Finals week discussion thread

[Galen]

Like last season, I will be trying to do a semi-live "play by play" for the preliminary rounds of competition with periodic score updates.

Here is the lineup for today's world class prelims (based on the average of shows from the last 4-5 days), with the top 30 corps advancing to quarterfinals. With any luck, I'll be able to post the first score update sometime around 4 or 5 pm CST.

10:30 Pinnacle

10:45 Avengers

11:00 Maroon Stars

11:15 Bulls of Hillsbourough County

11:30 Central Sounds

11:45 Feenicks

12:00 Majestic

12:15 Heatwave

12:30 Freedom Spears

12:45 Red Stick Tigers

Intermission

1:30 Blue Barracudas

1:45 M.I.B.

2:00 Cincinnati Light Brigade

2:15 Green Regiment

2:30 Spirit of SoFla

2:45 Blue Heat

3:00 Quilt

3:15 Xpress

3:30 Purple Mountain Majesty

3:45 Coloradicals

Intermission

4:30 Midland Valley Redcoats

4:45 Roselle Park Conquistadors

5:00 Black and Gold Regiment

5:15 Euphony Empire

5:30 Mountain Devils

5:45 Shenendoah Woodsmen

6:00 The Knights

6:15 Crimson Lions

6:30 Appalachians

6:45 Treasure Coast Gold

Intermission

7:30 Velocity

7:45 Quiksilver

8:00 Ohio Valley Thunder

8:15 Great Lakers

8:30 Renegade Brigade

8:45 The Stud Bolts

9:00 Knights of Power

9:15 California Knights

9:30 The Elite Brigade

9:45 Rocky Mountain Thunder

10:00 Tennessee Nipples

10:15 Nastalgia Vanguard

10:30 Star of Jupiter

10:45 Polaris Regiment

[hostrauser]

Great, I'll be at my bowling league when the last group of 14 corps goes on, so I'll have to wait hours to find out who wins this season's jinx.

[StarOrg]

Based on recent performances I don't see it happening tonight but heard some of our Jupiter staff going around murmuring..."don't win Prelims...don't win Prelims"... guess we got bit by the curse before.

[Galen]

We're live in Dallas with our first batch of updates from this morning's performing corps. I'll try to update every 60-90 minutes, so check back often to see how your corps did.

Pinnacle- 89.387; This is a youngish-looking corps in their first season. They struggled to communicate the program somewhat,but the color guard turned in a really impressive performance.

Avengers- 88.622; Colorguard struggled with some drops and timing problems, but the musical ensemble was really pleasant to listen to and communicated well on the field.

Maroon Stars- 88.343; This rookie corps displayed extremely well-developed visual technique and performance.

Bulls of Hillsbourough County- 88.456; Another rookie corps this season. They had a good all-around performance but nothing that seemed to really stand out.

Central Sounds- 88.206; Another rookie corps, with a performance level very similar to the Bulls.

Feenicks- 88.729; Feenicks was one of last season’s breakthrough corps but has struggled to repeat that performance last season. There were lots of really good visual design elements in today’s program that came off quite well.

Majestic- 90.269; First corps to break 90 today. Guard had a very strong performance, very good drill design was another highlight.

Heatwave- 91.407; A very good combination of strong drill design and a rock-solid percussion book for their “Novus Mundus" show.

Freedom Spears- 89.936; Judges just didn't want to give them that 90 today. The drumline had a good day but little else really stood out here.

Red Stick Tigers- 91.659; The rookie corps from Louisiana had a strong performance and really communicated their program. An impressive performance from one of the few female directors in DCPI puts this corps at the top of the standings going into the first intermission.

Standings so far:

Red Stick Tiger: 91.659

Heatwave: 91.407

Majestic: 90.269

Freedom Spears: 89.936

Pinnacle: 89.387

Feenicks: 88.729

Avengers: 88.622

Bulls of Hillsborough Cty: 88.456

Maroon Stars: 88.343

Central Sounds: 88.206

[Galen]

Update #2, featuring corps who performed earlier this afternoon.

Blue Barracudas- 91.003; Pretty good brass performance, but visual ensemble struggled to hold timing together.

M.I.B.- 91.614; One of the best shows so far from a visual performance standpoint, but the show feels very lacking from a visual design standpoint.

Cincinnati Light Brigade- 92.114; Definitely a step up from past performances, with solid writing from the design staff.

Green Regiment- 90.744; Very strong visually, but the music side didn’t match the visual effort.

Spirit of SoFla- 91.280; Some tics from the brass line marred what was otherwise a very good musical performance from this rookie corps.

Blue Heat- 92.253; Blue Heat may be a first-year corps, but they out-performed some veteran corps today.

Quilt- 93.342; While their director couldn’t be at the show, he’d no doubt be impressed with his corps’ performance. This corps definitely has the potential to advance far in this competition if they can address some percussion issues that occurred today.

Xpress- 92.668; A very good performance from this corps today, but drumline and visual captions look like they may have some room to grow.

Purple Mountain Majesty- 92.290; After taking a few seasons off, Purple Mountain Majesty returned with a vengeance today. The GE judge may have been on a lunch break, though, since that score didn’t seem to be in line with the overall music scores.

Coloradicals- 91.692; Drumline had a pretty good day, but the show seems a bit underdeveloped especially in the visual design categories.

Overall standings so far

Quilt: 93.342

Xpress: 92.669

Purple Mountain Majesty: 92.290

Blue Heat: 92.253

Coloradicals: 91.692

Cincinnati Light Brigade: 92.114

Red Stick Tigers: 91.659

M.I.B.: 91.614

Heatwave: 91.407

Spirit of SoFla: 91.280

Blue Barracudas: 91.003

Green Regimsnt: 90.744

Majestic: 90.269

Freedom Spears: 89.936

Pinnacle: 89.387

Feenicks: 88.729

Avengers: 88.622

Bulls of Hillsborough Cty: 88.456

Maroon Stars: 88.343

Central Sounds: 88.206

[Galen]

Treasure Coast Gold just finished up their performance, and here is our third update for the night.

Midland Valley Redcoats; 91.847; Midland Valley has had some up and down moments this season. Today’s performance seemed to be a reflection of that, as they were strong in guard and drums but weak in several other areas.

Roselle Park Conquistadors; 92.735; Roselle Park started the season with a lot of momentum but waned a bit as the season went on. They will have to make some strides in the visual captions if they want to go far this season.

Black and Gold Regiment; 90.870; The parent corps of Greeneville Cadets, the Regiment turned in a very mature performance from a design standpoint but had some moments where the performance didn’t quite meet the level of demand called for.

Euphony Empire; 93.547; A very impressive performance for a rookie corps that had big hopes coming into the season and may be on the verge of realizing them.

Mountain Devils; 93.669; The self-proclaimed arch-rivals of OVT have built quite a bit of momentum late in the season, at times looking like a finalist contender. Today’s performance seemed to confirm that potential.

Shenendoah Woodsmen; 93.464 The crew from the Woods did some pretty amazing things on the field today and shot well up the ranks and possibly into contention for a spot in Saturday’s show.

The Knights; 92.606; The former two-time champion has struggled to find their usual competitive edge at times this season and finds themselves stuck in the middle of a large pack of corps after their first performance of the week. They’ll need to take some steps forward visually if they want to break out of this group.

Crimson Lions; 93.870; The four-time finalists have been so close to seizing the trophy the past few seasons but have come up short at the end each time, but today’s show could be the one that finally brings home the gold if they can maintain the level of performance they turned in today and if the guard can take their performance level up a couple notches.

Appalachians; 95.470; Appalachians were organized as a first-year corps very late in the preseason but lost no time making an impression on the rest of the field. Tonight’s performance could be extremely hard to top.

Treasure Coast Gold; 93.690; A veteran corps that looks to have found their stride this season, TCG turned in a very enjoyable performance today to land solidly among the top of the field so far.

Scores so far

Appalachians: 95.46

Crimson Lions: 93.870

Mountain Devils: 93.669

Treasure Coast Gold: 93.59

Euphony Empire: 93.547

Shenendoah Woodsmen: 93.464

Quilt: 93.342

Roselle Park Conquistadors: 92.735

Xpress: 92.669

The Knights: 92.606

Purple Mountain Majesty: 92.290

Blue Heat: 92.253

Coloradicals: 91.692

Cincinnati Light Brigade: 92.114

Midland Valley Redcoats: 91.847

Red Stick Tigers: 91.659

M.I.B.: 91.614

Heatwave: 91.407

Spirit of SoFla: 91.280

Blue Barracudas: 91.003

Black and Gold Regiment: 90.87

Green Regimsnt: 90.744

Majestic: 90.269

Freedom Spears: 89.936

Pinnacle: 89.387

Feenicks: 88.729

Avengers: 88.622

Bulls of Hillsborough Cty: 88.456

Maroon Stars: 88.343

Central Sounds: 88.206

The last batch of 14 corps will be starting in about 30 minutes and will conclude at 10:45 with Polaris Regiment, at which point I'll enter the final scores into the database.

[Galen]

A quick recap update while we wait on the final few corps to finish their performances:

Velocity- 93.237; Velocity has frequently found themselves close to but not at the top of the standings. A very solid all-round performance put them squarely in the upper-middle of tonight’s standings and above several corps that they had struggled to pass earlier in the year.

Quiksilver; 94.117; Last season’s champions were down (by their standards, at least) for a good part of this season but has caught fire down the stretch and look primed to contend for a repeat championship.

Ohio Valley Thunder; 93.496; The breakout corps of the year by far, OVT pulled off a great overall show tonight. Color guard seems to be the one area that’s lagging behind the rest of the corps slightly.

Great Lakers; 94.931; I don’t think anybody saw this good of a performance coming from the Lakers, but everybody will expect at least as strong of a performance going forward. They may have the complete package to take home a title.

Renegade Brigade; 92.186; Renegade Brigade made some good strides towards the end of the season but seemed to take a step back with tonight’s performance as the music ensemble judge tore them a new one.

The Stud Bolts; 94.288; Stud Bolts had no perceptible weaknesses tonight and have a strong chance to take title number 3.

9:00 Knights of Power; 93.918; The Knights of Power looked nearly unstoppable this season but have found their momentum slowed a bit here at the end of the season, but they still remain in contention after tonight’s show. The visual staff will probably have some things to say to the corps tomorrow as some of the ensemble elements didn’t quite come together for maximum effect.

9:15 California Knights- 92.479; The California Knights have been scoring well but have been somewhat quiet for most of the season. They’re picking exactly the right time of the season to start making a lot of noise.

9:30 The Elite Brigade- 93.974; A perennial favorite to win, Elite Brigade has been so close to winning on so many occasions. This could be the year they finally pull it off if they can tighten up their musical ensemble.

Appalachians: 95.46

Great Lakers: 94.931

Stud Bolts: 94.288

Quiksilver: 94.117

Elite Brigade: 93.974

Knights of Power: 93.918

Crimson Lions: 93.870

Mountain Devils: 93.669

Treasure Coast Gold: 93.59

Euphony Empire: 93.547

Ohio Valley Thunder: 93.496

Shenendoah Woodsmen: 93.464

Quilt: 93.342

Velocity: 93.287

Roselle Park Conquistadors: 92.735

Xpress: 92.669

The Knights: 92.606

California Knights: 92.479

Purple Mountain Majesty: 92.290

Blue Heat: 92.253

Renegade Brigade: 92.186

Coloradicals: 91.692

Cincinnati Light Brigade: 92.114

Midland Valley Redcoats: 91.847

Red Stick Tigers: 91.659

M.I.B.: 91.614

Heatwave: 91.407

Spirit of SoFla: 91.280

Blue Barracudas: 91.003

Black and Gold Regiment: 90.87

Corps "on the bubble"

Green Regimsnt: 90.744

Majestic: 90.269

Freedom Spears: 89.936

Pinnacle: 89.387

Feenicks: 88.729

Corps not advancing to quarterfinals

Avengers: 88.622

Bulls of Hillsborough Cty: 88.456

Maroon Stars: 88.343

Central Sounds: 88.206

Final scores to come at 11 pm CST. Regardless of how our final five corps place, we're already on our way to having the highest-scoring prelims in recent memory. How will those scores hold up once we start having real numbers to compare to, though?

[Galen]

Here are the recaps for the final performing corps of the evening, as well as a rundown of scores. Recaps will be up shortly. There may be a slight difference in the scores on the recaps due to the way the database rounds; the scores listed on the recaps will be the "official scores"

9:45 Rocky Mountain Thunder; 93.865. Another corps that was reorganized after a few seasons off, RMT has been surging for most of the season. They enjoyed a long winning streak out west but didn’t face a lot of strong competition during that time. Tonight, they more than held their own against DCPI’s best.

10:00 Tennessee Nipples; 94.301. The brass judge had several comments about brass players poking through the fabric of the musical ensemble during tonight’s performance, but other than that, the judges were very positive about this corps.

10:15 Nastalgia Vanguard; 92.877; Vanguard made it their goal to spoil as many corps’ undefeated seasons as possible and achieved that for much of the year. Tonight’s show was surprisingly flat compared to their recent shows leading into finals week. Visually they look like they have room to get better, which they’ll need to do to achieve the ultimate spoiler status.

10:30 Star of Jupiter; 93.931; Jupiter has been right at the top of the rankings all season long, as the Sweepstakes standings reflect. Tonight’s effort was another example of that consistency, as the judges had very little criticism of the corps outside of the visual ensemble category.

10:45 Polaris Regiment; 93.927; Like Jupiter, Polaris Regiment has been at or near the top seemingly from day one this year. They’re neck and neck with several other corps and could be just a few ensemble tweaks away from pulling off the big win this year.

Appalachians: 95.46

Great Lakers: 94.931

Tennessee Nipples: 94.301

Stud Bolts: 94.288

Quiksilver: 94.117

Elite Brigade: 93.974

Star of Jupiter: 93.931

Polaris Regiment: 93.927

Knights of Power: 93.918

Crimson Lions: 93.870

Rocky Mountain Thunder: 93.865

Mountain Devils: 93.669

Treasure Coast Gold: 93.59

Euphony Empire: 93.547

Ohio Valley Thunder: 93.496

Shenendoah Woodsmen: 93.464

Quilt: 93.342

Velocity: 93.287

Nastalgia Vanguard: 92.877

Roselle Park Conquistadors: 92.735

Xpress: 92.669

The Knights: 92.606

California Knights: 92.479

Purple Mountain Majesty: 92.290

Blue Heat: 92.253

Renegade Brigade: 92.186

Coloradicals: 91.692

Cincinnati Light Brigade: 92.114

Midland Valley Redcoats: 91.847

Red Stick Tigers: 91.659

Not advancing to quarterfinals

M.I.B.: 91.614

Heatwave: 91.407

Spirit of SoFla: 91.280

Blue Barracudas: 91.003

Black and Gold Regiment: 90.87

Green Regimsnt: 90.744

Majestic: 90.269

Freedom Spears: 89.936

Pinnacle: 89.387

Feenicks: 88.729

Avengers: 88.622

Bulls of Hillsborough Cty: 88.456

Maroon Stars: 88.343

Central Sounds: 88.206

Congrats to all corps after a long day of competition, and good luck to the corps advancing to tomorrow's quarterfinals.

[Galen]

Here are the lineups for tomorrow's Open Class and Class A competitions. I'll try to do the same live recaps I did today for World Class starting around 4PM (work schedule permitting, of course):

Open Class

11:00 INT

11:15 Hurricanes

11:30 New York Skyliners

11:45 Heatwave Cadets

12:00 The Thoroughbreds

12:15 The Sinfonians

12:30 Green Cadets

12:45 Crimson Kings

1:00 Magic of Kissimmee

2:00 Eastern Sounds

2:15 Flagship Junior Corps

2:30 Direwolves

2:45 Greenville Cadets

3:00 Woodland Blunderjacks

3:15 Appalachians B

3:30 Herald Dominion

3:45 Midland Valley Sound

4:00 Debozo

5:00 Treasure Coast Silver

5:15 Thunder and Lightning

5:30 Man Scouts

5:45 The Screws

6:00 Sons of Thunder

6:15 Tokyo Tornadoes

6:30 Nastalgia

6:45 Storm Troopers

7:00 Knights of Sound

8:00 Les Blanc Chevaliers

8:15 Riverside Elite

8:30 Oostburg Barnstormers

8:45 Sun Prairie Swingers

9:00 Oregon Marauders

9:15 Texas Zephyrs

9:30 Mercury

9:45 Star of Hawaii

Class A

11:00 Blades of Blue

11:15 Lowell Lancers

11:30 Georgia Heat

11:45 ERMISSION

12:00 Little Horns

12:15 Bay Riders

12:30 Lake Erie Storm

12:45 The Colonels

1:00 Floridians

2:00 Red Raiders

2:15 Green Cadets B

2:30 Western Sounds

2:45 Plain Angels

3:00 Chroma Key

3:15 Midland Valley Regiment

3:30 Appalachians C

3:45 Blue Heat Cadets

4:00 The Bolts

5:00 Starshield Regiment

5:15 T-Boltz of Southern Colorado

5:30 Cape Cod Regiment

5:45 The Log Squad

6:00 Port Washington Lights

6:15 Ralleyers

6:30 Nastalgia Percussion Ensemble

6:45 Hg

7:00 Schrute Regiment

8:00 Knights of Note

8:15 Privateers

8:30 Cincinnati Glory

8:45 Cross

9:00 Xothyme

9:15 Inland Empire Elite

[hostrauser]

Bowled very well tonight (228+223+207=658) and avoided the Prelims jinx. Will be interesting to see how the scores develop once the live captions filter in.