Rubisco

Me, too! I'm finally going to get to watch a live show from Texas! Also, the contest that has Paramount and Etude, I believe. There are lots of awesome groups traveling to Austin this weekend. Almost like the WGI version of a state championship, if we had just a few more of those top DFW guards here. Nevertheless, there's stiff competition in both Scholastic A and Scholastic Open. I genuinely don't know who will win either class! (It certainly doesn't help that I've seen very few of them. 😅)

There's no clear way to compare the scores between the various classes, if that's what you mean. Even between Independent and Scholastic in the same class (like Scholastic A versus Independent A) scores can't be directly compared. Typically, pretty much always, if a guard is reclassified to a higher class mid-season, their scores will drop a bit, since the standards are higher in that class. Do NTCA scores relate to WGI scores? Well, they use the same sheets with the same box criteria, so you'd think there should be some overlap there, but often the scores and placements moving from local circuits to WGI can be QUITE different. I have noticed that local circuit judges will often "fall in line" with WGI after there has been a WGI contest, although even that doesn't always happen, as we saw at TCGC Pearland this past weekend.

I somewhat agree about the "message shows". On the other hand, I respect people whose mode of artistic communication is more direct or even confrontational, especially since it does risk being called out by people like us for its lack of subtlety. For me, more than anything, watching the Scholastic Worlds from this past weekend, I find myself wishing for more "up-tempo" shows. Much of what we've seen is quite slow or mid-tempo. I would prefer more variety.

Thank you so much! I've been starving! Also, look at the equipment and movement judges flipping out over TWHS World in that video. Wow! 😆Can't say I blame them. Judges are just about the biggest fans of the activity, after all. 😃 I've only watched a couple of the Opens, but I'm already confused by the scoring, I will admit. Pearland has a wonderful show!

I think Arcadia looks really clean for this point in the season, besides a few drops here and there. And yes, they move wonderfully. I like that they're sort of keeping with last year's playful, quirky vibe. Will the octopus show become the new spider show for bands and guards everywhere? We shall see. I do see where you're coming from about the soundtrack. I think last year's was better. I also think last year's concept was a bit stronger, with the blindness motifs. But it's all still very well-crafted. It feels very fluid and connected throughout.

What is the music there?

Also, it should be noted that this contest was missing one of its effect judges.

They will be seeded 6th, I believe. I saw that! Happy for them. They'll be seeded 1st place nationally. There are still many contenders who have not yet competed in WGI, however. By the end of next week, I think we'll have a better idea across all the classes. Even then, there will be a few stragglers who pop in later.

I can't find the full video anymore, too. It must have been deleted or moved to private. I don't see any videos on the Google drive, either. 🤔

I was getting excited for this one, then I remembered that NOTHING is being streamed this weekend. 😭

There's an okay video on YouTube now. I disagree with this, actually. I find it rather reductive. There's clearly an elevated, intellectual quality throughout -- a quality of strangeness. Wonderful attention to detail as well. Furthermore, I disagree with your "skills of flexibility" statement. There are so many in this show! It's just that there's so much going on at once, you might miss them. I'm dazzled by them, yet again. Perfect? No. Definitely room for improvement. But no other high school guard achieves from top-to-bottom like they do. No other high school guard asks so much from ALL of their members. None of that, "Oh, here's our one girl who can do fouette turns! Front and center!" or "Oh, here's our three girls who can roll under their tosses! Front and center!" With TWHS, you get a dozen or more at once, and they're friggin' clean. That should count for something. 🤷

@packwick, I appreciate your valuable insights. But please also find the time to upload the videos somewhere private, because some of us are parched. 🥵

Utterly shocked by the news of the shooting at the percussion event. An 81-year-old shooter, too? So bizarre. Hope everyone recovers, both physically and mentally.

Ah, I thought you might be at the Houston one. I was hoping for some videos. 😭

Has Little Elm medaled in Open before? I feel like they were in SW at one point.

Darn, I missed it, before it was removed. 😭

Scores are nice and all, but videos or streaming would be much better. It's hard to have any truly meaningful conversations about the activity without them. 😢

My Name is Carnival is a song from relatively obscure 60s artist Jackson C. Frank, from his only album. It was featured in the 2019 film, Joker. The lyrics are certainly interesting. They're a poetic rendering of carnival scenes, clearly reaching for some kind of depth, but in a way that is honestly a tad confusing. Frank was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. 😢

Some great preview events tomorrow, for those in the area!

The first real contest of the season is tomorrow in Angleton. Then TCGC really gets going next weekend with events in both Austin and Houston. Good luck to all! Not much reason to be nervous; these early events are great feedback opportunities. The coordinators at TCGC seem to have done a pretty decent job getting active WGI judges for these early events. That's important, I think, for a lot of these Houston-area guards that no longer have a local WGI regional. I believe TCGC has increased the pay scale recently. Maybe that's why we're seeing more active WGI types? 😅 I know this is the TCGC thread, but NTCA has some preview events tomorrow (with some heavy-hitters like Coppell and Flower Mound) that are worth checking out, if you're in the area. Then, like TCGC, they kick it up a notch next weekend.

Pride of Cincinnati's show is called To the Fullest and features the music of Sleeping at Last. Not familiar with that artist. I'll have to give it a listen! Excited to see them back in the fray.

Fantastic! Carroll, Coppell, and Wylie are all great, unexpected additions. Hoping we get a couple of the LISD schools, too -- both Leander and Lewisville.

I'll have to do that!

Speaking of the overall season, it doesn't look like we're getting any streamed events in Texas until WGI Austin at the beginning of March. Kind of disappointing. I don't live in Texas anymore, so I won't see anything live. (Don't live close to any WGI regionals, actually.) Others will have to attend the local contests and share some thoughts, and hopefully videos!

Yeah, I wondered if that would happen. Might be hard to bury the hatchet. 😭 Too much drama already, and it's only December. Not that there's usually all that much drama in the first place on these guard threads.