DrumCorpsRadio Posted July 27, 2023 Author Share Posted July 27, 2023 July 26 Rundown Hattiesburg, MS Boston Crusaders emerged from its loss to Carolina Crown back at exactly one point below Blue Devils. Monroe, LA Mandarins moved back into 5th place over The Cadets by just 0.050 points. Syracuse, NY Nothing significant report. Gold scored 0.350 points closer to Spartans than the night before. July 28 Preview Birmingham, AL A few things to watch here. Hopefully, The Cavaliers return to competition for the first time since San Antonio. Then there is the fight between Colts and Troopers which has been going on all season. Finally, Crossmen lept over Blue Knights and Pacific Crest earlier this week and will want to show that its claim on the 12th spot in finals is real. Murfreesboro, TN There are two storylines to watch here. The obvious one is Blue Devils-Boston Crusaders-Carolina Crown. With a Crown victory over Boston earlier this week and Boston only a point behind BD last night, is this a tighter group than it looked less than a week ago in San Antonio? The second is The Cadets-Phantom Regiment. The Cadets has been trading places with Mandarins since San Antonio, but neither corps saw Phantom in that time frame. This is a fun battle for Top 5 among two corps trying to return to the heights of the activity and one looking to join it for the first time. Sheffield, PA Columbians join the DCI tour as the last corps in for the season. Last year, the corps was ranked 22nd on the day of its last show (July 24th). If it opens up in that same ballpark, Columbians could be in the medal hunt in its first trip to Indiana. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumCorpsRadio Posted July 29, 2023 Author Share Posted July 29, 2023 (edited) July 28 Rundown Murfreesboro, TN A bit of a score reset at the top with one of our first multi-corps score decreases of the season and, more notably, Boston Crusaders not only moved back into second place over Carolina Crown but did so with its narrowest margin to first place of the season (0.850 points). Phantom Regiment ever so slightly increased its lead over The Cadets from the corps' last meeting in San Antonio (0.400 points compared to 0.300 points). Trussville, AL The Cavaliers returned to competition with an improvement of 1.687 over the corps' San Antonio score. This compares to 0.925 for the corps ahead in San Antonio (The Cadets) and 1.775 for the corps below in San Antonio (Blue Stars). Those two corps were in different shows though. Here are the score improvements in order of most improvement to least from San Antonio to Trussville for the World Class corps in both. The Cavaliers only competed in the two shows while the other corps have had intervening performances. As you can see below, the time off the competition field may have slowed the corps' growth some but did not do so at a level that completely changed the corps' trajectory. Crossmen - 3.775 Spirit of Atlanta - 3.350 Troopers - 2.412 Colts - 2.400 Seattle Cascades - 2.225 The Cavaliers - 1.687 Blue Knights - 1.562 Pacific Crest - 1.275 Troopers moved into a tie with Colts in the corps' first meeting since last week's regional. In the very tight three-way race for 12th place, Crossmen maintained its hold on 12th by a just 0.150 over Pacific Crest which moved ahead of Blue Knights by 0.050. Further down in the rankings, Spirit of Atlanta saw the largest score increase (2.350 points). July 29 Preview Atlanta, GA The battle at the top is tight and getting tighter. Can Boston Crusaders continue gaining on Blue Devils? Will Carolina Crown get ahead of Boston again? Unfortunately, another main storyline of this show is the storylines that we will not see. Whether or not Bluecoats perform is in question. Mandarins are not in the show. Colts will not be there for the ongoing fight with Troopers. Pacific Crest and Blue Knights need to push for 12th without the current 12th place corps in the stadium. Heat Wave makes its final appearance of the 2023 season. Bellbrook, OH Columbians get another chance to open up its season. Edited July 29, 2023 by DrumCorpsRadio 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumCorpsRadio Posted July 30, 2023 Author Share Posted July 30, 2023 July 29 Rundown Atlanta, GA Well, things are certainly interesting. Let's start at the top. After winning by just 0.850 points one night earlier over Boston Crusaders, Blue Devils put up a convincing 1.925 point win, this time over Carolina Crown. After a win earlier in the week was quickly erased, Carolina Crown is back in the silver medalist spot with Boston Crusaders close behind. However, as has been carefully reviewed elsewhere, Boston Crusaders would actually have been all the way down to fourth without the Bluecoats penalty. It is very tight among spots two through four. In San Antonio, The Cadets led The Cavaliers by 1.862. Tonight? Just 0.825. The Cavaliers made up a big part of that time off gap I wrote about yesterday in one night. This may actually be enough to talk about a 5-8 block instead of the 5-7 block that it appeared to be to this point. Further down, Blue Knights put up a decisive victory over Pacific Crest of just under a full point. After being down 1.350 points earlier in the week, Spirit of Atlanta moved ahead of Madison Scouts by 0.050 points. Music City is close on the heels of both corps with a big 2.900 point increase night over night. Note that Heat Wave finished its competitive season with a nice 2.550 point increase and a final competitive score 1.250 points ahead of last year. Bellbrook, OH Columbians made its 2023 season debut with a 74.700, good enough for 24th in the rankings and a good shot at making semifinals the first time in Indianapolis. July 30 Preview Winston-Salem, NC Boston Crusaders are off tonight so the main look is at Carolina Crown-Bluecoats and whether they can claw back some of the lead Blue Devils put up last night. Mandarins are back in competition for the first time in several days. The key match-up will be with The Cadets. Last time the corps met on July 26th, Mandarins led by 0.050 points. Jersey Surf will compete with other World Class corps for the first time this season. Saturday Showdown Will be a Sunday Showdown posted on Monday this week... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumCorpsRadio Posted July 31, 2023 Author Share Posted July 31, 2023 July 30 Rundown Winston-Salem, NC WIthout a penalty, Bluecoats moved into second place, 0.100 points ahead of Carolina Crown and 1.325 points behind Blue Devils. This continues to put Bluecoats, Boston Crusaders, and Carolina Crown in a virtual tie for being the final corps announced prior to the first three-peat in Blue Devils history. The Cadets came out on top of Mandarins by 0.375 points. This moved Mandarins down to 7th based on the relative scores with Phantom Regiment for The Cadets the night before. Take note of the 2.725 point score decrease for Jersey Surf upon joining the rest of World Class on tour. This may mean that the top 12 threatening scores from Spartans will not hold up down the stretch either. July 31 Preview Huntington, WV The main thing I am looking at tonight is how Spartans score compared to Madison Scouts and Spirit of Atlanta. If Spartans are ahead (and non head-to-head competition results suggest they are), then things down the stretch will be extremely interesting. "Saturday" Showdown Competitive Landscape The Blue Devils is back up to over a point lead over its next closest competitor, much more than last year's 0.500 points at this time. Placements have changed over the past week with Boston Crusaders dropping from #2 to #4, although it feels as though that 2-4 range could change on any given night right now. There are still only these four corps over the 90 point threshold. Last year, there was one more (Santa Clara Vanguard). The 5-7 grouping traded spots throughout the week. Despite the rankings after Sunday, the current order based on most recent head-to-head competition is Phantom Regiment, The Cadets, an then Mandarins. The Cavaliers is making a push to be part of this grouping. Colts and Troopers continue to battle each other and have made some gains on Blue Stars for a possible 9-11 group. The battle for #12 took a turn this week as well with Crossmen re-emerging with some head-to-head victories that put it in contention with Blue Knights and Pacific Crest for that final spot. Whether Spartans should also be on the list of corps with potential for a Saturday night World Class competitive slot remains to be seen. On the Rise (2+ spots higher than 2022) Spartans is now the corps leading the pack. Currently ranked #14, the corps is nine sots higher than last year (23rd) and five spots higher than its highest ever placement at Lucas Oil Stadium (19th in 2019). Columbians and Southwind are both six spots ahead of where they finished last year (21st vs. 27th for Southwind and 24th vs. 30th for Columbians). This will be Columbians first time participating in DCI championships. Although no longer in line for finals at the moment, Pacific Crest continues to outpace is last finish by four spots (19th). Raiders is also in line for a four place improvement (31st vs. 35th). After flirting with fifth place, Mandarins have fallen to seventh this week, still three spots higher than each of the last three years which were also the corps' highest World Class placements to date. Blue Knights, Gold, Phantom Regiment, and Troopers are all on pace for finishes two spots higher than last year at the moment. This year from San Antonio to Atlanta, 12 of 15 spots in the top 15 changed. Last year, that number was just six and just one back in 2019. Holding Steady (+1 to -1 spots away from 2022) Carolina Crown, The Cadets, The Cavaliers, and Colts are all currently one spot ahead of their 2022 finish. Blue Devils, Bluecoats, Crossmen, and Jersey Surf are event. 7th Regiment, Genesis, Les Stentors, and River City Rhythm are one spot lower. Falling Back (2+ spots lower than 2022) After talk of challenging Blue Devils for gold for the last two weeks, Boston Crusaders slipped to two spots lower than last year's finish for this week's analysis. Blue Stars, Colt Cadets, and Madison Scouts are also two spots lower at this point. The Academy and Music City are now three spots lower. The Guardians (four places) and The Batallion (eight places) are even further back, but neither corps has competed recently so that should change some. Back in Action Spirit of Atlanta (16th) and Seattle Cascades (26th) returned to competition this year. Spirit is three spots behind its last two finishes (13th in 2019 and 2018) while Seattle Cascades is just one spot behind its last placement (25th in 2019). Coming back from a year away is difficult and the fact that both corps have done so with little competitive change is notable. Open Class Spartans are the clear favorite to win Open Class with a solid lead 1.800 point lead over Gold. Gold has its own clear lead over Southwind (1.400 points) for silver and Southwind leads Columbians by 1.650 points for the bronze. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KVG_DC Posted July 31, 2023 Share Posted July 31, 2023 Open Class gaps could change as they go head to head more times now that everything is back on track with the Eastern shows happening. I suspect as the Open Class start doing shows with WC we'll see some score adjustment too. But those who sleep on Open Class do so at their own risk. Spartans and Gold are legit good. Spartans could take a crack at besting BDB's 15th place finish in 2016 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Guns Posted July 31, 2023 Share Posted July 31, 2023 3 minutes ago, KVG_DC said: Open Class gaps could change as they go head to head more times now that everything is back on track with the Eastern shows happening. I suspect as the Open Class start doing shows with WC we'll see some score adjustment too. But those who sleep on Open Class do so at their own risk. Spartans and Gold are legit good. Spartans could take a crack at besting BDB's 15th place finish in 2016 Spartans could take a crack at Madison tonight at the Huntington show! I am very interested in that matchup. If Spartans beat the Scouts tonight or come close, the Mods might be working overtime tonight in the Madison thread. I agree though. Last couple seasons the top of OC has stepped their game up. Some of these WC corps better be careful as we head towards the finish line. Spartans and Gold are no joke. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IllianaLancerContra Posted July 31, 2023 Share Posted July 31, 2023 50 minutes ago, Chief Guns said: Spartans could take a crack at Madison tonight at the Huntington show! I am very interested in that matchup. If Spartans beat the Scouts tonight or come close, the Mods might be working overtime tonight in the Madison thread. I agree though. Last couple seasons the top of OC has stepped their game up. Some of these WC corps better be careful as we head towards the finish line. Spartans and Gold are no joke. Yes, the will be interesting to see if Spartans really are challenging for 12th or if Open Class score inflation is a thing. I recall a 4th of July weekend afternoon show somewhere in Chicago suburbs still back in the tick era. There was a very young inner-city Corps in their first contest ever. The judges were very kind and scored them around 40. But then they had to maintain a reasonable gap with the rest of us. We ended up second or third with an 88-something. In early July. In the tick era. That evening there was another DCM show without the young Corps. And scores were back where they should have been. But for 4 hours we were ahead of Blue Devils. So Open Class score inflation does happen, at least sometimes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Guns Posted July 31, 2023 Share Posted July 31, 2023 19 minutes ago, IllianaLancerContra said: Yes, the will be interesting to see if Spartans really are challenging for 12th or if Open Class score inflation is a thing. I recall a 4th of July weekend afternoon show somewhere in Chicago suburbs still back in the tick era. There was a very young inner-city Corps in their first contest ever. The judges were very kind and scored them around 40. But then they had to maintain a reasonable gap with the rest of us. We ended up second or third with an 88-something. In early July. In the tick era. That evening there was another DCM show without the young Corps. And scores were back where they should have been. But for 4 hours we were ahead of Blue Devils. So Open Class score inflation does happen, at least sometimes. Honestly I don't think Spartans will challenge for top 12. But that 15-16 range...........that could be interesting. But you are right, this could be fools gold, and Madison comes out tonight and puts this whole thing to bed by two or three pointing the Spartans. We will see tonight. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumCorpsRadio Posted August 1, 2023 Author Share Posted August 1, 2023 July 31 Rundown Huntington WV The Open Class reset was real for Gold and Spartans with both corps seeing their scores decrease by 1.600 points in their first meeting with a full slate of World Class corps. Columbians decreased by 0.600 points. Spirit of Atlanta made a strong statement by catapulting to the 12th spot with a 2.800 point increase. The next time Spirit lines up with more than one of the other corps fighting for this spot will be Saturday night in Allentown. Phantom Regiment joined the 90+ point club, becoming the fifth corps to do so this year. August 1 Preview Annapolis MD Will The Cadets build on its win over Mandarins two nights ago, or even join the 90+ point club? Salem, VA Might Troopers (and by association Colts) make a run at Blue Stars for the #9 spot? Sevierville, TN The battle for 12th continues with Crossmen and Pacific Crest matching up. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasPRfan Posted August 1, 2023 Share Posted August 1, 2023 These continue to be awesome! Thank you so much!!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.