GEM's Crystal Ball: 2022 DCI Finals Predictions
It's the Final Countdown!
It’s the first DCI World Championship Finals Week since 2019 and GEM writers and contributors were asked to give their final rankings of the top 15 competing corps, regardless of class, based on where they predicted the corps would end up Saturday night, August 13, 2022.
Voters also picked which corps they thought would win each of the five caption performance awards.
1. Blue Devils (85% first-place votes; 268 total points)
Previous Ranking: 1 ↔
2. Boston Crusaders (15% first-place votes; 249 total points)
Previous Ranking: 2 ↔
3. Bluecoats (229 total points)
Previous Ranking: 3 ↔
4. Carolina Crown (226 total points)
Previous Ranking: 4 ↔
5. Santa Clara Vanguard (197 total points)
Previous Ranking: 5 ↔
6. The Cadets (162 total points)
Previous Ranking: 6 ↔
7. Blue Stars (162 total points)
Previous Ranking: 7 ↔
8. The Cavaliers (140 total points)
Previous Ranking: 9 ↑
9. Mandarins (125 total points)
Previous Ranking: 8 ↓
10. Phantom Regiment (114 total points)
Previous Ranking: 10 ↔
11. Crossmen (83 total points)
Previous Ranking: 12 ↑
12. Colts (72 total points)
Previous Ranking: 11 ↓
13. Troopers (51 total points)
Previous Ranking: 14 ↑
14. Blue Knights (41 total points)
Previous Ranking: 13 ↓
15. Madison Scouts (19 total points)
Previous Ranking: 15 ↔
Donald Angelica Best General Effect Award
Blue Devils (95% first-place votes)
John Brazale Best Visual Performance Award
Blue Devils (90% first-place votes)
Jim Ott Best Brass Performance Award
Carolina Crown (50% first-place votes)
Fred Sanford Best Percussion Performance Award
Santa Clara Vanguard (60% first-place votes)
George Zingali Best Color Guard Performance Award
Boston Crusaders (95% first-place votes)
How we determine our Crystal Ball: Beginning last month, we devised a new system that determines how we aggregate and determine our rankings, similar to how the NCAA publishes top 25 rankings for various collegiate sports. With this system, each corps receives points from voters inverse of placement. More specifically, each corps receives 15 points for each first-place vote, 14 points for each second-place vote, 13 points for each third-place vote, and so on. Rankings are then determined by the total number of points each corps received. With this system, votes are appropriately weighted to better aggregate rankings and show variation in how voters voted more easily. For example, if two or more corps score closely in a total number of points, it shows variation by our voters and where they believe that group of corps will end up.
It just hit me when pulling up this article again, tha you used the 2018 retreat image on the header. You can tell by SCV's unusual offset V formation matching the logo on their costumes that year.