Which corps surprised you the most this season?

[Ghost]

The Crusaders show choice.

[NakedEye]

Good Surprise:

Bluecoats: I'm hard pressed to remember when I've ever really enjoyed one of their shows, and I liked this one a lot. It obviously pulled a lot of stylistic methods from Cirque du Soleil (central character, transitions, etc), but it was interesting and I thought the way they went from a parade block to show and back was really well handled and done in a creative manner. Also the "organ grinder monkey" bit was hysterical. The kid's expression...lol

Boston: This is another one where I haven't really liked their shows for a while. Lots of bizarre design choices in the past, but they were one of my absolute favorites this year. The first night with the dust cloud was one of the best entrances ever (though the penalty was expected), the switch to the red was extremely effective and their guard looked more like Cadets than the actual Cadets. I think it was the most artistic show they've ever done and I hope they continue with programs with this much depth.

Bad Surprise:

Phantom: The formula has grown stale. Time to step out of the comfort zone and shake things up (like in '93). Please no more stories and work on presenting powerful music effectively. When people start laughing at what is supposed to be your moment of terror, you know you've jumped the shark (or the queen).

Crossmen: Never underestimate the power of a bad vehicle to kill momentum. They were poised to maintain or climb, and an overly-convoluted concept sabotaged them. It was forced and just didn't communicate. I hope they pick just a handful of good pieces next year and come up with creative ways to interpret them. No more taking snips of 20 songs and forcing them into a nebulous theme.

Blue Knights: I liked that they tried something odd. I don't like how it turned out. There were multiple focal points going on very often, so you had to choose where to look, and for some reason they were moving at a leisurely to slow pace during the most driving portion of First Circle. If any part called for velocity, that was it. My friends and I wanted that blue ball to to roll at the drill forms and make them get out of the way, etc. No such luck.

Overall, though, one of the best years I can remember! Almost everyone was SO GOOD and the choices were way better and more varied than usual. Great, great stuff and what an epic battle at the top. Crown really had to earn that title. It was not a case of BD having an "off" year. It was a bloodbath to the end and my favorite part was the Devils IMMEDIATELY coming into the Crown block after the announcement to hug and congratulate them. That's what it's all about. There are fans that could learn a lesson from the respect and support these two showed for each other.

[skywhopper]

I was surprised that:

Cadets would be the corps with the most abstract show in finals.

Mandarins would be the corps that would do the best job with narration in the history of DCI.

There would be so much singing.

Cavaliers would manage to put on a show I enjoyed, even with a weak mello section.

Anyone could make the music of Rite of Spring uninteresting.

Vanguard would put on my favorite show this season.

Anyone could adapt Einstein on the Beach successfully for the field, much less win with it.

We would see TWO corps forming fleur-de-lis on the field this year.

Blue Knights would do the best-ever version of First Circle.

Troopers would come back STRONG, after a few weak years.

Edited August 11, 2013 by skywhopper

[geluf]

Phantom for sure.

That Evil Queen prop was the most ill-advised thing on the field this year. When I saw it pop out in San Antonio for the first time it took every ounce of willpower I had to not laugh for five minutes straight.

I love you, Phantom, and I dug the music (and that book set was pretty cool)...but let's not do that again.

Edited August 11, 2013 by geluf

[jasgre2000]

Cavies - I thought they would have improved a lot more than they did. I figured that last year's (2012) hard times were just the result of a brand new staff not having enough time to pull everything together in terms of show design. This year's design was better, but the members were just not up to the Cavies level. I put most of the blame for that on the staff. It isn't the first time Cavies have had a young corps, and remember that they were bronze medalists in 2011 and silver medalists the year before. I think they are in need of some staff changes in order to get to the level they were from 98-11 (or really 85-11, I guess ... they only placed below 5th once). I hope it happens this off seasons, because I miss the Cavies.

Edited August 11, 2013 by jasgre2000

[DrumManTx]

Carolina Crown. When the show was announced I was expecting something really really...odd and un-enjoyable. The show announcement honestly did not catch me at all.

Then I watched them rehearse in early June. And now it's my favorite show of the year. Went in expecting not to like it and I love it. Maybe one of my all time favorites. Just incredible.

Edited August 11, 2013 by DrumManTx

[oldbandguy]

1. Cavies - in how bad they started, then how strong they finished.

2. Troopers...most improved from last year.

3. Blue Knights...awesome show.

[ThatOneMarimbaPlayer]

Oregon, Cavies, and Blue Knights surprised me with their shows in a good way. I thought they would be okay, but they became some of my favorite shows this year.

[perc2100]

Now that the season is wrapped up, which corps surprised you the most (either way)

SCV - a great production of a stale (IMO) source material. After last year's movie kinda killed Les Mis for me (that film was so awful, especially the direction), I was not looking forward to SCV at all (well, except for the exception percussion section). But when I finally saw their show it blew me away!

Crown - I honestly didn't think the show would have the juice to go the distance. When I saw early videos I thought it was a show that was front-loaded to give them early success but once BD and Cadets cleaned Crown would be scrapping to hold onto 3rd. The tweaks they made and the achievement they accomplished made a real good show an incredible show that made me a fan by last night

Cadets - I think they took a great idea and kind of never really maxed it out from a design standpoint. As some of already said the visual design was very blah, and it seems like they took an outstanding group of young men and women musicians and squandered it: music scores were great, visual scores were not, and I think that's more on the designers than members. On the flip side, though, I think because Cadets are so "open" about their design process over the off-season this is a show that sounded cooler in the winter than it ever looked on the field, so maybe my expectations were higher based on open discussions by Hop & his team. But this show is more of a benign "good" than a "great" show. The drive of their members willed this production to 3rd and I have to give them major props!!

Bluecoats - I'm REALLY not a fan of Americana type shows, so I was really not interested in this program in the spring/early summer. I love their music arrangers, but this show didn't sound good. But the opposite of Cadets applies here, where by the end of the season I was a fan of this show! Their smallish "snapshots" of Americana really worked for me for the most part, and this show went from a benign "good" idea to a "great" show!

Cavaliers, Madison, and Boston Crusaders - all of these shows were very respectable and inoffensive. Fairly solid design and execution, but clearly not at the top of the activity in design or execution. Cavaliers and BAC in particular made great strides throughout the season but at the end those two shows are in the category of "shows I wanted to love but only like."

Madison I liked more than past shows but it felt kind of like this corps was dying to perform something more than designers gave them. The show was good for the most part, but I look forward to their designers hopefully kicking it up a huge notch next year. Madison has proven they're solidly in Finals, and it seems like they've made enough strides to push further up the ranks

Phantom Regiment - I'm typically NOT a Phan. I usually outright dislike their shows for one reason or the other, and I'm one of the few I know who flat out doesn't like Spartacus (though I LOVE Defiant Heart). But this year I really dug their program musically. Enigma Variations, and more specifically Nimrod is one of my all-time favorites and I'm ALWAYS a sucker for a corps' show when they play it. I agree with others about the 'dark queen' or whatever looking a bit silly, but I thought the corps took a goofy show idea and made it enjoyable. It's kind of in the same category as Scouts' potentially corny & schmaltzy show concept but doing just enough to keep it out of the silly side of the design spectrum. I like this show and I didn't expect to.

I guess Blue Devils were the least surprising. They did EXACTLY what I expected with their Re: Rite of Spring concept, which was take an already iconic and revolutionary ballet and bring an innovative visual design and incredible performance to the DCI field. The show was different in a fairly easy-to-understand way (if you're even slightly knowledgable about Rite of Spring), and even though my expectations for BD are always extremely high BD met them. I loved watching them and Crown fight all summer for the Championship, and if there would've been a tie announced last night I would've been 100% OK with that.

I think my biggest "surprise" was how great most of the shows were this year. I haven't been this excited about a DCI season in a long time and that alone surprised me!

[perc2100]

Oh, I was also kinda surprised that Crowns e=mc2 show was less about complex math and science and more about a simple love-story concept. Kudos Crown, for having an intellectual show beautifully mesh with an emotional love-ish hook