Welcome to Championships ladies and gentlemen! It is soon to be Prelims and everyone is pushing through some last practicing before they head out to the field. Will you make the top 50% and move on to Semis? Let's take a look! (Sorry this report took awhile. my "m" key is broken on my keyboard)


Division 1:
Top 5:
1 Marching Bureaucrats 76.395
2 Southmore Hill Royal Regiment 76.225
3 The Marching Marchers 76.110
4 Darkness Marching 76.050
5 Serenade 71.085

Once again, your top 4 have isolated themselves, but still fight for first. With only a spread of about 0.3 distinguishing first from 4th, it is still anyone's game. Serenade looks to take 5th, but remains barely over half a point about Spirit of Westchestertonfieldville, currently in 6th place. Everyone group in the top 4 has been leading at some point or another, and they all want that title. Good luck all!

Who will win tomorrow? Honestly... I don't know, but I would put my money on Southmore. While they may be slightly down, and do not control any captions, I believe the balance their band has achieved may be their winning ticket.

Blue Demons B continues to hold onto its Winds and Percussion categories, and with a fairly solid lead in each, my predictions say that BDB will be able to hold onto these captions through to the end of the week. Darkness has taken a caption domination, currently leading in music Ensemble, Visual Performance, Guard, and Visual Ensemble. This despite being in 4th place. With a little extra oomph, and time invested in the right areas, Darkness has a good chance of taking it all. The Bureaucrats have a razor thin lead in both GE categories, just an ant's eyelash above Southmore. GE could go to anyone.

Caption predictions:
Winds - BDB
Percussion - BDB
music Ensemble - Darkness
Visual Performance - Darkness
Guard - Darkness
Visual Ensemble - marching marchers
GE music - Southmore
GE Visual - Southmore


There are 52 Division 1 bands, meaning that 26 will move on. However, this breaking point won't come without a fight.

24 Il più debole 60.485
25 Shenandoah Marching Senate 60.475
26 The Tullahoma Azure Echo 60.230
27 Dan Valley Regiment 60.130
28 Tidewater Raptors 60.125

24th through 28th are in a heated race, with only 0.36 between the 5 bands. Only 3 of these 5 will make it through to the next round, so turn on those stadium lights and get to work, directors!



Division 2:

Top 5:
1 ILL Wind 74.175
2 Mighty Tiger Marching Band 72.355
3 Raider Regiment 66.935
4 Solstice Marching Band 66.010
5 Carolina's Regiment of Winds 65.325

ILL Wind has really broken away, but the Tigers are hot on their tail. There is a clear division between 2nd and 3rd, but Raider Regiment has no reason to be disappointed. Their ensemble is still gunning for a medal, as is Solstice. Odds are ILL Wind will win tomorrow, but with 3 competitions left there is always the chance that the Tigers could pull out a Saturday night spectacular!

ILL Wind and Tigers are currently splitting the captions. ILL Wind controls Winds, Percussion, Visual Performance, Guard, and Visual Ensemble, whereas the Tigers control music Ensemble, and both GEs. With the GE categories counting for double, the "chunks" of the score that each band controls is evenly matched, 5v5 (5 regular vs. 1 regular, 2 "double"). There is no reason to believe either of these groups will lose any of their captions this week, but gaps can close.

There are 50 bands in Division 2, all gunning for Semis. However, only 25 will move on.

24 Devils Band 53.530
25 Sun Devils Marching band 52.760
26 The Vikings 52.645
27 Cobb County High School 51.620

While the gaps aren't exactly close, one slip up by the Sun Devils could cause a slip in rank, giving the Vikings the unique opportunity to bust into Semis at the last second.

Division 2 seems to have the least drama, but certainly presents no less excitement for the competing bands.



Division 3:
Top 5+1:
1 EYME Marching Magicians 72.595
2 The Marching Caledonian Band 69.680
3 The Marching Reds 67.580
4 Tiger Band And Color Guard 64.815
5 Mt Sterling Trojans 64.655
6 Shadows 64.505

Boy have gaps opened up here. I decided to include #6 because Shadows is in a tight race for the Top 5, possibly even the Top 4. While its clear EYME is currently in a league of their own, it is no less fun for the remaining bands, working their way up the ladder.

Despite the overall scores being so dramatically shifted, captions remain a whole different ball park. Shadows controls Winds and Percussion, giving them their edge towards the Top 5. EYME only holds the lead in Visual and music Ensemble. Kentucky leads the Guard caption, while Blue Sound leads Visual Performance. Caption control seems to be very tight, and there is still the possibility of a fast rising star. I believe each of these groups will hold onto their captions tomorrow, but shifts could happen by the end of the week.

There are currently a whopping 109 Division 3 bands! This will result in either 54 or 55 bands moving on to Semis. This means it'll be an easy division, right? Wrong!

51 Shadow Regiment 49.035
52 Vanguard Brigade 48.940
53 X 48.780
54 Power Rangers 48.610
55 Silver Wind Cadets 48.510
56 The Aftermath 48.295
57 Pride of Piedmont 48.280
58 Cannelton Marching Penguins 48.185

For purposes I don't care to explain, I used 54th place as a placement marker for the break between Prelims and Semis. On either side of this break was less than half a point gap! Considering we have seen bands jump more than a point in one night, I suspect a lot of shifting will happen in this ranking range tomorrow. Any combination of these bands could end up in Semis. Good luck directors!

tic toc tic toc

Finals are next!!!!!!!!!

Posted!

If I wasn't gone the last 2 weeks it wouldn't even be close.

"Who will win tomorrow? "

As in the 5th?

4th. It's 10:20 Pm here =)

Its already the 4th on the east coast! Haha That was confusing. It seems number 58 for division III got separated in the post at the bottom.

Thanks for the vote of confidence! We'll definitely do our best out on the field. :D

Maybe I should do all division 3 this season so I can get a full nights sleep

Preliminaries aren't until the fifth according to the schedule =P Apparently we have a down day before the final contests! :D

O, you are right! Luckily there is no competition in between, so I don't have to change anything.
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THis will certainly make the Top 4 in Division 1 all that more nervous. They will have no idea what changes everyone makes today. =)

Yay! Almost there!I can't wait until finals =)

yeah Ascension05 that's what I was thinking :)

I'm suprised Silver Wind Cadets(DIV 3) are on that bubble right now, I just started them less than a week ago.

it's almost here - gametime :)

10 minutes!

*Crosses fingers*

Right now all my groups are set to make at least semis... hope this keeps up!

Whoa, I think I am safe for III Finals -- but that was a little unnerving

I'm hoping we can keep up for finals. 8th place isn't too bad a place to start.