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2014 World Championships Semi Finals


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My argument is that the magnitude of pushing the kids can be amped up more. I'm not saying they're not pushing their kids. They should experiment with going much further. Further than the comfort zone of what you think is possible.

You don't have to make it insane. If you run a 5k, run a 7k or a 10k. You don't have to go up to the 20k right away, work up to it in LARGE chunks. The increment has to be uncomfortable.

They do that. You know how much work they put in in the offseason? Many of the members take ballet classes or lessons before even auditioning. This year's show looks easy because they have prepared so much but it is not easy whatsoever. Just picking a corps at random, if the same corps had Bluecoats drill it would have been pretty much perfect a month ago.

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Your argument is so flawed it's not worth replying to anymore. Watch the freakin' vid man. Seriously.

Ok. You time it & post your number. Most of the show is park & blow.

Edited by FlamMan
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This is what I've suspected they've been doing for a pretty long time and winning with ( BD organization), and yet other corps can't figure it out that this is what it takes to consistently contend for a title or win DCI today.

cannot like this enough!!! (and hope another corps near and dear to me finally realizes this one day)

I am encouraging the Blue Devils to take a risk in making their shows harder than their current preconceived notions of what is feasible. It's purely for curiosity sake. There are no rule books to taking unknown risks in increasing difficulty. If there was a rule book it wouldn't be difficult.

It's like constantly getting As, then getting curious about what other challenges life would present if you pushed yourself and raised your own bar of excellence.

Um, difficulty really doesn't mean a whole lot if it's not achievable. More importantly, on the current sheets, it's not going to be rewarded any way if it doesn't make sense to attempt it at that moment. It has to be proved why it's being done. GE scores have more to do with logic of the content.

Ok. You time it & post your number. Most of the show is park & blow.

I've seen this show multiple times and that thought never crossed my mind (because it's not true). Now, go back a decade and I would've said yes.

Edited by chaos001
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BD was incredible.

Personally thought cadets should be much further ahead of Coats tonight.

Also feel Cavaliers are better than their score is suggesting

All the corps were very strong though.

One of the percussion judges decimated Cadets and that closed the already small gap between Cadets and Coats. Judging panels (with the exception of BD), make a difference. Edited by theCHEZman
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I think Crown the last few years, and perhaps Coats starting this year (we'll see), are trying to play BD's game (or is it the judges' game?). And by that, I mean cramming the show full of a variety of musical and visual content, sometimes with finesse and sometimes with real absurdity ( :cool:), sometimes stuff we really haven't seen before, and with just the right amount of difficulty (and sometimes with really high difficulty). Crown figured it out last year, and just missed the mark this year.

I wanted to throw Angels & Demons in there, but I have trouble putting that show in context -- the construction and pacing was very classic drum corps, but with the Crown-esque body movements that everyone's doing these days, and some real ensemble challenges. But it wasn't so long ago, and was still in the era of BD's Constantly Heart-skipping Re:rite of 1930 Victory era. Guess that goes to show you that a more classic show can still win, but it almost has to be coupled with a BD corps missing the mark.

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The thing that irks me is that Blue Devils seamless perform their program with ease from the get go in the early shows. I think that's an indication that they're really not challenging their kids. Yes they perform well, yes they are amazing, but if the kids are so good I think you should challenge them with consecutive years where the show is hard enough that the beginning of the season is very rough and the end of the season is very refined.

There's a sense of reward watching a corps literally struggle through a run through in the beginning of the season and see them conquer a show by finals week.

I never get that sense of reward from BD. These 20s comes too easy for them, so my applause seems to be more directed at the designers more than the corps. It's fine, but it has been kind of boring to see a corps that consistently gets 20s. For a niche activity that is dwindling away, this sort of emphasis on what is considered a perfect caption makes it more niche I guess. It almost feels like BD shouldn't compete because the consistency of giving them the best score is so absolute that it is becoming more and more tolerable. Sugar doesn't taste so sweet when you have it everyday.

The Cadets need to figure it out. 2007-2009 was some of the most beautiful drill in terms of demand, design, and execution. I didn't think they really cared about whatever was happening with the scores, the audience reaction, or the general perception. 2008's closer just made me chuckle at the fact that whatever watching before me was actually happening. That aura of brashness was a breath of fresh air. They might not have won but the entire DCI community probably acknowledged the kids as being serious Olympians.

Cadets please go back to not caring so much. The members are not that weak but I get the feeling that you're starting to shelter them from the judging sheets. Bring back that whiplash drill and crazy hornbook. You guys have been playing it too safe and too cautious and you are dangerously losing your roots of being DCIs biggest risk taker. When you're consistently a high risk taker in terms of excellence, you falter often and succeed less. But that one or two times you get it right, the pay off is totally worth it. The shows have been lifeless and I feel like you're resorting to shoddy methods to just get points rather than truly generating effect. I feel as though Carolina Crown has inherited the Cadets' willingness to take risks with difficulty and not care if you stumble and have a rough year. DCI probably won't last for much longer (I hope I'm wrong) so why not go for the jugular.

1. BD is successful because they have the best design team by far. Their talented MM's certainly help but it's a competition between designers. I'm not referring to which shows on the field are the most popular, but rather depth of program, content, flow, layering etc.

2. Cadets are doing a patriotic show for their 80 the anniversary. They know the end is cheesy but with the way this corps moves and performs, they can be cheesy for the last 40 seconds. Will they move in a clearly different direction next season, I'm sure.

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Can anyone explain the significance of OC's guard costume to the show?

For me, they evoke birds of paradise... or birds of some sort.

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Congratulations to the Blue Devils organization. An unprecented finish by the B corps and assured championship in worlds. They really know how to get it done.

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My argument is that the magnitude of pushing the kids can be amped up more. I'm not saying they're not pushing their kids. They should experiment with going much further. Further than the comfort zone of what you think is possible.

You don't have to make it insane. If you run a 5k, run a 7k or a 10k. You don't have to go up to the 20k right away, work up to it in LARGE chunks. The increment has to be uncomfortable.

So what you're saying is that the corps who is a lock to win the world championship and is undefeated just doesn't rise to your standards and isn't good enough? Frankly, as someone whose kid marched BD (and Spirit) I am astonished at the BD hate here- I guess I had just forgotten how the guardians of some supposed mythical standard of achievement are ready to spew forth the same old drivel: It's not hard enough, they don't march and play, blah blah blah. All of which is demonstrably untrue. But it doesn't matter what year it is, what the show is, or how well they're doing it, haters gonna hate.

Go Devils! Time for some Blue Smoke. But unless you perform a show featuring shapeshifting angels playing perfect triple tongue licks at 240, it won't be good enough. They should work up to that. Geesh.

Edited by dapperpoet
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