OCPantherSnare

To reply to both you: I understand what you all are saying. I guess what I'm getting at is not so much a "regional bias" sort of thing but rather a trend in judges preferences. Firstly, let me mention that six those seven bands that placed at the bottom are from the Rio Grande Valley and the other one is from Laredo. It was mentioned in the liveblog that these bands from South Texas added a "Spanish flair" to the contest. I think it's possible that judges do not particularly favor this style of show, leading them to be placed at the bottom. Really, there are plenty of other reasons as to why these bands placed the way they did, and I won't delve into them because I'd probably sound a little coarse. Regardless, suggesting that the judges are biased against bands from a certain area simply because they are from that area (and I mean geographical area, not UIL area) was pretty silly of me. The why or how of this situation is dependent on many things, but I guess I just found it very interesting that the placements did fall that way because I think it's pretty unheard of for this to occur.

Did anyone notice the very low placement of Area G bands? 7 of the 8 bands advancing from Area G were the bottom seven bands at state. Yes, I understand that the exception was my school, O'Connor. I am reluctant to bring up this topic simply because of the school I go to and the band program am I affiliated with. Please understand I am in no way trying to boast of my school's placement or anything of that nature. Rather, I'm trying to pose a question: was there a sort of regional bias in the judging? I understand that Area G is not very closely followed on this site and it's for a good reason: it hasn't produced a state finals caliber band in decades. Area G bands typically place around the bottom at state anyways. But I think having them all place at the bottom is unusual. Especially after reading the reviews on the liveblog about there truly not being a "hierarchy of areas," I think the results clearly show that that is in fact not the case.

Exactly, I was going to mention that as well. I thought BOA had a system in place where the scores are supposed to be somewhat "absolute," so a 75 at say, BOA Denton, is really the equivalent of a 75 anywhere else, whether it be Conroe or St. Louis or San Antonio or Indy. I even watched Anderson's performance, and I thought it was great. Who knows what the judges saw/heard/thought that constituted a score drop of five and a half points.

I'm sorry, but I'm missing the point on how adding another regional in Texas will somehow alleviate the mass number of bands from the San Antonio super regional. Would that many bands really opt out of playing in the Alamodome at the end of the season to instead go to a smaller venue around mid-season? I'd imagine most groups interested in a Cen-Tex regional would want to go to both that and the San Antonio super regional anyways! Unless they started putting a cap on the number of bands that can go to BOA San Antonio, forcing those who don't register early enough to simply not be able to go and instead go to a different BOA competition if they so choose to do so, then this would make sense. But that seems kind of harsh to me...

Yeah, but if I were a member of the Anderson band, I'd be scratching my head. I thought that after making 5th at BOA St. Louis, surely they'd be closer to making finals at San Antonio, even with a more competitive group of bands in SA and other variables at play (different judges, could have had an off run, etc.) I guess that shows that sometimes you really cannot base future results on past results.

I think Cedar Park and Johnson are the clear contenders for first place in the standstill competition. I'd also expect Lake Travis Pflugerville to place very highly. As far as the marching division, I think Marcus will dominate (as usual lol) with Flower Mound and Colleyville Heritage placing highly. My school will be represented at PASIC, but we aren't competing as a full drumline. Instead, we are doing a snare ensemble and we have a couple of soloists playing as well. This will be my third PASIC, and I'm super excited to spend a day in "drum-Mecca" once again!

Here's the links for the full results for those interested in the caption rankings as well: Prelims Finals Scores were definitely all over the place during prelims... But I guess that's to be expected when you have 42 bands competing over a span of 11 hours! I was really rooting for the two other NISD bands that made finals (Taft and Clark) and it's just a shame that they didn't advance to state.

Judging off of the results of drumline contests so far this year (Dripping Springs, Plano East), who's won percussion caption awards at competitions this year, as well as past results, I'd say that Cedar Park, Johnson, Marcus, Flower Mound, Round Rock, and Richland have the top drumlines/front ensembles. Not to say that there are no other bands that have a strong percussion section, but these are just the ones I'm familiar with.

Hmm well I guess I should have clarified that the scores between the two seem to not match up this year. The scores between Westlake and UIL are usually very consistent with each other, like you have shown, but this year they just don't match up.

Well, not ALL the bands from San Antonio made the finals. Madison, MacArthur, Lee, Wagner, and East Central are all from San Antonio, and there are a few more from the greater San Antonio area, and they did not make finals. Reagan and Churchill are fantastic bands who have a long legacy of excellence, and Johnson is definitely following in their stead and is likely to build a legacy in the coming years that is just as storied as the other two NEISD powerhouses. Those three bands are definitely finals quality. Now, as far as Judson, their inclusion in finals was a bit of a surprise for me. I haven't ever seen them live or in person, but going off past year's results, I didn't expect them to make finals. However, they could have really stepped up their game from previous years. Anyways, I'm pretty sure that this wasn't a "conflict of interest" sort of thing. I really think this just showcases the disparity in judging between the Westlake Marching Festival and UIL.

Here's the direct links to the results: Prelims Finals It's pretty insane how close it was between Johnson, Reagan, and Westlake in finals. Same thing with Hendrickson and Westwood. I think that's just the result of having so many high quality bands in this area. Man, it's just a shame about Round Rock, and Anderson too. I thought they, RR in particular, were total locks for finals and state. I have a feeling they'll place ahead of a lot of bands at BOA SA though, especially after Anderson's success at the BOA St. Louis Super Regional.

Gah, I can't believe they're only taking six bands...wasn't this the same situation in 2010, 34 bands at area so only six advance to state? What a shame, there's so many great bands at this competition and there are definitely more than six that deserve to advance... Anyways, I think that Johnson, Bowie, Round Rock, Reagan, and even Westlake are all pretty solid for advancing. I don't know if Cedar Ridge, Anderson, or Churchill will claim the last spot.

I really wouldn't consider Marshall and Warren potential finalists, there's just too many bands that are better than them at Area this year, IMO. I can see from your username that you go to Taft Best of luck in Laredo next week, I hope both our programs can represent NISD well!

Well that is very interesting and pretty unprecedented. I wonder if Area G will have two judging panels as well...I understand that the overall caliber of Area G bands is lower than Area D bands, theoretically making it easier to pick out the finalist bands, but there are a record 42 bands competing at Area G. Although I'm sure UIL would be hard pressed to find a solid group of judges, for reasons that have already been listed by another person. I just see this becoming an "us too" kind of thing.

An "area" is made up of multiple "regions". Most areas are made up of four regions, but one area has five regions and one area has three regions. So the Area Competitions are comprised of bands from multiple regions. Bands competing at the Area Competitions do compete with bands from their own region (if those bands have advanced to the area round) but not exclusively with bands from their own region, as bands from other regions are present at the Area Competition. Also the following link has some handy maps and breakdowns of which regions go to which areas: Region Alignment I hope that cleared some things up

I really appreciated the joke on the live feed about Area G having about 200 bands advancing. Although it is just a bit of an exaggeration, it's not far from the truth in the sense that we do send way more bands to area, and thus, state, than anyone else. It'll be interesting to see if all the bands that received 1's will decide to compete at area.

Haha, well there has to be a finals to somehow cut down the mass swaths of bands into a more reasonable number. Although, with Area G still growing and so many bands advancing on to the area competition, they should think about taking more bands from prelims to finals. Plus, I can't imagine how disappointing it be to be one of the two or three bands that makes it into finals but doesn't advance to state... Before the marching season even started, there was talk of splitting up the area into two "zones" that would each hold separate area contests and send three or four bands to state each. From my understanding, the politics of it all is what made the idea fizzle out.

Well, there was less than a point spread between the two bands at BOA Denton, so I think it's fairly realistic that Johnson could cover that ground. After all, they were Grand National finalists last year at their first time going up to Indy, so they are definitely a high-caliber group. But so is the Bowie band, they are literally one of the top 5 groups in the state. Anyways, I'm speaking purely from speculation as I haven't seen either band's show as well. I'm also just a bit biased towards Johnson, I've really fallen in love with their program since seeing them at state in 2010 I guess I was just saying it is possible for Johnson to come out ahead of Bowie, but it's fairly unlikely. However, I'd definitely be watching for Johnson to make state finals this year.

I think so. I know this isn't a true UIL competition, but I really feel that Johnson has become the next big thing in Texas Marching bands. I wouldn't be surprised if they made State Finals or even come out ahead Bowie at Area (although this is less likely), they're seriously that good.

Looks like Area D is going to be just as stacked as usual! But like someone has already said, I'm pretty sure they'll take 7 bands, not 6, out of Area D because there were 34 bands at the area competition in 2010, and there's a few schools that have moved up to 5A and will advance to area without a doubt (Lake Travis, Hendrickson, Cedar Ridge). As for my Area D picks: Locks for State: Bowie Johnson Round Rock Reagan (all of which will either make state finals or get very close to the top ten at state, IMO) Likely to go to State: Cedar Ridge Churchill Anderson Westlake Darkhorses for State, likely to make Area Finals: Hendrickson Pflugerville Lake Travis McNeil So that's my breakdown for Area D. For my own area, Area G, I think it's the usual suspects. Likely state advancers are Harlingen, Hanna, Donna, Lopez, and O'Connor. There will be a ton of bands fighting for the last two spots though, and I really can't predict who is mostly likely to make it.

This post just about sums BOA SA for me: too many good bands for too few finals spots. You listed a total of 29 bands that are all solid or potential finalists (which I'm quite honored to have my own school listed!) and I'm sure there's even a few more that could be considered bubble bands. When a competition has more than twice as many potential finalists as finals spots, you know it's stacked. I don't see how the judges will be able to narrow it down to just 14.

Yes, exactly. And that "other band" you speak of was New Braunfels. A very good call by the Westlake folks, indeed, to let both NB and LT perform in finals. Plus, I got to see a friend of mine on the New Braunfels drumline because of that.

A whole lot, as usual! Just by doing a quick scan of their videos, I counted roughly 40-45 guard members on the field.

Very true. After watching that video of Anderson, I think it's very evident that they're only stepping up their game from previous years, which have been quite successful for them. But at the same time, I'm sure Round Rock is doing the same thing. It might be possible for Anderson to take first, but I still think it's unlikely. At the very least, the gap between the two will more than likely be less than it has been in the past!