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LS hasn't even preformed the 3rd part yet and the visuals aren't even finished to be in the show. Give it time.

here r my relly early predictions for final. dont get offended if you're band isnt on here its just my opinion. pairland highschool (obvivously) dawson highschool foster highschool pasedena memorial highschool steven f austin highschool clear brook highschool shadow creek highschool clear lakes highschool fulshear highschool george ranch highschool i also think like other people can make it but maybe i forgot them so idk

Coming up great right now!! Hooray and thank you!😘

Yeah this is what I was anticipating. Not perfect but an improvement - this is what I’m seeing myself as well. I’m trying to slow down the bots crawling the site to give us a little more slack.

I don't usually predict but I shall try. No captions otherwise I'll contradict myself lmao... 1. Vista Ridge 2. Rouse 3. Vandegrift 4. Cedar Ridge 5. Cedar Park 6. Westlake 7. Dripping Springs 8. Round Rock 9. Leander 10. Lake Travis 11. Westwood 12. McCallum For early season, Vista seems pretty strong. I'm hoping they continue the upward trend as they usually do. Rouse is good, looking forward to seeing it on Sat. Vandy will, hopefully, surprise me since the only vid I've seen was their first week performance.

Very accurate, but I would switch 'Cen10' with 'Aledo' because the '10' stands for 10th place. Also, replace Grapevine with Midlothian because Midlothian is 'Mid' and so is 5th place. And switch Granbury with Birdville because the 'Gran' in Granbury stands for grand/1st place.

Berkner: Dream On Lake Highlands:Arboretum Forney:Flight of Song Those are what I know I'm sure Google could help with some others

2015 and 2016 are some of the most effective marching shows ever designed.

your thoughts on Lone Star Argyle and MN are exactly what I had in mind. I believe Reedy/Grove/Emerson/Melissa/Independence all have a finals spot waiting but you neve knows. And yes Indy has an INSANE wall of sound, loss of intonation but for the spectators it will be fun in the ballad.

True but compared to the progress of other schools it’s just lacking, even compared to previous years in my opinion. I’m sure they will clean and make changes as needed but as of right now it’s less promising than some other schools in terms of potential growth. I don’t think any school has their full show on as of last friday and definitely not done with making additions/changes so you could say that about anyone… Lone Star is still super good and will almost certainly get that 1 or 2nd spot in area, however with them not being notoriously known for “cleaning up before area or whatever comp” it’s a little interesting to see if they will do as good as they previously did

Thank you, Clarinot. Non-cache page loading is much better. Still a bit slow (I think?) but certainly tolerable.

1: Vandegrift 2: Vista Ridge 3: Rouse 4: Cedar Ridge 5: Cedar Park 6: Round Rock 7: Westlake 8: Dripping Springs 9: Leander 10: Westwood 11: Lake Travis 12: McCallum Music: Vista Ridge GE: Vandegrift Visual: Rouse I have no confidence in anything here, but I thought it couldn't hurt to put the predictions out there anyways 🤔

Please go knock on wood. ISTG If we don't have a semi normal area i for 1 YEAR. (notice how I said semi normal b/c Area I will never be normal)

The order is the order of all potential qualifying bands, just remove the bands who don’t qualify after the region comps are completed and you have the order for area. if all bands were to qualify, that would be their prelim performance order. The remaining finalists would perform in that order with all the non-finalists removed. Or like last year we can finish prelims after a monsoon around 11pm and have no finals.

Honestly this year my hopes are lower for Argyle and North. While they will both without a doubt succeed and do well, Argyles show design and North’s repeated show design I feel might cause them issues. Both are still very skilled of course. Lone star has great music but i’m fairly unimpressed by the visuals. Could really hurt then. As for Reedy/Emerson/WG, I don’t find them to be better right now but I see the most improvement in them by far. Could mean really great things. They’re in my 5-7 right now, with one likely being 8th and either LT Argyle or North mixed up in there somewhere. Very promising for the upcoming schools, I saw the most improvement from Emerson in terms of previous to most recent performance Also I do agree with saying Indy has a great sound this year. Haven’t heard and clips of marching but heard some music clips and they sounded better than I remembered

After hearing some of these bands early season Heres my new take on Area FOR NOW + there was some trash judges last year lets be honest. thank heavens there are new judges and judging system. Music: Lonestar Percussion: Wakeland Visual: Wakeland General Effect: Lone Star Lone Star 1st - brass powerhouses, strong show music and drill. crazy improvement and good Wakeland 2nd - very excellent playing and powerhouse marchers, beautiful show music, could still yank first Mckinney North 3rd - not really digging the jazz every year but the music is hitting hard, like a mini bluecoats. Lebanon Trail 4th - cleaned up so much, sounds excellent, very awesome show design and drill. amazing improvement Argyle 5th - sounds good but the winds need work. my judgement can change tho, their marching is good. Reedy 6th- Super clean needs alot more work to get up to 4th, Walnut Grove 7th- So dang clean, they need to stop rehearsing at 4am - 5am though LOL let those kids sleep ._.

Well since I can’t go to Melissa anymore, I’ll be watching all of prelims instead on Box, so I’m very excited for the weekend. Anyways, here’s my guess: 1. Vista Ridge (music/GE) 2. Vandy (visual) 3. Rouse 4. Cedar Park 5. Cedar Ridge 6. Dripping Springs 7. Leander 8. Westlake 9. Round Rock 10. Lake Travis 11. Westwood 12. McCallum I have no clue how this will turn out. I could it going soooo many ways, and the gaps are my somewhat interchangeable preds. Vista has really impressed me so far and honestly seem to be a big cleaner than Vandy rn. I think GE will be the thing that may hurt CP the most, but musically and visually very strong. Haven’t seen Rouse but u know. Very excited for Saturday and hope everyone has a great week of rehearsal!!

I may be a fan but I know what's realistic

I've seen a lot of Cinco being placed WAY above much more consistent programs. Do we actually think a band can go from barely placing in finals to being a top 5 contender in one year? It seems a little crazy to me. Also their show seems very poorly designed. Videos I've seen of it don't give me a great impression and it doesn't seem like a show that can do very well in a BOA context.

I feel like this early in the season, 'doing well' is subjective. Thus far, I would think it's fair to say that no bands have been able to truly and accurately compare themselves to future competitors, just because contests haven't begun yet (and won't get started until next weekend), and bands are still learning movements, music, visuals, and more. In that sense, I believe every band is doing pretty well, given whatever circumstances they have faced. This is why I don't necessarily like early predictions: because they're based on biases, preferences, hopes, what other people say, and previous years' results. That last one is always my biggest issue, primarily because of something my band director always used to tell me, "Last year's band is dead." It's true, the band that marched last year is entirely different from the band that is marching this year. You have lost some of your best players and gained some of your weakest links, and you have to put in the work and effort to bring everyone to the level of last year (and hopefully higher), but it doesn't always happen. What I love about marching band is that every year brings surprises; every year marks the fall of one band and the rise of another. Take 4A Area D 2016, when Castleberry came out of nowhere and made State for the first time, blocking Robinson and Burnet, usual State contenders. Then in 2018, they made it again, and I like to point to them as the reason Robinson fell off until 2023. Or in 2020, when Taylor came out of nowhere and made it to State (and did pretty well there too), even if that was just momentary. Then, in 2021, when Alvarado jumped 4 whole places between Prelims and Finals, knocking Gatesville out of State (who they themselves had made Area Finals for the first time in over 5 years, AND was a State contender for the first time in over 10 years, also out of nowhere), making it for the first time. Then, in 2022, both Alvarado AND Gatesville jumped 3 places, knocking Fredericksburg AND Kennedale out of State, which was HUGE at the time because Kennedale had made it to State every year for SIXTEEN consecutive years, and State Finals for EIGHT consecutive years, and Fredericksburg has always been off and on, but they were still a usual State contender and Gatesville and Alvarado were new to the stage (and I point to this for the decline in Kennedale's program, although I'd love to see their return one day). Then, in 2023, when Venus and La Grange made Area Finals for the first time (I believe), and Gatesville and Alvarado showed their dominance, and Springtown dropped down significantly, and Robinson and Castleberry both came to fight, and China Spring and Alvarado had their highest Area finishes (2023 Area D was such a cool contest, dude). Then, in 2024, Fredericksburg returned and SWEPT the contest, straight 1s in Prelims AND Finals, and Marble Falls shot up and shocked people by making it when they hadn't even been making Finals in previous years, or La Grange slipping into State. Or at 2024 Area B (since that's where Venus is now), China Spring winning the contest over Panther Creek, Aubrey making State for the first time, and Alvarado fighting for 8th-10th Place in Prelims AND Finals with Castleberry and Springtown, all of whom had been in their heyday within the previous two years. In my opinion, predictions will not have validity until the week of Region, because that's the point when almost every single program has the whole show on the field and has been able to compare themselves to other programs at contests. For example, I went against my judgment and made a deep analysis and prediction months before the 2024 season started for Area D based on that year and previous years, and only a few of my predictions came true (like, honestly, 4 or 5 out of almost 12 bands). Until Area (and even during Area), the only thing that should matter is not being better than other bands, but being better than the 2024 Venus High School marching band. Last year was a rough year for Venus. You guys had your worst finish since 2018 (didn't advance to Area in 2018, skipped the 2020 season, 16th in 2021, 13th in 2022, 10th in Prelims in 2023, 9th in Finals, 17th in 2024), and even if you hadn't switched to Area B, you were still beaten by 10 other old Area D bands, which, put together with the bands still in Area D, would've kept you around 17th Place (or maybe even lower) if the realignment hadn't happened. That should be the band's goal: to be better than last year and beat last year's scores. Perhaps your goal should be to finish 15th at Area, or maybe a little higher, like 12th. It's the small wins that count and propel you forward. If you work hard enough, and everyone puts in the time and effort, who knows? Maybe you'll be that dark horse that shoots up and makes Finals again, or even better. You can't expect anything, though, because that's when you get nothing. I'm rooting for you guys 👏

Hi-Fi Musical selections include: “The Breeze and I (Andalucia)” - by Juan Garcia Esquivel “Powerhouse” - by Raymond Scott “Ebb Tide” - by Robert Maxwell “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” - by David Shire “Bo Mambo” - by Billy May “Bye Bye Blues” - by Hamm, Bennet, Lown & Gray

From what I could tell, I think Argyle's opener is supposed to be based on Crown's 2010 opener. In that aspect, it's pretty similar to the source material, so I don't think that was a decision on their part in terms of design.

i dont think wakeland or panther creek count as dark horses 😭

Southlake carroll: Cordially Yours