World Class Semifinals recap analysis

For the Drum Corps International World Championship World Class Semifinals, let's take a look at the scoring trends, changes and scoring dynamics since the Quarterfinals a day before. Blue Devils (1st, 98.050) took all the same placements in each caption as in Quarterfinals, even once again tying for 3rd in Percussion. The only difference was that in total Music (the combination of Brass, Music Ensemble and Percussion), the corps moved up from 3rd to 2nd. The corps pulled off a perfect score in Visual Performance and Visual Ensemble; increasing its total Effect score (the combination of Visual Effect and Music Effect) by 0.55 from Quarterfinals. The corps' lowest placement remains a 4th place finish in both Music Effect and Music Ensemble, while winning Visual Effect, Visual Performance, Visual Ensemble, Color Guard and Brass. Phantom Regiment (2nd, 97.675) moved up from 3rd place in Quarterfinals, changing a 0.475 shortfall to the Cavaliers to a 0.125 advantage, a score change of 0.60. Both Visual Effect and Music Effect went up one placement, to 2nd for Visual and 1st for Music, both advances at the expense of the Cavaliers. In total Effect, the corps gained 0.60 from the night before. While BD's total Effect score when up 0.55 and the Cavaliers' 0.35, Phantom's went up 0.85. Considering the Cavaliers came in 3rd place by 0.125, that jump of 0.85 is more than a little significant. Music Ensemble went up from 3rd to 1st, partially responsible for the corps gaining 0.425 in total Music to move up to 1st from 2nd. The Cavaliers (3rd, 97.550) slipped to Phantom by quite a margin in total Effect, as previously mentioned. Interestingly, the total Effect score went up by 0.15 as the corps dropped two positions in total Effect. Music Ensemble slipped to 2nd, despite going up in score by 0.10/(0.05 when you remember to divide all caption scores in half, except for Visual Effect and Music Effect). Percussion, still 2nd, dropped from 0.15/0.075 to 0.35/0.175 behind Phantom. Overall, the corps was 0.375 behind Blue Devils in Quarterfinals, but is now 0.50 behind the corps. In slipping to 3rd, the spread between the corps and Carolina Crown closed up slightly, from 0.975 to 0.85. Carolina Crown (4th, 96.700) gained 0.625 on its Quarterfinals score, 0.55 of that coming in total Effect, but there was a 0.125 drop in total Music, due entirely to a 0.15 drop in Percussion. There was also a 0.125 drop in total Music, due to dropping from 2nd to 3rd in Music Ensemble and also dropping from a tie for 3rd to 5th in Percussion. In doing so, the 1.85 spread between Crown and the Cadets slipped to a spread of 1.25, closing the gap by 0.60. The Cadets (5th, 95.450) gained almost half of its total score increase of 1.225 in total Effect, which was 0.65 higher than in Quarterfinals, mostly due to the 0.50 increase in Visual Effect. Total Visual saw an increase of 0.40, with a Visual Performance score that increased by 0.60/0.30. Santa Clara Vanguard (6th, 93.625) increased its total score by exactly 1.00. They went up in Visual Effect by 0.65 and 0.35 in Music Effect, accounting for the entire total score increase and extending the corps' spread over the Bluecoats from 0.45 to 0.825. The 0.15 gain in total Visual (Performance, Ensemble and Color Guard) was offset by an identical slip in total Music (Brass, Ensemble and Percussion). Bluecoats (7th, 92.800) had a substantial gain of 0.80 in total Effect, with 0.55 of that coming in Music Effect. However, a drop of 0.25 in total Visual prevented the corps from gaining any ground on Santa Clara Vanguard, mostly due to the Color Guard caption score slipping from 7th to 12th, a drop of 0.90/0.45. Blue Stars (8th, 90.575) moved up one position from the Quarterfinals, passing up the Blue Knights by increasing their total score by a whopping 2.475. 1.05 of that came in total Effect, with 0.65 of that coming in Visual Effect. There was a 0.65 increase in total Visual, tying with the Bluecoats after being 0.90 behind the night before. The corps' lowest caption remains Percussion, finishing 11th, but up from 14th in Quarterfinals. Blue Knights (9th, 89.700) slipped behind Blue Stars despite adding 1.60 to its total score, 0.90 of that coming from total Effect. That impressive increase in score just couldn't keep up with the large increase by Blue Stars. Boston Crusaders (10th, 88.975) gained 0.60 in Music Effect and 0.25 in Visual Effect from the Quarterfinals. They also moved up in placement in all Visual captions to increase 0.65 in total Visual. However, there was a 0.30 drop in total Music due to slipping in each of the Music captions. At the end, the corps stayed in the same position, but added 1.05 to its total score. Glassmen (11th, 88.125) added 1.05 to its score, with an increase of 0.85 in total Effect and 0.65 in total Visual. However, there was a drop of 0.45 in total Music. The corps closed the gap with Boston to 0.30 from 0.85. Madison Scouts (12th, 86.375) grabbed the last spot in the Finals. Despite falling one place in all Visual captions, the total Visual score increased by 0.10. There was a 0.65 increase in total Music and a 0.55 increase in total Effect, allowing the corps to increase its 0.25 spread over the Crossmen to 0.425. Crossmen (13th, 85.950) increased its score by 1.125, but couldn't gain any ground on Madison. Colts (14th, 85.175) slipped 0.20 in total Music, but gained 0.55 in total Effect and 0.40 in total Visual. Spirit (15th, 83.175) was the only one of two corps to drop in score from Quarterfinals to Semifinals, though there was no placement change. The total Effect score was the same, but there was a 0.35 drop in total Visual, greater than the 0.175 gain in total Music, which resulted in a score decrease of a scant 0.175. Troopers (16th, 81.100) also dropped in score, by 0.40. Most of that was due to a 0.30 drop in total Visual. Pacific Crest (17th, 79.650) increased its score by 0.30, due mostly to the 0.45 increase in total Effect.