natertater21000

The biggest instance of this I can think of is Reagan at the SA super in 2017. 8th in prelims and then 5th in finals. In retrospect that one feels more like a corrected error from prelims but it's possible that they had an uncharacteristically bad run. I feel that results have been more consistent overall since the change but the score gap between 7 and 6 or 8 and 7 is an unfortunate by-product.

Definitely saw the placement coming when watching live. I’m sure they’ll bounce back. It’s the nature of the activity for programs to ebb and flow over the years through staff change and new identities. I know the staff and the students will work to refine the show to the absolute best of their ability. that being said I’m not a huge fan of the design itself personally.

Primacy of number by Phillip glass, love that piece.

I would not be surprised to see CP win visual in finals. The choreography is top notch.

Darn! Only one off, very much deserved by lake Travis I flip flopped between them and dripping springs a lot. Very interested to see where CP lands within the 4A placements after finals. I definitely thought this was the most coherent RR show in the last 4/5 years, good to see them having some success again.

I will say that I don’t think cedar ridge passing vandy is impossible based on what I saw and heard today.

Imo yes, performance quality is good but I’m just not getting much from the show itself.

My personal top 12 after watching everyone from just below the press box today.VandegriftCedar ridge Cedar ParkVista RidgeWestlakeRouseHendrickson BowieRound RockLeanderWestwoodDripping Springs

WOW cedar ridge, incredible buy in from every single performer on the field. They’re the front runner currently imo.

It’s BLASPHEMY

Something about Leander isn’t quite clicking for me just yet. Maybe it’s the overall pacing? I still think they’ll be in finals somewhere in the 7-10 range. When I first saw an early season video I said that I thought it would be a late bloomer and I still think that will be the case.

That is probably my favorite Westlake show in a decade. The drill design is SO good and they had the second biggest impact of the day at least to my ears. Incredible clarinet soloist and I love the opening narration. I really hope they change the city to wherever the contest is. I think they could place top 5 tonight.

I'm sure most of us frequent both forums but for those that do not, these are my thoughts copy pasted from hornrank forums. So far I've only been able to watch videos due to not living in the area anymore so these are based on what I've seen and my knowledge of the programs.1. Vandegrift: No surprise here, they are MASSIVE and are already producing good tones on the full ensemble moments. There is some challenging staging going on in the show that is causing some phasing but I imagine they'll have the worst of it under control enough by Austin to grab another title. Sidenote: I've been waiting and waiting for Vandegrift to use some less traditional repertoire and the Tron opening is just the sort of thing I was looking for.2. Cedar Park: I really think this is going to be one for the history books for CP. They are producing the biggest ensemble sound I've heard from them since 2014/16 and I'm a sucker for a simple but well integrated visual idea. The symmetry in both the drill and the body work is very well done from what I have seen so far. The brass has once again stepped up their content to be more in line with the technical features that are expected from the top competitors at this point. 3. Cedar Ridge: The sound they are able to produce with an ensemble their size is VERY impressive. I could easily see them getting second solely based on the quality of performance from player to player. I like the integration of the guard within the drill in the opener and the flag work does a lot to add to the energy of the music. The opener is Shostakovich 10 on a marching field for the 387,000th time but they play it very well so I don't mind too much. 4. Vista Ridge: I'd love to gush about Vista like the other groups but sadly I haven't been able to see any footage of them. I've heard the show is as ambitious as we have come to expect from them so I could see them placing anywhere from 2nd-5th depending on how clean it is come Austin.5. Rouse: I Haven't seen any footage of Rouse either this season so i'm pretty much basing this placement solely off of last year's success. I'm hoping to see a more ambitious show from them this year.6. Westlake: Wow! They are quite clean given how early it is. Full ensemble moments are hitting nicely, and I love the clarinet soloist in the opener. This could be the start of a new standard for Westlake.7: Leander: I've only been able to see one video of them that had audio and it was very early. I'm not sure I'm completely sold on the concept of the show so far. The pacing feels a bit off and the lack of any guard work until recently is a tad concerning. They're still making good sounds and visual design seems to have stayed the same as well. I have a feeling this show might be a late bloomer similar to last year. 8. James Bowie: I like the visual design of having the pit moved off the front sideline and into the field. I like the drill but I do feel that the spheres could be integrated into the forms a bit more. The video I saw was very early season so I expect a lot of the stick outs to be more in control by Austin.9. Round Rock: I'm still not a fan of the overall visual design that RR has right now but I do think that the drill works better than their last couple shows. I also think that this is the best RR has sounded at this point in the season in a few years so that may help make up for some GE troubles.10. Hendrickson: Lot's of cool ideas in this train show. I really like the opening set and the guard work looks very tough. This is definitely a grand nats show, lots of moving parts. They'll have to get some of the rough edges under control to get back into finals but I see them pulling it off. Hoping for a great return to form from them.11/12:I expect Weiss and Lake Travis to take the final two spots in finals but I have yet to see their shows.I'm very excited to get to see this contest live this year, I expect my perceived rankings to change quite a bit after pre lims.

I doubt the mirrors will give them too much trouble. While CP has had some difficulty in ensemble visual, their individual visual scores are consistently their highest placing caption.

Sad to see that this feature no longer works, or at least it doesn't for me.

I can only hear what the box5 mics are picking up, but it sounds like FloMo was able to fix a majority of the ensemble tuning issues they were having. That performance felt just the slightest bit unstable from a timing standpoint but I have no doubt that that was the weakest performance we will see from them this weekend. What a stellar show. Also that field exit announcement script is EVERYTHING. First time hearing it and I love it so much.

Seconded, I've yet to see the show since area. Always had something going on during their time 😒

Here is what the scores for finals would have looked like if you did the math using the raw content and achievement score totals. 1.Hebron-98.4 2.Vandegrift-97.1 3.Marcus-96.5 4.Flower Mound-96.0 5.Reagan-95.3 6.Coppell-94.7 7.CTJ-94.4 8.Cedar Ridge-93.3 9.Keller-93.1 10.Westlake-93.0 11.Vista Ridge-92.5 12.Carroll-91.7 Interesting to see that both Reagan and CTJ would've each moved up one spot, I expected it to stay exactly the same.

One thing I absolutely loved while watching this contest was just how competitive the three 3A LISD bands were. By the end of the season they were all pretty much equal in my eyes. Each with their own unique and equally valid strengths. I loved all three shows and really enjoyed watching them push each other throughout the season. I really hope this trend continues into the future. Leander may pull slightly ahead once their numbers come back up to 2019 levels, but both CP and especially Rouse could grow as well. It's so fantastic to see 5 LISD bands in finals, it's honestly a dream come true for me. Having 4 LISD bands in finals for my senior year was a treat but this is just a whole other level of awesome.

First time seeing John B Alexander. I had no idea how many similarities there were between them and Vista. You'd think that choosing a show about Aliens with Katy Perry would pretty much guarantee that it's one of a kind for that season but not this time.

Copy and pasted from my post on HornRank for those that don't frequent both forums. It's crazy that we are only 2 days away (technically less than that!) from this contest. Here are my current thoughts for finalists. 1. Vandegrift 2. Vista Ridge 3. Hebron 4. The Woodlands 5. CTJ 6. Reagan 7. Cedar Park 8. Marcus 9. Cedar Ridge 10. Rouse 11. Leander 12. Keller 13. Coppel 14. James Bowie In my mind only that 14th spot is truly up for grabs. Everyone else I see as pretty solidly in finals. Other bands that could easily grab that last finals spot are Round Rock, Prosper, Cypress Woods, Westlake, Pearland, Seven Lakes, and Westwood.

I also just realised that these scores actually would make sense as a continuation of what we saw in Waco on Saturday. Obviously you can't quite compare the two in a 1-1 format, but this does bode well for all three bands making SA finals this coming weekend.

If you were to add up the raw scores from each judge, divide by 7 for an average, and then divide by 10 for an out of 100 score( similar to BOA or DCI) you would get: CP-94.8 Rouse-93.5 Leander-93.0 I didn't have time to do the remainder of the top 12 but I would imagine it would stay mostly the same.

I feel like the new judging format had a pretty good first outing. Despite there still being the traditional UIL judge who doesn't seem to be judging the same contest as everyone else, the outlier scores didn't have nearly as much of an effect on placements as other years.

The level of cleaning they are accomplishing is truly impressive. I like the show more every single time I see it.