BLUE DEVILS 2022 The Return

[WarriorWay]

You would have though based on tonights results and the reaction here and on FB that BD paid every judge $1,000 to give them favorable scores. Unbelievable 

[henry7184]

38 minutes ago, WarriorWay said:

You would have though based on tonights results and the reaction here and on FB that BD paid every judge $1,000 to give them favorable scores. Unbelievable 

It’s ridiculous. But it brings me such joy to know that BD is going to have an undefeated season and win the title. Truth be told, I hate that BD wins most of the time and is in the top 2 all the time, but I hate the whiners more. BD winning is worth it because of them alone.

[Cappybara]

It truly amuses me seeing everyone before the results were even posted saying “oh this is a BD judge, oh that person is a BD judge too if they’re on the panel, it’s game over for everyone else.” Then when the competition is over and dust has settled, now a bunch of other judges that weren’t even named before are BD judges too 🙂 

It seems like most of the uneducated whiners and haters need to go back to high school statistics class and learn that correlation does not equal causation. Just because BD is consistently excellent does not make every single judge that gives them a high score a “BD judge.” Perhaps the high score is given because they are… good? I remember people calling Prosperie a BD judge when he gave them 1st place in percussion in 2019 finals night even though he has a history of giving BD lower placements depending on the night 🙂

I truly do implore the haters to provide me with an empirical statistical analysis showing that these certain named BD judges provide BD scores that are statistically significant — that is, out of the norm of scores that the “non BD judges” give 

[jwillis35]

2 hours ago, Cappybara said:

It truly amuses me seeing everyone before the results were even posted saying “oh this is a BD judge, oh that person is a BD judge too if they’re on the panel, it’s game over for everyone else.” Then when the competition is over and dust has settled, now a bunch of other judges that weren’t even named before are BD judges too 🙂 

I usually ignore posts from folks who think BD has the judges in their back pocket. What these people are really saying is this: BD must need help, so they go and payoff judges because they know the corps is not very good. 

Yet, time and again in performance captions alone (the more objective captions) the Blue Devils are typically top 3 in brass, percussion, guard, and visual execution. They get the rare year where their brass is out of the top 3 (like 2019), but they worked around that by being super strong in other captions. But most of the time they are top 3 in performance captions. 

The judges notice that and so do most fans. It's not hard to see. So if a corps is top 3 in performance captions most years and the other corps have a caption or two where they are weaker then it makes sense BD will score higher more times than not. If this is the case then why would they need the help of the judges. 

[Cappybara]

Just now, jwillis35 said:

I usually ignore posts from folks who think BD has the judges in their back pocket. What these people are really saying is this: BD must need help, so they go and payoff judges because they know the corps is not very good. 

Yet, time and again in performance captions alone (the more objective captions) the Blue Devils are typically top 3 in brass, percussion, guard, and visual execution. They get the rare year where their brass is out of the top 3 (like 2019), but they worked around that by being super strong in other captions. But most of the time they are top 3 in performance captions. 

The judges notice that and so do most fans. It's not hard to see. So if a corps is top 3 in performance captions most years and the other corps have a caption or two where they are weaker then it makes sense BD will score higher more times than not. If this is the case then why would they need the help of the judges. 

You are being too logical 🙂 

[jwillis35]

Just now, Cappybara said:

You are being too logical 🙂 

Thanks, but I definitely have my days where logic is missing in action. Also, I don't know how you felt about last night but I didn't think BD had their best stuff last night. It was still amazing, but I am sure the heat played a part and they seemed off in some areas. That is not a good sign for the other corps. It will take a lot to beat Blue Devils this year. 

[NakedEye]

2 minutes ago, jwillis35 said:

I usually ignore posts from folks who think BD has the judges in their back pocket. What these people are really saying is this: BD must need help, so they go and payoff judges because they know the corps is not very good. 

Yet, time and again in performance captions alone (the more objective captions) the Blue Devils are typically top 3 in brass, percussion, guard, and visual execution. They get the rare year where their brass is out of the top 3 (like 2019), but they worked around that by being super strong in other captions. But most of the time they are top 3 in performance captions. 

The judges notice that and so do most fans. It's not hard to see. So if a corps is top 3 in performance captions most years and the other corps have a caption or two where they are weaker then it makes sense BD will score higher more times than not. If this is the case then why would they need the help of the judges. 

The real howler I saw the other day is that now that BD is linked with US Bands, it means the judges are sucking up so they can get hired to judge in that circuit. 😂 Yea, that didn't seem to help Cadets that much when USB was part of YEA. 

Putting aside the insanity. BD is where they are because they of their very tight, bulletproof design, performed (already) at a fantastic level. This is far from my favorite show of theirs (and I'm still not on board with Moon River), but watching all the competition one after the other, the overall design is just so good. There is no fat - no unnecessary fluff. Everything has a purpose. I'd also put Bluecoats in that category.

I can't comment with any authority on brass, but it seems to me they are really pulling off a wide variety of musical/genre styles in one production as well. Much more so than some of their top rivals. Even the very technical runs seem like they make sense, and aren't just there to showoff before you bring out more streamers and fire off another confetti canon. 

I wasn't expecting the spread to be as big as it was last night, but it also seems very justified. 

 

[NakedEye]

4 minutes ago, jwillis35 said:

Thanks, but I definitely have my days where logic is missing in action. Also, I don't know how you felt about last night but I didn't think BD had their best stuff last night. It was still amazing, but I am sure the heat played a part and they seemed off in some areas. That is not a good sign for the other corps. It will take a lot to beat Blue Devils this year. 

Yes, not their best. Looked stronger in CO the other day. BUT...so many are ragging on the guard for being "rough," but oh, please. I thought they looked much stronger in some areas, with some very standout drops. Why were those so noticeable? Their work is so exposed. It occurred to me last night that the weapons especially are doing a lot of hard stuff while on the move. That hasn't been done as much lately. It's been more of the plant in spot and do work with dance. So when someone drops, you REALLY see it.

Boston, Crown and Bloo dropped as well, but often times when the whole design didn't put the emphasis on them.

[jwillis35]

Just now, NakedEye said:

Yes, not their best. Looked stronger in CO the other day. BUT...so many are ragging on the guard for being "rough," but oh, please. I thought they looked much stronger in some areas, with some very standout drops. Why were those so noticeable? Their work is so exposed.

I thought that too. I didn't have a problem with the guard performance. Exposure is demanding and BD's guard is really exposed in so many ways and not just rifle tosses. Their guard tosses remind me some of The Cadets in 1998. Different shows and different eras, but I remember that Cadets guard being so incredibly exposed, especially with the tosses needing to be timed to some demanding musical elements. And the staging was insane because if they miss everyone sees it. 

[NewArpege]

Congrats to BD on last nights performance!  Its been clear for a while it’s a great package and the corps executes it with precision.