First, we'd like to thank everyone, and we mean everyone, for visiting the new DCI.org. And we'd like to apologize to those of you who were unable to connect to dci.org or unable to view score and news pages you were looking for. Let me assure you, our score reporting and news updating systems were in fact online. Unfortunately, many of you were unable to view the data due to an extreme server load.Because of this temporary disruption in service, we'd like to share some background as to what has transpired, especially given the number of e-mails and phone calls we've received. Yes, we've heard you :-)When we designed DCI.org, we anticipated that it would require a more robust server environment than the old DCI.org. This is because much of the new DCI.org is driven by database-resident information. Prior to launching the new DCI.org, we profiled the anticipated performance based on the servers we have in place and the new functionality of the site. We expanded the server's capability and optimized the site prior to launch. At that point we anticipated that we would be able to handle traffic loads that approximated our peak loads from last season.However, during the past 24 hours we have exceeded traffic levels from last season by nearly 30 percent. This high traffic level overloaded what we thought would be adequate capacity. And the result was that some of you were unable to have a successful experience with the new DCI.org. You got blank pages, or blank fields, and no scores.Fortunately, we were monitoring the site last night and today, and working to keep the site up and running for you. Now that the site is more stable, here's what we're doing to ensure that this doesn't happen again. First, we have already increased server resources as much as possible without a physical upgrade. That's why you can read this message -- we're back online.Second, we have already upgraded critical software components for added speed and stability. Third, we are working directly with the hardware and network engineers at our hosting provider -- one of the most respected in the world -- to physically upgrade our servers. Our plan is to triple our memory and double our processing power on the DCI.org servers. This physical upgrade will be performed between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. Eastern time on July 20 (that's Saturday.) Of course, during this upgrade, DCI.org will be unavailable.If all goes well, we'll be back up and running better than ever and Ready to serve you (sorry :)) well before the Southwestern Championships kickoff in San Antonio tomorrow afternoon. And just in case, we are evaluating the need to add additional load-balanced servers prior to finals week.As a final note, we have received a number of emails and phone calls regarding why the DCI online store was available while scores and news from DCI.org were not. The simple answer is -- traffic. Our store system runs on its own secure server (separate from the server that supports DCI.org) and our store receives a small fraction of the traffic that DCI.org receives. So while you may have experienced issues with scores on DCI.org, the commerce mechanisms were still available to you.Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and we anticipate that DCI.org will prove to be a valuable asset not only to Drum Corps International, but also to our member corps, our affiliated corps and, most important, to you -- our supporters around the world.Thank you for your support and patience.Dan AchesonExecutive DirectorDrum Corps International