The DCI Southwestern Championship presented by Fred J. Miller Inc. — the first and only meeting of all 20 World Class corps on the 2025 DCI Summer Tour outside of the DCI World Championships — revealed a number of intriguing competitive races.
READ: Record-breaking Boston leads loaded field in San Antonio
Here’s a quick roundup of just a few of the storylines currently unfolding that fans can keep an eye on as the DCI Tour continues into late July.
1. At the Top
San Antonio’s results offered a clearer glimpse into how the race for the DCI World Championship may be shaping up — with Boston Crusaders and Bluecoats rising to the top in the weekend’s scores. Boston led the way with a 93.213, followed closely by Bluecoats at 92.825. Both corps pulled ahead by nearly — or more than — two points from the rest of the field, establishing themselves as current front-runners while others work to close the gap.
That meeting at the Alamodome served as just the second head-to-head data point between Boston and Bluecoats this season. The first, just two days earlier on July 17 in Denton, Texas, went to the Bluecoats by 0.15 points. Notably, only two more remain on the schedule before the DCI World Championships: July 31 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and August 4 in Canton, Ohio, each corps’ respective home turf.
2. Familiar Foes
The last time Blue Devils and Santa Clara Vanguard were in a neck-and-neck race, it was a midseason battle vying for the top spot in 2018; Vanguard eventually pulled away, taking home the World Championship title.
As of San Antonio, Vanguard held a razor-thin advantage, outscoring Blue Devils by just 0.075 points. That also marked the first time Vanguard had scored ahead of Blue Devils this season; in fact, it was the first time since the early part of the 2019 season.
Much like Boston Crusaders and Bluecoats; these two corps’ remaining meetings are limited. They’re even more limited, in fact; Blue Devils and Vanguard will not meet head-to-head in the same venue, on the same date, until the DCI World Championship Prelims, August 7 in Indianapolis.
Given both corps’ reputations — especially Blue Devils as seen in their dramatic rise during the 2015 DCI World Championships — for fine-tuning their performances late in the season, fans will be watching closely to see just how much ground they can gain in the coming weeks.
3. Midsummer Mashup
A trio of corps that have competed head-to-head several times this season provided some of the closest competition Saturday in San Antonio; Blue Stars (8th), The Cavaliers (9th), and Troopers (10th), were separated by a total of just 0.65 points.
Since then, The Cavaliers and Troopers have met twice; both matchups went the way of the Green Machine, by expanded tallies of 1.3 in Bedford, Texas, and more than two points in Belleville, Illinois. Colts also re-entered the conversation with this grouping, scoring within half a point of Troopers on Tuesday in Belleville.
It’s likely this grouping will remain cloudy over the next two weeks; they’ll meet up with one another in pairs throughout the remainder of the season, but the only time they’ll all perform under the same heading will be in Indianapolis.
4. Side by Side
Less than one point separated 14th, 15th, and 16th places in San Antonio, as Spirit of Atlanta (79.075), Pacific Crest (78.963), and Crossmen (78.113) all gained advantages over one another in various scoring captions.
It’s also worth noting that the gap between Spirit and Pacific Crest, 0.112, was one of the slimmest between any two corps at Saturday’s event. Unfortunately, for fans of nailbiting competition, those two won’t meet head-to-head again until they arrive in Indianapolis.
Spirit and Crossmen — two corps that met twice prior to performing in San Antonio — have identical remaining schedules, appearing at the same eight DCI Tour events prior to the World Championships.
5. Back and Forth
Seattle Cascades and Genesis have met three times so far this season, with the first two matchups going the way of Cascades; in San Antonio, the Washington corps earned a 1.1-point advantage over Genesis.
Genesis turned the tables, though, July 20 in Bedford, Texas, ranking ahead of Cascades by a mere 0.05 points.
The two corps will cross paths a few more times before Championships Week, with head-to-head matchups set for July 25 in Birmingham, Alabama, July 27 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and August 4 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
