Rubisco

Absolutely gorgeous show from Center Grove! Such an incredible improvement over the past few years. Watching on multi, they didn't look like your typical 15th place group. Outstanding!

I'm just now catching up. I agree that American Fork earned that bronze. Great show. Marcus, Westlake, and Bowie were of course awesome as always. Also, congrats to Menage on that bronze medal!

The maze and countdown concepts are definitely interesting from a staging perspective!

Also congrats to our Independent Open Finalists! Menage, Glory, and Origins Open! 🥂 Menage is sitting in 3rd after semis!

Congrats to Marcus, Westlake, and James Bowie for making Open Class Finals! 🥳 Marcus in a 3-way tie for 3rd and Westlake just a tiny fraction behind that cluster. That medal is up for grabs! Interesting to see Dobyns-Bennett's score increase from when I first looked at it. Transcription error? Anyway, their new score looks more like what I'd expect. Comfortably in finals as opposed to the last one in.

Grand Oaks just slayed! Individual achievement absolutely through the roof!

Magical performance from Azle just now. The show reminds me of Miamisburg's from last year. Gorgeous floor, soundtrack, and choreo!

Beautiful show from our first Scholastic A Finalist, Corinth Holders. Right out the gate I'm like, "This is A Class?!" A Class on steroids! Look at them going into the ground and spinning. Look at the illusion toss! What?! So talented! I'm watching on multi-cam. I like seeing the expressions of the performers in Finals.

Congrats to Grand Oaks and Azle for making Scholastic A Finals! 🎉 Seeded 9th and 11th, respectively. Settling in to watch A Class Finals shortly.

Congrats to Eagle Mountain Independent on earning a spot in Independent A Class Finals! This is definitely a place you can discuss the percussion side of things! I think we just don't have as many people who keep up with it.

Texas Scholastic As posting outstanding scores! Slipping in the rankings a little bit, but the top two at least should be good for finals. The SA class is definitely one of those classes where the competition ain't over until after finals, because of the relative closeness of the units in terms of both skill and design. I'm looking forward to watching Scholastic A finals tonight!

Honestly, from a breadth of talent perspective, TWHS is the most impressive scholastic guard I've ever seen. And I think it's quite obvious, too. More than any other guard, watching them is like watching a strong IW finalist, because of those insane numbers combined with the difficulty. But I agree that there's room for growth in figuring out what WGI wants. 😂

I think any slight issues they may be having are certainly influenced by nerves. First of all, it's Dayton. Second of all, this is the first time the entire season they've competed against anyone. They've essentially been giving (judged) exhibition performances the whole season. So, it's like smooth sailing until the world championships as far as nerves go.

Team Texas seems to be off to a great start! Azle with the highest score for the entire Cintas Center Scholastic A panel and 3rd highest score overall. Grand Oaks with the 5th highest score at Truist Arena and 8th highest overall. Lots of close scores, so it will be interesting to see what happens in more direct comparisons, but it seems like Texas could medal in SA this year. Hays and Wiley also looking like possible finalists. In Scholastic Open, Marcus in 2nd, Westlake in 4th. Absolutely fantastic! And they were all judged on the same panel, too. Hopefully at least one of them medals! Bowie also looking like a likely finalist. Clear Brook shouldn't be too far off, either. In Scholastic World, I'm a little bummed that FloMo didn't make it to semis, but this is honestly one of the strongest SW cohorts ever, if not the strongest. Case in point: Carmel, last year's champion, in 7th (!). Skills are improving fast on the scholastic scene. But yeah, FloMo can hold their heads up high. Obviously, congrats to TWHS in 3rd. Hopefully they can keep that placement or even improve on it. But yeah, I mean, strong medalist contenders in all 3 scholastic classes. Way to go! On the Independent side, Origins in 7th, Mirage in 8th -- neck and neck again. That's fantastic! Origins A looking like a strong finalist contender as well. In Open, Menage in 3rd, Glory in 5th, so another couple medal contenders! I can't wait to see some of it starting tomorrow!

Tomorrow's the day! I probably won't catch very many guards on Flo tomorrow. Definitely hoping to see most of the competition starting Friday night!

Congratulations to all of the guards that competed this past weekend at the state championships! If your season has ended, an extra special thank you for all of your hard work throughout the season. Hopefully you made some great memories! Sorry for the delay, I've been unsuccessfully searching for videos on YouTube. 😅 Dayton in three days!

And congratulations to Hays (!) and Grand Oaks for coming out on top in their respective National A rounds at TCGC State. Not sure why we aren't getting a proper finals round from TCGC, although I'd guess it has something to do with paying for the double panel. https://recaps.competitionsuite.com/78a25422-d87c-4429-9dcb-1d225a7e8a7a.htm Grand Oaks about a point and a half ahead of everyone else. They'd probably win in finals as well. 2nd through 5th, however, would have been interesting, since they all got practically the same 89.5 score.

Congratulations to Azle and Hebron for coming out on top in their National A rounds in prelims at the NTCA Championships today! Wish we could have seen them... 😒 Full prelims National A results here: https://recaps.competitionsuite.com/f085d005-8c8b-48ed-8432-86df8ca05eae.htm

I think the thematic part is probably why I personally prefer Carmel in terms of overall effect. It touches me on a deeper level. It also seems like a big risk to have high school kids perform it. That said, I completely see what you mean aesthetically. Carmel's staging is a little bit more unfocused than Arcadia's, and the somewhat goopy fabric isn't always very clean looking. Anyway, I don't know what will happen at Dayton. I'm turning my attention back to the local Texas circuits. This weekend is a dead week, but next weekend is state, just a few days before Dayton. I've got my fingers crossed we get some video leaks!

@packwick Bold prediction not including Carmel in the top 3 for Scholastic World. They haven't missed the podium since 2009. 🤯 That said, re-watching the most recent videos, I think Arcadia makes a suitable "replacement." The staging and choreography are both very Carmel-like, for obvious reasons. Of course, there's a decent possibility that BOTH Arcadia and Carmel medal over The Woodlands, which would honestly shock me, given the record-setting breadth of talent in TWHS, not to mention the sheer emotional impact of the show, but it wouldn't be the first time I've been shocked by WGI. Not even close. 😂 And that doesn't even include Tarpon, who's going into the competition seeded in 3rd. Now that I think about, I'm not sure what my exact top 3 would be, which is part of the excitement of this class. It's very competitive, besides the very top. I am, of course, partial to Fishers, but they didn't really score like a future medalist at Mideast. Anyway, I think the prelims schedule is great, because it's going to give us several direct comparisons. Arcadia and Carmel in block two (plus Fishers just a couple after) and then Avon and The Woodlands closing out block three. Tarpon will be on their own island in the first block probably, but they'll get a better comparison in semifinals.

Fishers ranked 8th really doesn't sit well with me, although based on the fact that they nearly 3-pointed Warren Central earlier in the season, I think there's a good chance the Stuart scores were a little inflated relative to the Mideast ones. Of course, there's a chance Warren Central has simply gotten much better. They did beat Tarpon in Design Analysis, although I don't think Tarpon's staging is as strong this year as it was last year. Lots to digest with all these scores, and a decent amount of time left for some of the units to jump up!

Speaking of Arcadia, I just saw their Bakersfield results over on the WGI site. 92.4. They may have that (silver?) medal on lock. Tarpon's score actually dropped slightly in finals at the Stuart regional. I feel like that only typically happens if the run is noticeably worse than prelims. 89.8 for them. That 2nd through 6th group will be very interesting. It seems like they're all trending 95+. Arcadia and Carmel seem to have the edge over Tarpon and Fishers. Meanwhile, The Woodlands is absent. Their seeding score will be 6 weeks old by the time we finally see them again at Dayton.

The question of how to balance the "what" with the "how" will always be a thorny one in this activity -- really in any activity where artistry and athleticism collide. There was a similar situation between the University of Minnesota and the Ohio State University in the national jazz dance competition a couple months ago. Everyone was blown away by the insane talent of the UofM performers. (They went viral! Sort of!) As a full ensemble, the UofM performers were doing fouette turns into aerials, landing on one foot and going right back into the fouette turns. It was crazy to see how cleanly they did those difficult steps. But then OSU's choreography was much better written, with clearer expressive and story-telling qualities; it didn't just feel like a routine. Guess who won? 😉

Avon with a 93.7 in prelims, which is massive, although at least a little more reasonable with 3 weeks left to go before they score nearly a 100 at Dayton. 😂 The only big issue I have with the SW results is the 87 to 89 gap between Fishers and Carmel. Much too large. Fishers is right up there with Carmel, and maybe even better. Besides that, the results look fine. Nice to see Bellbrook improve. They have some fans here. 👍

Did Paramount add narration to their show recently, or did I just miss it earlier? Lots of talk about harbingers in the soundtrack now. They must have picked up on the fact that many of us were confused about the theme. 😂