonation and the overall musicality of the brass was terrible. I suppose the visual package has gotten better. I liked The Red Violin better (mostly because I'm a brass player. If it wasn't for their percussion, I would put them in 9th, but to make all the Phantom Phans happy, I have them in 8th.

3) SCV in 6th - yes, they were clean, but their package just wasn't all there for me and their brass line sound is nothing like it was in '09. I have them in 7th.

4. Madison in 7th - They were good, and they had a major comeback this year. They just aren't top 8 material yet. I'd keep them where the judges had them, above BK, below BAC.

5. Crown in 8th? Nuff said. Crown hasn't been in 9th since... 2006? Strong corps, don't see too many ups or downs. If i do see ups or downs, likely ups (as in, another silver, or another bronze, maybe if they work real hard and have the right show, a gold is in their near future). (I'd keep them in 4th, if they were any more clean this year, they'd be an easy 3rd for me)..

6. Blue Stars in 11th - This one makes little sense to me. This corps has been on the rise despite their placement in the past 3 years (On my notecard I got from the finals dvd I received, it says that they have achieved the highest 8th place score in DCI history, quite an accomplishment if you ask me, and rediculous at the same time). They moved from 14th in '07 to 8th in 2008, it's hard to imagine them going down. Another 8th place finish would be outrageous after this year (4 years in a row is unheard of). Soon it's going to be called "Star Place".... I wouldn't want to see that happen as I see great potential in this corps to rise up next year to a top 6 finish. Putting them below Blue Knights is very strange to me as well. Blue Knights were fantastic at the beginning of the 2010 season. The problem was that they peaked half way through the season. Being a brass player again, the quality of sound is not terrible at all. The sound is there, cleanliness needs some work. They went from beating SCV (which caused quite a stir) to finishing below the Scouts(who never peaked).

In conclusion - I'd put the Stars in a tie with SCV for 7th, if not in 6th.

7. The Colts in 15th - ehhh.... don't see that happening, below the crossmen too? My guess is they'll fall back into finals one of these years and knock out the Glassmen who have been strong some years and shaky others.

Edited February 23, 2011 by TimbreDeBrass

[TimbreDeBrass]

My order:

1) BD

2) Cavaliers

3) Bluecoats

4) Crown

5) Cadets

6) SCV/Blue Stars Tie

8) PR

9) Crusaders

10)Madison

11)BK

12)The G-Men

13)Colts

14)Academy

15)Troopers

16)Teal Sound

17)Spirit

18)crossmen

19Pacific Crest

20)Cascades

21)Pioneer

22)Mandarins

22)Jersey Surf

Edited February 23, 2011 by TimbreDeBrass

[Star]

1) Blue Devils - Clearly the best corps this past season.

2) Bluecoats - Honestly thought they presented a more dynamic and challenging product than the Cavies finals night. Not by much, but by enough for the silver.

3) Cavaliers - just barely edged out by the Bluecoats in my opinion.

4) Cadets - Really enjoyed this show. Felt like it should have gotten higher than it did, but with such competition up top not enough to break back into the top 3.

5) Carolina Crown - Crown has fallen from what took them up to the top; Accessibility. Starting in 2007 they have had the crowd at their back. It seems like they have started to assume they will have crowd support no matter what.

6) Santa Clara Vanguard - Almost a tie with Blue Stars in my mind.

7) Blue Stars - See above

8) Phantom Regiment - Perhaps a personal choice, But I was not nearly as interested in Phantom this year as I have been in years past. Just lacked any sort of "Wow" factor or outstanding difficulty.

9) Boston Crusaders - Honestly did not see as much of this show as I would've liked this past summer, but their placement felt right.

10)Blue Knights - Best I've heard BK in a while. Strong sound, just not nearly as difficult of a visual book as it could have been.

11)Troopers - Felt that this corps really got robbed. Obviously the show was lacking, but Troopers put up the best hornline in years, and I thought was quite good visually as well. Definitely not a corps that should have gone home on Friday night IMO.

12)Madison Scouts - Bound to get into finals based on the groundswell of crowd support but honestly this show did nothing for me. By far the dirtiest show visually (especially on the individual level) in the top 15.

13)Glassmen - Not really a finals quality product, even though the members did their best with it.

14)Academy - Never saw this one. Seems like a good place for it.

15)Colts - Another show that simply did not seem to 'speak'. Even on the most energetic nights seemed too flat.

Never saw the rest of the shows enough to offer an informed opinion.

Edited February 25, 2011 by Star

[thirdcoast]

perhaps he was ranking them using his personal judging values...which, is, by the way, what this topic calls for. I would have had BD last, and SVC in 21st or 22nd, but my judging criteria is different than DCI's...

My top twelve would look like...

1. Madison

2. Crown

3. Bloo

4. Cavies

5. Jersey Surf

6. Cadets

7. Blue Knights

8. Colts

9. Boston

10. Spirit

11. Pioneer

12. Academy

My judging criteria is how I was personally entertained.

Nice!

[dasboot]

1)Bluecoats

2)Cavaliers

3)Blue Devils

4)Cadets

5)Phantom Regiment

6)Carolina Crown

7)Blue Stars

8)Boston Crusaders

9)Santa Clara Vanguard

10)Blue Knights

11)Madison Scouts

12)Colts

13)Glassmen

14)Troopers

15)Spirit

16)Academy

17)Pacific Crest

18)Crossmen

19)Jersey Surf

20)Pioneer

21)Mandarins

22)Teal Sound

23)Cascades

[monoemono]

Actually, it was a skyscraper in New York City. The guard costumes were inspired by and based upon the famous 1932 New York Herald Tribune photo by Charles C. Ebbets of workers on the GE Building in Rockefeller Plaza. What may have looked like a railroad track on the field represented the girder seen in the photo.

That picture makes me feel a little....dizzy....

[TexasPRfan]

More than almost any year I can remember, I was never wowed by anyone being clearly #1 last year. All the top 6 had weaknesses. The entire top 4 from 2008 was stronger, in my opinion, than anyone in 2010.

1. Bluecoats - I just felt like this was the most polished, well executed, visually and musically demanding and audience engaging show of the top 3 - a complete package

2. BD - Undeniably well executed, but the connection was just missing to me, and the visual demand, while hidden by the mirrors to an extent, was just not there for me - just my preference

3. Crown - May not have been the most effective visual book, but it was demanding, the hornline was stellar, and the guard very complimentary. The new ending propeled this show up my rankings

4. Cavaliers - this show has slipped for me the more times I've listened to it and/or watched it. The music book just had too many weaknesses, and the hornline was just not on par with the rest of the top 6 in my opinion

5. Phantom - As others have said, they took the emotion and connection to another level for many (not for all) and while different from their normal "sound", I thought this was solidly a top 4 corps musically. Also felt the guard was under-rated by the end of the year.

6. Cadets - I can't put my finger on it, but there was just something missing from this show. Trying to hard to be cute & likeable. Clearly still closer to 2nd than 7th.

7. Blue Stars - I felt like they nailed their performances in Indy. Powerful show, well played & well marched.

8..SCV - Not everyone's cup of tea but pulled off very well.

9. Blue Knights - I felt like this show should have scored better. Very demanding show executed reasonably well. Inspiring show, good audience connection, and I'll never get tired of hearing how Jim Prime arrangements close a movement or a show.

10. Madison - what a great step forward for them! Nice power, vastly improved guard, good show concept all in their favor/ Pedestrian drill held them back, but what a great building block.

11. Boston - Such a tight grouping between 9th and 11th for me. All around one of Boston's better recent shows.

12. Glassmen - Some nice moments, but not one of my favorite shows

13. Troopers - probably a better performing corps than 2009, but the vehicle was not nearly as strong

14. Academy - on the verge of top 12 in everything but a sub-par guard program

15. Colts - maybe one of the most solid 15th & 16th place corps ever

16. Spirt - Vastly improved in just about every way.

17. Pacific Crest - also a step in the right direction. Some nice musical moments

18.. Crossmen - this show just didn't do it for me. Hated the arrangements.

19. Mandarins - A show with some real highs & lows. Some great moments, though!

20. Teal Sound - great to see & hear such strenght in horn lines in this scoring range

21. Jersey Surf - just didn't like this program after a nice, innovative debut in World Class the previous year

22. Pioneer - Best show from Pio in years

23. Cascades - good to see them back on the field

Just my personal opinions, and I'm always a bit biased to the music side of things.

Harvey

[david.t]

1 - Blue Devils

2 - Bluecoats

3 - Cavaliers

4 - Phantom Regiment

5 - Carolina Crown

6 - Cadets

7 - Blue Stars

8 - Santa Clara Vanguard

9 - Boston Crusaders

0 - Madison Scouts

1 - Blue Knights

2 - Glassmen

[brassEXPERT]

Finals -

1) Blue Devils - despite the fact that they had visual and musical demand that was inferior to the entire top 5, their continued dominance in the category of performance makes them stellar to watch, even when the show has ZERO audience connection. We can rip on BD all we want for doing their thing (post 2007 thing anyways), but they are GREAT at it.

2) Cavies - They got their stuff together by the end of the season and made a package that was incredibly entertaining for the audience. Again, not the highest demand, but the performance and entertainment factor were up there.

3) Cadets - It is hard to make this show top 3 because it was not clean like a top 3 show, but this was easily the most underrated show up 2010 and got the least amount of credit. Very much a mystery that the brass line had been consistently winning/ at least making top 3 in brass all season before they were slotted for finals in fifth all week. Probably the first or second most visually demanding show, and definitely the second most demanding brass book. The trumpet intro alone could have gotten them a top three spot - what a line! Also, thank you for playing and marching for twice as much as any of the other top 5 corps.

4) Coats - Again, this is hard to put out of the top 3, but I just could not jump on this bandwagon. I think the bluecoats are able to put out some of the more entertaining shows from year to year, but I think that this year was exceptionally clean, for this corps. This is no rip on BC, but the visual program is still not up to par and the brassline has a little bit more to go before I consider it an elite line among those of the new Crown lines, Cadets, or BD. Rockin percussion though

5) Crown - I feel comfortable with this placement. Once again, the brass line continued to lead the corps, although not in the same way as 2009. The sound of the 2009 Carolina Crown brass line might be my favorite of all time, be it in Bb or G (which I DO like many lines), so it was hard to listen to the phasing and technical errors of this line following that incredible year. Once they hit the loud chord in the beginning, there were passages that were too hard for the members, and it reflected in their ability to march and play well. I still have yet to see a defined marching technique from the members, and the whole dancing 50% of the time sort of defeats the purpose of the activity. This is definitely about entertainment, but I think its time we all started to march again.

6) Phantom - This is hard to not put in 5th, but crown's performance was definitely better. Phantom is back on the rise, and I thoroughly enjoyed this show. The guard work was great, especially when featuring the dancers and soloists. What a drumline. Holy crap

7) Vanguard - I still love the sound of this hornline, I just wished they marched better.

8) Blue Stars - I think that with another season under their belt, this will be a corps to watch out for. As for this past season, there were definitely some struggles towards the end of the show and some brass parts that were conveyed semi well, or just didn't come through to the audience as intended.

9) Crusaders

10) Blue Knights

11) Madison

12) Glassmen