2023 BOA Grand National Championships (Nov. 9-11)

[seafoodbuffet]

8 minutes ago, Dallas Hobbs said:

So, semis performance order is necessary class representatives -> next 8 -> top 22, all shuffled in random order? Interesting. 

I’m not 100% sure but I think it’s something like that. For each cohort, your semi finals draw determines your performance time within that group. Class reps, half of next 8, top 22, rest of the next 8. 

[TacosNSalsa]

Texas will have a strong showing - expect Hebron and Woodlands to be top 4. The Woodlands will compete for best effect and best visual, Hebron will compete for best music and best effect.

We’ll see Pearland top 8, with a tremendous possibility of top 5.

We’ll see Round Rock top 10, though I expect top 7.

We’ll see Keller and CTJ in finals, likely 7-11.

We’ll see Dripping and Bowie making a strong statement in semis, with an outstanding chance of making finals. 

Go Team Texas!!

 

 

[Rubisco]

10 minutes ago, TacosNSalsa said:

Texas will have a strong showing - expect Hebron and Woodlands to be top 4. The Woodlands will compete for best effect and best visual, Hebron will compete for best music and best effect.

We’ll see Pearland top 8, with a tremendous possibility of top 5.

We’ll see Round Rock top 10, though I expect top 7.

We’ll see Keller and CTJ in finals, likely 7-11.

We’ll see Dripping and Bowie making a strong statement in semis, with an outstanding chance of making finals. 

Go Team Texas!!

 

 

This is how I see it, too. It's going to be a great contest! Texas will be very well represented!

[Rubisco]

19 hours ago, packwick said:

that 19.55 avg i think is the highest vis perf average in BOA SA history, so maybe.

*Me diligently looking up the historical scores even though I've posted a list of all-time BOA San Antonio finals scores on this very forum* 😄

I think you might be right, at least for finals scores. I'm not sure for prelims. I think a 19.6 may be the highest score for visual effect too, although it's shared by a few others -- Reagan '22, '19, and '18 (sheesh!), Marcus '12, and TWHS '06.

Vandegrift tied Hebron's 19.7 (!) from last year for highest ever music score in BOA San Antonio finals. I thought they may have beaten Reagan's overall effect score from the previous record in 2019, too, but I was incorrect. 58.7 to 58.5. Vandegrift was just a bit stronger across the other captions to topple the record.

This probably belongs in the other thread. 😄

[BassDr.]

On 11/15/2022 at 11:54 PM, Txpharmguy said:

 

Round Rock is  going to Orlando Spring of 2023 and London summer of 2024. Don't think they're going to GN. If I recall, It cost close to 300K for a band to go

 

On 11/16/2022 at 7:52 AM, scoobydoo said:

Round Rock will be going to GN next year.

Round rock is confirmed for this year. They go every other year so they will not be attending next year.

[BassDr.]

My predictions. What's the word on Pearland?

1st. Hebron (music/GE) 

2nd. Carmel (visual) 

3rd. The Woodlands 

4th. Avon 

5th. Blue Springs 

6th. William Mason 

7th. Pearland 

8th. Brownsburg

9th. Round Rock 

10th. Keller

11th. CTJ

12th. Dripping Springs

[packwick]

even some of the bands like Bowie who maybe think they underperformed at SA could do better here than expected. BOA SA is reeeally not always that predictive of what happens at Nats even just a week later. Hendrickson last year for example, Marcus in 2021 and 2017 comes to mind too, so does Cedar Park back in 2016, heck their score shot up by like 7 points in a week. no i don't think anything that drastic is going to happen this year, but still. scores usually go up a little bit, sometimes they go down. contest dynamics and different judges blah blah blah.

[Vidal28]

7 hours ago, packwick said:

even some of the bands like Bowie who maybe think they underperformed at SA could do better here than expected. BOA SA is reeeally not always that predictive of what happens at Nats even just a week later. Hendrickson last year for example, Marcus in 2021 and 2017 comes to mind too, so does Cedar Park back in 2016, heck their score shot up by like 7 points in a week. no i don't think anything that drastic is going to happen this year, but still. scores usually go up a little bit, sometimes they go down. contest dynamics and different judges blah blah blah.

For this year, there are arguably two medal contenders in BA and Tarpon missing due to their attendance rotation, but then you replace them with 4 confident Texas locks in Hebron, TWHS, Pearland and Round Rock, plop in Blue Springs for DB, and then you have an increased scarcity and rigidity in the amount of openings for finals spots that there were last year with CTJ, Keller, Bentonville, Dripping Springs, and others out on that bubble. The new set of judges, and continued adjustments might allow Bowie to leapfrog a band they’ve scored lower than, but that might be too much to ask from them. There just isn’t as much availability as there was last year, where groups few expected to make it in did.

[LeanderMomma]

15 hours ago, BassDr. said:

On 11/16/2022 at 7:52 AM, scoobydoo said:

Round Rock will be going to GN next year.

Round rock is confirmed for this year. They go every other year so they will not be attending next year.

I think they posted this in 2022 so it’s actually accurate. 😉

[fuzzytaco90]

If anyone is interested, I combined every score/recap from this season into a sortable google sheet and did some crude analysis for Grand Nats predictions. Here's the link

Lemme know via DM what y'all think

[Tubalord11]

@packwick have any new/finals thoughts going into this weekend regarding our #TeamTexas schools? I would of course love for one of our Tx bands to take home the Eagle, but Carmel and Avon are looking strong as ever, not to mention Blue Springs. I feel comfortable saying Hebron will take music and visual probably Avon/Carmel/TW's, but GE seems to be what's really up in the air, thoughts? 

[cjm715]

I think the top 4 at this contest could go anyway and it would make sense.

Carmel and Avon have both been really quiet since ISSMA. Hebron usually has one last push before grand nationals on years they go, I think their performances in indy will be leagues above where they were at state. I think the woodlands has a shot at being our first texas band to win visual at grand nationals, that moment in the ballad where they’re doing the slow coupe steps is INSANELY hard. 

I leave for indy on thursday morning and I really can’t wait!!

[Hard Core Band Fan]

5 hours ago, Tubalord11 said:

@packwick have any new/finals thoughts going into this weekend regarding our #TeamTexas schools? I would of course love for one of our Tx bands to take home the Eagle, but Carmel and Avon are looking strong as ever, not to mention Blue Springs. I feel comfortable saying Hebron will take music and visual probably Avon/Carmel/TW's, but GE seems to be what's really up in the air, thoughts? 

I think Carmel is going to be very hard to beat this year. I don't like saying that because I don't really like their show or rarely ever do, but I think they are going to make it very difficult to beat them.

[Hard Core Band Fan]

5 hours ago, fuzzytaco90 said:

If anyone is interested, I combined every score/recap from this season into a sortable google sheet and did some crude analysis for Grand Nats predictions. Here's the link

Lemme know via DM what y'all think

Well put together and obviously a lot of work, but the only performances that are going to matter will be the ones this week and the only scores are the ones given this week as well. I used to spend a lot of time doing just what you are doing, but learned that previous scores and results just really don't tell you a lot about what's going to happen this week. It is, however, a lot of fun to speculate. Nothing wrong with that!

[packwick]

8 hours ago, Tubalord11 said:

@packwick have any new/finals thoughts going into this weekend regarding our #TeamTexas schools? I would of course love for one of our Tx bands to take home the Eagle, but Carmel and Avon are looking strong as ever, not to mention Blue Springs. I feel comfortable saying Hebron will take music and visual probably Avon/Carmel/TW's, but GE seems to be what's really up in the air, thoughts? 

i think some of the bottom half TX finalists may be a bit vulnerable in visual and GE to Brownsburg, Bentonville, and maaaaaybe Fishers if theyre a lot cleaner than the last time i saw them lol. Fishers is reeeally the one i enjoy the most and am rooting for lol. usually i give the edge to TX bubbles bc of music but im not 100% convinced it'll carry some of them this yr.

my top 3 circa Sept 15th was carmel, hebron, and twhs, my first place around uil region was twhs. avon has been beating carmel in the somewhat similar issma circuit so they may be more in the running than my 1st impression of the show indicated, really didn't think the design was there relative to carmel but clearly there are ppl who disagree w/ me lol. avon's show IS a helluva lot more audience friendly than carmel's at least lol. but then carmel is just soooo elegant and expressive musically and visually, the attention to phrasing is unparalleled and so difficult to pull off as well as they do. but !! the show is also kind of boring and thematically not the most well communicated. also wasn't as visually clean at Indy as i was expecting but that's prob fixed now.

that's where my prediction for twhs came in bc i think they're visually immaculate this yr and the show is both elegant and high energy/entertaining, also the theme is friggin obvious lol. buuuut i don't think having uil before BOA did them any favors bc it exposed some music weaknesses, at least based on how uil evaluates it. that's where Hebron comes back in bc i know they're a strong shot for 1st in music perf and that could also bleed into music GE, which is what will prob determine who wins. maybe??? i think hebron's show last yr had a lot more personality than this yr's show and was visually a little more on point but some of those weaknesses may be exaggerated. for example they got a box 5 score from Tim Pierce in both ens vis and vis ge at their 1st BOA event, tho the other judges for those captions weren't on the same page. but u see there's a possibility there. and w/ music counting for more of the score it might not matter anyway.

blue springssss... the show just didn't really hold me, but it is an interesting one w/ a fresh theme and was scored higher than i would have scored it at St Louis lol. possibly a party crasher along w/ Mason whose show is very pretty but very familiar.

but what about Pearland... hmmm...

[lost]

Nervous for CTJ.

[BassDr.]

4 hours ago, lost said:

Nervous for CTJ.

Yeah me too. How come they are placing lower this year?

[BandFan59]

30 minutes ago, BassDr. said:

Yeah me too. How come they are placing lower this year?

Jarrett Lipman, their longtime head director, left the school after last year. Though schools like Vandegrift and the Woodlands have been able to weather head director changes very well, the first few years after a change are always difficult, especially for a school moving on from someone as influential as Lipman has been.

[packwick]

5 hours ago, BassDr. said:

Yeah me too. How come they are placing lower this year?

mainly visual. i thought they were kinda underscored musically at SA. they sounded box 5 to me but only Jay Kennedy had them there if im remembering it right, in music effect. i would have had them higher in music than several of the other bands in the bottom half.

[Band_dad_of_2]

Well, well, well ….look who I passed on my way to work today!!

#teamtexas

[Rubisco]

Tomorrow is the day. Safe travels to all of the bands attending Nationals this year! And good luck! It'll be a blast. We'll be cheering for you back home. ❤️

[packwick]

is anybody recording this?? miiight be able to get a live high cam but will prob need a finals multi. still need to trim all the BOASA finals multi cams. kinda debating going back and adding all the hi cams i have over the years to the drive but would be time consuming to rip all the DVDs again and would have to pay to add more space lol. ill get around to it eventually.

[Hard Core Band Fan]

57 minutes ago, packwick said:

is anybody recording this?? miiight be able to get a live high cam but will prob need a finals multi. still need to trim all the BOASA finals multi cams. kinda debating going back and adding all the hi cams i have over the years to the drive but would be time consuming to rip all the DVDs again and would have to pay to add more space lol. ill get around to it eventually.

Well, that's assuming that Box5 doesn't take a crap like last year. Trying to be optimistic, but... I am going to try to get the multi-cams of the finals.

[Hack]

We just got in last night. First ever Grand Nationals. Exciting to see so many TX bands picked high in your predictions. Proud Pearland parent of a freshman here. We will be at Lucas Oil shortly after lunch today. 

[Tubalord11]

1 hour ago, Hack said:

We just got in last night. First ever Grand Nationals. Exciting to see so many TX bands picked high in your predictions. Proud Pearland parent of a freshman here. We will be at Lucas Oil shortly after lunch today. 

Best of luck to your kid, can’t wait to see them perform over the weekend!