DCI Suggestion Box

[Jeff Ream]

And adjudicated contests just tell you who that particular panel of judges liked. Judges bring along all their own personal biases and human weakness. Any system of adjudication in an activity like this is at best poor. Look no further than figure skating for comparison to a similar activity.

unlike skating, DCI judges have criteria on their sheets, and their sheets are specific to a certain topic

[Jeff Ream]

Being from Philly I can't tell you how tired and cliched that whole "they booed Santa Claus" is. The only reason it still has legs is because of the lazy national so-called media who like to have canned BS to spew rather than do any real journalism.

First - it happened about 50 years ago. Second it was a historically bad team at the end of a dreadfully bad season who were lured out by management to a game with the promise of a "Christmas Spectacular" at halftime. Despite a massive snow storm lots of people went to the game for the halftime show (not to see one of the worst teams in the history of the NFL). The show that was put on was as bad as the team - if not worse. And the Santa was some skinny kid (who by some accounts was falling over drunk, but those accounts may or may not be accurate) in a dirty, dingy Santa suit who was in the stands - not meant to be part of the show. When the Santa the team had hired was a no-show they grabbed that kid and threw him in.

Now you tell me: In what city would the fans NOT boo and throw snowballs when they show up in a snow storm to see a "spectacular" at half time only to be presented with a show worse than the local kindergarten pageant?

BTW - that infamous Santa died earlier this year. In many interviews over the years he was very open about how bad the show was, how bad his Santa was and that if he had been in the crowd he would have booed himself too.

Oh - and there were no beer bottles or ice balls thrown. It was boos and some snowballs.

and the cheering when Michael Irvin went down with a career ending injury

[Clutchtow]

Ticket numbers. It's pretty easy to implement a way to only vote if you have a ticket.

[N.E. Brigand]

But still at the end of the day BD will never be the fan favorite cause they have won so much.

This is definitely a factor. I doubt it's the only factor. If you had an audience composed entirely of people who didn't know recent results at this year's Finals, I'm not sure that BD would be their favorite.

Which isn't to say that the winner should be determined by applause meter.

[HornTeacher]

unlike skating, DCI judges have criteria on their sheets, and their sheets are specific to a certain topic

Not totally true (as to the skating aspect). In a skating competetion, each judge scores every component in a program...jumps, spins, artistic impression (artistic merit), technical content...AND is responsible for assessing penalties (program timing, costumes -- yes, costumes!! -- there are guidelines for acceptable and non-acceptable components of costuming.) There are criteria for successful completion of various technical components...under or over-rotation of spins and jumps (down to a quarter-turn). The difference is that skating judges must KNOW the various guidelines for all components. But the "how manys" and "of what types" are on the sheets as well. Just clearing that up.

[corpsband]

unlike skating, DCI judges have criteria on their sheets, and their sheets are specific to a certain topic

what?

[ashyUechi]

Can we have a non-electronics division? Half the sound coming off the field anymore is controlled by some fat guy sitting in the stands. I want to hear wind+muscle, not electrons+paper cones.

Sounds like you may not understand what it takes to make that stuff happen.

[N.E. Brigand]

It doesn't matter what you do. BD are winners and they will make adjustments to whatever you throw at them. Some people want a baby-throwing caption . . . But BD plays to the sheets, remember? So adding a baby-throwing caption won't stop them, 'cause they play to the sheets! So go ahead and add the baby-throwing caption, and at some point, BD's staff will see it, and since they play to the sheets, they will design a show to max out that caption and make you throw your baby just as far as any other corps.

So the real question is: why don't other corps play to the sheets? Do they just not want to win?

[N.E. Brigand]

This thread needs to be changed to how to keep BD from winning, even though I am sure the OP intention wasn't this. . . . Some people want a baby-throwing caption since BD doesn't appeal to fans, in their opinion.

Although I do wonder: if Crown played BD's show this year, exactly as we saw BD play it, and BD played Crown's show this year, exactly as we saw Crown play it, would Crown's fans say that their show was more appealing than BD's? And would BD's fans say that their show was more intelligent than Crown's? (Every now and again over the course of the summer, a BD fan would post to these forums about how BD, this year like always, had a show concept that worked at a higher level than any other corps, working beyond the ability of mere mortals and even judges to understand.)

[N.E. Brigand]

It's a bit like the Oscars vs. the box office. A movie that is critically-acclaimed may win the Oscar, yet the movie that connects most with people receives the box office dollars. Except in drum corps, the corps that doesn't win gold doesn't necessarily receive more $$$. Maybe a bad analogy. I am sure all of this has been discussed ad infinitum. Just my take.

It has been discussed before, and there have in fact been suggestions on these forums that DCI's annual disbursement of money to the corps, which is apparently based on some arcane formula derived from the history of each corps' competitive success, should instead be based on the opinion of the paying customers. (For a variety of reasons, that's certainly unlikely.) Regarding the partly-useful movie analogy, I would add that the Oscar tends to be awarded to the film that has both pleased some critics and some of the audience. That is to say: the movies most highly praised by critics rarely win the Oscar and frequently don't even get nominated (particularly foreign films), but the Oscar-winner usually is at least a solid financial hit, if not a blockbuster. In the past decade, there have been some exceptions (like The Hurt Locker, whose sales were poor), but that's unusual. Finally, while a film becomes a runaway blockbuster only if a large portion of the audience likes it, plenty of movies make a lot of money by opening strongly due not to audience appreciation but due to effective advertising.