principalagent

Leander ISD’s third sweep, and now five of its six schools have participated in at least one of them.
if Vista Ridge and Vandegrift go 1-2 next week, is that a Royal Flush?

Leander ISD’s third sweep, and now five of its six schools have participated in at least one of them.
if Vista Ridge and Vandegrift go 1-2 next week, is that a Royal Flush?

Leander ISD’s third sweep, and now five of its six schools have participated in at least one of them.
if Vista Ridge and Vandegrift go 1-2 next week, is that a Royal Flush?

Leander ISD’s third sweep, and now five of its six schools have participated in at least one of them.
if Vista Ridge and Vandegrift go 1-2 next week, is that a Royal Flush?

Leander ISD’s third sweep, and now five of its six schools have participated in at least one of them.
if Vista Ridge and Vandegrift go 1-2 next week, is that a Royal Flush?

Leander ISD’s third sweep, and now five of its six schools have participated in at least one of them.
if Vista Ridge and Vandegrift go 1-2 next week, is that a Royal Flush?

I’m jonesing for an upset. Rouse was on fire. 

I’m jonesing for an upset. Rouse was on fire. 

Considering Leander has grown substantially over the season, Keller and Coppell’s best hope for getting in by panel is overtaking Cedar Ridge. Round Rock and Rouse might have something to say about that, however.

I’m jonesing for an upset. Rouse was on fire. 

I’m jonesing for an upset. Rouse was on fire. 

I’m jonesing for an upset. Rouse was on fire. 

So the same people are judging but they judge different categories? 

You're my new favorite poster.

You're my new favorite poster.

The judges are mostly the same, but different captions--a change from prior years.

Whoever is the combinatorics specialist on the forums might want to calculate the likelihood that the top five all get performances times in the last six spots...

Cartwright I’m pretty sure, or someone very close to that sphere of influence unless they changed over the pandemic (doubtful, as they’ve been climbing with good designs from that team).

That's a good point, and one that we touched on earlier in the season. I could definitely see the overall level of drill demand being an issue, which I think we'll find out at San Antonio, if they end up placing way lower than expected. That said, demand is a pretty broad thing. For example, I could point out this group's relatively massive guard vocabulary, frequent mid-movement tempo shifts (and control of those shifts), and variety of choreographic challenges beyond basic marching, and I think you've got a pretty challenging program. Challenging enough to win at San Antonio or break the top 3 at Nats? I don't know. That's not for me to decide this year.

I think we still head to a Leander ISD threepeat, but I’m shakier on the prediction than I had been. There’s a lot of good band in 5A this year. Wakeland of course is happy to play spoiler to LISD’s fun, and this year is far from an exception. Not to mention Weiss and Johnson attempting to make an impact on their way to 6A next season. Not sure who else could make a meaningful challenge up top. Lone Star is very clean, Forney’s show has wheels (the design caption should treat them favorably), and Highland Park could be anywhere. 

Keller is going to State. Period. Take it to the bank. 

This right here.  Saying that it's preordained does a disservice to the hard work that students in every program put in day after day.  It's true that the top 4-6 bands in the metroplex hasn't changed much in the last 8 years or so, but that's because those same 4-6 bands have also gotten BETTER.  FloMo, Hebron, Marcus, Keller, Coppell etc. today are WAY better than FloMo, Hebron, Marcus, Keller, Coppell, etc. from 10 years ago.  To catch them, a program has to make a huge leap.  
Waxahachie and Prosper are great examples.  Both were smaller 5A bands not too long ago, and with hard work and great community support they made the big leap and have been SMC Finalists and GN Finalists respectively.  It can be done!

Really?  That’s interesting to me. I guess time will tell but I’m ready for another new face at the top. Or at least a familiar Texas one. ? I’m definitely ok with a TWHS gold medal repeat!  

You forget this is the TXBands forum where Texas bias is more allowed than other places ?
I'm a bit more confident in Texas taking at least 2 medals. I think this Texas group is stronger than the 2019 group that took 2 medals, and I'm not convinced Avon/Carmel's shows are strong enough to hold this group off the podium. BA is obviously the wild card, need to see a better video of that show before placing it. 
Musically, ABC is gonna have a tough time breaking the top 3. And then I think visually this is probably some of the more impressive visual packages Texas has sent recently...I think Reagan's visual design is and has been extremely impactful, FM is pretty close behind (and is a GE monster), and the Woodlands is bringing a guard that (while maybe not Avon level yet) is truly elite. I think Vandy and Hebron kind of popped the visual bubble in 2019, taking 2nd and 3rd in visual, with relatively tame visual packages. The difference with this years groups is that I think they have the VGE to backup competitive visual scores. And i haven't even mentioned CTJ and Marcus yet...
Consider me optimistic that this will be a big year for TX bands.

I think we still head to a Leander ISD threepeat, but I’m shakier on the prediction than I had been. There’s a lot of good band in 5A this year. Wakeland of course is happy to play spoiler to LISD’s fun, and this year is far from an exception. Not to mention Weiss and Johnson attempting to make an impact on their way to 6A next season. Not sure who else could make a meaningful challenge up top. Lone Star is very clean, Forney’s show has wheels (the design caption should treat them favorably), and Highland Park could be anywhere.