There's a certain corps that frustrates me

[ranintothedoor]

I for one do not get frustrated with individual corps... just the system that makes it so difficult for those without money and name recognition to move to the top.

[BRASSO]

The Cadevaliers are the odds on favorite to win every year.

The Cadevaliers are the odds on favorite to win the next 35 years too.

There has been over 200 Drum Corps that competed in DCI Drum Corps since its inception. Forget about any of them being the next " Carolina Crown " and coming up thru the ranks to win a DCI Title ( the ONLY Corps to have done so since Star of Indiana did over 20 years ago... and even Star is gone now too.) . The overwhelming vast majority of Corps that made the Championship quest and at one time finished in the top 6 in DCI are no longer even making the quest anymore. They are but a distant memory now, as they no longer even draw a breath. While placement is exceedingly important and should never, ever be discounted, if you make placement define who you are as a Corps, and a marcher in that Corps, there's a much much higher chance that your Corps will someday be joining all the dozens of others in the dustbin of Drum Corps history than topping the Cadevaliers on Finals Night in August some day in the future.. We shouldn't be lamenting the fact that the overwhelming vast majority of DCI Corps never get a wiff of placement in the top 3.. we should be applauding the very few that still remain that have not quit making that effort. THEY are the steadfast Champions of the what Drum Corps used to represent in its fundamental mission and spirit... NOT the Cadevaliers.

[MotorCityMusician]

I wrote an article about this titled, "Who's Next?" I don't have it in front of me, but the question was, WHO ELSE WANTS TO WIN? I cited teams that made the top 3---how long did it take them to win?

SCV, BD, Garfield, Star: once they hit 3rd place, they won the next year.

Phantom: 2nd in 1977. They didn't win until 19 years later.

Crown: 2nd in 2009. It took them 4 years to hit it.

Cavies: 3rd in 1986. Waited....waited until 1992 to win.

Madison: 14th-->4th (wow)--> 2nd---> 1st.

Add the Anaheim Kingsmen, and we have NINE (9) (IX) (nuevo) DCI Champions in 42 seasons. That's pretty low, given the amount of corps that existed over the years.

Bluecoats: 3rd in 2010. Then what?

Glassmen have placed 5th more than once. God rest ye souls.

Boston: 5th twice (?). They "get by."

Spirit: a few whiskers away from winning in 1980. In and out---lately bringing up the rear.

Blue Knights: every year, we ask: Are they performing on Saturday in Indy?

I'm most knowledgeable about the Cadets' history. Halfway through 1981, Don Angelica (if u don't know the name, learn your history) brought together G. Hopkins and M. Cesario to "fix" '81's corps. They finished 7th, brought in Zingali, Sylvester, Twiggs, etal. and the rest is Drum Corps History. They had a plan which included identity, style and Cesario's Three Laws: Tradition, Innovation, State of the Art.

Look at Crown: once they assembled that Brass team, they were looking up. I've always said that the Bluecoats can blow and drum with the best of them; WHY AREN'T THEY DOING SOMETHING ABOUT MARCHING?

So, pick your corps. Is it about money? Ask Mr. Hopkins how much it cost to win in 1983. Their vehicles were stalled out more than they ran during those years. Their uniforms were being sewn from the inside because they were so old. I sincerely doubt they paid George Zingali, still the most influential designer of DCI, half a fortune to put together those crazy drills. Why did Boston stall? G-men? Why the heck can't the Blue Knights push past 6th place? And what about the Cascades? They made finals in 2002. Fluke, I guess. Pac Crest? Mandarins? Pioneer? etc? What are you doing to achieve?

(It's not all about winning, blahblahblah. But the way DCP'ers parse the recaps, there's something to say about the competition.)

What about BlueStars 1972?

[Cleveland1]

The best way to improve in position is to improve your corps, which I am sure they strive to do every single year. I'm pretty sure the Colts aren't sitting back hoping everyone else will just start sucking so they can make finals. That approach will get you nowhere.

The best way is indeed to improve the corps. But if you stay still and others drop, you move up. Always try to improve, but if you can't at least don't go down.

Clearly the worst way to improve the corps is to get worse, which unfortunately seems what happened to the Colts.

Colts went down, Madison went up. Spirit went up. Academy and Troopers more or less have stayed still, each had one year with a huge drop though.

2009 and 2010 colts were 13th. finished with 85.60 and 84.65 respectively.

2011 spirit finished in 12th with 85.35 and in 2012 got 11th with 84.40

[BRASSO]

In DCI, as far as placement is concerned, you need to be better than the year before. If your favorite Corps is as good as last year, but not better than last year, there is a better than 50-50 chance you'll drop in placement. It doesn't matter where your Corps is in the pecking order of DCI either. Carolina Crown is a good example. They are the defending DCI Champion. From the early looks of it, they appear to be as good as they were last year ? But are they better than last year ? Well, we don't know the answer to that question as its still early. But if later in the season we find that Crown is as good as last season, but not better than last season, then there is the high probability that the Cadevaliers will reclaim their natural DCI position as the lead show dog in DCI once more.

Edited June 26, 2014 by BRASSO

[2muchcoffeeman]

I've said elsewhere: The story in DCI is that the floor is rising. The 11-15 range is objectively stronger now -- design, marching, execution, teaching -- than ever. There is more pressure from below than ever. This is mostly a good thing -- the overall product is better from top to bottom. DCI is like a volcano: pressure from the bottom until something blows.

It's good, except there is no pressure valve, no orderly mechanism to bring down the mighty and raise the lowly, as there is in other competitive pursuits. There is no NFL-style draft to infuse the worst teams with the best talent. There is no salary cap to put the reins on the richest teams. In DCI, the point is not to win championships. The point is to turn young people into stellar adults through the pursuit of performance excellence. In the NFL, owners have a direct interest in the financial health of the NFL overall, thus they have an interest in a balanced league with lots of competitive movement. In other words, they understand they will make more money in the long run if their team doesn't win every Super Bowl.

Not the case in DCI. Each corps is an island, tied together only by the joint ambition to give kids a world-class experience and a need to create a venue for them to do it. The competitive venue -- the scores -- is a tool toward that end, the measure of that excellence, at least comparatively (even in a year when the shows are lousy and the kids learn nothing, someone will win).

For the most part, the only force that can bring down the top corps comes from within those top corps themselves. They get into financial trouble. Or they make bad staff moves. Or they do something that turns off the kids, who go elsewhere. They do it to themselves. They create an opening for someone below. If they can avoid those pitfalls, their historical competitive record gives them a huge head start on everyone else each season.

Every once in a great while -- a very, very great while -- a corps pushes up from below and simply out-muscles those above. They blow the top off the volcano. Is Crown that example? Is Bluecoats another in the making? Maybe. But it takes so long that the marching members who helped begin the surge can't stick around long enough to enjoy the rewards years -- and years -- later. Real volcanoes erupt more frequently.

This is not a healthy state of being, IMO. The lava churns and flows underneath, and cools and solidifies up top. This year, as in others, there will be corps, especially in the 11-15 range, who will be objectively, demonstrably better in all phases of the activity than they were last year -- and yet will drop in placement relative to other corps. This happens all the time elsewhere: The Dodgers have their best team in years, and will finish 2014 with a better record than 2013, yet still may lose out to the Giants in their division. That's baseball. Wait 'til next year.

And that's okay, as long as the Dodgers have a reasonable shot next year. You can't say that in DCI. The system reinforces immobility. And in the long run, that is a cancer.

Edited June 26, 2014 by 2muchcoffeeman

[TerriTroop]

I for one do not get frustrated with individual corps... just the system that makes it so difficult for those without money and name recognition to move to the top.

This is very much the issue. However, I have hope that in the next 10 years or so we will see some shaking up of the ranks of the elite. As much as it is frustrating to see several favorite corps move very little, I see that the quality of drum corps outside of the elite ranks of competition have improved dramatically in the last several years. So, while placement is not shaking up much, the playing and moving ability of corps is growing stronger. As people age out and go teach at younger developing corps, the skills they learned will be passed on to others. And, hopefully, the designers out there are taking on young talent and training them up. (I would assume they are doing so, but I don't have any inside knowledge to lead me to that conclusion. I'm sure others with more connections can speak to the issue.)

I've had my own frustrations, but I acknowledge that the game is what it is.

[MikeD]

In DCI, as far as placement is concerned, you need to be better than the year before. If your favorite Corps is as good as last year, but not better than last year, there is a better than 50-50 chance you'll drop in placement. It doesn't matter where your Corps is in the pecking order of DCI either. Carolina Crown is a good example. They are the defending DCI Champion. From the early looks of it, they appear to be as good as they were last year ? But are they better than last year ? Well, we don't know the answer to that question as its still early. But if we later in the season find that Crown is as good as last season, but not better than last season, then there is better than 50-50 chance the Cadevaliers will retake their natural DCI position as the lead show dog in DCI.

Your analysis makes no mention of possible improvements of the other top corps. Crown may indeed be better than last year, but so may The Cadets, Blue Devils, etc...

Also, there have been 4 different champions in the past 6 years, none of them being the "aliers".

[year1buick]

I for one do not get frustrated with individual corps... just the system that makes it so difficult for those without money and name recognition to move to the top.

I don't tend to get frustrated much by DCI goings on these days-- I tend to reserve it for more serious situations, like Panera running out of asiago cheese bagels by 8:00am (it's happened) or my kids losing the remote.

[2muchcoffeeman]

more serious situations, like Panera running out of asiago cheese bagels by 8:00am (it's happened) or my kids losing the remote.

The outrage!

I think all right-thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that ordinary, decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I'm certainly not. But I'm sick and tired of being told that I am.

-- Monty Python