2014 Drum Corps International World Championships World Class Finals

[hardlyworking]

So, if there were one more week left in the season, the Blue Devils kids really couldn't improve? Not just their score, but their own individual performance?

Of course they could improve...but so could the 2nd place corps. Then the 2nd place corps scores a 19.8, but BD is still however much better than them, so...20 out of 20.

[actucker]

OK, I'll play. Then you can just as easily say then why care at all about the fact that this was a record high score?

DCI seems to love publicizing that fact. If it's only about spreads and not about the math, then we need to stop milking the cow that has become the endless fountain.

I don't particularly care that its a "record score". However, lets not pretend that organizations will not take anything they can use to generate publicity. Baseball still glorifies statistics like RBI, batting average, pitcher wins etc. Those stats have been meaningless for 20 years. The triple crown is given to the guy who leads the league in 3 batting statistics, two of which mean basically nothing.

Edited August 10, 2014 by actucker

[dbc03]

He's not saying that they did it deliberately, my dad who knows nothing about finals was wondering why they left before everyone else. I didn't think it looked classless, it's tradition, I get it. But to someone who isn't too into the activity or doesn't know they did that under tonights circumstances, it could certainly come across as looking that way.

He said they were standing still in shock so I seriously doubt he understands

[NR_Ohiobando]

The perfect score not existing is true... but at the same time, if someone scores a perfect in any caption it means it was literally perfect. As in, nothing left on the field and no mistakes at all.

I don't think anyone could say a corps from the 70s-90s has performed at as high of a level as what we saw out of the top 5 this year. They are all playing more difficult and technical music, harder drills, more physically demanding etc etc. So I do think the BD score is that much better than the 99.15 of the past, or any 97-99 score from past decades. They really are that much better nowadays.

Disagree 100% here. Drill especially has been incredibly kind to marchers in the past 5 years or so. Designers are now designing shows with players' endurance in mind. They don't want to write anything too taxing for fear that it will cause dirt. Just look at Crown's 09 show and see how stationary players get when they have the melody. It's efficient and allows music to be clean without worrying about much sound getting lost in the feet.

Back in the 90s and early 00s demand was a HUGE part of design. I mean, heck, the opening 2 minutes of Blue Devils' 2003 championship show has rotations and obliques at a velocity/tempo that 2014 BD wouldn't even bother attempting.

[BieberTpt]

What a farce.

force ... you must mean FORCE .... as to be reckoned with

[chasgroh]

I agree in theory. But by giving any corps a perfect score, you're basically saying that there is no room for improvement. I guess I've always felt (and been taught) that there is no such thing as perfection. But it's the attempt to get there that makes the hard work worth it, and so much fun.

"That's not what it means at all. It just means that they scored 20 out of the possible 20 points that were available. There is no such thing as perfection in this activity."

(multiquote wasn't working so I "quoted" the second post above)

Even during the tic era there were build-up captions (GE Drums,Horns,Marching and Musical Analysis) that garnered perfect scores at nats. Even Tic captions had credit write-in scores that were subjective. Perfect numbers were gained if the judge reckoned that he/she had seen/heard the absolute best for *that year*...naturally, perfect scores didn't show up until nationals (oh sure, there was a weird instance or three where an exuberant judge went overboard before finals, but it was rare...). Not being a current judge, I *still* would think that this paradigm would be in effect. So, no, perfection was really never the issue, it was the interpretation of the individual judge as to what was best overall for the season.

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Edited August 10, 2014 by chasgroh

[Highwaydude]

You should watch literally any other finals retreat they have ever been in before you judge the way The Cadets reacted.

well it didn't come across good tonight

[drummer5485]

First off, Congrats to BD. You should have won, no doubt. 99.65? Don't think it should have been near that high but that's my opinion. Those of you saying how classy it was that BD congratulated Bluecoats? It was, but I can tell you from experience that had the shoe been on the other foot and BD lost it would not have happened.

[DrumManTx]

He said they were standing still in shock so I seriously doubt he understands

Well that kind of proves my point. If you aren't aware of the way The Cadets do things, it might come across that way. Is that right? Definitely not. Are they classless or were in shock? No, DEFINITELY not, they were standing at attention and still as they always do. But again, if you aren't aware, when everyone else is reacting differently on the field, it would be easy to understand why some people would say the things they are. They're wrong, but not everyone knows that.

I'm not disagreeing with how they do things, I could just see how it could be misconstrued.

[actucker]

First off, Congrats to BD. You should have won, no doubt. 99.65? Don't think it should have been near that high but that's my opinion. Those of you saying how classy it was that BD congratulated Bluecoats? It was, but I can tell you from experience that had the shoe been on the other foot and BD lost it would not have happened.

Interesting that that exact thing DID happen last year at finals when Crown won.