over60 Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 I don’t know about you, but I don’t care much about who finishes ninth or eleventh at DCI World Class finals. I know, it does matter to the staffs, members and families of those corps because finishing in the top twelve in semifinals guarantees a spot in finals and being a finalist does give a sense of accomplishment. But, I suggest that most casual and non-affiliated fans’ interest in the exact placement of the corps on finals night diminishes greatly after the top few; I’ll say six. Therefore, it occurred to me that in order to have the most entertaining lineup at finals, the show could be structured to showcase not only the half dozen most technically proficient corps in terms of performance and design, but additionally, including the most entertaining corps as well. Right now, semifinals only determines the final placements of the thirteenth and lower place corps. My proposal is to have semifinals determine the final placements of the seventh and lower scoring corps. Only the top six scoring corps from semifinals would “make finals” automatically. What would determine the other six corps to perform Saturday night? The vote of the fans. Allowing the fans’ input regarding who they want to see is not without precedent. For example, major league baseball lets the fans vote for some of the All-Star selections. And, more to the point, the various talent programs on TV the last decade also let the audience vote, along with judges, as to who will be in the finals competition. Over the years, the instructors, who’ve written the scoring rules, have continually insisted that since everyone has a different opinion as to what is and is not entertaining, there’s no way to quantify audience appeal and give it a caption score. OK. My proposal won’t require any scoring rules changes. Allow fans across the country at the regional contests (and possibly other DCI sanctioned shows) to vote on who they think the most entertaining corps are. A rating or ranking system could be used. (I suppose you could allow internet voting but only if there’s a way to prevent individual fans from voting more than once.) Then, after the top 17 scoring corps have been determined at DCI semifinals with only the top six automatically moving into finals, the fans’ choices for the six most entertaining corps not already among the top six scoring corps in semifinals, would comprise the remaining six finalists. What would my proposal accomplish? Three things that I can think of. First, it would guarantee that Saturday night would have both the technically most proficient corps plus the most entertaining corps. Secondly, it might change the thinking of the instructors of some of the World Class corps as to what type of material to perform. This is what excites me the most. Think about it. As the rules are written now, scores in each caption are awarded for two things: (1) excellence of musical and marching execution by the members and (2) the musical and visual design of the instructional staffs. Currently, if I’m the director or instructor of a good, but not great, World Class corps and I want to “make the top 12” to be in finals, the way the rules are structured now I’m going to have to use the same strategy as the top corps by performing sophisticated material and trying to execute it well enough to impress the judges to get enough points to place in the top twelve. But under my proposal, with only the top six scoring corps guaranteed a place in finals, I might think, “We’re going to have a young, inexperienced corps next year and have little chance of scoring in the top six to guarantee a place in finals so we’ll try and design a show that has as much audience appeal as possible so the fans might vote us into finals more on the basis of how much we entertain them rather than how well we execute a sophisticated program to impress the judges.” Wouldn’t this be a winning situation for the fans? And DCI? Of course, trying to determine what entertains the most fans may not be obvious at first, but after a year or two of seeing what type of program material the fans have chosen as the most entertaining, it should become more clear. Therefore, if this idea is implemented, it should be tried for at least a few years. A third benefit would be that the relatively small size of a corps wouldn’t hurt its chances of being in finals. As it is now, marching only 95 members virtually eliminates a corps from any chance of scoring in the top six in World Class, but if a smaller corps had a really entertaining show, the fans might vote them into finals. Isn’t that also a winning situation for the members of the smaller corps, fans and the activity in general? Some of you might be thinking, “It wouldn’t be fair to the members of the 7th through 12th placing corps from semifinals not to march in finals after all their hard work.” Well, don’t you think the members of the 13th and lower placing corps work just as hard as the top twelve? According to current scoring, many points are awarded for show design so why penalize the members of the lower scoring corps for something they can’t control? I say, give all corps a chance to make finals if they‘re good or entertaining enough. Maybe someone could create a poll on Drum Corps Planet and we could try it here first and see what would happen. This weekend is the big Minneapolis show with all the corps so this would be a good time to start. Anyone want to help? Just remember, it wouldn’t be fair to allow people to vote more than once. I don’t know if the DCP poll could be designed to check for this. Anyway, thanks for any help and ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwillis35 Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Interesting idea. Not sure the drum corps themselves would buy this, but I see what you are saying. There is definitely pressure here on the 7th-place corps on down because they could be left out of Finals-night competition. The top 6 advance based on score alone. Then the 7th-place corps down to the 23rd place corps (or whatever the number is) are in a pool and the fans vote for 6 of those corps. On one hand I think the staff of one of these corps, one that was scoring top-12 kinda numbers all season and get's left out, would feel slighted and this might cause instibility with their employment. On the other hand, you might be surprised at how smart the average fan really is, and that a massive vote (some 15,000 people at semis) would like still produce a bottom 6 corps that look similar to the way the judges had scored it. I say this because most fans do not vote on entertainment along but have a good idea of total show construction. But as you say, if they were told to vote for the 6 most entertaining shows (after the top 6 is announced) that would definitely stir things up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5thbassman Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 The first thing that comes to my mind is that the easiest way to vote would be by text. (in such a time constraint) and that could be greatly influenced by online fan base. If BK has a thousand more Facebook likes than the Scouts, they'd have an advantage. A mere online presence could make or break a corps opportunity for finals. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
over60 Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 My idea was to have the fan voting completed before DCI week. There's not enough time to do it during Finals week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueDevils92 Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 I say keep it the way it is. If it ain't broke don't fix it 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwillis35 Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 If such a thing really did happen, I think that it has to be based on the shows at Semi-Finals. Otherwise why have semifinals if it doesn't really matter for some corps. I think this type of voting has to be done by those in attendance that day...period. Now, maybe this helps DCI get more fans to Finals week. It would be difficult to collect the votes, but each fan could simply write-in their favorite 6 (of the 7 - 25ish corps) and return those to a DCI person at each entrance point. I think you want to take electronics out of the equation. To many issues and too many ways for people to cheat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowtron Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 I say keep it the way it is. If it ain't broke don't fix it Same scores 3 nights in a row not broke at all I like the outside the box thinking of the OP...but it would be interesting if you finished in 7th only 0.025 out of 6th and got voted out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dapperpoet Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 So when gymnastics and diving occur in the Olympics in a couple of weeks we should let the crowd vote? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobrien Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 I'd say let the fans vote on who is "most entertaining" (whatever that means) by showing up in the concourse and buying the most t-shirts from the corps they like the best. The finer points of what makes for a truly excellent performance are sometimes elements that aren't about making the audience yell. Audience response is already supposed to figure into the GE scores, so i'm not sure there's a reason to add another layer to the system to take that into account. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barigirl78 Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 "But, I suggest that most casual and non-affiliated fans’ interest in the exact placement of the corps on finals night diminishes greatly after the top few; I’ll say six." Do not agree with this opinion. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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