2019 WGI - TCGC Season

[LKendrick]

Personal favorites so far are McNeil, Dripping Springs, Eastlake, Leander, and Bentonville.

[Rubisco]

Bowie was my definite favorite among the SW groups. Scores (which are already available?!) reflect that. Bowie in first place by almost three points. I love Bowie's willingness to take conceptual/design risks, knowing that a lot of people will find the shows too weird. (I mean, a show about the primordial soup? Who does that?!) They were the best performers in prelims as well. Lots of well-executed, difficult skills. I do think that they need to retire those bowling pin props, though, as much as I loved watching them float up and down as if they were moved by some phantom force. I think three shows with those props in it are enough. Bowie has definitely got their money's worth! Anyway, they'll definitely be in finals at the World Championship. I'd be shocked to see them out. And based on their prelims score, they might even cross that 80 threshold in finals at the Power Regional.

 

The Woodlands is doing what they do best. Wordless, expressive, elegant, emotional, but without being sentimental. (Is the music Ezio Bosso again?) This was the prettiest show to watch from high up. When those four rotating lines collapse vertically into the three lines with the rifle line in the middle and the two flag lines flanking it. Wow! And when the music slows down with that odd electronic wilderness noise and the translucent white flags come out. Beautiful stuff. But (!) they had a rough run. Pretty much every exposed weapon moment had a drop or a half-catch. Lots of super difficult skills, like when they catch the rifles while seated on the ground. (I see you borrowing Carmel from last year! Or Pride of Cincinnati from this year!) But they need to clean them. This show definitely has the stuff to make finals at World, but the performance needs to be there.

 

Marcus was a pleasant surprise for me. A couple seasons ago, I recall watching Marcus and thinking that the show looked more like an Open class show. Last year, I recall being pretty impressed by them. This year, I'm even more impressed. This is a solid, all-around World class show from them. Of course, let's point out the obvious cool moment: when all those cameras start flashing! It's just so eye-popping, and it definitely fits the red carpet/celebrity theme. Definitely a crowd-pleasing moment, although I'm wondering if the audience watching it live was blinded at all. The flashing maybe went on for a little bit too long, but that's probably the most accurate depiction of paparazzi. I love the cordoned-off area at the front with the mirror, where our glamorous movie star preps for her red carpet walk. This is just a fun, crowd-pleasing sort of show. And, besides a few exposed drops, it was a fairly strong performance as well.

 

Honestly, with some improvement, I think all three have a shot at World Class finals, but as I've said before, it'll be a tough fight for those spots ranked 10-15. Maybe Bowie has a chance of placing higher. We'll see. There are still a couple weeks left.

[immortalBlueOrchid]

I do think that they need to retire those bowling pin props, though, as much as I loved watching them float up and down as if they were moved by some phantom force. I think three shows with those props in it are enough.

 

 

I definitely agree. I usually see JV guards do shows with reused props, flags, and uniforms from the marching show. So I found it bit odd for the best world guard in Texas to reuse the same idea. Much like BA reusing their Age Of Discovery theme, it loses a bit of that unique magic.

[gregorydf01]

I definitely agree. I usually see JV guards do shows with reused props, flags, and uniforms from the marching show. So I found it bit odd for the best world guard in Texas to reuse the same idea. Much like BA reusing their Age Of Discovery theme, it loses a bit of that unique magic.

 

I love the effect with Bowie's Bowling Pin Props and the Guard appearing from under the props at the start of the show and how they are used in the show!   Some issues however with them:

• I would think that the Prop crew is not having fun trying to get ready for the show and take down after, takes a lot of time...
• When one had a blow-out last week that was a bit distracting.

I do think it will be good if they can keep them together a bit longer to finish the season with them prior to retirement!

[LKendrick]

I will write up some comments in more detail on shows I liked tomorrow but WOW. LOVED yesterday. It didn’t disappoint at all for my first live exposure to WGI. I will say Black Gold especially blew me away. So excited for finals today!

[BrassMom19*21]

Way to go Friendswood!

 

Scholastic A

1 Friendswood HS (Friendswood, TX) 87.945 I 

2 The Colony HS (The Colony, TX) 86.720 I

3 Alvin HS (Alvin, TX) 84.410 I

4 Berkner HS (Richardson, TX) 83.495 I

5 Keller HS Varsity (Keller, TX) 82.930 I

6 Winston Churchill HS (San Antonio, TX) 82.705 I

7 Lamar HS (Arlington , TX) 81.360 I

8 Pearland HS (Pearland, Texas) 80.590 I

9 Bryan HS (Bryan, TX) 80.405 I

10 Timberview HS (Arlington, TX) 77.355 I

11 Seven Lakes HS (Katy, TX) 76.970 I

12 Clements HS (Sugar Land, TX) 76.660 I

13 Azle HS (Azle, Texas) 75.565 I

[LKendrick]

Pulling for Bel Air, the Black Gold groups, CGTs, and Origins to represent Team Texas really wel this weekend at the West and Mid-East power regionals! Loved getting to see most of them last week.

[WoodlandsMom4ever]

I know we mostly talk about the top levels of color guard, but I just had a great day enjoying the up and coming lower divisions of color guard at the Pearland TCGC south. It was so fun to watch them. The excitement over single, double and triple tosses and nailing the catches. The varsity teams cheering them on from the stands and telling them it was ok when there was a drop. I had so much fun and am so glad I’ll have 4 more years to watch as my “younger” color guard moves up through the Highschool years.

 

Oh, our team won Cadet class... they nailed their show- best performance of the year.

[josephbandfan]

I know we mostly talk about the top levels of color guard, but I just had a great day enjoying the up and coming lower divisions of color guard at the Pearland TCGC south. It was so fun to watch them. The excitement over single, double and triple tosses and nailing the catches. The varsity teams cheering them on from the stands and telling them it was ok when there was a drop. I had so much fun and am so glad I’ll have 4 more years to watch as my “younger” color guard moves up through the Highschool years.

 

Oh, our team won Cadet class... they nailed their show- best performance of the year.

I love being able to see a cadet or JV team and knowing how much they will grow by the time they get to varsity.

 

My cousin in intermediate school is a dancer, and has been going back and forth on either joining guard or the drill team. You can guess which one Im hoping she chooses 

[WoodlandsMom4ever]

I finally got to see our TWHS guards last night at our community exhibition. They amaze me with what they are doing. After watching a whole season of cadets- to see the A guard that made state as the only JV team to make state, and then the World guard... I’m even more excited for the next 4 years getting to see more of the other Highschool teams as we go to competitions. Wishing I could make it to college station to watch tomorrow.

[gregorydf01]

I finally got to see our TWHS guards last night at our community exhibition. They amaze me with what they are doing. After watching a whole season of cadets- to see the A guard that made state as the only JV team to make state, and then the World guard... I’m even more excited for the next 4 years getting to see more of the other Highschool teams as we go to competitions. Wishing I could make it to college station to watch tomorrow.

 

I'll be there tomorrow and will be looking forward to seeing TWHS JV and all the Guard's I can!   Going to be a fun day and Best of Luck in State to all the Guards!

[MadisonBandMan1]

Our jv should be at the TECA state championship this year as well - our varsity elected to go to prom this year.

[Rubisco]

TCGC Championships today.

 

I was able to catch some of the world guards from the Mid-East Power Regional prelims a week ago. I think I saw the last half of Miamisburg through all of the IW guards. More than anything else, the contest reminded me of how I tend to agree with the placements rendered by WGI's judges for groups near the very top and near the bottom, but disagree about everyone else. Time for some giant blocks of rambling thoughts!

 

I don't have much to say about Miamisburg, because I only caught part of their show. Looked like something to do with clocks. The parts I saw were well-performed. Obviously a WGI World Championship finalist-quality group. As for Carmel, it took me about a minute of staring at their props (stairways coming up through broken glass) before it clicked that the props were meant to represent breaking through the glass-ceiling, and that the show would likely have a female-empowerment angle, which it did. Carmel is always excellent, but from a performance standpoint, they were not as far along as they usually are. I also recall that I really didn't like the musical selection. I found the song to be sentimental to the point of being cheesy. It's one of those songs that I'd imagine 95% of guard designers would love to use for an "emotional" show without realizing how maudlin it sounds. Nevertheless, it was a strong show, with a striking design.

 

Pride of Cincinnati was an obvious first-place in IW, and I think Paramount was an obvious second-place. POC's show, Another Door Opens, started off strong, but there were several mistakes in the last-half of the preliminary performance. The music is by indie-pop group, Son Lux. I think what sets POC apart, first and foremost, is the depth and variety of their skills, which no other guard this season can match. I think the ingenuity of the staging is the other big thing. Sort of like what they did a couple years ago, with The Inevitable Direction of My Life, Another Door Opens features props that are moved around the floor, so the entire design of the floor is constantly changing. This is very appealing to watch from high up. Doors aren't the most original props in the world, but they're used in a fresh way here. Paramount, I think, gave the stronger performance in prelims, and they ended up winning equipment based on the strength of execution (or excellence, as it's called on the rubric), as well as effect (the two judges were split). Paramount's show is a good old-fashioned guard show. Beautifully designed and performed. Emotional without being sentimental. Impressive skills. Lots of big ensemble moments for the traditionalists who hate the guard trend toward staging that is best described as organized chaos. Speaking of which, I *really* liked Onyx's show, Shelter in Place, which I think does the organized chaos thing very well. Essentially, it's an artistic representation of getting hit by a tornado, complete with an abstract, 90s-looking floor design, debris, screaming, and lots of very appealing rotation in the drill. I loved this show. I think they should have placed 3rd in prelims, which, looking at the results, one of the GE judges agreed with me, so I'm mildly appeased. I would have placed Blessed Sacrament in 5th or lower, since they made quite a few mistakes and the light versus dark thing is overplayed. I did squeal when I heard that piano arrangement of what I think is music from the film Gattaca. "The Departure" by Michael Nyman. I might be mistaken. But it was very nostalgic, since I haven't seen that movie in decades! I appreciate that Bluecoats Indoor is trying to push the activity forward, but I don't think anything they're doing this year is particularly original. The vocalized stuff is very reminiscent of the Color Wheel section from Blast!, and live music isn't a new thing for WGI. More than anything, though, Bluecoats' show lacks that sort of dramatic, narrative contouring that the best shows have. It's just sort of static. The music builds, but we never feel like we've been taken on a journey. It's like one long build-up without much of a payoff. But, they performed the show very well in prelims, so I would have rewarded them for that.

 

Shifting back to Texas, it looks like James Bowie has withdrawn from the World Championships. This is disappointing, but if it's true that they're going to WGI China, I understand. Unfortunately, this means that Texas might be completely shut out of finals in SW. None of the other three groups is seeded in the top 15 going into the contest. Several groups saw a late-season surge last week, and so the current highest rated TX group, TWHS, dropped from 11th to 17th. Marcus is 21st. CTJ is 24th. The scores are close enough that I don't think the seeding placements will be all that indicative of what's going to happen, but I do think it's going to be hard. Essentially, based on the scores, I would expect that only 15th place (and maybe 14th) is up for grabs. It would surprise me to see any of the groups from Stoneman Douglas and up get the boot. So, it's going to be exciting to see who makes the cut with so few spots left over.

[WoodlandsMom4ever]

Well Texas wasn't shut out of finals!    TWHS is ecstatic that they made it. I'm so bummed that I'll be working concessions (for band) tomorrow night and won't be able to watch the finals, but my 8th grader is already planning her evening full of snacks and watching finals... hopefully the flomarching feed works well!