Santa Clara Vanguard 2019

[MikeRapp]

31 minutes ago, MidWAmericanArts said:

Uh... I’m pretty sure everyone was talking about Crown and SCV winning before the season started...

I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to argue with the 100 cap. If you’re upset that you can’t compare 2019 scores to 2018, you’d be correct, but I’m not sure why you’d want to compare scores between years when you can’t even support the scoring system for one year.

And then you complain about how things are predetermined and you know who is going to win, but get angry when a judge placed BD ahead in percussion? I’d think that would be exactly what you were hoping for.

And comparing it to football, I don’t even know where to start. Points don’t represent how good the team is. The only thing it does is tell us a winner. A team that wins 9-0 would be dominant. One that scores 62-53 would probably be considered less dominant. A team doesn’t care if they win by 1 or 50, a win is a win. You’re competing against one team at a time and the goal is to keep their score lower than yours. Blue Devils aren’t trying to limit what others corps are scoring, they’re trying to perform their best show. I.... don’t understand one bit of the argument.

I’m not trying to shut you down and say that you’re wrong, I suppose I just don’t even comprehend any bit of the points that you’re trying to make. But to each their own! Sorry that things didn’t work out your way!

Um, everyone was not in fact talking about Crown winning the gold.

My point, no pun intended, is that DCI is a closed system, run by the entities that decide the scoring method and the judges. I personally think the current scoring system, and in fact the entire structure of DCI, is a self fulfilling prophecy. We all know what is almost certain to happen next year before we see a single show, within a very narrow range of disparity. And this is why the elite corps will remain so, because the best corps will recruit away the best marchers from non-elite corps, and he cycle continues. The system exists as it does, and it seems to be drawing record crowds, so as long as member corps are happy with the results, it is likely to continue.

As far as your last statement, things almost never work out my way. That’s the way things go. I don’t get too worked up about scoring anymore, hardly ever even look at captions and sub captions, because I think the entire way DCI “judges” improvement is whacked. That said, I don’t expect DCI to be what I want it to be. It seems to be working for the corps that run the activity, and none of them seem to be ringing me up to ask my opinion!

I admire what Blue Devils have accomplished as an organization. It is the model for how other similar organizations should follow if their goal is to win gold medals. Odds are incredibly high that they will win the gold next season, and the season after that. Their show concepts and performance style is admirable, though usually not my cup of tea; Others love it and don’t like Blue Knights...or Crossmen. That’s life.

[RickCogley]

SCV's 2019 show did not get a lot of love or "buzz" online, for whatever reason (this was a comparatively quiet thread), and maybe it was because there were too many WGI elements being incorporated, which are too hard to read in a stadium. Still, I loved the show, and especially the individual characters you could see being developed, and, way they pushed the envelope on choreography over the hornline, essentially making them into an adjunct guard.

And percussion? So stellar. Absolutely dominant all season, with a well deserved Sanford win. If you watch some of the "cams" coming out from their front ensemble, you'll see some virtuostic playing. Some really hard stuff.