Recap Rundown: 7/10-7/16
A busy week on the DCI schedule as corps get their final performances in before making their way south to San Antonio this coming Saturday
Hello and welcome to the third edition of Recap Rundown! In this weekly article we’ll take a look at scores and recaps from the previous week’s shows and trends and rankings as the season progresses. Feel free to follow along with this interactive dashboard powered by Google Data Studio. Here, you can find a number of tables and charts that break down the season’s scores by a number of metrics such as shows, corps, class, date, and even caption scores.
Let’s dive in!
The week kicked off on Sunday with three shows in three states. Unfortunately, weather caused the cancellation of the show in Georgia, but it was otherwise business as usual in California and Wisconsin. In Stanford, CA, Blue Devils won their fifth show of the season to remain undefeated and rose to the top of the rankings with a new high score of 82. In La Crosse, WI, Blue Stars served as hosts in their base city and came away victorious in their hometown for the first time since 2007. Blue Stars also passed Phantom Regiment for the second consecutive show, continuing the season-long back and forth battle between the two midwestern corps.
Monday night was a quiet day on the schedule with four corps competing in the last show of the season in Washington state. Troopers made moves in their third show of the season, coming within a point of Academy before passing them the following night in Boise. Blue Knights finished in first for their third consecutive show, completing the clean sweep of all three shows in Washington.
The “Southern Swing” returned to competition on Tuesday with another show in Georgia, this time in the Atlanta metro community of Powder Springs. Carolina Crown took first by 4.3 and swept all captions to remain undefeated while also posting a new high score of the season with an 83.45 (only to be later surpassed by Blue Devils the following night in Utah). Elsewhere in Minnesota, Phantom Regiment came away with their first win of the season without Blue Stars in attendance for direct competition. Phantom beat second place Colts by 3.6 points, though arguably one of the biggest stories of this show was the continued rise of Colts’ percussion that placed first in the caption for the first time this season.
Wednesday night’s doubleheader had shows in Wisconsin and Utah, featuring the debut of The Battalion in their home state. The Salt Lake City-based corps, now in their fifth season of Open Class competition, opened their season with an impressive 60.25, the highest season-opening score in the corps’ young history. Meanwhile, Columbians continue to have an impressive season as well, winning Open Class at the show with a 62.5, surpassing the corps’ highest ever score set the previous night in Boise. In Eau Claire, Blue Stars won their second consecutive show and fourth of the season, and Madison Scouts broke 70 and River City broke 60 for the first time in their respective seasons.
Thursday had only one show on the calendar in Tupelo, Mississippi in the northeastern part of the state. While Crown was in action in Georgia on Tuesday without Boston, it was now Boston’s turn to perform without Crown. BAC came away with their fourth win of the season with an impressive 84.0, though it was about half a point shy of Blue Devils’ new high of 84.55 in Utah the night before. Further down the scoreboard, Cadets broke 80 for the first time of the season and Music City continued their impressive season by breaking 70 before San Antonio for the first time ever in the corps’ 13 year history.
Friday turned into a bit of a wonky day on the schedule. Three shows were scheduled in Illinois, Wyoming, and California. However, weather caused the complete cancellation of the show in Wyoming, while in Illinois, the corps that performed after intermission opted for standstill exhibition performances due to dangerous conditions on a wet, grass field. Per the DCI rulebook, the show was determined to be “incomplete” and scores for the corps that performed their shows in full were not released. That all said, the Open Class-only show in California was the only show of the three that was completed in full. Blue Devils B come away with their second straight win and more than a six point jump from their previous show five days ago.
The week closed out last night with the busiest day of the 2022 season with five shows in Wisconsin, Memphis, Colorado, Alabama, and California. All but three World Class corps were in action to get an all-important latest score to determine schedule groupings for next Saturday’s regional in San Antonio. There were no major upsets to report, though the biggest highlight was Boston Crusaders finishing within four tenths of Crown, the closest the two corps have been all season. The two corps go head to head twice more in the coming week before San Antonio, so that will certainly be a matchup to keep an eye on in the coming days. Even more impressively, although finishing in second, Boston’s score in Memphis was higher than Bluecoats’ winning score in Wisconsin, thereby earning Boston a coveted spot in the 1-3 place grouping for the San Antonio schedule draw.
It should be mentioned that Cavaliers missed another week of shows due to covid and unfortunately haven’t had a scored performance since July 6th. The good news though is that the corps returned in standstill exhibition performance and are on track to return in full by Monday night in Kansas. Additionally, Genesis made their long awaited debut last night in Colorado, meaning that all 20 World Class corps are in full swing for the 2022 season.
Open Class remained competitive throughout the week with a number of corps touring throughout the west coast. A packed, seven corps show in southern California last night featured the debut of Les Stentors who made the trip all the way from Canada and an upset by Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets over Blue Devils B for the first time this season and the first time since Open Class Finals in 2018. The Battalion and Louisiana Stars made their season debuts down south, leaving Guardians, Southwind, and Legends as the three remaining corps to debut for the 2022 season.
That does it for this week! Coming up this week is the big one - the San Antonio Regional at the Alamodome on Saturday and the only time that all 20 World Class corps will be on the same field on the same night before finals weekend. However, Tuesday night will definitely be a night to look forward to as well when the top six corps meet up for the first time in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. In total, we have 13 shows in six different states, with five in Texas alone. Keep an eye on the General Effect Media website for the latest news and live blogs for the coming week!
Until next time!