Ciao i miei amici! Hey all you FMAers out there! This is the Season 17 Pre-Season Round Up.

I’ve been gone awhile thanks to school. I’m back for the time being, but I’m going to Italy this Summer to sing Papageno in the Magic Flute, so I may not be very consistent in the write ups as I’m going to have a lot of rehearsals, practicing, and lessons before I go!

Anyhow! I’ll touch base on some of last season’s results and try to extrapolate what that means for the coming Season. First up as always is Division I! (DISCLAIMER: I won’t go into the mathematics since I still have Finals to study for. I just felt like I needed to write an article since it’s been a few seasons.)


DIVISION I

Division I saw a major change last Season when, for the first time since Season 5, a corps who isn’t a current member of CLASS took the Gold! BRAVO TULLAHOMA! What does this mean going forward?

I believe we can look to Tullahoma Azure Force to remain strong, but it is highly uncharacteristic of Nemesis to score as lowly as they did. Whatever the reason is, expect a powerful rebound from Nemesis, the winningest corps in FMA Division I. The majority of Division I Corps are perennial contenders for finals spots, but nothing extraordinary out of the norm there, except for the fact that there four Division II Corps that I expect to move up into Division I: The Immortals (1st Place Last Season), Blue Demons (2nd Place Last Season), Regimental Blue (3rd Place Last Season), and The Bucs (4th Place Last Season.) These Corps all scored above an 87 last season, which puts them in prime placing to make a splash in the lower end of Division I finals, if they put in the effort. The Immortals have had a strong showing, and I believe they may even make an effort to displace one of the Power Six Corps this coming season. If I were a betting man, of which I’m not, I would place the Corps in this order for favorites after looking at past records and score gains.

1. Nemesis
2. Epic
3. Tullahoma Azure Force
4. Regal Regiment
5. Blue Deviled Eggs
6. Cornhuskers
7. Immortals
8. Falcon Regiment
9. Blue Demons
10. Cul-De-Sac Cadets
11. Khaki Krusaders
12. Silver Falcon

I place Nemesis in the prime spot simply because of the drastic fall they took last season. I expect them to come out with a vengeance and destroy the competition this season. Epic takes the second spot because they seem to have a special competitiveness when it comes to Nemesis. The higher Nemesis scores, the higher they score. Tullahoma is coming off of a strong season. They won’t go without at least taking the bronze if they have the commitment. Regal Regiment I feel will continue to score at their current rates and will pull off a respectable fourth. Blue Deviled Eggs will not fall out of the Top 5. I just don’t believe it will happen. Cire is too competitive. I feel like he would forgo sleep if he had to. The Cornhuskers will score similarly to BDE, I feel in looking at the history that they just won’t be able to break into such a powerful top 5 when all these corps are looking for Finals Gold this season. The Immortals are an outsider, but I believe they won’t be for long. They’ve had a large amount of score gains over the time they’ve been here, and if that trend continues, they will easily be able to overpower many recurrent finalists. Falcon Regiment has a history of placing well in Finals. They are a fairly consistent corps, and wherever they sit at the beginning of the season, they will be within three spots of that by the end of the season. Blue Demons are coming back after a long-term hiatus. They will be going for the Gold, but I believe that they won’t have what it takes to even come close to the medal range this season. The Cul-De-Sac Cadets are a strong corps, but with such a surge of powerful corps coming, history shows they will have to work double time to stay in finals. For the Khaki Krusaders there is no doubt that they are a fantastic corps. I hope to see the Silver Falcons in Finals next season, they have been a fixture in the top twelve for a while now, and I believe it will stay that way.

Notes:

-I feel that Nemesis will return and set a new high score this season as retribution for it being broken this past season.

-Just because corps come from Division II doesn’t mean they should be counted out. Just saying. ;)

-There is an influx of Non-CLASS corps reaching the top of Division I. Could this mean the end of CLASS’ dominance in the game?

- Finals are almost over! Have great Summer to those of you who are college kids! To those of you who aren’t, I hope that everything with all of y’all’s jobs are going well!


DIVISION II

In Division Two last season there was quite a shake-up! Besides the fact that the Immortals clawed their way up the rankings in order to take the Gold, last season we saw a surging from the Blue Demons after returning from a break when they took silver, while Regimental Blue and the Bucs fought for who would take third with Regimental Blue winning by four-tenths of a point. Even more shocking were the record scores that were recorded. All three medalists beat the top of Division II score ever placed, while Immortals almost pushed to a score of 90! Congratulations Immortals!

So what does this mean for next season? Well, here are my predictions for Division II thus far:

1. Farkmen
2. Golden Knights
2. Sinfonian Scouts
4. Regiment of FC
5. Atlantic Clarinet Choir
6. dunkirk patriors
7. Giant Regiment
8. Vincent Storm
9. Sinfonian Regiment
10. crusades
11. Empire Brass
12. Bilbo Swagginz

Now I’m calling for the Farkmen to take first, because… Well honestly, it’s because they scored so highly in Division Three. If they were to keep that sort of score gains they’ll easily take the Gold. The Golden Knights and Sinfonian Scouts were the highest scoring Corps that I believe won’t join Division I, so truly with them, I foresee a tight battle for second place. This is a common theme in my placements for the Division II Top 12. You’ll notice that I placed Giant Regiment in 7th place, I feel that although they scored extremely well in Division 3 that they will not be able to carry this over as effectively into Division 2. With the final place in the Top 12, I gave it to Bilbo Swagginz not because Menno Knights and Sound of the Valley won’t be there, but because I’m an avid LOTR fan, and the pun won me over.

Notes:

- It is very possible that the Farkmen might jump Division II all together and land in Division I, in which case I see them making a run for 12th in finals.


DIVISION III- COMING

Man, Yukon Gold just misses (13th) in their first season in Division I, and they still can't get any love? ;-P

Sorry man! Hopefully you can prove me wrong! =)

Sleep!!?? Wait.. you people sleep?

Actually, the game is a lot easier now that people complained to change it to 6 hours instead of 4.. (which I was very much against).. I actually can get some sleep now and not lose out on any points. I think it's still funny that by making the game easier for them to play, they are also making it harder to win.

Check what's happened to Tullahoma since the change. I told ya'll that I supported it cause I strongly believed it would benefit me more than others :P as someone who constantly was missing points by just an hour or two, I was glad that I could go and become quite dominant if only for a season.

In hindsight the cap raise seems silly, and we should have listened to cire.

Anyway, great write up! Looking forward to seeing more of this from you, I always enjoyed reading your posts. Maybe I'll start doing things like this for marching band...

TrumpetVinny - I know.. it pretty much benefit everyone, but it REALLY benefit those in the top 6 of Div 1. The main reason why the "top" groups didn't completely dominate before the switch was because of those constant 1-2 hour misses of rehearsals. Take that away, and you take away pretty much all chance of beating them.

corndogshuffle - I call it like I see it. I just hope everyone is happy to get what they wanted. lol

I like both ideas but in the past it was more about how much you did, and now it's more about how much you miss.

One thing I discovered is that no amount of cap raising will compensate for recital preparation. Haha.

I don't think that the addition of 2 extra hours has made the game harder.

I agree, it's easy to the point of absurdity now.

Last season, 11 of the 12 champions were first-time gold medalists.

11 of 12!

And let's look at D1 Drum Corps... historically, FMA 2.0 has been dominated by the "Big Four": Blue Deviled Eggs, Cornhuskers, Epic, and Nemesis. Prior to last season (16), in 10 of the previous 13 seasons (3-15) the Big Four took ALL of the D1 medals. In the other three seasons, the Big Four to TWO of the three D1 medals.

Again, 13 season stretch: Big Four = 36 D1 medals, everybody else = 3.

Last season (16)? Big Four = 1, Others = 2. For the first time since Season TWO. And, for the first time since Season ONE the Big Four did not take either Gold or Silver. Non-Big Four drum corps won as many D1 medals in Season 16 as they had in the prior TEN seasons... COMBINED.

Far from putting the top of the pack further ahead, the cap change has enabled MORE ensembles to become "elite" and competitive, exactly as I had wished for. Sorry, cire, I still disagree with you on this one.

Lets go BIG FOUR! =)

Let's note that is Saphire Vanguard was still around there'd be a big 5.

Also @Hostrauser isn't Regal CLASS?

TrumpetVinny: Regal is a CLASS member

Woot 7th and no i dont sleep and yes im a highschooler ~.~

Anyway I dont believe in 7th i will start the Revolution and break the "Big Four" one by one.

two CLASS notes--Darkness was CLASS in Season 5 when they won--so its really been CLASS since season 2. CLASS had half the top 12 WITHOUT Nemesis...pretty sure that is still domination of the activity that no one else can claim and its not just in Div I!

And you are correct--Staff at Nemesis is hoping mad about that high score loss. At the very least, we are going to be contenders again this season. Got a little too lax last season!

Division II is updated now!

Seeing as I'm doing what I can to keep my bucs down in DII one more season I think if they move up I will tank this season or wait a week and see where they stand. If we stay in D2 I will go balls to the wall and spend the 80k I have in waiting. But I have a few days to decide

This will be the third full season with the Greenville Cadets. I'm pretty sure we will be staying in Divison III. This season we'll be taking a shot at a medal. This will also be our first season with CLASS. We will be determined as ever this season so watch out Divison III. :)

WillLacy13, that 80k will help, but it won't get your balls THAT far up the wall