Due to extremely severe weather, the one-day DCI Minnesota show on July 17 in Minneapolis (with all World Class corps in attendance minus Mandarins, Pacific Crest and Jersey Surf) had to be shut down with nine corps to go. Since this show at the D.W. Rutledge Stadium in Converse, TX—normally held as a one-day event in the Alamadome (which is being used by the Dallas Cowboys this weekend)—was held over two nights, we have to wait until next weekend at the DCI Southeastern Championship for all the World Class corps to get together on one day. (Mandarins and Pacific crest joined the World Class tour this week on the way to the east coast. Jersey Surf will first meet the bulk of the World Class corps in Atlanta.)
Unlike other Premier Events this year and due to logistical considerations, there was only one Visual Effect and one Music Effect judge utilized at this event. Therefore, the Effect scores for this event were not divided in half. However, since the three Visual judges (Performance, Ensemble and Color Guard) and the three Music judges (Brass, Ensemble and Percussion) have a maximum of 20 points to award, each of those scores are divided in half before being added to the final Visual and Music totals. (This allows those judges to work with tenths of a point instead of half-tenths of a point.) Please keep that in mind and know that when it's mentioned a corps was up by 0.50 in any of the Visual or Music captions, it really means they were up by 0.25 as far as the final total overall score is concerned.
The DCI Southwestern events also set the stage for which eight corps will appear in next Friday's event in Murfreesboro, TN. Competition was fierce for the final spot, with Boston Crusaders having topped Blue Knights most recently in Houston and the two corps having tied in West Des Moines, IA. With Blue Knights having topped Santa Clara Vanguard in Ogden, UT, there was speculation that anything could happen. Not to be counted out, Blue Stars had been knocking on the door of the top eight, having scored 1.35 behind Boston Crusaders at the DCI Kalamazoo event on July 10. When the dust settled in San Antonio, Blue Stars had closed up most of that gap by placing 0.40 behind Boston Crusaders, but still finishing in 9th place and therefore out of the show.
The following night at the DCI Southeastern Championship performance order will be established by the scores from San Antonio, with the corps drawing within groupings of three. (Jersey Surf was positioned according to the corps' score in Warrenton, VA.)
View Murfreesboro and Atlanta lineups and order of appearance.
With Blue Devils continually out front this season, at times there has seemed to be a four-way tie for second place. Of late, The Cavaliers have been taking the second highest scores at events after losing shows to Bluecoats, The Cadets and Carolina Crown. In San Antonio, The Cavaliers solidified that position by a mere 0.45, with Bluecoats just 0.10 over Carolina Crown and The Cadets 0.70 behind Bluecoats. Santa Clara Vanguard held off Phantom Regiment by 0.75 and that small 0.40 spread between Boston Crusaders and Blue Stars almost knocking Boston out of the Murfreesboro show. Troopers are 1.70 behind Madison Scouts, the two corps on either side of the top 12 bubble. Between Crossmen and Pacific Crest is a 2.85 gap that might decide who earns a spot in the World Championship Semifinals in Indianapolis this August.
View the Saturday, July 24 San Antonio recap.
View the Sunday, July 25 San Antonio recap.
1st place Blue Devils (Saturday—92.30) placed highest in all captions over the two nights, except for Percussion and Brass. Phantom Regiment came out on top in Percussion by 0.20 and The Cadets won Brass by 0.10. The corps won both General Effect Visual and Visual Performance by just 0.10 over The Cavaliers. Despite being only 0.30 above the second place corps in GE Music, the corps won total GE by a whopping 0.70 due to how the other top corps placed higher in one GE caption and lower in the other. In Total Music (the combination of Brass, Ensemble and Percussion), BD placed 0.50 over the next highest corps, The Cadets.
2nd place The Cavaliers (Sunday—90.40) were fifth in GE Music, just 0.10 above Santa Clara's sixth place score and 0.80 down to BD in total GE. The corps was fifth in Music Ensemble, but excelled in all the Visual captions, placing 0.30 behind in total Visual. The Music Ensemble caption, despite finishing fifth, was quite close as 0.10 separated each of the 2nd through 5th place corps in that caption.
3rd place Bluecoats (Sunday—89.95) nudged Carolina Crown by 0.10 primarily on the basis of scoring 0.60 above Crown in Percussion and losing to Crown by 0.50 in Brass. All other captions between the two corps were separated by no more than 0.20. The corps beat The Cavaliers by 0.10 in total GE and 0.15 in total Music. To catch The Cavaliers, Bluecoats need to address a 0.70 deficit in total Visual, with a 0.70 deficit in Visual Performance alone. (Keep in mind that represents 0.35 of the total score, once that caption's score is divided in half.)
4th place Carolina Crown (Sunday—89.85) tied The Cavaliers in total Music and were behind The Cavaliers by 0.10 in total GE. The corps was only 0.20 behind The Cadets and 0.10 behind Blue Devils in Brass. The corps beat Bluecoats in total Visual by 0.35 but were 0.45 behind The Cavaliers in the same caption. The corps was third in GE Music, 0.40 under Blue Devils and 0.10 behind Bluecoats, but only 0.10 above The Cadets and 0.30 above The Cavaliers.
5th place The Cadets (Sunday—89.25) won Brass by 0.10 over Blue Devils and 0.50 over The Cavaliers. The corps lost to Santa Clara Vanguard in Visual Performance by 0.30 and was 0.50 down to Carolina Crown and 1.00 down to The Cavaliers in that caption. Despite beating The Cavaliers 0.20 in GE Music, the corps was down to the Green Machine by 0.60 in GE Visual, resulting in a total GE deficit of 0.40.
6th place Santa Clara Vanguard (Saturday—87.60) placed ninth in Percussion, falling behind Glassmen and scoring just 0.10 above the tenth place Blue Knights' percussion line. Also a weakness was the corps' ninth place score in Brass. A bright spot was the corps beating The Cadets by 0.30 in Visual Performance, tying for third place with Bluecoats.
7th place Phantom Regiment (Saturday—86.85) took ninth in Visual Ensemble and Color Guard, but won Percussion by 0.20, continuing the line's dominance of the past few years. The corps beat Santa Clara Vanguard by 0.75 in total Music, but lost to SCV by 0.80 in total Visual and 0.70 in total GE; those last two captions being behind largely responsible for the corps scoring 0.75 under SCV.
8th place Boston Crusaders (Sunday—85.55) earned the final spot at next Friday's Murfreesboro show over Blue Stars primarily due to a 0.70 advantage in total GE, 0.50 of that in Visual GE. Despite being only 0.20 down to Phantom Regiment in total GE and 0.25 in total Visual, a 0.85 deficit to Phantom Regiment in total Music was responsible for most of the 1.30 spread under that corps.
9th place Blue Stars (Saturday—85.15) took sixth place in Color Guard, beating Santa Clara Vanguard, Phantom Regiment and Boston Crusaders. The corps also beat Boston by 0.45 in total Visual. However, it was the 0.70 deficit in GE addressed in the paragraph above that largely kept the corps out of the coveted final position in the Murfreesboro line-up.
10th place Blue Knights (Saturday—83.90) was 1.05 behind Blue Stars in total Visual, but beat Blue Stars by 0.10 in total GE. The primary reason for the Visual deficit was the Color Guard scoring 0.80 lower and a Visual Ensemble score that was 0.40 lower than Blue Stars.
11th place Glassmen (Saturday—81.85) maintained a top 12 placement staying 0.35 behind in total Music. However, in total GE, the corps finished 1.40 behind Blue Knights and fell to Madison Scouts by 0.80. The corps lost by 0.40 to 14th place Colts in Visual Ensemble.
12th place Madison Scouts (Sunday—81.55) stayed in the top 12 largely due to a 1.10 advantage over Troopers in total GE and a 0.70 advantage in total Music. Music Ensemble by itself enjoyed a 1.30 lead over Troopers, (resulting in a 0.65 total lead once the score was divided in half).
13th place Troopers (Saturday—79.85) beat Madison Scouts in three captions; Visual Performance by 0.70, Percussion by 0.40 and Visual Ensemble by 0.10. The corps lost to Colts in Visual Ensemble and Music Ensemble, the latter by 0.80.
14th place Colts (Sunday—78.90) beat Madison Scouts, Glassmen and Troopers in Visual Ensemble, besting Glassmen by 0.40. The 0.30 spread over The Academy was largely due to a 0.60 advantage in total Visual, almost negated by a 0.55 loss to The Academy in total Music. The corps also lost to Spirit by 0.15 in total Music.
15th place The Academy (Saturday—78.60) beat Troopers in total Music by 0.45. Visual Ensemble took a hit in Visual Ensemble, placing twentieth by scoring 1.60 under Colts and finishing behind Teal Sound as well. The corps beat Glassmen in Music Ensemble by 0.20, placing eleventh in that caption.
16th place Spirit (Sunday—78.20) beat Troopers in total Music by 0.15, but were behind The Academy in that caption by 0.30. The corps was behind The Academy by 1.30 in Music Ensemble, but topped the corps by 0.50 in Percussion and 0.20 in Brass.
17th place Crossmen (Sunday—77.35) is aiming to maintain a Semifinals berth, with a Visual Ensemble placement of 12th being the high point at this contest. The corps lost to Pacific Crest in Visual Performance by 0.30.
18th place Pacific Crest (Saturday—74.50) did not make a successful run on Crossmen at this event due to being behind the San Antonio corps in GE Visual by 1.10, Visual Ensemble by 1.00 and Color Guard by 1.20.
19th place Mandarins (Saturday—73.65) and 20th place Teal Sound (Sunday—73.35) topped each other in four captions, accounting for the closeness in scores.
21st place Cascades (Saturday—71.20) beat Mandarins in Visual Performance and Brass by 0.10 and Teal Sound in Visual Performance by 0.60. 22nd place Pioneer (Saturday—69.55) beat Cascades in GE Music by 0.10 and Music Ensemble by 0.30.
Contributing to this report: Craig Olear