2017 PREDICTIONS!

[LabMaster]

Not making any prediction, more than a comment to hear thoughts from other folks.  My thoughts about Bluecoats, reading many many reviews of their finals performances,  is that their success last year seemed to be that is was primarily a uniquely entertaining show, well performed.  So much so, that the Gold was awarded to them.  In the afterglow, however, there has been talk about how they weren't as clean as they coulda shoulda been.  Cleanliness or individual performance didn't seem to matter, as the program design, it's unique presentation and powerhouse performance outweighed the flaws that existed.

My question for others to consider or chime in on is:  Will the judging community modify their view (and assessments) and look more closely at Bluecoats and other corps for individual performance quality and cleanliness of the program and include that effort more this year,  than reward for uniqueness and performance of the production.  I guess it would be a backing off of GE and reward for other caption quality.

I say this not knowing what the heck anyone is coming up with this year, as a new bar may have been set by Bluecoats.  But I wonder if there will be "makeup" assessments to ensure a total package for the top corps is actually a total package.  Just wondering.

[Tobias]

6 minutes ago, LabMaster said:

Not making any prediction, more than a comment to hear thoughts from other folks.  My thoughts about Bluecoats, reading many many reviews of their finals performances,  is that their success last year seemed to be that is was primarily a uniquely entertaining show, well performed.  So much so, that the Gold was awarded to them.  In the afterglow, however, there has been talk about how they weren't as clean as they coulda shoulda been.  Cleanliness or individual performance didn't seem to matter, as the program design, it's unique presentation and powerhouse performance outweighed the flaws that existed.

My question for others to consider or chime in on is:  Will the judging community modify their view (and assessments) and look more closely at Bluecoats and other corps for individual performance quality and cleanliness of the program and include that effort more this year,  than reward for uniqueness and performance of the production.  I guess it would be a backing off of GE and reward for other caption quality.

I say this not knowing what the heck anyone is coming up with this year, as a new bar may have been set by Bluecoats.  But I wonder if there will be "makeup" assessments to ensure a total package for the top corps is actually a total package.  Just wondering.

I think they will be scrutinized more closely. 

[BRASSO]

 My sense is that the adult created Show Designs will win the day once again. Yes, the Bluecoats were not all that clean in marcher performance compared to others at Championships last season, but their Show Design was so creative compared to others around them, that this carried them intro the winners circle. I would think this will carry over this season as well. Whether the best Show Design for 2017 will remain with the Bluecoats is anybody's guess however, imo.

Edited May 24, 2017 by BRASSO

[Shewhois]

2 hours ago, BRASSO said:

 True. The Blue Devils are the Gold Standard in DCI Drum Corps. Its dominance of a competitive youth activity is unprecedented in any other competitive endeavor or competitive youth sport found anywhere else in the world.

 The last decade, ( 10 years ) the Blue Devils have never failed to either win DCI or finish as Runner Up.

 The Blue Devils in over 40 years of DCI competition have only placed lower than 4th place, once. BD has 17 DCI Titles ( more than double any other DCI Corps ) and an astounding 8 Runners Up finishes to boot. Thats a domination of a medals finish like no other. As a result, we start off each season thinking which of the other Corps will receive 2 of the 3 medals, as its pretty much now a lock that the Blue Devils are going to get one of the Medals 95% of the time.

I agree with you completely. Just pointing out, The Cadets have won 10 titles, so BD has not had more than double the titles of any other corps. 

[BRASSO]

5 minutes ago, Shewhois said:

I agree with you completely. Just pointing out, The Cadets have won 10 titles, so BD has not had more than double the titles of any other corps. 

 You are correct now that I think about it ... and so noted.

[mcjordansc]

We do know Blue Devils have six times the number of wins over any other winning corps the past ten seasons. 

[Cappybara]

2 hours ago, LabMaster said:

Not making any prediction, more than a comment to hear thoughts from other folks.  My thoughts about Bluecoats, reading many many reviews of their finals performances,  is that their success last year seemed to be that is was primarily a uniquely entertaining show, well performed.  So much so, that the Gold was awarded to them.  In the afterglow, however, there has been talk about how they weren't as clean as they coulda shoulda been.  Cleanliness or individual performance didn't seem to matter, as the program design, it's unique presentation and powerhouse performance outweighed the flaws that existed.

My question for others to consider or chime in on is:  Will the judging community modify their view (and assessments) and look more closely at Bluecoats and other corps for individual performance quality and cleanliness of the program and include that effort more this year,  than reward for uniqueness and performance of the production.  I guess it would be a backing off of GE and reward for other caption quality.

I say this not knowing what the heck anyone is coming up with this year, as a new bar may have been set by Bluecoats.  But I wonder if there will be "makeup" assessments to ensure a total package for the top corps is actually a total package.  Just wondering.

Just want to clarify that it wasn't an "afterglow." Many people including me pointed out just how dirty the Bluecoats were last season prior to even Prelims. In fact, you can probably still find the posts on Reddit that showed many spots where the visual cleanliness of their show was downright bad. 

I understand effect being important but not sure how I feel about sacrificing the value of cleanliness in the judging community for it

[Tobias]

6 minutes ago, Cappybara said:

Just want to clarify that it wasn't an "afterglow." Many people including me pointed out just how dirty the Bluecoats were last season prior to even Prelims. In fact, you can probably still find the posts on Reddit that showed many spots where the visual cleanliness of their show was downright bad. 

I understand effect being important but not sure how I feel about sacrificing the value of cleanliness in the judging community for it

The different emphasis in judging is why Bloo won. The staff wrote to the sheets in that overall effect was the key and they won. Good for them. The risk they took was real and judges could have laughed at it and criticized the dirtiness of members sliding down slides. (Hard to clean that)! So innovation and risk is rewarded and 2016 belonged to them. 

[flammaster]

I think Vanguard is either going to win or come in second.  Just a feeling.

[HockeyDad]

I think the - they weren't clean - thing is mostly sour grapes against the champions you see almost every year. You would be led to believe they won because they wore spandex and went down slides. When in reality it was so much more. They integrated electronics and amplification in a way never before done. No one has come close to what they accomplished with that. But they were dirty. Yeah.