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Shows to beat BD since 2008


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As a BD honk, i love nothing more than seeing my beloved Devils bring in title after title, continuing to set the standard for DCI and others to follow. But even as dominant as BD is, they don't win every year. Since 2008, we have five shows that have been able to wrestle the gold away from the Devils. The "Fab Five" as i refer to them, are five of the best shows to ever grace a football field. They were all well deserving of the gold, they earned it, and beat BD fair and square, no excuses in their respective season.

I am now asking DCP to rank these five shows. My ranking is below. We will all have different opinions and how they should be ranked, i am just asking everyone to keep this cheerful, and respect each others rankings. Five jaw dropping gold medal shows, honestly there is no wrong answer. Have at it!  

1. Bluecoats 2016- Down Side Up

2. SCV 2018- Babylon

3. Cadets 2011- Between Angels And Demons

4. Phantom Regiment 2008- Spartacus

5. Carolina Crown 2013- e=mc2

Edited by Chief Guns
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I'll play along....My ranking are as follows, not to be ranked technically, but from within my enjoyment

1. Bluecoats 2016 - Down Side Up

2. Carolina Crown 2013 - e=mc2

3. Phantom Regiment 2008 Spartacus

4. SCV 2018 - Babylon

5. Cadets 2011 - Between Angels & Demons

 

I also sit here thinking maybe I should rearrange the order? Did I really like that show more than this show? Hard to rank 5 former gold medal shows.....but I'll stick with the first way they came to me when I read your post!!

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1) Cadets 2011

2) Phantom 2008

3) Bluecoats 2016

4) Crown 2013

5) SCV 2018

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Curious if anyone has handy a list of the shows that beat BD at any point during the season during that time, even if they lost to BD in the end. Is it even twice as many as these five?

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7 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Curious if anyone has handy a list of the shows that beat BD at any point during the season during that time, even if they lost to BD in the end. Is it even twice as many as these five?

2011 - Carolina Crown (twice), The Cavaliers (nine times), and The Cadets (fourteen times). 

2013 - The Cadets (once), and Carolina Crown (fifteen times).  

2015 - Bluecoats (once because of penalty), The Cadets (five times), and Carolina Crown (three times).   

2016 - Carolina Crown (twice) and Bluecoats (nine times).  

2018 - Bluecoats (once) and Santa Clara Vanguard (fourteen times).  

2019 - Santa Clara Vanguard (four times) and Bluecoats (seven times).  

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1. Cadets 20111 (incredible show all around)

2. Crown 2013 (the pacing of the show intrigued me, along with the fantastic brass)

3. Bluecoats 2016 (always liked ‘Heat of the Day’)

<gap>

4. SCV 2018

5. Phantom 2008

 

4 and 5 are pretty much a tie.

Edited by jaylogan
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1. Phantom Regiment 2008- Spartacus

2. Cadets 2011- Between Angels And Demons

3. Bluecoats 2016- Down Side Up

4. SCV 2018- Babylon

5. Carolina Crown 2013- e=mc2

 
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Those are definitely killer shows. I love that you put Bloo no. 1.  I thought Down Side Up was incredible. Bluecoats might not have been as clean as SCV 2018, Carolina in 2013, or even The Cadets and Phantom, but the design of Bloo's 2016 show was a benchmark in the activity that many corps today are following (as they do with BD).  For me I would rank them:

  1. Bluecoats 2016 - A truly benchmark show for DCI. A show that has changed a lot minds about props, uniforms/costumes, electronics, etc.  See my remarks above for Bloo. 
  2. Carolina Crown 2013 - I was in love with this show from day one. There is really nothing to complain about or nit pick. It has a fantastic music book, incredible brass line, amazing guard, and the staging and drill are pretty close to flawless. This was Carolina at their best. The body movement, the integration, the powerful impact moments, it all created a level of General Effect that never let down. And the Ballad is one of my favs from this decade. 
  3. The Cadets 2011 - I think from a total design perspective this was nearly a perfect show. Drill, music, guard, theatrics, and theme all came together. It was the last time we truly remember what it was like to see the old "Garfield" corps at Finals. They had an early lead in 2015 only to make many mistakes down the stretch, and while I do like their 2012 and 2013 shows, I feel 2011 was the last time we saw classic Cadets at Finals.
  4. Phantom Regiment 2008 - One of my favorite shows ever. Theatrical, powerful, incredibly staged, and the performance levels are solid to really good. The show took most of the season to build and develop, but what we got at Finals was amazing. It terms of entertainment it might be no. 1 on this list, but I rank it below Bloo, Crown, and Cadets for minor reasons. Mainly I feel the top 3 here are better overall visual programs and they match Phantom's excellent music score in quality, construction, and demand (even if you don't find them as entertaining). 
  5. Santa Clara Vanguard 2018 - This show certainly has one of the best endings I have seen in DCI competition, much like Phantom 2008. I found the show somewhat uneven from front to back, enjoying the back portion much more. From a performance perspective, SCV is likely no. 1 here considering the quality of their brass, percussion, visual proficiency, and guard. From that perspective, either Cadets or Carolina would be no. 2. But much like with Phantom, they absolutely needed to refine their ending (of just finish it) in order keep the Blue Devils at bay. The changes Phantom made also helped them jump to the lead at the very end. Most of the season I was not sold on the opening two section of Vanguard's show, despite their monster performance captions. It is a fantastic show, deserved to win, and has a killer ending. 
Edited by jwillis35
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28 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Curious if anyone has handy a list of the shows that beat BD at any point during the season during that time, even if they lost to BD in the end. Is it even twice as many as these five?

BD does not lose much, for sure. Their 2015 season was much like this one. I don't think they won any regional shows, and only a few TOC shows (if that). But they showed up at the end. In 2015 I know Cadets and Carolina beat them a number of times.

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