DCI Prelims - Big, Loud, and Live - August 10th, 2023

[skevinp]

2 hours ago, MarimbaManiac said:

I'd agree...looking at the recaps, the judges are definitely not in full agreement about BD. 

• 2 of the 4 GE judges had them in 2nd. 
• 1 of the 2 music analysis judges had them in 3rd. 
• The percussion judge was way too friendly to them IMO. I'd anticipate Julie will drop them lower. 

There are two things keeping them in 1st. Their visual sweep (but guard is FAR from guaranteed for them), and the judging disagreements on who should be 1st when they're not. If the GE panel gets on the same page and unifies around one winner that isn't BD, they drop further behind in percussion, and they lose guard, there is an opening for a corps to step in. 

Is that Crown? Maybe, their percussion puts them at a disadvantage. I'm still guessing BAC. 2nd in visual, 2nd in percussion, 3rd in music. If they get a favorable GE panel, they're in. 

 

This makes it sound like the GE judges all get together and discuss who they want to uniformly choose.

My understanding is they all give their scores without being aware of what the others are doing.  Is that wrong?

[skevinp]

6 minutes ago, MarimbaManiac said:

Yeah again, respectfully I don't think that's true. 

One of the MA judges already thinks Crown was the best last night, as did the brass judge, but they were dumped to 4th by the other MA judge looking at the same show. This is simply how those judges saw the same show, on the same night. Had that MA judge put them in 1st like the other, or even 2nd, they would have won music outright. Same with GE to a slightly different degree. 

It's going to depend hard on the panel, and what they personally see on finals night. 

I was surprised by that MA difference also.  In the shows I have looked at before Crown was always in the top 2 and often first in MA.  

[Ediker]

10 hours ago, TheOneWhoKnows said:

This! I want BD to do a full Sweeney Todd show soooo bad

Funny, it’s been in my head this week that they must’ve done Sweeney. I guess not. It would be a good fit, and a new challenge that departs from their usual upbeat feel good stuff. 

[Cappybara]

19 minutes ago, MikeRapp said:

Then I could successfully argue that there are about a half dozen of these now, including the second act ballad that is a known pop favorite, with brass bunched together in a small form stage right.

Absolutely, you won't get any disagreement from me there. But as a very jazz minded corps, the free form clumps matches the energy and personality of the corps

[Cappybara]

1 minute ago, skevinp said:

I was surprised by that MA difference also.  In the shows I have looked at before Crown was always in the top 2 and often first in MA.  

My guess is that one judge is focused on brass and the other is on percussion. 

[Cappybara]

5 minutes ago, skevinp said:

This makes it sound like the GE judges all get together and discuss who they want to uniformly choose.

My understanding is they all give their scores without being aware of what the others are doing.  Is that wrong?

Correct.

[MarimbaManiac]

3 minutes ago, skevinp said:

This makes it sound like the GE judges all get together and discuss who they want to uniformly choose.

My understanding is they all give their scores without being aware of what the others are doing.  Is that wrong?

No you're not wrong, though competitive inertia and crowd response definitely plays a part in GE. I'm speaking about how each panel will view the shows on each night. 

Some are saying that it's going to take a "big mistake from BD" for them to lose, which I don't find accurate. I think the recaps show that the right judge in the right caption could tip this for Crown (or whomever) based on the same show.

Crown should have won music last night IMO, and one judge scuttled that. Clearly the GE judges disagreed as well. If we get a panel tonight or tomorrow that are more are less in agreement, it could go either way. 

[MarimbaManiac]

5 minutes ago, Cappybara said:

My guess is that one judge is focused on brass and the other is on percussion. 

They're not. They judge the same caption, it's just a double panel. It USED to be a box percussion judge (it was called "ensemble percussion"), but they changed that some years ago. 

Also the guy who usually judges drums had them in first, which is...wrong. 

Edited August 11, 2023 by MarimbaManiac

[Ediker]

10 hours ago, TheOneWhoKnows said:

I will say, in the stadium Boston was a lot quieter than when I’ve heard them in rehearsals and compared to others. I feel this hurt them in GE 

They did have a distinct drop in amplification level compared to the blue corps before and after. It must be tricky to strike the right balance… and I am loath to suggest anyone it dial up. 

[ftwdrummer]

3 minutes ago, MarimbaManiac said:

They're not. They judge the same caption, it's just a double panel. It USED to be a box percussion judge, but they changed that some years ago. 

Also the guy who usually judges drums had them in first, which is...wrong. 

Eh, I can see there being more appreciation for a Broken City book from the booth than the field. But thank you for pointing out it was Romanowski who popped them first--I'd missed that on my first read.