Rubisco

Okay, I've been educated by a few people now. I respect the decisions of those involved in the Avon situation. I wish that all the parties involved could have resolved their differences, or just done something else at the last minute, even if it meant the show wouldn't be as strong. I mean, Avon is still Avon. At the same time, I listen to the song that caused all the trouble and think, "Wow, this is pretty sublime!" Especially the version with the real orchestra. And the lyrics are indeed a big part of that effect, and clearly aren't supposed to be taken literally. Honestly, I think it could have been my favorite Avon soundtrack ever!

Darn! Things like this never happen on a winter guard thread in December. I need to check more often!

I am so very confused. I must have missed something. 😂

With Avon currently withdrawn from SW, I think there's a very strong possibility that we see two Southern California guards on the podium in April. Both Arcadia and El Dorado work with Rosie, and it really shows at the level of the individual choreography. Very witty, creative writing -- of the sort we saw (and still continue to see, to an extent) from Carmel. Heck, that part in El Dorado's show last season where they dragged the performer across the floor, as the other performers hop-tossed over them, was like an inverted version of that moment in Carmel's Gunslinger show, when they tossed over that girl they carried across the floor. Super cool. Actually, I find it quite remarkable that Rosie is only consulting and not directing, but we've still seen major improvements in both of those California programs pretty quickly.

The end of 2024 continues to be very eventful! Saddened by the news of Avon's world guard. The publicly released statement makes it sound like a creative decision, but.. yeah...

I think some of them have been confirmed! Emphasis on think... The way I view it, there are at most 6 "for sure" non-Texas locks for finals at any given Grand Nats: Avon, Broken Arrow, Carmel, Tarpon Springs, William Mason, and Blue Springs. Tarpon probably won't be going next year, so that's really only 5 occupied finals spots. Which, as we ravenous Texans probably realize, leaves 7 spots for us to gobble up. It's about time we beat the previous 6 record! Of course, I can't shake the feeling Bentonville may be emerging as a non-Texas lock, too.

I'd imagine those auditions were quite competitive! They have such top to bottom strength that I found it very hard to tell who their "aces" were on the marching field.

I'm curious how big the 6A onslaught will be at Nationals next season. Flower Mound, Marcus, CTJ, The Woodlands, Round Rock, and Reagan are all due for appearances. It's been 4 years since Vista Ridge as well, and even longer since Vandegrift. Looks like it might be another 2021 in terms of top to bottom finals competition.

I'm not sure it's exactly accurate to say that BOA designed the sheets to level the playing field the way that you suggest, although they do want everything to be fair. BOA largely inherited their points of consideration from DCI's sheets. What's on them is simply the aspects of music performance that most music educators view as important. Tone quality is on there. The reason it doesn't have primacy the way it does in Texas is because judges are usually instructed not to over-privilege one point of consideration over another. Meanwhile, in Texas, as an individual performer, you can go to region band and have the most dazzling technique and rhythmic accuracy, but if your tone quality isn't there, you're toast!

Churchill Fulshear, Montwood, and Terry are still on the wait list for Scholastic A. I don't think there have been any changes since the last update. If anybody has any knowledge of their indoor shows for this upcoming season, feel free to share!

Congratulations to all of the finalist bands! And, of course, a special shout out on this forum to Team Texas! 🤠 I know some of us like to complain about the results every year, but what Team Texas bands accomplish season after season, in spite of their very significant rehearsal limitations, is truly extraordinary.

To be fair, WGI's consistency between rounds is aided tremendously by their reverse placement scheduling. We frequently see judges "fall in line" between rounds who were outliers in the preliminary round. I don't think most band people would care much for that reverse placement scheduling. Too rigid. Also, dare I say, you may be a bit biased given your professional experience. 🙃 At the same time, I agree with you about the possible doubling of the effect panels in BOA. I thought perhaps financial reasons were behind them opting not to do that, but with the addition of an entirely new panel this season, that's clearly not the case. It may indeed just be stubbornness. At the end of the day, it's up to BOA's customers to put their foot (feet?) down. 😂

Actually, I think Brownsburg may be closer to the top 12 than people think. All we know is that they were 12th or lower in their prelims panel. Looking at the two panels, theirs was way more stacked than the other one. Just because they're in the "next 8" doesn't mean that their score wasn't higher than several of the top 11 that came from the other panel. I feel like worst case scenario they placed in the high teens in terms of overall prelims scores. We shall see, after everything is done.

I'm back at my hotel now, but I'm still buzzing with excitement from tonight's performances. First time in a long time that I've attended this event. All the bands in finals absolutely killed it. Incredible levels of achievement. I was slack-jawed with amazement the whole time. Congratulations to all!

Agreed! They were magnificent at BOA San Antonio Finals. I got back to my hotel about an hour and a half ago. Those girls, an entire army of them, tossed 7s like they were triples -- not to mention all the insanely tricky phrases. And so clean throughout all of it! 🤯

A very experienced panel! Looking quite TMC-ish, so hopefully those bands have availed themselves of the judges' original commentary. Actually, quite a few of these judges were on the Grand Nationals panel last year as well, which perhaps shows just how much this event is respected. May be a double-edged sword, however, depending on what you thought about the National Finals results last year and the gaps that opened up there... 😅 Also, how have your predictions changed? I'm genuinely curious.

USBands might actually be more indicative of what happens at BOA San Antonio this weekend than what happens at 6A UIL State. Mike Anderson, Wayne Dillon, and Mike Stone, who judged visual, music effect, and visual effect at USBands tonight, will be judging at BOA San Antonio this weekend. What captions they will be judging at BOA-SA remain a mystery, but this could be a good sign for Flower Mound (at least relative to Hebron) if any of these men are assigned the GE caption in finals. Of course, I don't know what the USBands sheets look like. They may be quite different from BOA's. I'm assuming there's decent overlap.

No Dayton, but it looks like they've signed up for the Tampa and Orlando regionals. Essentially, as you move up from A to Open to World, the skills become more advanced. Originally, A class was the beginner class in WGI, but now it's regarded as more of an intermediate class. That's why in the Texas Color Guard Circuit and other local circuits nationwide you've got a number of other types of A classes besides National A (like Regional A, AA, and regular ol' A) to accommodate units with more beginner-like skills. Actually, WGI has Regional A class at their regional competitions, just not at the World Championships. So then, the three WGI classes at Dayton are A - intermediate, Open - intermediate to advanced, and World - advanced to standard setting. The classes have quite similar scoring sheets and have the same judging captions (equipment, movement, design analysis, and general effect); it's just that the average model (paradigm) that you're compared against becomes more advanced as you climb up the classes, which means that a score in one class is not comparable to a score in a different class. A class scoring is interesting in particular, because WGI weights Excellence (execution) a bit more than Vocabulary (variety/range/depth of skills demonstrated). This is to encourage a solid technical foundation, and is not done in the higher classes. Guards can choose whatever class they want to compete in. They usually choose the one that they think best matches their skills and where they'll achieve some degree of success. It should be noted that if a guard is too advanced for their class, they're at risk of being reclassified by the WGI Steering Committee, which reviews videos of the top 2 guards in the A and Open classes at each WGI regional. (In Regional A, it's even possible for the chief judge at the regional to promote you to A class between prelims and finals!) It's not a perfect system, as we saw a couple years ago with Jordan HS, who was reclassified from A to Open and then didn't have "marked success" in Open, which typically means making semifinals at Dayton. (This year Jordan has returned to A, which will be interesting.) Technically, reclassification is different from a promotion, which is what happens at the very end of the WGI season, when the top 3 to 5 guards at the World Championships in the A and Open classes get automatically bumped up into a higher class for the next season.

Sorry, I've been extremely busy with work. I have NOT been paying attention. I've finally updated the World Championships attendance list at the top of this thread. Lots of awesome Texas additions, and still some units on the wait list. It's cool seeing 2024 A Class Finalist Azle making the return. Also, it looks like the Pearland guard has decided to try out the Open class this season. They've been near the top of the A class in Texas pretty consistently, so they could fare well in Open. 215 Scholastic guards and 115 Independent guards have signed up for Dayton so far. Talk about massive participation. A feast!

Agreed! But looking at the scores, only half the music GE judges had them first, and only by a small margin. Coming into this contest, I thought Blue Springs could beat Broken Arrow. They had a lovely show. Yet, after watching all of prelims and finals, I'm quite surprised that happened. To my ears, Broken Arrow was superior in both repertoire and performance. Just so much more engaging from moment to moment -- fewer pacing issues. We shall see what the Nationals panel thinks! 👍

Some really great bands at this contest, for sure!

Yes, it's highly likely that the vast majority of the finalists here will be familiar ones. That said, I think there's a bit of wiggle room on panel 2, which could provide an opening for a new finalist to slip in -- perhaps at the expense of a frequent finalist on panel 1. Now that all the regular regionals in Texas are finished, I've taken a closer look at the panel imbalance at this event. Of the 18 bands attending BOA-SA that placed in the top 3 at a regular regional this season, 12 are on panel 1 and 6 are on panel 2. Of the 7 regional champions that are attending BOA-SA, 6 are on panel 1 and only 1 is on panel 2. That's quite an imbalance, and it may force some interesting results here after preliminary competition. I've been trying to adjust my own rankings to try to take into account the contest dynamics, because at first I was quite panel 1 heavy, and I now see that as being unlikely. Top 5 Panel 1: Vandegrift, Flower Mound, The Woodlands, Pearland, and Marcus Top 5 Panel 2: Hebron, Cedar Park, Rouse, Vista Ridge, and... Westlake? (See, I'm already struggling here.) Next 4: Coppell, Cedar Ridge, Ronald Reagan, and... Leander? Pretty much from Westlake through (some of) the next 4 I'm not sure about. Keller and Round Rock are the hardest ones for me to omit, because they both have made finals here in recent years and were straight-up national finalists just last year. Keller may have the better chance being on panel 2. Round Rock, I'm a little concerned for, since they're on panel 1. I also really enjoy Southlake Carroll, Cy-Fair, James Bowie, LD Bell, and Dripping Springs. I think most of those would be first-time finalists, although I'd have to go back and check the historical results. Obviously, LD Bell and James Bowie are not first-timers. I mean, what it comes down to is this: You need to make it absolutely clear that you belong in finals here. It can't be a wishy-washy maybe. You can't leave it up to luck. You have to deliver. Happy cleaning, everyone!

Honestly, I don't know why you wouldn't be excited for them. Their show is obviously great. But you're the expert, I guess. 🙂 The results at this contest seem closer at the top than expected. On the other hand, if all those bands are in fact that close to Bridgeland, that's very exciting indeed, because I thought Bridgeland was awesome last weekend!

I decided to watch TMC instead of this one tonight. The results here are a tad surprising, at least based on, ahem, reputation, but they are what they are. Hopefully some videos leak soon! 👍

I'm happy to see James Bowie and Cypress Woods do so well here. It should be a confidence booster. Both Rouse and Vista Ridge over Reagan. That's not surprising for now, but there's still a lot of time left in the season.