What would happen if....

[mellophonium]

When I see statuses like this posted minutes after finals retreat, I tend to lose my trust in the judging community.

[Cleveland1]

Cavies dressed in Pioneer, going first they would like be scored a little bit lower than they would if they were going in the top 5. but not by much.

Pioneer dressed as Cavies would finish in the bottom 3 likely, since their show would be right next to Cadets or BD

[Barifonium]

I'm tellin' ya man, computerized judging would solve all of this

[JamMan]

The first two options in your poll pretty much say the same thing, but my thinking is exactly the opposite-the corps dressed as Pio (in reality, the Cavies) would still be scored near the bottom, and the corps dressed as Cavies (in reality, Pio) would be scored near the top. One reasoning for this, as we've heard before, is that the corps dressed as Pio, going on at or near the beginning, would be scored low because the judges are "leaving room" for the corps that appear later to score higher. The poll also indicates that these judges are getting "first reads" on these shows. IMO, judging is supposed to be neutral, unbiased, etc. but I think it's nearly impossible for any of the judges to not take into account where a particular corps is "supposed" to finish and score them accordingly. Even if a top 6 corps happens to have an off night and a semi-finalist outperforms them by delivering the best show of their lives, I'm not sure that the judges wouldn't give the top 6 corps a "pass" and still score them higher.

You've contradicted yourself. You say the Cavaliers (dressed as Pioneer) would get a low score to leave room. But then you claim that would leave them at the bottom. Well, if they go on first and get a low score, the next corp will get an even LOWER score (unless it's The Cadets or the Blue Devils). So placement would stay the same, but scores would be a lot lower.

To put this in real world practice, take a look at Open Class two years ago. The Spartans just came back and were on first every show. Night after night, they would 3-point second place, so you're argument that slotting is rigid is moot.

[CQuinn]

What would Daniel Ray do?