Tonight's Shows 8/2 - Fort Wayne and Macomb

[shofmon88]

Goes to show how strong Open Class is this year. Yet, world class seems to have improved more, as they're doing a better job at staving off Open Class corps. As of right now, Jersey Surf and Pioneer are being topped by Open Class corps, with BDB sitting in 21st. Last year, SCVC placed 16th, with Oregon Crusaders, Spirit of Atlanta, Mandarins, Pacific Crest, Cascades, Jersey Surf, and Pioneer all being topped by one or more Open Class corps. Granted, the season isn't over yet, but there seems to be a much clearer differentiation between Open and World classes this year.

[DrumManTx]

Seems like it's pretty volatile this year. The only thing that seems pretty clear right now is that the top two are set. Scores are pretty clear, and I saw a video of Vanguard Cadets that has a level of clarity and performance quality I haven't seen from other Open Class groups. Probably the most stark difference was in color guard, they look, to my untrained eye, like they could place as high as 16th or so in that caption. Really impressive.

Last year at this time the top Open Class corps were scoring below all world class groups expect Cascades, Surf, and Pioneer, so I expect the Open Class groups to get a bump on Thursday.

Legends and Spartans spread shrunk dramatically yesterday, and were way behind BDB, so this might get interesting. They were much closer than Genesis was to BDB earlier in the week, so that might get interesting. I don't think it's a lack of quality on Genesis's part, just Legends stepping up and Spartans are a mainstay.

Spartans and Genesis meet tonight, so we will get an idea there.

[N.E. Brigand]

I saw a video of Vanguard Cadets that has a level of clarity and performance quality I haven't seen from other Open Class groups. Probably the most stark difference was in color guard, they look, to my untrained eye, like they could place as high as 16th or so in that caption. Really impressive.

Interestingly, for a number of years, Spartans' color guard was a powerhouse at O.C. Finals. Checking just this millennium, they were:

2001 -- 1st by 0.2 (over Mandarins)

2002 -- 2nd by 0.2 (under Magic of Orlando)

2003 -- 3rd by 0.5 (under Patriots) and 0.2 (under Esperanza)

2004 -- 1st by 0.3 (over Fever)

2005 -- 1st by 0.4 (over East Coast Jazz)

2006 -- 1st by 0.4 (over East Coast Jazz)

2007 -- 1st by 0.4 (over Jersey Surf)

2008 -- did not make finals

2009 -- did not compete

2010 -- 1st by 0.3 (over Blue Devils B)

2011 -- 1st by 0.5 (over Vanguard Cadets)

2012 -- 1st by 0.4 (over BDB)

2013 -- 2nd by 0.1 (under SCVC)

2014 -- 1st by 0.4 (over BDB)

2015 -- 3rd by 0.5 (under SCVC) and 0.2 (under BDB)