natertater21000

It would change a lot less than you think. Rouse is already beating a healthy number of 6A bands at BOA and the same would very likely apply at 6A state. Rouse would not need to radicaly change themselves to do well at 6A state. For example this exact same thing was done by Leander in 2016. They moved up to 6A, Went to BOA SA, 6A state, and Nats back to back to back. It was difficult but very much in the realm of possibility. They also placed in the top 6 of all three contests. I have no reason to believe Rouse would not be capable of a similar level of success. I could also very much see them not doing this due to the missed school time and the stress of it all, but I don't think they NEED to do baby steps in order to do well.

Like this post to manifest a Rouse trip to Nats next year.

I would’ve been fine with that. It’s not so much sour grapes about team Texas/flomo, it’s more sour grapes at the band (any band) awarded for marching and playing the best not being given the win. Avon was on the other side of this exact scenario in 2016 and it left a bad taste in my mouth then too. That actually resulted in the rule change for ties.

Yes, and unlike the 20 in music and visual that is averaged between 2 judges (individual and ensemble) each GE judge unilaterally decides 20 points of the overall score. A GE judge not vibing with your show can drop you multiple places, or even multiple points.

I’d really love to see BOA switch to a 30/30/40 split like DCI. I’ve always thought 20/20/60 is a bit too skewed.

How it felt catching up on this thread after a long day of travel.

That's a wrap on not only the 5A marching season, but on an entire era of 5A (old 4A) band. For 14 years Leander ISD has dominated the podium of this contest. Whether it was Cedar Park standing as the lone defender (2011, 2017, 2019) or multiple LISD bands taking all three medals (2013, 2015, 2021, 2024), the Leander ISD schools have had a monopoly on 4A/5A that eclipses even that of Lewisville ISD in 5A/6A. The landscape for 5A is going to be VERY interesting moving forward, at least it will be if Vandegrift does not move down. It feels cool to be around to witness these moments. I was a student during the latter half of the Marcus dynasty and seeing what the landscape looks like now vs then is CRAZY. A rising tide raises all ships and band in Texas has exploded over the past 15 years. I can't wait to see how it continues to shift and change. 6A is going to be crazy for the next few years in an unprecedented way. Maybe UIL adds a Semis to try and rival Grand Nats? 👀(I'm kidding.....mostly)

Alright, let's get you back to bed.

I was not surprised by the pre lims scores. Tone is more important than volume.

Ah, got my 6A and 5A area weekends mixed up. Closer to 12-13 hours though. I was including class time. Most of these bands meet for an hour or more during the school day as well as after school. Lots of time to clean and refine things.

I won't comment on a lot of what is being said but there are a few things I think that it is important to consider when loking at these results. First and foremost, results from area. I'll go on record as someone who does not think that area results should just be thrown out the moment they are recieved because I think there is some valuable information that can be gleaned from them. That being said, Area was a full week ago for 5A bands. That is 12+ hours of rehearsal time ago, which in an efficient marching program is A LOT of time to improve things. It does not surprise me that a band like Argyle has managed to peak at state and pass up some bands they were behind a week ago. Secondly, rubric and judging differences. The state rubric is very different from even the new area rubric that we have. Each judge is judging their specific caption and that caption ONLY. A wide variance of ordinals is to be expected for most bands. The champion is unlikely to have this variance because that is the entire point of this judging style. The band who is most likely to win is the one that is strong across the board. Using Leander as an example, 2nd in ensemble, 4th in woodwind, and 9th in brass is not all that surprising. Enesmble music is a lot more than just who had the loudest impact, Woodwind is a lot more than who played the most notes, and brass is a lot more than who did the most double tonguing. Lastly, the one that people like to leave out/talk about the least. Bands at the high school level, even at the highest levels, are not immune to having a less than optimal run of the show. This is especially true in an environment like this. For some of these bands this was their third run through this year in the dome, for others it was their very first. There are a lot of factors that contribute to a bands placement. Seeing a placement you disagree with, and reacting with "The judges are obviously wrong and bad" without taking all of these factors into account is the wrong way to go about it.

That is true, but if all of those bands attended the Austin to DFW split would look something like Austin 6 to DFW getting 7 in the top 20. SA would go down to 1 and Houston down to 3. I'm not trying to say Austin is the current best area, I actualy think DFW has that confidently locked up at the moment. I was just making a tongue and cheek refrence to an earlier debate in this thread about Austin area being overrated in terms of expected finalists. Which to be fair, Austin did have the most of at 7.

Those "vastly overrated Austin area bands" are seeming pretty properly rated after the fact.

Cedar park has 6 consecutive currently. 7 if they win again this year.

Very interested to see how things move around from State, although I actually don't see it moving as much as people might think. Fighting for Gold: Obviously Flomo is the odds on favorite to win it all, and while I do think that they will, I also think that it's going to be a lot closer than people expect. Similar to Hebron in 2022 when everyone had them head and shoulders above but they only ended up winning by 0.25. I think Hebron, Vandegrift and The Woodlands will give them a fight, and possibly take a caption off of them. just for fun I'll say Flomo in first with GE, Vandy in second with no captions 👀, Hebron in 3rd with music and The woodlands in 4th taking visual. Finalist locks: Anything can happen at the SA super but these are the bands that I would very surprised to see miss finals here. Vista Ridge, Reagan, Cedar Ridge, Cedar Park, Rouse, Dripping Springs, Pearland. 12-14(15?🤞) INSANITY: This is the most competitive part of this contest and it's not particularly close. The bands that I could see taking one of the last three (maybe four!) spots would be Westlake, Seven Lakes, Leander, Moe and Gene, Mcneil, Round Rock, Wakeland, Keller, James Bowie, Claudia Taylor Johnson, Bridgeland, Cy-Fair, and I probably still left someone out by mistake. I'm not even going to try and pick 3 from the above list, 23rd place at the SA super is not at all what it used to be. Excited to see what happens!