The audience at the 2019 DCI Southeastern Championship presented by Lone Star Percussion in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium witnessed Bluecoats regain the lead over Blue Devils by a tiny margin of 0.125. Just one night earlier, the Devils snapped Bluecoats’ season-long undefeated streak by just 0.075 at The Masters of the Summer Music Games in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the same margin by which Blue Devils had lost to Bluecoats in San Antonio a week prior to the Atlanta show.
Read more about the results from Saturday in Atlanta
The Southeastern Championship was only the second time all World Class corps gathered in the same place on the same day for head-to-head competition. It will also be the last time this happens prior to the DCI World Championship Prelims in Indianapolis.
In reading the following, please keep in mind that the scores for GE 1 (General Effect 1) and GE 2 are counted for full value, without being averaged. (Each GE caption is comprised of scores from two judges, and those two judges are averaged for each GE 1 and GE 2.) However, each of the scores of the three visual and three music captions are first divided in half, with each of those half scores added for the total visual and total music scores.
The overall Visual score is comprised of scores from three judges; Visual Proficiency, Visual Analysis, and Color Guard. The overall Music score is comprised of scores from four judges; one for Brass, two for Music Analysis, and one for Percussion. The two Music Analysis scores are averaged before being added to the overall Visual score and rounded up to the third decimal place if necessary so total scores aren’t taken out to four decimal places.
View the complete recap of scores from Atlanta
Bluecoats (1st place – 93.762) took 1st in GE and both Analysis captions, passing up Blue Devils in GE since San Antonio. Visual Proficiency placed 3rd to BD’s 1st and Color Guard finished 3rd to BD’s 2nd, though Brass placed 2nd to BD’s 3rd and Percussion 3rd to BD’s 2nd. Total Music finished 2nd to BD’s 4th mostly due to a 0.35 advantage in Music Analysis, but the spread in total Music over BD was slightly over a tenth. Considering all that, it’s easy to see how GE was the deciding factor in Atlanta.
Blue Devils (2nd – 93.637) won Visual Proficiency and took 2nd in GE, Visual Analysis, Color Guard, and Percussion. Brass moved up to 3rd from 5th in San Antonio and Music Analysis placed 4th. The corps placed 1st in total Visual and 4th in total Music, but although total Music placed three positions under Vanguard, the deficit in total Music to SCV was less than 0.20. BD’s total advantage over SCV of just 0.387 was mostly due to scoring 0.40 higher in total Visual, with a slight 0.175 advantage in GE.
Santa Clara Vanguard (3rd place – 93.250) again won Percussion and moved up to 2nd from a 4th-place finish in Visual Proficiency from San Antonio. Color Guard and Brass placed 4th, Brass slipping from 2nd the week before, but total Music finished in 1st. GE and both Analysis captions finished 3rd.
Carolina Crown (4th – 91.588) repeated in 1st place in Brass, just the corps had done in San Antonio. Music Analysis moved up to 2nd from 4th and both Visual Proficiency and Percussion finished 4th. The corps tied Bluecoats for 2nd in total Music, less a tenth under Vanguard’s 1st-place finish. Color Guard moved up the 5th from 6th and Visual Analysis also finished 5th. Just as in San Antonio, the corps suffered a 6th place finish in GE, taking 4th from one GE judge and 6th from the remaining three.
Boston Crusaders (5th – 90.675) scored only 0.062 above The Cavaliers, again capturing top Color Guard honors, placing 4th in GE and Visual Analysis, 8th in Percussion, and 6th in the other three captions.
The Cavaliers (6th – 90.613) placed 5th in every caption except for 6th place in Visual Analysis and Color Guard, which kept the corps from overtaking Boston Crusaders.
Blue Knights (7th – 87.175) fell to 10th in Visual Proficiency from 7th in San Antonio, placed 8th in Color Guard and Brass, and 7th in the remaining four captions.
Blue Stars (8th – 86.913) slipped to 10th in Percussion, had caption highs of 7th in Color Guard and Brass, placed 8th in GE Visual Proficiency, and Visual Analysis, and 9th in Music Analysis.
The Cadets (9th – 85.950) once again had the widest discrepancy in caption placements of any corps, finishing 6th in Percussion, 7th in Music Analysis, 9th in Visual Proficiency, 10th in GE, Color Guard, and Brass, and 11th in Visual Analysis.
Mandarins (10th – 85.050) moved up to 7th in Visual Proficiency from 10th in San Antonio and finished 9th in GE, Visual Analysis, and Color Guard. The corps’ weak spots were all in Music, finishing 10th in Music Analysis and placing 14th in Brass and Percussion, Brass dropping from 12th in San Antonio.
Crossmen (11th – 84.213) placed 10th in Visual Analysis, 12th in Music Analysis, and 11th in all other captions.
Phantom Regiment (12th – 83.725) moved up to 9th in both Brass and Percussion from San Antonio, took 11th in Music Analysis, 12th in GE and Visual Proficiency, and 13th in Visual Analysis and Color Guard.
Spirit of Atlanta (13th – 82.400) placed 13th in GE, Visual Proficiency, and Music Analysis, and 12th in the other four captions.
Colts (tie 14th – 79.875) tied The Academy after being down to the Arizona corps in San Antonio by 0.788. The corps slipped to 13th in Percussion and finished 16th in Visual Proficiency and Color Guard and 15th in all other captions. Despite the dip in Percussion, the line still placed five spots higher in the caption than The Academy, which sealed the tie.
The Academy (tie 14th – 79.875) slipped to 18th in Percussion, took 16th in Brass, 15th in Visual Proficiency and Color Guard, and 14th in GE and both Analysis captions.
Pacific Crest (16th – 79.250) moved up to 16th from 18th in Percussion at San Antonio and rose to 13th in Brass from 15th the weekend before. Visual Proficiency and Color Guard ended in 14th, and the remaining three captions also placed 16th.
Madison Scouts (17th – 77.100) repeated its high placement of 15th in Percussion from San Antonio, took 17th in Visual Proficiency, Brass, and Music Analysis, and 18th in GE, Visual Analysis, and Color Guard.
Troopers (18th – 76.275) placed 18th in Visual Proficiency and Music Analysis, 19th in Brass, and 17th in everything else.
Genesis (19th – 73.550) was 19th in GE and all Visual captions, 20th in Brass and Music Analysis, and 21st in Percussion.
Music City (20th – 73.250) repeated its high caption placement of 18th in Brass from San Antonio, taking 19th in the other two Music captions, 21st in Color Guard and 20th in everything else.
Jersey Surf (21st – 71.150) finished 21st in most captions, other than placing 20th in Music Analysis, Color Guard and Percussion, and 22nd in Visual Analysis, a caption in which the corps placed 20th in San Antonio.
Seattle Cascades (22nd – 69.225) scored 4.325 higher than the corps’ San Antonio score, the largest increase in scores of all World Class corps. The corps placed 22nd in all captions except for 21st in Visual Analysis.