natertater21000

I never said it was typical uil drill or design. I said that in comparison to the esoteric show that leander put out, forest through the trees was much more straightforward.

"Those who know us … a show about a rabbit … a show about dancing … a show about a lizard .. a show about a forrest … while there are some deep meanings … sometimes it’s face value." you can pull some deeper things for sure, but the show is for the most part very straightforward.

Except that the weird esoteric show got 14th and the straight forward rainforest show got 1st last year.

I actually think this will be the first year that this trend changes. I think central Texas bands will take two of the medals (including gold) and we'll only see one medal go to a North Texas band. UIL hasn't become quite as volatile as BOA, but I think that's slowly about to change.

Where did you find the judge listing?

You don't see these quite as often with high school shows, super cool perspective of Leander's show. Looks fun to march!

Hard to say, I feel like they are fairly evenly matched(they were all within 1.1 points at Austin). Right now I'd give the the nod at area to vista ridge based on region performances. That being said these groups are so close that I feel like a productive week of rehearsals and a strong run in finals could put any one of the three on top.

Shows longer than 8 minutes always start before the timer.the clock starts at the end of the announcements.

This is why this is the most exciting 6A state marching contest in the last 12 years imo. I'd argue everyone pretty much knew who was going to get gold for the last decade. Marcus was unmatched on a uil score sheet and no one was going to challenge flomo in 2016. This year though? I can honestly say it's completely up for grabs between at least 5 groups. It's gonna come down to who has the best run Tuesday afternoon and that's super exciting.

Three leander isd bands will be in the top half.

Honestly after what I watched at gupton today I'd switch Vista and vandy.

Region more or less HAS to happen. If Saturday is rained out it will be rescheduled to a week day.

Fair point, that's just another reason why I wish SA could have a semi finals. I highly doubt it will ever happen but I feel like it would be an overall positive change. It would give a lot of the bands in the 15-35 range some extra recognition and of course another performance but there are just too many issues(logistics, cost of renting the Alamo dome an extra day, availability of the Alamo dome, interfering with the tradition and finality of grand nationals ect.) for it to happen.

While I do think it's possible that the judging for each panel could differ I doubt it will be by an extreme amount. This format may be new to SA but a similar version takes place at grand nationals every year with pre lims day one and day two. Comparing the two pre lims days combined to that of semi finals usually only results in bands placing plus or minus one or two spots from where they ended up after semis. I have a feeling we'll see more movement than normal in finals but probably not something as drastic as a band falling or rising 5+ places. Only time will tell though.

Not only can you not compare scores from different contests but you especially can't compare the scores of two bands who didn't even compete on the same weekend. All of the bands that made Austin finals and then went to either Conroe or Bedford the next weekend increased their scores by 5-7 points. It's not a stretch to assume that the same would have occurred with CTJ, putting them at a theoretical 88-89 which would have beaten the woodlands 86.80.

Cedar park was lined up to enter warm up at Waco as the cancelation happened, booked it back to tmc asap.

I'm guessing 2014? (not a guess based on their performance just a shot in the dark)

They have compiled a list of all the bands that have made SA super finals in the last three years and are spreading attending bands from that list equally throughout the blocks so that something like that won't happen.

Cedar park is marching 130 winds

1-3 CTJ/Flomo/Reagan 4-6 Leander/vandy/Hebron 7-9 Vista/woodlands/CP 10-12 Marcus/keller/Bowie 13/14 cedar ridge/Hendrickson (Random order for each bracket)

Yeah the biggest issue with Hebron going first in 15 was that BA went last.

The new top half/bottom half schedule split for finals, well new as of 2016.

I'd imagine if judges really were skewing scores in their favor they wouldn't have been watching SA finals last year instead of participating in them. That's not to say that I don't believe that reputation plays a role for some bands though(a certain school from Illinois has proven to me that it sometimes does) I just don't think LD Bell is one of the groups benefiting from it.

With the rumored contingent of Texas bands going next year it definitely wouldn't be a shock to see one of them win. I don't want to downplay this season at all, but next year is gonna be a treat.

While nobody has been nearly as dominant as Marcus and bell were it is interesting to note that since the woodlands winning in 13 only two bands have won the San Antonio super. Which are CTJ and Flower Mound. They may not be trading spots 1 and 2 but they have been trading wins and I would not be surprised to see that continue this year.