The biggest surprise of the Open Class Finals was Vanguard Cadets overcoming Blue Devils B for only the second time this year, waiting until the final show of the season to accomplish that feat since the first show of the season in Stockton, Calif. Reversing a 0.25 deficit after the Semifinals, Vanguard Cadets nicked its Bay Area rival by just 0.05, half a tenth, bringing an end to the undefeated season for Blue Devils B and making the two corps the only units to change position from Semifinals to Finals. Vanguard Cadets (1st, 96.825) picked up 0.80 on its Semifinals total Effect score, 0.50 of that coming in Visual Effect, finishing 0.10 under BDB in total Effect instead of the 0.50 spread they had in the Semifinals. The 6th place finish in Color Guard didn't hurt as BDB's guard finished in 5th, just 0.10 ahead, (0.05 when you remember that all captions except Visual Effect and Music Effect are divided in half before being added to the final score). Blue Devils B (2nd, 96.775) picked up 0.40 in total Effect, 0.30 in total Visual, (the combination of Visual Performance, Visual Ensemble and Color Guard) and 0.225 in total Music (the combination of Brass, Music Ensemble and Percussion). But where Vanguard Cadets added 1.225 to its Semifinals score, BDB added 0.925, and it was that 0.30 difference between the scores gained since Semifinals between the two corps that accounted for the 0.25 spread in the final score. Jersey Surf (3rd, 96.050) added 0.625 to their score from Semifinals. While gaining 0.70 in total Effect, the total Visual score remained exactly the same and the corps slipped 0.075 in total Music. Oregon Crusaders (4th, 93.025) lost 0.30 from their Semifinals score, dropping 4th to 7th in Brass and losing 0.70/0.35 in that caption alone. (As a reminder: All scores except Visual Effect and Music Effect are divided in half before being added to the final score, so what looks like a 0.70 drop was really 0.35 when looking at the final score.) Teal Sound (5th, 92.775) lost 0.125 from their Semifinals score, dropping two positions in Visual Performance and Visual Ensemble. The 0.50 gain in total Visual couldn't lift the corps above Oregon Crusaders after slipping in their placements in Visual Ensemble, Color Guard and Brass, the latter caption dropping 0.40/0.20, accounting for more than the entire total decrease. Citations (6th, 92.450) gained 0.925 on their Semifinals score. Combined with Teal Sound's score drop, the corps almost caught the 5th place Florida corps, finishing 0.325 behind after being 1.375 behind in the Semifinals. Citations' total Effect score increased by 0.60 and total Visual by 0.35, but total Music increased by only 0.025. Despite finishing in 6th place, the corps won the Color Guard caption, as it did in Semifinals. However, they placed 12th in Percussion, having been 14th in Semifinals. Spokane Thunder (7th, 91.025) picked up 0.275 from Semifinals, rising from 7th to 4th in Brass despite adding only 0.10/0.05 to that caption's score and slipping from 7th to 9th in Percussion. No other caption changed more than one position. Revolution (8th, 88.650) gained 0.275 in total score, the largest change in score coming in the 0.375 increase in total Music. Only three captions changed in placement, and each was by only one position, with Music Ensemble increasing the most with a 0.60/0.30 gain, three times greater than the next largest score change. Raiders (9th, 86.250) lost 0.35 from their Semifinals score, despite gaining 0.60 in Visual Effect and a significant 0.5 in total Visual. Interestingly, the corps lost a staggering 2.00/1.00 in Brass from the Semifinals, but only dropped one position. Dutch Boy (10th, 84.975) lost 1.55 from the Semifinals and went from 0.075 behind the Raiders to 1.275 behind. Most significant was the 0.90 drop in Visual Effect, falling from 8th to 12th place. There was also a 1.80/0.90 drop in the Brass caption. Memphis Sound (11th, 84.400) lost 1.075 in total score from Semifinals. The corps lost 1.30/0.65 of that in Brass, 0.30 in Visual Effect and slighter amounts in other captions. Yamato (12th, 84.200) lost 1.275 in total score from Semifinals, 0.60 of that coming from total Music, 1.00/0.50 in Brass alone. The rest came from minor decreases in score in other captions. In the International Division, Beatrix scored an 84.825. View a complete recap of scores from this event.