Rubisco

I'm trying to catch up on the Scholastic As at Dallas, but it seems like Flo used the wrong audio channel for round 1. You mostly just hear staff members talking. 😑 Clear Brook was fantastic; however, the white costumes on the white floor were a little hard to read in the stream. Overall it was a very, very clear performance. You got that crisp energy watching it upstairs.

Just a jungle gym? Not an entire amusement park? 🙃😅 I'm very excited for this weekend. Our two final Texas WGI regionals -- one in Dallas, which will be streamed, and another in San Antonio. I'm looking forward to seeing some of these DFW guards for the first time. I'm also eager to catch Blessed Sacrament at the streamed Pennsylvania event. They are currently seeded 1st in Independent World. I wouldn't mind a Blessed Sacrament win at Dayton. They've been around since the beginning and are usually near the top. They've only won once before, I think. 1990? I'd have to look that up. Their shows are always very classy and superbly performed.

I think Hebron may have withdrawn from Dayton. 😭 I'll need to edit the original list of participants later. There have been a few changes since I posted it, like Eastlake dropping back down into A.

Ah, yes. Those ever so reliable "friends" you lecture -- besties that you surely are! 😂 I did like the show design one from a few months ago. It was actually very good. I may copy and paste it later. The phrase "flail about" has entered my parlance. 😄 I'm probably still going to go to the Clear Creek contest. There's something about seeing it live. Also, maybe I'd like videos of my own!

I was curious about how much they pay attention to scores during the process. Dale makes it sound like it's a blind process, in which case it really would be purely about what the Steering Committee thinks. I'm actually flying into Houston the weekend of the 25th. I'm looking at the TCGC schedule right now. If I can convince my family -- and they know how obsessive I am -- I may be able to go to Clear Creek. That'll be the closer one for me. We can pool our videos!

I honestly think one of the reasons we're seeing so many promotions this year is because COVID left the upper classes weakened. I'm not telepathic, I don't know what the Steering Committee is thinking exactly, but my hunch is that that's hanging in the back of their minds. They want the top of the activity to look like the top of the activity, so they're beefing everything up, and maybe making some mistakes along the way. Just my feeling. I don't know for sure.

A bit of an argumentum ad absurdum here. 😄 I can't imagine judging, what, like 180 guards at Dayton? Comparing them all against each other would be a nightmare. I honestly couldn't tell it was sarcasm! I guess I've read too many bizarre things on this forum! 😄

I think it would be VERY difficult to implement a system like that without a lot of people complaining about how many points get added, etc. It seems messy. I think it would be easier for the advisory board to simply vote to change how the steering committee does promotions. Instead of the steering committee comparing guards to semifinals-level units in the higher class, maybe compare them to finals-level units. That way a guard only gets promoted if there's a very strong chance they'll make finals in the higher class. Then they'll likely end their season on a high note.

How is that fair to the groups that have to compete against an obviously misclassed guard in the current season? That's how the committee thinks. It's about the integrity of the competition. And if that group isn't consistent the next year, they can always drop back down into a lower class, if their score permits them to do so.

Winning by itself isn't enough for a promotion. Sometimes the guards that get promoted aren't the guards that win the contest, although that's obviously most common. The Steering Committee is really focused on skills and whether the unit is performing at an above-class level. Jordan was a pretty comfortable first place in the IA captions at Houston. That, plus the Steering Committee's own opinions of the guard, may have been enough for them to call it. Personally, I would have kept Jordan in A. The show just looks like an A show to me. For example, I don't think they do any sabre work, which is pretty uncommon for Open. At the end of the day, the Steering Committee is most concerned about keeping the competition within each class fair, and they're much less concerned about sacrificing a group's success in a lower class.

Oh, also, some of these promoted guards were already in the higher class recently. Flower Mound was in World last year and El Dorado was in World pre-pandemic. Since they're already winning contests in Open, it does seem pretty logical just to send them back up into World.

Part of me agrees with you. When you promote a group, you're depriving them of high level success in the lower class, which the show is designed for. But simply being in a higher class is a distinction in itself as well, as long as you earned your place there and didn't self-promote or whatever. Also, when the Steering Committee promotes a group, they're comparing that unit to Dayton semi-finals groups in the higher class from previous years, so the promoted group should achieve some level of success in the higher class. All that being said, it isn't always an immediately smooth transition. Jordan scoring a 69 and not making Open finals at Austin kind of made me raise an eyebrow, like maybe they would be better suited for A. I hope they're able to achieve semis at Dayton. I feel like usually the promoted groups do achieve in the higher class right away, so it's not much of an issue. There have been a flurry of promotions this season. I understand that from the perspective that the higher classes are really anemic compared to Scholastic A. There are way too many units in the lower classes. Also, the bottom part of the "all-inclusive" Scholastic World class finals last year was kind of rough, I'm not going to lie. It looks like the Steering Committee has recently promoted Cleveland HS (North Carolina) and El Dorado HS (California) into World class, so now there are 21 units there -- more of a typical number. This will allow WGI to be more exclusive and have a 15 unit world class finals, which will probably consist of more polished shows from top to bottom. There will be less of that feeling of, "Oh, are these really the best high school groups?" 😄

One of the things I love about this activity is how generally supportive the guards are of each other. That really isn't always the case in sporting events. I think there's a lot of empathy here. Pretty much nobody feels good when they see somebody else drop during a big moment. Conversely, there's a lot of excitement when guards take a big risk and nail it.

Westlake has entered the seeding at 7th in SO, not 6th. But everything else seems to match.

A few anticipated changes to the standings, assuming I did this right. I know they come out officially tomorrow, but I always enjoy trying to figure them out in advance. Onyx up to 2nd in IW (tied w/ Paramount) ORIGINS up to 5th in IW Mirage up to 6th in IW Invictus entering at 11th in IW TWHS up to 2nd in SW Moe and Gene Johnson entering at 8th in SW (based on prelims score) Kiski Area entering at 7th in SW ORIGINS Open dropping to 6th in IO Westlake entering at 6th in SO Pearland would be ranked 1st in SA, if they were going to Dayton.

Scores went up pretty significantly in finals at WGI Austin for the most part, especially for the A guards. That 84.690 for Pearland is really making me wish they were going to Dayton! Oh, well. Maybe next year! *fingers crossed* Come ooooon, Clear Brook! 😄 TWHS with an 86, despite that opening drop. That's great; I mean, the overall show was still very well performed. 88 for both vocab and excellence in equipment -- now that's a judge who probably agrees with me about their equipment skills relative to the field this year. They'll be seeded 2nd behind Tarpon for now. Looks like my prediction of Tarpon vs. TWHS may still come true, but I'm sure Carmel and Avon will have something to say about it. Carmel got an 85.2 at their local contest yesterday, with Avon a little over a point behind them. It's gonna be competitive!

Well, you never want to open your show with a drop, but besides that I thought TWHS was stellar in finals. They're definitely one of those guards that probably wishes "difficulty and risk" was a point of consideration in Scholastic World. They've got that in spades. Moe and Gene Johnson is the real deal, folks. That was waaaay better than I was expecting. I love how they start the show as part of the audience and come down from the bleachers. We the People, indeed. Cool idea!

Speaking of Westlake and James Bowie, Westlake's show this year really reminds me of the show that Bowie did in the Open class just before they moved on to the World class. I think it was disco mixed with like Adagio for Strings or something. It had a similarly interesting fast/slow combination vibe.

Pearland and Westlake both gave pretty stellar performances. I'm guessing they hold on to those top spots. It's also awesome to see James Bowie look like they're returning to form.

So modest! I'm catching up again. I thought finals started later than it did.

Congrats to Westlake on coming out on top in Open class in your first year in the class! Very, very impressive! Kind of an interesting mashup of the regular dance-y sounding Robyn song Dancing On My Own and a more slowed-down piano version of it. Meanwhile, Winston Churchill wins the award for most WTF show I've seen so far this year. It was a hilariously chaotic floor full of monkeys and monkey bars. I love when the safari guy comes out and is chasing them around. I think he ends up in the cage at the end. 😄 I actually liked ORIGINS Open more than I liked ORIGINS World again. I thought they gave a clean performance of a very clear design. The world class show was... interesting. It's something different, and it may take me multiple viewings to appreciate it more. I will add that Wayne Harris voiceovers are definitely back in style this year. See: Tarpon Springs. If there's a more talented high school guard in the US than TWHS World this year, I haven't seen it -- at least from an equipment perspective. Is there any other guard in the US right now that could do those insane ripple trick tosses at the end of that show as cleanly as they did them? Not a single drop on the traveling 6s over the arms of the girls. Not a single drop on the roll tosses over the moving dolly that immediately follow. Clean catches, too. WOW! But, as others have mentioned, the design needs to match the level of the performers. I still think the show is in desperate need of a color infusion. Everything is so dark that the staging looks cluttered in parts, because I can't tell the girls from the floor from the boxes. Adding a pop of brighter color to the performers seems like an easy fix. Also, I'd like to see more shaping in the staging in the last section with all the weapon work around the boxes. But overall that 84.9 is a great prelims score, and they're probably still at least in the running for a medal at Dayton.

I just finished catching up on the remaining Scholastic As. I thought the third block was very strong. I'm not surprised to see several high scores in that block, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the top guards there rearrange in finals. And I was VERY happy to see Westfield here! ❤️ Seven Lakes' music seemed weirdly off, like the two speakers weren't perfectly in time with each other, so there was an odd echo effect. I love those T-shirt flags! Friendswood's finished set design is gorgeous. I love the staging in this show and all the expressive qualities. I'm not sure it was quite clean enough to warrant an 80+, but the content was there. Overall, the Houston-area A guards had a very strong showing here, taking the top 4 spots. Congrats to Pearland, Friendswood, and Cypress Woods on those top 3 placements. We'll see if they can hold onto them tomorrow! Now time to catch up on Open class...

Well-deserved first place for Pearland in round 2 (and overall so far). It turns out the floor wasn't even finished yet! Looks very purple and space-y now. Very expressive and dynamic show, with a top-notch performance as well, crystal clear. Overall, I'd say the judges got the rankings in round 2 pretty spot-on.

I'm catching up. Watching fragments and full shows here and there. I've gotten through the first block. New Braunfels came out on top over Georgetown, which is a change from WGI Houston. I agree with that. I thought New Braunfels had a very clear, logical program and gave one of the cleanest performances I've seen so far. I believe it was the Georgia O'Keeffe one with Georgia on My Mind for the soundtrack. Georgetown by contrast seemed to have a somewhat rough run, with room to grow for finals. Shadow Creek was clean, but the soundtrack (River Deep, Mountain High) is kind of samey from beginning, middle, to end, which makes the show not feel as dynamic as some of the others. It was fun, though, and high energy. Hebron's varsity was absolutely lovely. I'm surprised they've been scoring as low as they have, but this is the first time I've seen them. More Than Gold, was it? Something like that. I think the floor was a guitar with a little black table on it. The costumes are kind of a similar, gold-ish color to the floor. I found it very expressive, and one of the better performances so far as well. Mount Pleasant was a standout, too. Very eye-popping floor and confident performers.

The final schedule for WGI Austin has been posted. You can find it here: https://wgi.org/individual-events/?single_event=austin_regional_1035 This is probably my favorite event in Texas. You get a good mix of groups from across the state. I'm looking forward to seeing Hebron and Westlake for the first time. Hebron has been underperforming a little bit so far compared to where I'd thought they'd be, but I'm curious if they can turn it around. I'll be missing Coppell, Clear Brook, TWHS JV, and a small handful of the Dallas A guards, like Rock Hill and Southlake Carroll, but besides that you've pretty much got it all at this contest.