2023 WGI: The Slay All Day Thread

[WoodlandsMom4ever]

They are rebroadcasting it on flo on Sunday as well in its entirety with sound!  

[LeanderMomma]

14 hours ago, Bandmomx4 said:

They are rebroadcasting it on flo on Sunday as well in its entirety with sound!  

And finals will be rebroadcast on Monday!  😍

[Rubisco]

Caught some of the SO groups and now backtracking for A. I thought Bellbrook was on a different level. Gorgeous show. Yeah, we've seen Pride of Cincinnati do a very similar show years ago, but when a show is that nice to look at and that well-performed, who cares.

[Rubisco]

I'll always love Centerville and their weird, wacky shows, like the Klaus Nomi show from last year. This year is The Red Right Hand. Some sort of Biblical reference to Satan, probably. Also, I didn't think I'd be hearing heavy metal today. 😂

Milford was another standout. Absolutely lovely, with the pop of orange color from all the autumn leaves on the black and white floor. I love how they lift up the floor to give those branches more of a jagged texture.

[Hard Core Band Fan]

23 minutes ago, Rubisco said:

I'll always love Centerville and their weird, wacky shows, like the Klaus Nomi show from last year. This year is The Red Right Hand. Some sort of Biblical reference to Satan, probably. Also, I didn't think I'd be hearing heavy metal today. 😂

 

Or the IRA?

[Rubisco]

22 minutes ago, Hard Core Band Fan said:

Or the IRA?

Maybe. But it seemed like they were going for fire and brimstone with the narration. I'm thinking "vengeful hand of god" based on my internet search just now. 😂

I think the judges nailed the order of the top 5 in Scholastic Open based on what I watched. Bellbrook, Milford, Centerville, Franklin Central, then Northmont. Not sure how I would have ranked the others.

[jmartin1056]

That Avon show was PHENOMENAL. That may be the most ambitious design for Scholastic World since Tarpon 2016. If they can clean that up I see another gold medal in their future.

[Rubisco]

I'm not going to lie, I'm a little underwhelmed so far by this batch of SW shows. I think everyone was stronger last year, besides maybe Warren Central. Props to Fishers and Warren Central for having brighter, more colorful floor designs. Everything is so DULL this year!

I think Carmel should take this. I give them major props for not going full-on cloying with Stand By Me. In fact the entire thing was very cool and fun and loungy. Love the piano and how it gets moved around, plus the piano benches. The performance was not as polished as I was expecting, but they were still quite strong.

Avon's show is very cool. I love how the performer slides down the pole in the beginning. How cool is that! The music is a mix of ballads and more punchy Bond stuff. I like the variety, but it didn't always fully cohere. It seemed a liiiittle chaotic.

[Rubisco]

Wow, that's close. 78.1 for Carmel, 78.0 for Avon. Miamisburg with a 75.9. The others around a 70. Center Grove's placement seems a liiiiittle generous to me based on what I saw. Cool chiascuro concept, but the execution...

Scoring is definitely trending lower at the moment.

[jmartin1056]

I’m still in the Avon camp, but Carmel definitely has the more cohesive design. Kinda underwhelmed with Pride. Onyx had my favorite design of the day. I’d say that was the most enjoyable show they’ve had in years.

[Rubisco]

I liked Onyx. It seems like a combo of their more serious and lighthearted/comical shows. The soundtrack is very cinematic, very contoured. But it's also all very familiar looking, like usual.

Pride of Cincinnati takes too long to build, to develop, but when it does it's fantastic. The performers are clearly top-notch. I loved that final flag toss where they don't even bother trying to catch it with their hands and just stomp it down with their foot. I thought it was cool and different.

If the local early scores are any indication, it'll probably be Paramount on top this year. They cracked an 80 like 3 weeks ago, and it was a panel full of active WGI judges.

[Origin]

I always really like Onyx, especially their staging and movement. It definitely reminded me of the 2019 show but more like it was a continuation of last year.
 
Avon’s show actually felt a bit more ambitious to me compared to last year. More weapon work I think. I’m not the biggest fan of the popular music medley though. 

Carmel was great but I was waiting for the show to peak or conclude in a more satisfying way.

[Rubisco]

17 hours ago, Origin said:

I always really like Onyx, especially their staging and movement. It definitely reminded me of the 2019 show but more like it was a continuation of last year.
 
Avon’s show actually felt a bit more ambitious to me compared to last year. More weapon work I think. I’m not the biggest fan of the popular music medley though. 

Carmel was great but I was waiting for the show to peak or conclude in a more satisfying way.

Avon's is definitely more ambitious and maybe has a higher ceiling, but it's not as polished performance-wise compared to last year -- at least it wasn't in prelims. As far as the music goes, I think the random pop jam out section is probably what really throws me off. The later stuff doesn't seem to fit as well with the earlier stuff, like we've totally changed the radio channel or something.

Carmel's show definitely feels more stripped down, which I think makes it a little less emotionally satisfying. It could use more of an emotional climax. Overall it's very cool, but maybe too chill. That's probably the point though.

[jmartin1056]

I think Avon was more emotionally engaging today, but dirtier in terms of equipment work. They definitely have a very high ceiling. It’s a high risk vs. high reward battle for them this year. Should be interesting if they can get the consistency there to take it all the way. Carmel has such a good use of their props. It’s so hard to say who will take the gold this year. I’m excited to see what TWHS and Tarpon have in store for us.

[Rubisco]

I thought Carmel had a much rougher run than prelims just now. Avon seemed to give a little bit of a stronger one, but I'm still not sold on the show. There's just not a whole lot that's interesting staging-wise.

My gut is saying TWHS versus Tarpon this year, although I haven't seen Tarpon. I like the incomplete TWHS show I saw a couple weeks ago more than what I saw just now from Avon and Carmel. It's just more interesting and emotionally engaging. Whether they're able to clean it to the level of a gold medal remains to be seen.

[jmartin1056]

13 minutes ago, Rubisco said:

I thought Carmel had a much rougher run than prelims just now. Avon seemed to give a little bit of a stronger one, but I'm still not sold on the show. There's just not a whole lot that's interesting staging-wise.

My gut is saying TWHS versus Tarpon this year, although I haven't seen Tarpon. I like the incomplete TWHS show I saw a couple weeks ago more than what I saw just now from Avon and Carmel. It's just more interesting and emotionally engaging. Whether they're able to clean it to the level of a gold medal remains to be seen.

I know back at the end of January Tarpon was sitting around a 72.5, but it’s hard to say where they’d fit in with all the other groups. Won’t really get a clear picture on them for another 2 or 3 weeks. Certainly excited to see The Woodlands next weekend to gauge how the WGI judges feel about them. If it’s anything like their show last year, I’m sure it’ll be a crowd pleaser.

[Origin]

Surprised to see Carmel widen the gap over Avon with that performance. Both shows grew on me though, as well as Fishers (love their costumes).

[Rubisco]

52 minutes ago, Origin said:

Surprised to see Carmel widen the gap over Avon with that performance. Both shows grew on me though, as well as Fishers (love their costumes).

I'm a little surprised, too, but the recap overall looks okay. Avon was 1st in the excellence subcaptions of both equipment and movement. Where they really fell behind were the upstairs captions. Carmel's show definitely has the more compelling staging, so that makes sense to me.

Carmel with an 80. I wouldn't have had it quite that high, honestly. Actually, only 2 of the 5 judges had them hitting 80.

I hope all the SW shows grow on me a bit. At this rate the scores will be even lower than last year at finals.

[jmartin1056]

It almost seems like the world groups are starting to try and reinvent the wheel in terms of difficulty, but as a result I don’t think we’ll ever see a performance that is clean like those of the 2012-2015 era. Last year at finals, outside of maybe 2 of the top 8,  the scholastic and independent world groups had pretty major and consistent drops in their runs. Today Pride was cleaner than they were yesterday, but still had quite a few mistakes. I wonder if the attempts of difficulty are the cause of the drop in overall scores.

[Rubisco]

I think guards at the top have always tried to push the limits, but it's definitely more encouraged now that we have a "Box 6" on the world sheets. Literally the highest achievement is "setting new standards." So that's what they're chasing now. But it does sometimes seem like we're entering figure skating territory, where the girls will load up their programs with quads or whatever and then fall on half of them and still somehow win. I always want to remind the guards that having the actual fundamental training to pull off the skills is a component of vocabulary scoring, even if sometimes the scores don't seem to reflect that.

[packwick]

On 2/12/2023 at 3:09 PM, Rubisco said:

My gut is saying TWHS versus Tarpon this year, although I haven't seen Tarpon.

lol so between a show you've never seen and one you've seen 3 minutes of.

granted nothing has really screamed gold yet, i'll give u that. it was pretty obvious Avon was going to win last year by this time in the season.

i thought Bellbrook was great too. but the finals performance wasnt as pristine.

[Rubisco]

4 hours ago, packwick said:

lol so between a show you've never seen and one you've seen 3 minutes of.

granted nothing has really screamed gold yet, i'll give u that. it was pretty obvious Avon was going to win last year by this time in the season.

i thought Bellbrook was great too. but the finals performance wasnt as pristine.

My spidey-sense is tingling! Don't judge! I'm sure I'll be spectacularly wrong! 😅

Nice of you to drop in.

This Saturday is a big day for Texas guards. Two (!) WGI contests, one in Dallas, one in Houston, plus a TCGC central Texas contest at Hays that features pretty much all the other top groups that aren't going to WGI this weekend. Houston will be streamed on Flo. I may have actually preferred Dallas, just because the lineup seems a little stronger top to bottom, but beggars can't be choosers. The A class at Houston should be very strong and competitive. Round 1 with The Woodlands JV; Round 2 with Friendswood, Seven Lakes, and Grand Oaks; and Round 3 with Clear Brook and Pearland.

[LeanderMomma]

Here’s your WGI Houston schedule for this Saturday. 

Scholastic Regional A:

9:00 AM - Katy H.S. JV, TX
9:07 AM - Deer Park H.S., TX
9:14 AM - Foster H.S. JV, TX
9:21 AM - Heights H.S., TX
9:28 AM - Thomas Randle H.S., TX
9:35 AM - Waller H.S., TX
9:42 AM - George Bush H.S., TX

Scholastic A:

10:00 AM - C.E. King H.S., TX
10:08 AM - George Ranch H.S., TX
10:16 AM - Round Rock H.S., TX
10:24 AM - Magnolia West H.S., TX
10:32 AM - John B. Connally H.S., TX
10:40 AM - The Woodlands H.S., TX
10:48 AM - Georgetown H.S., TX
10:56 AM - Memorial (Houston) H.S., TX
11:04 AM - Cedar Park H.S., TX
11:12 AM - Klein Cain H.S., TX

11:35 AM - Lamar Consolidated H.S., TX
11:43 AM - Fulshear H.S., TX
11:51 AM - Seven Lakes H.S., TX
11:59 AM - Deer Park H.S., TX
12:07 PM - Clements H.S., TX
12:15 PM - Westlake H.S., LA
12:23 PM - Clear Creek H.S., TX
12:31 PM - Grand Oaks H.S., TX
12:39 PM - A&M Consolidated H.S., TX
12:47 PM - Foster H.S., TX
12:55 PM - Friendswood H.S., TX

1:45 PM - Katy H.S. Varsity, TX
1:53 PM - Bryan H.S. Varsity, TX
2:01 PM - Georgetown H.S. JV, TX
2:09 PM - Jordan H.S., TX
2:17 PM - Lake Travis H.S., TX
2:25 PM - Shadow Creek H.S., TX
2:33 PM - Clear Brook H.S., TX
2:41 PM - Pearland H.S., TX
2:49 PM - New Braunfels H.S., TX
2:57 PM - Smithson Valley H.S., TX

Independent A:

3:05 PM - Tarleton State University Purple Pride
3:13 PM - Sam Houston State

Scholastic Open:

3:40 PM - Dawson H.S., TX
3:49 PM - Cy-Fair H.S., TX
3:58 PM - College Park H.S., TX
4:07 PM - Earl Warren H.S., TX

Independent Open:

4:16 PM - Undaunted
4:25 PM - Redemption Guard

Scholastic World:

4:37 PM - The Woodlands H.S., TX

Independent World:

4:47 PM - Third Coast Independent
4:57 PM - Lake Charles Independent

[LeanderMomma]

16 hours ago, Rubisco said:

Houston will be streamed on Flo. I may have actually preferred Dallas, just because the lineup seems a little stronger top to bottom, but beggars can't be choosers.

I know I’ve said it before but I don’t understand the lack of live streaming options available this season!

[Rubisco]

Tarpon posted a great, albeit heavily edited video on their Insta showing clips from their world show, The Origin of Cool. Lookin' very clean and snappy! The soundtrack is a fun mix of Take Five and a voiceover talking about the origins of cool, sounds like Wayne Harris maybe. The floor looks totally black right now with black platforms that are moved around. Flags are colorful. A handful of band musicians are scattered across the floor performing live music. Cool! Definitely adds some personality. It reminds me of their New York show from several years ago, but maybe more stripped down in terms of set design. Overall, the video has a very chill, jazz lounge feeling, maybe a little like Carmel. We'll have to wait and see.