Just a reminder: When reading about the recaps, please be aware that General Effect (GE) Visual and GE Music are the only two captions that are not divided in half prior to their addition to the final score. When caption spreads are mentioned below, those other than General Effect are first listed with the score given by the particular judge for that caption, followed by a slash and the half-value score that was added to the overall score. This was the first competition weekend that used an 11-person judging panel, with the addition of an additional judge on both Visual Effect and Music Effect. Read more about this new 11 judge panel. The top four corps advanced into the DCI Southwestern Championship evening show (finals). Blue Knights (1st, 83.225) opened up a 1.25 spread over its closest prelims competitor by winning overall Effect by 0.35 and both overall Visual (combined Visual Performance, Visual Ensemble and Color Guard) and overall Music (combined Brass, Music Ensemble and Percussion) by 0.45. The corps tied for 2nd in Visual Effect, the result of being 1st from one judge by .1 and 5th from the other, down from 1st on that sheet by 0.9. Blue Knights also took 2nd in Color Guard and placed 1st in every other caption. Blue Stars (2nd, 81.975) took 1st in Color Guard, tied for 2nd in Visual Effect, and took 2nd outright in Music Effect, Brass and Music Ensemble. Percussion and Visual Ensemble placed 3rd and Visual Performance was 4th, down by 0.7 in that caption to Blue Knights. Glassmen (3rd, 81.625) took 1st in Visual Effect by 0.4 and took 2nd in Visual Performance and Visual Ensemble. Color Guard and Music Ensemble finished in 3rd. Music Effect, Brass and Percussion placed 4th, though the corps took 3rd from Percussion 2 (in the stands) and 6th from Percussion 1 (on the field), a difference of 1.3 between the two judges who listen from different perspectives. Crossmen (4th, 79.350) advanced into the finals competition largely due to a 2nd place tie in Visual Effect, 0.75 over the Madison Scouts' score in that caption, accounting for more than the 0.425 gap between those two corps. Visual Ensemble and Color Guard placed 4th, with most other captions finishing in 6th (Music Effect, Visual Performance, Visual Ensemble and Brass. Percussion tied for 8th, down by 0.75 in that caption to overall 3rd place Glassmen and 1.55 down in the caption to Blue Knights' 1st place line in that caption. However, scoring just 0.15 under the Madison Scouts' percussion kept the corps from placing any lower. Madison Scouts (5th, 78.925) were just 0.425 from tying for advancement into the evening finals. Brass, Visual Performance and Music Effect were the corps' highpoint, both placing 3rd. Music Ensemble and Visual Ensemble finished in 5th, with Visual Effect tying for 6th. Color Guard and Percussion each finished 7th, Percussion placing 4th from the Percussion 1 judge (on the field) and 11th from the Percussion 2 judge (in the stands). Colts (6th, 78.800) was only 0.55 from a finalist berth. The corps' highest placement was 4th in Visual Ensemble, followed by 5th place finishes in both Effect captions, Visual Performance and Color Guard. The corps took 6th in Music Ensemble, 7th in Brass and tied for 8th in Percussion. A 2nd place finish in Percussion was a major highlight for Spirit (7th, 77.600). The corps was down only 0.05 from Blue Knights' Percussion score and took 1st from one of the Percussion judges and 2nd from the other. The next highest placements were 6th place for Color Guard and 7th for Visual Performance. Visual Ensemble, Music Ensemble, Brass and both Effect captions placed 8th. Visual Effect was 5th from one judge and 10th from the other, though both scores were just 0.5 apart. The Effect captions were the strongest finishes for the Troopers (8th, 76.425); a 6th place tie in Visual Effect and 7th in Music Effect. Visual Ensemble also was 7th. Visual Performance was 8th and Music Ensemble was 9th, with Brass, Percussion and Color Guard all finishing in 10th. The brightest spot for Pacific Crest (9th, 75.150) was 6th place in Percussion, 5th from the Percussion 2 judge (sitting in the stands) and 10th from the Percussion 1 judge (on the field). Both Effect captions and Brass placed 9th. Visual Ensemble and both Ensemble captions (Visual and Music) finished in 10th. Visual Ensemble and Color Guard ended in 11th. The Academy (10th, 74.725) had the largest spread of captions of all corps in prelims. The corps was 6th in overall Music, having placed 5th in both Brass and Percussion and 7th in Music Ensemble. Color Guard placed 8th and the corps took 10th in Visual Performance and 11th in Visual Ensemble and both Effect captions. Mandarins (11th, 74.650) took 9th in all three Visual captions, 10th in both Effect captions, and 11th in all three Music captions. Pioneer (12th, 69.125) was 12th in all 11 captions.