2017 PREDICTIONS!

[George Dixon]

45 minutes ago, ConJam said:

Ive heard BDs "Flight of the Bumblebee" it is insane! People aren't ready for it! BD can start slow every year but you better believe they'll be ready by the 2nd Saturday of August.

Oh yes that BD "always starting slow" lol

[MidWAmericanArts]

1. Blue Devils: It's going to be a special year

2. Bluecoats: I like to think it'll be like BC from 2014 to 2015. Another great product with some similarity in design, but couldn't quite live up to the previous year.

3. SCV: Three groups would surprise me in this spot, but I feel like the additions in design staff put them up for a medal.

4. Cavaliers: The Green Machine keeps progressing with its new image.

5. Carolina Crown: Can't imagine them lower than this spot. I'm just not a fan of the show, but they usually prove me wrong.

6: Phantom Regiment: They live up to their hype, but are held to 6th in a competitive year.

7: Boston Crusaders: The dream team makes a huge jump from 12, just passing...

8: The Cadets: I'm sure this can't be, right? I mean, it's the Cadets?!

9: Blue Knights: BK can't quite return to 2015 form, but have a better show (despite some heavy competition ahead of them).

10: Blue Stars: I love Frank Sullivan's previous work with the Blue Stars, but it could lead to a lower score than Saucedo's work. Blue Stars come out with a lovely fan favorite that doesn't check off all of the judges sheets.

11. Crossmen: Love the uniforms or not, they've been a fairly safe pick for finals.

12. The Academy: It's no drum corps bride, but a more talented corps comes out this year with a lesser show.

 

FYI: I've seen very little of this year's shows and am just making some baseless bold predictions.

[jjeffeory]

There's another corps with singing besides Crown, Boston, Crown.

[defeldus2]

Judging from previews, I can't see anyone beating BD this year. Jesus. They're formulaic at this point, but it's a fantastic formula and they kill it on execution. Some of my favorite music in years.

Crown could be anywhere depending on how they develop the narrative. The bones are there for something special, but at this point it's too abstract. Opening impact makes the entire show worth it though, jesus christ that brass is still pushing the entire activity. 

I think Cavaliers will have a fantastic year and push for a medal. 

SCV is hungry for a medal again as well.

Cadets and Boston are my biggest wild cards. Big changes in both camps could mean anything. 

I'm very excited for BK, love the style they've developed. 

Can't wait for Indi. 

[Fred Windish]

I predict BOTH Blue Knights and Blue Stars will place higher than they did in 2016.  What that means to everyone above is a real mess to figure out!

[Tobias]

It's a year of the dark horses. That's all I'm going to say. It will happen at the end but it will happen. The groups that people are dismissing will gel at the end.

[George Dixon]

10 minutes ago, Tobias said:

It's a year of the dark horses. That's all I'm going to say. It will happen at the end but it will happen. The groups that people are dismissing will gel at the end.

Yup

[Cappybara]

With all these predictions of parity and immense movement this year, how funny would it be if one corps went undefeated? Lol

[mjoakes]

38 minutes ago, Tobias said:

It's a year of the dark horses. That's all I'm going to say. It will happen at the end but it will happen. The groups that people are dismissing will gel at the end.

Even just the potential for a some credible dark horses is making the season exciting to pay attention to.

[3PoC]

Ok, I'm putting this down before anyone competes just to refer back later to see who does better/worse than my expectations. To me, this is more like handicapping than predicting though as I'm mostly going by stats, trends, and organizational activity more than any kind of gut feeling or personal response to announced themes and tunes.

1. Bluecoats
2. Blue Devils
The Golden Tier: These two have consistency in their orgs and are attracting the top talent. I'm giving the win to Bloo because they have been improving their margin relative to BD every year since 2012: 2012 -6.15, 2013 -4.7, 2014 -2.525, 2015 -.725, 2016 +.4. BD always seems to bounce back strongly after a loss so we'll see which trend holds up for '17. I think it will take a serious design issue to see either of these groups not get a medal.
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3. Santa Clara Vanguard
4. The Cavaliers
5. Carolina Crown
6. The Cadets
The Bronze Tier: These are the 4 I think will fight for the bronze (maybe silver if one of the Blue teams have a slip. SCV has been consistently so close to medaling for years and I think they may just get one this time. Cavs seem poised to keep up their momentum from last year while Crown and Cadets are retooling a bit which, while positive for their future outlook, may take an adjustment period that the groups I have ahead of them won't have to deal with. With the recent history of these groups, either is still capable of medaling with the right conditions.
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7. Blue Knights
8. Phantom Regiment
The TOC Tier: These 2 have been close to parity with each other the last few years with BK having the edge for the last 2 seasons. I think BK could have had a bigger spread last year if not for the show design that didn't click as well as '14 & '15. 
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9. Boston Crusaders
10.Blue Stars
The TOC Challenger Tier: This is usually a somewhat overlooked tier as these groups are not quite in the TOC tier (yet), but safely in the Finalist grouping.  With their off season talent acquisitions, I think BAC is the wildcard here and could make this tier more interesting than usual. Blue Stars have been fairly consistent in this range but like SCV above, always seem about to surge higher. This tier could very well merge with the one above into a 4-way battle for top 8.  
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11. Crossmen
12. Madison Scouts
13. The Academy
The Bubble Tier: one of these groups will likely miss finals and all are determined not to be the one to miss. Crossmen have consistency, Scouts have history, and Academy has momentum. Could go any number of ways but I gotta put them in some order so I'll go with this. 
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14. Blue Devils B
15. Colts
16. Troopers
17. Mandarins
The Longshot Tier:  BDB keeps pushing closer to being a finalist, Troop and Colts have been staples in this tier, and Mandarins seem to be on an upswing as well and could surprise as well. One of these could be a dark horse for finals. 
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18. Pacific Crest
19. Santa Clara Vanguard C
20. Oregon Crusaders
21. Spirit of Atlanta
22. Cascades
23. Genesis
24. Ledgends
25. Spartans
The Proving Grounds Tier: These groups are generally younger and have less consistency year to year with MM's and staff but are hungry to break into the next tier and get some momentum for the future. Thus they can be harder to predict so I'm going largely from last years results for this order though I'll likely be very wrong on a couple of them.