The 2025 DCI Summer Tour is officially underway, and many corps have gotten off to a hot start. With exceptional groups and multiple head-to-head matchups coming out of the woodwork, here is a breakdown of DCI scores after more than a week of action.
Wild Out West
Among top-scoring World Class corps, Boston Crusaders, Blue Devils, and Santa Clara Vanguard have developed a three-way, head-to-head matchup within the division. The three corps met on July 6 at DCI West in Stanford, California, and were all separated by less than two points as they filled the top-three spots at the competition.
While Stanford was the first time the three corps competed together in 2025, they did have one-on-one matchups earlier this season. Crusaders started the season by scoring 0.8 points higher than Blue Devils in Fort Collins, Colorado on June 28, and then it beat out Vanguard by 1.65 points on July 5 in Sacramento, California.
The matchup between Boston Crusaders and Blue Devils has become familiar to DCI fans, as the two corps were separated by 0.338 points at the 2024 DCI World Championship Finals. The corps, which finished second and third last season, continue to impress at early events in 2025.
With Vanguard recently joining the scoring mix and earning top marks in percussion at Saturday’s Stanford event, DCI fans will have to keep their eyes peeled how this three-legged race pans out.
None of 2024’s top six corps have competed with the defending-champion Bluecoats — who currently own the tour’s top score, earning a tally of 83.300 July 6 in La Crosse, Wisconsin — so DCI fans will be on the edge of their seats for those upcoming head-to-head meetings. Bluecoats’ first appearance with fellow 2025 medalists Boston Crusaders and Blue Devils will take place July 17 in Denton, Texas, and July 18 in Houston, Texas.
A Familiar Matchup
The 2024 DCI World Championships saw Phantom Regiment make a late push in order to sneak ahead of Carolina Crown and take fourth place. With razor-close scores of 95.225 and 95.025, respectively, the 0.2-point gap was the smallest between any of the corps at the 2024 Finals.
The two corps had their first competitive meeting of 2025 on July 7 in Sevierville, Tennessee. After yet another close bout, Crown came out on top, posting a score of 81.500 to Phantom Regiment’s 80.950. Though Crown did take the Visual Caption overall by 0.25 points, as well as the Music Caption by 0.3 points, Phantom Regiment was able to tie for first in General Effect.
The 0.55-point differential in Sevierville hints at another possible back-and-forth season between the two corps. The groups will meet again at DCI Little Rock on July 12.
Jostling For Position
Five corps who finished clumped together at the end of 2024 — Blue Stars (8th), Colts (9th), Troopers (10th), The Cavaliers (11th) and Madison Scouts (12th) — have spent significant time together at early-season events in the Midwest.
There’s been plenty of shakeup between the five. Early on, Blue Stars and Colts held advantages over this pack, but The Cavaliers and Troopers both made recent noise, sliding ahead of the Dubuque, Iowa corps July 8 in Mankato, Minnesota.
For The Cavaliers, who outscored Troopers and Colts alike by around two points, this marked the first time scoring ahead of either corps head-to-had since July of last summer.
Blue Stars, though, still maintain the most recent head-to-head advantage over this full grouping of corps, having outscored the pack when all five met up together in Cedarbug, Wisconsin (July 2).
Intriguing Pairings
In the early going of the 2025 DCI Tour, a couple of closely-contested head-to-head races have unfolded.
Spirit of Atlanta and Music City have met three times on the young season. Spirit has earned the higher score in all three meetings, but the Nashville corps closed the gap to just 0.45 points July 8 in Newnan, Georgia, thanks largely to strong scores in visual captions.
Genesis and Spartans (note: Spartans are following a hybrid Open/World Class tour in ’25) have also created some early competitive intrigue, appearing together at two recent DCI Tour events. Genesis tallied the higher mark in both events, but neither by a margin of more than 0.6 points.
A Strong Debut
Memphis Blues is a new addition to the Open Class division for 2025, and the corps is on a strong path thus far. The group received scores of 62.950 on July 5 and 62.550 on July 7.
By July 7 of last season, Open Class corps such as Gold and Spartans were putting up similar numbers at their competitions. After averaging scores in the low 60-point range to start the season, Spartans and Gold went on to place first and third, respectively, at the DCI Open Class World Championship Finals on August 6, 2024.
This hot start from Memphis Blues could very well be the beginning of an upward trajectory for the corps as it continues its inaugural Open Class season.
Early All-Age Returns
A season-opening event in Shelton, Connecticut has been the only event featuring multiple competing All-Age corps this season.
Reading Buccaneers emerged as an early leader in the All-Age World Class division after the corps’ debut in Shelton. The defending champions from 2024 won every caption as well as almost every subcaption at the inaugural DCI All-Age Championship in Indianapolis.
It was a close race following Buccaneers, with Caballeros, Bushwackers, and Hurricanes earning scores of 77.900, 76.850, and 71.600, respectively. Caballeros and Bushwackers served as the second- and third-place finishers a year ago in the All-Age World Class standings.
All-Age corps will take center stage July 12 in Clifton, New Jersey.
