Recap Rundown Special Edition: DCI Southwestern Championship
DCI returns to San Antonio and the Alamodome last night for the first time in three years. Join us as we recap it all and run through the key scores, placements, and upsets of the night.
Hello and welcome to the fourth edition of Recap Rundown! In this special edition, we’re going to steer a bit away from the norm and instead of recapping the entire week, we’ll be taking a look at all things San Antonio. 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.
What a night at the Alamodome! DCI returned to the stadium for the first time since 2019 and the Texas fans turned out and did not disappoint. DCI reports that 14,697 fans were in attendance for the second largest attended Southwestern Championship and fans were certainly in for a treat with 20 performing corps. Let’s dive in and recap the day that was.
Open Class Guardians kicked things off with their 2022 production “From Scratch.” After making their debut earlier in the week in Canyon, the Texas based corps took the field for their third competitive performance of the season. They had a strong performance and the results showed; they shot up more than two points from their previous score in Austin on Thursday to a 64.475, allowing them to jump to sixth place in Open Class.
Pacific Crest took us to the “V-O-I-D” next. Although entering San Antonio as the last placed spot in World Class, they too had a strong showing, breaking 70 for the third straight show to a 70.95 and moving up to 18th place. The corps was supported by strong color guard and percussion sections which placed 16th and 17th in their respective captions. The overall Visual caption was a tight race as well, as Pacific Crest finished only a tenth behind Music City ahead of them.
Speaking of Music City, they performed third and continue to have a historic season in their corps history. Their final score and placement of 72.175 and 17th are both new corps records for San Antonio ever since they joined World Class in 2018. Music City’s hornline had a great run and it certainly showed as they placed 16th in brass and only four tenths behind 15th place Madison Scouts. Look for Music City to have a strong finish to their season; should they stay in 17th place, it will be by far the corps’ highest ever final placement in their 13 year history.
The Academy entertained fans next with their Willy Wonka inspired show “A World of My Creation.” The show has often been compared to Academy’s infamously run of fun productions from 2015-2017 and the San Antonio crowd ate it up. Although Academy’s score dropped seven tenths from their previous show in Denton, they were rewarded in the General Effect and Visual captions which allowed them to place nearly a point over Music City in 16th place.
Genesis closed out the first block with the support of their hometown fans from nearby Austin. They continued their upward trajectory ever since their season debut in Colorado last week, finishing with a new high score of 69.25, an improvement of nearly four points since their first show. Although they finished last in World Class, they were rewarded with good numbers in Brass and Music Analysis, and finished 1.7 away from Pacific Crest, certainly still within striking distance.
After a half hour intermission, Madison Scouts kicked off the late afternoon block with their widely popular show “Installation 85.” The corps continues to have a much improved year since their last competitive season, finishing in 15th place and an improvement of 1.6 over their San Antonio score in 2019. They received strong placements in the Visual Proficiency and Percussion captions and finished a comfortable two points ahead of The Academy.
Like Genesis, Troopers have been on fire the past week, culminating with a fantastic performance in the Alamodome that had the crowd on their feet at the end. Troopers are quietly having one of their best seasons in a long time with a 12 point improvement since their season debut less than two weeks ago. Earlier in the week, they passed Madison Scouts for the first time since 2009 and repeated the same success last night. Troopers may not be done moving up placements yet, as they are only 1.5 points behind Colts and the coveted 12th place.
Crossmen took the field next, performing in front of their hometown crowd. The corps had a fantastic run visually that gave them 11th place in Visual Analysis, 11th in Color Guard, and 11th in Visual overall. Although they were passed by Colts for the first time this season, don’t write off Crossmen yet - they have become experts in finishing in a finals spot over the past decade and could easily make up the less than three tenths spread between them and Colts.
Colts have been another corps on the rise this year and turned heads last night when they beat Crossmen for the first time this season and first time since 2011. Colts’ percussion section has also been in a lot of conversations and although they fell a couple of spots placement wise, continue to be the strongest section in the corps. Their final score of 78.6 was their highest score in San Antonio since they finished with a 78.9 in 2010. Look for Colts to continue to surge down the stretch as they attempt to make finals for the first time since 2007.
Blue Knights followed the Colts with their performance of “Vibe” in the 11th spot and had perhaps their strongest performance to date, also finishing 11th. Although Blue Knights are down a bit competitively compared to previous seasons, they are still very much in the mix for a finals spot. For the moment, the Denver-based corps still leads a very competitive group of corps in the 11th to 15th spots and are poised to stay in finals for the 17th straight season.
Phan favorite Phantom Regiment closed out the block before the dinner intermission with “No Walk Too Far.” After a down year in 2019, they continue to have a strong 2022 season. After finishing three points ahead of Blue Knights, Phantom can comfortably say for the moment that they will continue their impressive streak of 46 consecutive years in World Championship finals, one of the longest such streaks in DCI history. Although Phantom has slipped since starting the year ahead of Blue Stars, they are on tails of Cavaliers and Mandarins, and still find themselves only 2.5 from seventh place.
The final, nine corps block of the night started after an hour long intermission gave judges and event staff a chance to recharge. The Cavaliers kicked off the block, perhaps a bit controversially, after a change in DCI’s scheduling policy gave them the ninth seed despite them missing a week and a half of competitions. The Cavaliers first returned to competition on Monday night in Kansas and San Antonio capped off a busy week for them, being their fifth show in six days. Although the corps fell a few spots in placements since returning, they finished ninth with an 83.25 and still remain in the mix within the sixth to tenth place grouping.
Mandarins came up next, joining Blue Devils and Vanguard in the top 8, as three California corps attempt to place in the top 8 for the first time since BD, SCV, and Velvet Knights achieved the feat in 1988. Mandarins on their own are having their best season in corps history; earlier in the season, they beat Blue Knights for the first time in corps history and achieved the same against the Cavaliers last night. The corps has seen momentous growth competitively since first making finals in 2018 and are a corps that will deserve a lot of credit when this season is said and done.
Blue Stars followed Mandarins with their program “War and Peace” which has been one of the most improved shows of the season. Blue Stars passed Cavaliers earlier in the week for the first time in over 40 years and continued that trend in the Alamodome. They too are having a historic season, trending towards their highest placement in 45 years. Especially look for their guard to do well in the final stretch of the season; they placed sixth in the caption and only eight tenths from Carolina Crown in third place.
The Cadets closed out a “mini block” of the corps sitting in the sixth to tenth places. Although Cadets were only a few tenths ahead of Blue Stars in Houston on Friday, they opened that lead drastically, finishing in sixth by nearly a point and a half. More than half that spread came in the Music caption, supported by strong brass and percussion sections that each finished sixth. Are the Cadets back? It’s been six years since they placed sixth or better and they seem in a great spot to do so this year.
Before we knew it, we found ourselves in the final stretch of shows when Bluecoats came on next. Bluecoats have been in an incredibly tight race between Boston Crusaders and Carolina Crown this year, especially after Boston passed them earlier in the week. It seems performance order may have played a big role in determining scores and placements as Bluecoats finished third with a 89.9 and half a point behind Carolina Crown. They’re certainly maintaining steady ground in the visual caption where they placed second in Visual Proficiency, second in Visual Analysis, third in Color Guard, and third in Visual overall.
Santa Clara Vanguard has been sitting comfortably in the fifth spot this season and maintained that position last night. Vanguard did close the gap between them and Bluecoats, perhaps after benefiting from the favorable performance spot. SCV’s percussion section has been on fire again this year and finished first place in the caption by a tenth over second place Boston Crusaders. It remains to be seen if Vanguard has the gas to move up into the top 4 discussion, but for the moment, they will be pleased knowing that they will likely end up in a top 5 spot for the ninth straight season.
Boston Crusaders have had the entire activity talking since day one of the season, and boy, they did not disappoint last night. Although Boston placed behind Bluecoats earlier in the week in Broken Arrow, they would go on to pass them two nights later in Denton, the first time of such an occurrence since the 2004 season. Boston Crusaders would go on to have arguably the biggest upset of the weekend by passing Carolina Crown in San Antonio by almost three tenths, finishing with a 90.7. Boston did beat Crown as recently as 2019, however they are now in strong contention for perhaps their first ever top 3 finish; an extraordinary accomplishment for a corps that barely made finals only six years ago in 2016.
Despite being passed, Crown came to San Antonio having a strong season themselves. Before Saturday, they had won six out of eight shows and were only one of two corps to have broken 90 so far this season (the other being Blue Devils). Crown brought the Alamodome to life with “Right Here Right Now” and left the show with some very strong numbers such as second overall in General Effect, second in Brass, and second in Music Analysis. The race is far from over; it should be no surprise if Crown passes Boston at least once more this season as the two appear as if they will go neck and neck for the rest of the season.
And that brings us to the final corps of the night. Blue Devils came; they saw; they conquered. With a winning score of 92.175, Blue Devils won the Southwestern Championship for the first time since 2017 and left the same way they arrived - undefeated. Will this run last the entire season? Well here’s an interesting statistic for you - since 2009, every time that Blue Devils have entered San Antonio undefeated, they’ve left San Antonio undefeated and have later gone on to win a championship. Blue Devils look nearly unstoppable for the moment and are still the strong favorites to come away with their 20th World Championship in three weeks.
And so that does it! A long day filled with some fantastic performances and the return of DCI to San Antonio for the first time in three years. The fans were fantastic and the performers even more so. Big regionals like this can sometimes cause a massive shift in the competitive landscape and I think that certainly happened last night as we saw a few upsets and a clearer picture on how things might shake out. One thing is for certain though - while there’s only three weeks left in the season, there’s still a lot of amazing drum corps to be had.
All for now! Keep an eye on the General Effect Media website for the latest news and live blogs for the coming week!