Competitive Edge: June 24-30

West Coast rivalry heats up: The gold and silver medalists from 2017 and 2018 have certainly had their fair share of competitive intrigue early on this season. Santa Clara Vanguard opened up the 2019 campaign with four consecutive wins over Blue Devils, extending the corps’ overall head-to-head win streak to 16; the first two came by 0.65 points, with the latter two coming by 0.4. Sunday in San Bernardino, though, Blue Devils pushed ahead of Vanguard for the first time since last June, earning a win by just five hundredths of a point. Caption scores have been all over the place between these two, but in the Devils’ sole victory, the only caption they won outright was general effect. Visual and music both went to the Santa Clara corps. 

Spirit surging: Spirit of Atlanta certainly made waves in 2018, rising from a 17th-place finish the year prior to almost making its way into the Top 12. The Georgia corps ended up in 13th, but looks poised to continue making moves this season. Spirit owns four consecutive head-to-head wins over perennial finalist Phantom Regiment to start the season, thanks to consistently strong numbers in general effect. That said, the gap between the two continues to close; Regiment saw its deficit rise as high as 1.45 Friday in Muncie, but most recently scored within 0.25 points of Spirit of Atlanta Sunday in Rochester. 

Spartans come out hot: With Vanguard Cadets and Blue Devils B — two corps that have owned the two two spots in Open Class every year since 2013 — not headed to the DCI World Championships this year, plenty of competitive questions surround the top of the Open Class ranks. If raw scores mean anything, the top spot seems to be Spartans’ to lose early on. The Nashua, New Hampshire corps has just one performance under its belt, but nearly broke 60 (59.300) in that opening showing, defeating 7th Regiment (7th in 2018) by just under seven points. At last season’s debut, Spartans scored a 58.000, and topped the Connecticut corps by about four points.  

Boston keeping pace: TheBoston Crusaders have had a consistent string of performances competing against Bluecoats; while they haven’t exactly come within striking distance of passing the Canton corps, the deficits certainly allude to another year-to-year improvement out of Boston. Last year, the two corps averaged a margin of about 2.3 points; this year, the two have yet to be split by more than two points. Granted, there were a handful of events at which Boston scored within two points of Bluecoats in 2018, but those events came in mid-July, during the Crusaders’ surge into the top five. If nothing else, Boston appears to be ahead of schedule compared to its 2018 season, and its George Zingali award-winning color guard continues to be a strength. 

Blue Knights fending off upstart Mandarins: Last year, Mandarins were the talk of the competitive landscape, as the corps rose into the World Class Top 12 for the first time ever, ultimately earning 10th place at the DCI World Championship Finals. The group that most closely evaded the upset-minded Sacramento corps? Blue Knights. The Denver corps kept Mandarins at bay in a series of early-season meetings, and ultimately held an advantage of 0.775 at season’s end. While Mandarins’ early scores have been up more than two points compared to this point last season — much like last year, the corps’ strength has been in the visual caption — Blue Knights have been able to keep leads of between 1.0 and 1.5, largely thanks to major advantages in music. 

Blue Stars lurking: It’s been more than a week since the two corps that took 7th and 8th last season have competed head-to-head, but raw scores seem to point to Blue Stars potentially being within striking distance of The Cadets; such an upset, if it happened, would be the first of its kind in more than 30 years. In the last meeting between the two — Sunday, June 23 in Zionsville — Blue Stars scored closer to The Cadets than they did at any point last season, with a deficit of just 1.15. Since then, scores have been largely comparable to one another, albeit at different events. On Saturday and Sunday, Blue Stars’ numbers in the midwest topped The Cadets’ outputs on the east coast by margins of 0.35 and 0.5.