La Crosse, WI - July 2, 2017

[Liahona]

2 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:

My final thoughts on LaCrosse...This is a wonderful venue and a well-run show by the Blue Stars.  I'm kicking myself that it's taken us until today to make the trip.  Well worth it and we'll definitely do it again.  

Tell Jim thanks for the periscoping! He made my evening enjoyable for sure :)

[Poppycock]

8 minutes ago, Liahona said:

Tell Jim thanks for the periscoping! He made my evening enjoyable for sure :)

And let Jim know my name Is NOT #### poppycock. Unless he's seen my best side. 

Edited July 3, 2017 by Poppycock

[littlejaw]

1 hour ago, oldbandguy said:

How so....Bloo won percussion last night

Well as last night Bluecoats won by a tenth, that would bring down the gap in music. It's fairly logical.

[oldbandguy]

20 minutes ago, littlejaw said:

Well as last night Bluecoats won by a tenth, that would bring down the gap in music. It's fairly logical.

Must be that "new math" I've heard about. Subtraction by addition. :-)

[Terri Schehr]

2 hours ago, BoaDci said:

Crown cut a huge chunk of the vocals.

Thank you Jesus. 

[littlejaw]

49 minutes ago, oldbandguy said:

Must be that "new math" I've heard about. Subtraction by addition. :-)

I guess I will have to explain the basics of the DCI scoring system for you to understand.

Tonight with 5 judges every score is just added together to make the final total.
When there is a full panel, the scoring rubric breaks down to 40 points GE, 30 points Visual, and 30 points Music.
If there is a full panel, then the music score has 4 judges that can each award 20 points. The two percussion judges, one in the box and one on the field level, have their scores averaged together.
Therefore, in the music caption any corps has the ability to earn 60 points. These points are then subsequently halved to become the total music caption score.
Tonight, the Bluecoats beat the Cavaliers by 0.8 points in the music subcaptions.
Given the addition of a Percussion judge and a 0.1 point margain (as per the last show) the music caption would have a difference of 0.9.
We then take the 0.9 divide it by 2 and get a 0.45 gap.
To retain a 0.8 point gap, the Bluecoats would need to win the percussion caption by 0.8 points all other captions equal.
Therefore on a full panel, with everything playing out exactly as they have between the previous show and this, the Bluecoats margin over the Cavaliers would be smaller with the inclusion of a percussion judge.

Hopefully that helps because I don't think I can explain it in any further detail to make it any more obvious.

[Cappybara]

2 hours ago, DrumManTx said:

Well with how fast and jerky your opinions change you'll probably hate it, love it, kinda like it, hate it again, hate it more, love it, hate it, and God knows what else in between.   

Never a more accurate statement has been said on DCP

[BRASSO]

 A smaller panel has each judge with MORE sway in the overall score than a larger panel too, where the judges have less power in the overall scoring as their influence diminishes. So its not just dividing up some of the captions between 2 judges, as there is no division at at all with the smaller panel, where one judge can make a bigger difference in the outcome and the spreads that can take place over that of a full panel.

 To keep it simple.... 2 pairs of eyes and ears are always better than one pair of eyes and ears, if we assume that all 2 pairs of eyes and ears are of equal training and experience abilities with those eyes and ears. ( if not.. then all bets are off, and the judging will never make sense to anyone, no matter what the size of the panels are.. lol!)

[DCI-86]

4 hours ago, corps8294 said:

Blue Stars seem to be currently stuck on a plateau. 

I think once guard starts being judged, BS will make a jump - their guard is already cleaner for this time of year considering their insanely difficult Shapiro book and they are staged really well this year.  Definitely the corps' strength

[BozzlyB]

7 hours ago, Nine White Russians said:

Gotta agree - I don't know why the Scout's staff feels like dark/weird/creepy is the answer to competitive success.

2015 was a happy-go-lucky show with a lot of accessibility and they climbed to 8th. And then last year....and even much

more this year.....anger/rage/darkness! And what really sucks....what if they don't make it back into Finals, AND

they alienate their fans? I was saying earlier....look at Bluecoats. High energy, melodic, powerful, and entertaining as heck......basically

what Madison used to be......and they are KILLING it!

This is spot on.  Last night I was thinking about one minute into Bluecoats show that if it were Madison on the field in their Superman suits they would be making every drum corps fan happy, their alumni base would be gushing and they would be competitive where they want to be.  The problem with being "The Madison Scouts" isn't that they need to stop being entertaining in the throwback sense in order to stay relevant, they just haven't been able to figure out how to do it without it being 1990's drum corps.