2019 Predictions!

[Ediker]

1 hour ago, Incognito365 said:

I mean, had money not come around they never would have been able to persuade the staff that they have now...so it's part of it.

The thing is, money did not just "come around".  The concerted effort of many people, over years, created revenue streams.  Boston makes money.  

[Incognito365]

4 minutes ago, Ediker said:

The thing is, money did not just "come around".  The concerted effort of many people, over years, created revenue streams.  Boston makes money.  

Okay, had they never made money. Either way, money came from somewhere. Lol.

[craiga]

These people desired creative freedom far in excess of what they had.  The money was gravy. 

[Cappybara]

It is amazing to see how riled up people get by one word 😊

[Daave]

40 minutes ago, Cappybara said:

It is amazing to see how riled up people get by one word 😊

The word dentist doesn't get me riled up.  😂

[cfirwin3]

49 minutes ago, Cappybara said:

It is amazing to see how riled up people get by one word 😊

Of all words, that is THE word to stoke emotions.

...Second only to "dentist".

Edited June 20, 2019 by cfirwin3

[BWise]

16 hours ago, Den8uml said:

I agree with this and last year Bloo was scoring out of the top 5 in percussion for a while.  IF they had stronger scores there it could have been a game changer in the end. 

Except the year Crown was robbed with their “Relentless” show .. how many captions did they win?!  Three but only got bronze .. BD wins no captions and gets Silver .. Bloo wins with only GE .. based on caption awards not finals scores of course  

 

[LabMaster]

9 hours ago, Incognito365 said:

May have been the case, but at the same time they had to have some sort of incentive to leave a top 3 corps for a 12th place corps, ya know?

No doubt, but it wasn't ONLY money, as some would have everyone believe.  With a salary increase, a 5 year deal, unfettered creativity, staff selection, top level traveling accommodations, MM development, daily rehearsal management, etc., etc.  I would say all of that is the incentive to move.  And it wasn't like BAC was devoid of talent.  A  new direction was needed for Boston.  A staff capable of providing direction and expertise to help RETURN Boston to the top level was needed and obtained.

What may have been the seed for the move for these folks,  was the environments they were in, were no longer acceptable to them.  That seems to be a hard concept for the supporters of their former org's. to understand.  Maybe the staff had grown tired of what they were doing in the manner they had to do it in.  Maybe they tired of interference in what they were doing.  Maybe they were being paid peanuts, if they were getting paid at all.  I don't know what all the reasons were but I am certain it was not only about money.  If you believe that, you are kidding yourself.

The BAC org. and BAC alums are thrilled this staff is here and fully support what they are doing.  For a corps as truly old school as Boston is (and there are alums to prove that out) to accept the changes seen over the previous two years is testament to the drive and desire to be a top level corps.  And Boston sports teams are examples how management, staying out of the way of the personnel who create the success, can become successful organizations.  But that's not a unique formula for any successful, sustainable organization or business.  Hire the smartest most talented people you can, give them all the tools they need,  commit to supporting them, then get out of their way and let them do their work.

[cfirwin3]

2 hours ago, BWise said:

Except the year Crown was robbed with their “Relentless” show .. how many captions did they win?!  Three but only got bronze .. BD wins no captions and gets Silver .. Bloo wins with only GE .. based on caption awards not finals scores of course  

 

The only scores that matter (as you know) are the ones for the night of the show.  And winning with GE, even if it is "only GE" is a pretty historically safe strategy because it has a plurality of value compared to the other captions (but this is only when there are 2 or 3 corps splitting captions and 2 fighting for the win).  The issue today is that there are so many good corps that can split up the captions on a given night.  You can have 4-6 different groups in real contention splitting up the captions (and they may not even be the same night to night).  This is when not only a group like BD can be consistently 2nd-ish in all captions and get a silver... but it COULD happen that a corps wins the big show while winning no captions at all on the night.  There's no injustice or robbery in that... it is just the result of heated competition and the reward for well-roundedness.  In the end though, it is a not a great strategy to depend on GE and just be competitive in the technical areas.  And it is not good at all to be great at most everything and then place outside of the field in one caption (Bluecoats did that last year and Crown had been doing it for years before that, including 2016 -5th percussion-).  Bluecoats could NOT win last year.  It was mathematically impossible and the same went for Crown in 2016 (even though the overall scores were very close, the margin that was required on some other caption to make up for it was insurmountable).

It is BEST to straight-up win as many elements as possible (obviously) and compete for each and every caption in design and execution (as in SCV 2018).  Outside of that play... with a wide competitive field, the way that the chips fall on a given evening can make a huge difference in placement.  It also usually means that the overall scores are very tight when the captions get split up (placing the champion at a small margin for the win).  The top three all scored a variation of 97.X that year.  That's REALLY tight for a finish and that's on the mid-lower side of normal for a championship score.  SCV in 4th that year by a 2-ish point margin from 3rd, WON percussion.  BD actually dominated total visual on that night (and placed 2nd nearly across the board, as I mentioned).

So in the factual analysis, Crown had no sort of domination on the captions, as you suggest (in spite of the averaging that is used during finals week to award caption awards) and BD was the most competitively consistent drumcorps in the field of contention.

I remember saying at the time that SCV's performance on drums meant EVERYTHING to the Bluecoats win.  I was happy to see SCV doing so well in certain captions that year because it made Bluecoats GE score (which is the biggest allotment in caption value) a golden ticket for the win.  Even though it was a small margin in total value... SCV set the Bluecoats GE value in stone.  Because of that, Bluecoats were secure to win that year due to their consistency in GE.  That just can't work any given year though.

https://www.dci.org/news/recap-roundup-2016-dci-world-championship-finals

Edited June 20, 2019 by cfirwin3

[Sideways]

2 hours ago, BWise said:

Except the year Crown was robbed with their “Relentless” show .. how many captions did they win?!  Three but only got bronze .. BD wins no captions and gets Silver .. Bloo wins with only GE .. based on caption awards not finals scores of course  

 

Crown/BD/Blue were splitting performance captions all finals week, with Santa Clara snagging percussion.  Crown got the overall average on brass, guard, and visual performance.  GE often wins the day when performance captions are that tight.  Blue's show was the "GE moment" and never stopped...they were consensus winner in GE all three nights and we know how that played out.  Crown went soft on GE with the "mercy" play at the end...not saying that made the difference (but an extra death or two worked for Phantom in 2008).

When in doubt...(if the performance level is already there) always go with the gratuitous GE.