principalagent

Not enough to take them out of finals, if at all

If you look at the schedule, you can infer it. It always follows a pattern. To advance to semi-finals: - The top 11 placing bands from each day advance. - Then the next 8 highest score bands regardless of day advance - If not enough bands advance to satisfy the condition that two bands per class per day are represented in semifinals, then the highest ranking bands in each class advance. With these conditions met, you can use the rules of semi-finals scheduling to tell where a band is ranking, groupwise. - The first bands are always class qualifiers. Because the first two rules advance 30 bands, then the first x bands (# of bands that make semis - 30) are the class qualifiers. So this year, there are 6 qualifiers on class representation. - The next four bands are half of the bands ranked 23-30 overall from the combined prelims scores from both days. - The next 22 bands are the top 22 ranking bands from combined prelims. - The last four bands are the other half of the 23-30 bands. With this, you can tell that there are some surprises, like Ayala and Bowie only placing in the 23-30 range. My personal hunch here is that there was bad score management on both days. Thursday started off with weak bands, which inflated the scores of stronger bands. Friday started off with a high bubble band for finals, which probably made the judges conservative and kept scores deflated across the board. This, then creates a problem when you combine both days, as the bands are scored on effectively different scales.

Schedule: http://www.musicforall.org/resources/fall-results/2016/2016-grand-national-championships-semi-finalists James Bowie placed between 23-30th in prelims overall. The rest of #TeamTexas scored in the Top 22. The finals pre-draw is also out. Leander will likely perform 7th or 8th in finals, depending on CTJ making the top 6 or not.

I'm at Lucas Oil and I've seen every finalist caliber band in person. I gotta say, and I hate to say it, but I'm having serious doubts about #TeamTexas. I want all of them in, but the bubble bands are stepping it up big time. Union and Owasso put on amazing performances while Vista Murrieta came out of almost nowhere and probably put on the performance of the day. Homestead is as strong as ever, and Castle and Dobyns-Bennett are giving Cedar Park a serious run for their money for class placement in 3A. Marian Catholic also cleaned up a lot and will likely earn #33 - one of the stronger overall designs and concepts here, per usual. Leander had a stellar run this morning is in the thick of the eagle conversation in the stadium. Johnson's choice to skip state was correct. They have shaped up nicely and are a crowd favorite - they'll be between 4-7, I believe. Reagan has had their best performance of the last week this morning and should place around Johnson. I could see a last minute surge as well into the medal table. Cedar Park and Bowie are executing better than most bubble bands (except maybe Homestead and Union and VM and DB), but the overall design of their shows may not hold up in the long run. Like I said, I want them both in and I want to be wrong. It's absolutely the toughest year in a long while to get into finals. And perhaps for the eagle too, seeing that no one band is leading the charge, and about five have a legitimate shot.

You have to wait until Saturday night to see anything except for the 35ish semi-finalists that are announced tomorrow night.

Round Rock made state finals way back in the day in the 80s a few times. But this is the first time in most of our lifetimes, and a deserved advancement indeed! Edit: Beaten again!

Well one reason they fell behind is that it's definitely arguable that Johnson and the Woodlands have two of the hardest combined music and visual books this year (I think Hebron is the only other in that mix) and just weren't going to be clean enough at Conroe. At any rate, they'll absolutely be in finals on Wednesday and Saturday, but perhaps not as high was originally thought by many. For what it's worth, I thought they gave a performance worthy of cracking the top 7.

Because Grand Nationals attendance isn't predicated on results. It's just a "sign up and go" experience and FloMo decided not to go this year.

That's the other con about the split draw based on ranking. When every band is on a similar level and goes all back to back, it can very easily compress scores. The reality is that the top echelon of bands in Texas is tighter than ever before, all the way down to about tenth place tonight, not to mention Bowie. Especially considering these 11ish bands all have different strengths, their scores are gonna come out tight.

Although scores themselves don't necessarily show it, Leander is absolutely in the conversation for a medal next week. Their finals performance was way, way on. I think they'll continue to lead the Texas contingent through next weekend.

They performed because they were the actual Class 3A champion at BOA Conroe, and should have gotten an exhibition then, but did not because of TWCP's misclassification. Edit: scooped

Good call! Bell missing finals is a total shock, but I LOVED this show as well. Nothing to be upset about at all. Very happy to see The Woodlands so high up. Thought a top 7 placing from them is much deserved.

Both Hendrickson and Cy-Falls made their first Super Regional finals at San Antonio tonight! (Cy-Falls has made finals at Atlanta a couple of times now).

I got here in time for the beginning of prelims. James Martin was fantastic. I really hope to see them tonight. Pearland also got a huge crowd response but not sure of their chances with the bubble. The Woodlands cleaned up a lot from last weekend and they may even fight for the top half tonight. Marcus was Marcus, and I wouldn't count them out for a medal or even #6 on Wednesday. Hebron may be gunning for a medal tonight as well as their first state championship. Bell and Prosper both showed very obvious signs of Cartwright and they're both selling it well. I'm very happy that Bell is back and hope to see them in the top half of finals tonight. Prosper also has a very bright future ahead.

Hornrank uses a poll of a few band enthusiasts, the season's results thus far, and probably some added discretion, to create its rankings from my understanding.

I mean. The parent is not wrong... even if it's homerism

Leander won't be that low, barring something catastrophic or a very off performance. I'm more than a little confused by that prediction actually.

I was there for prelims and left right before they went on in finals. I honestly had them first but could understand second and justify third. Fourth and lower surprised me, to be honest. They were dirty, but I thought one of the bands that beat them was visually dirtier. Their visual and music books were without a doubt the toughest of the day. I'm still predicting them in for Tuesday, but I'm a little more wary seeing that the judges aren't responding to them that well. They're known for cleaning late game, and I hope they live up this year - their ballad in particular is a treat

In Area, judges give a score from 0-1000, which is the converted into an ordinal rank. All five judges' ordinals are then added for each band, then converted to an overall score. The bands are then ranked golf-style, with lower totals desired. Same process at state.

Top 10 shows this year: Broken Arrow (OK) CTJ LD Bell Homestead (IN) The Woodlands Flower Mound Hendrickson Vandegrift Keller Cy-Fair Favorite Part 1s/Openers: Cedar Park Vandegrift Leander Flower Mound Broken Arrow Brazoswood Vista Ridge James Bowie James Martin Favorite Ballads: Union (OK) The Woodlands (single favorite moment of the year at the end) North Shore Westlake Keller Pearland Westwood Anderson Favorite Closers: Hendrickson Cy-Fair FLOWER MOUND Homestead (IN) LD Bell Keller Klein Oak Favorite Concepts: Hendrickson Flower Mound Cedar Park Coppell Dripping Springs Vista Ridge Pearland Broken Arrow (OK) Bentonville (AR) Lawrence Township (IN) Favorite Moments (tons of spoilers): Cedar Ridge drum break TWHS's end of the ballad Leander's cube run through Cedar Park's opening Flower Mound's everything Keller's trumpet gymnast Hendrickson's glasses CTJ's pre-show Union's ballad I'm still going to BOA San Antonio this Saturday and all three days of Grand Nationals so my list may be a lot larger!

Brazoswood was one of the reasons I was glad I left F finals early. They were amazing. State finals will be hard but they looked really solid and sounded very strong.

The realignment was probably the effect of two different but related factors - Area D was too strong and Area G put in a lot of bands that were, for lack of a better term, uncompetitive at the State Marching Band Contest. Area G also put out more bands than any other Area, including those, like D, that had really strong bands that got left at home. In a way, you're right. Area H was created to relax Area D and create more advancing spots for the Austin bands since Area D was definitely the strongest area finals top to bottom in 2010-2014. The moving up of the Leander schools would have made old Area D even worse. Area D and H could reasonably put 6-8 bands in State Finals - old Area D would likely have left one or two of them at home. It's not quite fair to the NISD bands who had an easier time in old G, but it's perhaps fair to the process and it evened out the advancing numbers relative to the strength of the bands in the areas. (There's a whole new conversation about if the SMBC is about showcasing the best bands in the state overall or representing an even diversity of bands across the state but that conversation tends to go south - especially this weekend. In my opinion, this new alignment is as even as it can be.) As for UIL v. BOA, UIL tends to be more execution focused and BOA looks a little more for design, effect and performance. However, the best bands tend to be at the top of either. If you think about it, a really sharp design can showcase a band's strengths very well. And a band that executes well can more easily sell the effect of their show. While distinct, I believe the lines between "UIL shows" and "BOA shows" are getting blurred with time.

Advancers in alphabetical order: Austin Brazoswood Clear Brook Clements Cy-Fair Cy-Falls Friendswood Langham Creek

Tarpon only got a 91.75 in Atlanta and only won the General Effect caption. It's officially on for Indy.

Spring TWCP Pearland North Shore Dawson Klein Oak The Woodlands Oak Ridge Kingwood Klein In that order. Pasadena Memorial was the first out.