CLASS Week 2 Review

We had another exciting week here at CLASS as corps and positioning really seem to start to develop! CLASS certainly is amongst the most powerful organizations in FMA! Our shows have been packed with fans looking to see the best and we deliver!

On Tuesday CLASS headed to Texas for a showdown of Alamo proportions! Everything really was bigger in Texas as the crowd seemed enormous for such an early season show! Kentucky Legends once again got us started off in Division III but they sure looked up to Division II caliber! They actually would have won visual performance if they had been, that's just how tight their marching is! We started off with a few out of CLASS corps, GrooveFunk, Britannian Regiment, Crimson Eagle Regiment, Piedmont Crusade, Empire Brass and Dark Horse. Empire Brass and Dark Horse certainly were the standouts in the first group. Empire Brass won brass, visual performance and guard, but were even strong in percussion. Dark Horse with their David the King performance were strong in ensemble as the show blends so perfectly, but also dominated the general effects captions as the show just has a tremendous impact! The CLASS corps were up next. Southwind II still seems to be struggling early season, especially in the visual performance and visual GE category, however they bested GrooveFunk by a considerable margin! Graffiti continues to rise and are particularly strong in GE with their Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves show! Judges seem to be rewarding them here since the crowd reacts so well to it! Great Lakers barely edged them out and almost caught Empire Brass with a rich ensemble and GE pleasing show, but the performance captions really are holding them from exploding out at this point in the season. The What Dreams May Come show seems to be very challenging for them. Nastalgia Cadets were far from down to earth on Tuesday as they seemed to really put the pressure on the top corps, but Inferno, who saw their chance to strike took the upset and the lead at that point for CLASS Division II. In the end Dark Horse could not be caught by any of the CLASS corps. Division I was filled with some of the best in the activity. We are going to save a full review of Division I for Saturday nights show, but Nemesis had their first CLASS show of the year and their GE and ensemble scores made them impossible to beat. Epic came very close considering they didn't win an individual caption and ended up grabbing silver and non-CLASS corps Darklaw Regiment (brass and guard) managed to best Blue Deviled Eggs for bronze. Corps IBEX continues to be the talk of percussionists everywhere as they beat up the competition in that category. no one even seemed to take a stab at them Tuesday.

Saturday’s big show brought us all the way to Burlington, home of Nemesis. The Green Mountain Invitational has become not only one of the biggest events in Vermont but a coveted trophy. This season Ben and Jerry’s even jumped on board making an ice cream replica of the trophy for the victor to enjoy! Kentucky Legends were moved to the Division II for the show since the two divisions were relatively small. This allowed for a closely contested battle with Southwind II that they won! Graffiti, Great Lakers and Inferno were left to fight for the top spot and Inferno (brass, percussion, visual performance, guard) once again led the pack and swept the performance captions, while Great Lakers dominated the ensemble and GE categories to take silver.

In Division I we had fifteen corps that really delivered an incredible mix of CLASS and non-CLASS corps, styles and approach for a truly fantastic show! We started off with the non-CLASS corps Inspire, Lemon Bay Jazz, Falcon Regiment, blue caterpillars and Sapphire Vanguard. Sapphire Vanguard surely seemed to be on their way to upset before the intermission. Their show Kaleidoscope is a general effects marvel and score booster! They are on track to have some of the best GE scores ever, blue caterpillars are in a very similar spot, they just have more work to do in other areas. The CLASS corps took the field after the break with The Royal Guardsmen. They warmed us all up with their “Baby its Cold Outside” show, reminding the crowd that its not so bad to be cold when you can cuddle up! As the temperatures dropped, the competition between Modern Antic and Blue Demons heated up the joint! The two have gone back and fourth already this season and Blue Demons opened it up a bit tonight in every caption but guard. Eagle Regiment seemed to be in a mid category all to themselves with their show Somewhere. Corps IBEX was our first big jump of the night by almost four points. Once again the percussion section dominated the show and the category for all of FMA! Give them the crown now, because it looks like they will take this all the way to finals. The only real question seems to remain is will it be a record breaking score? I know this is one of the finest examples of drumming I have ever seen. Darkness, while off their championship season tare, still has a fantastic show “Danzon” which the crowd really seems to appreciate. I would expect the guard scores to be much higher with this show, but instead you get a very well balanced corps. One area they seem to be behind is visual performance which could be due to the fancy dance moves throughout the show not being perfected just yet. Quicksilver was up next with Tyrant! The fierce show is doing very well for them this season and a finalist spot is all but assured as they seem to be gunning for coveted top six! As always Blue Deviled Eggs are a crowd pleaser where ever they go. Their show Corp [s] really takes a different approach yet again as they don't mind being a little different. They actually place second or third in every caption other than GE. The judges just seem to not get the show. Epic once again lives up to the name and Circadian Rhythms is serving them very well. The thing about this show and corps is that nothing stands out as weak or overly strong. It is a perfectly balanced corps across the board that both judges and fans seem to appreciate. Nemesis seems to be almost in a fury that they were prevented from a three-pete last season as they lose their first show to Minneapolis Regiment and then have gone on a rampage ever since. The corps this season has become the winning-est corps in history with 72 wins and they sure seem to be on the hunt for a third title. The corps got 1st or second in every category but visual performance and GE Music to steal the show from a surge by Sapphire Vanguard. The corps and CLASS was also pleased to highlight the DCPI Championships in Tokyo where sister corps Knights missed an opportunity at taking another Championship dropping from first in semis to fourth in finals.

Here are the standings for CLASS:

Division I (current overall rank/previous)
Nemesis 74.25 (1/1)
Epic 73.045 (3/11)
Blue Deviled Eggs 72.86 (4/3)
Quiksilver 71.025 (5/7)
Darkness 69.795 (11/9)
Corps IBEX 67.905 (14/13)
Eagle Regiment 63.96 (17/16)
Blue Demons 62.165 (22/25)
Modern Antic 61.09 (25/24)
Royal Guardsmen 56.85 (32)

Epic had the big jump of the week going from 11th to 3rd and second ahead of Blue Deviled Eggs in the CLASS standings, but Quiksilver and Blue Demons also stepped up the rankings! Nemesis remains on top of CLASS and FMA.

Division II
Inferno 60.290 (12/15)
Great Lakers 59.01 (13/17)
Graffiti 58.58 (16/23)
Nastalgia Cadets 58.525 (17/12)
Southwind II 50.425 (44/41)

Nastalgia Cadets took a huge tumble, dropping out of current top twelve and slipping from 1st in CLASS to 4th. Inferno benefited from it the most moving up to top 12 and number one in CLASS! Great Lakers, Graffiti and Nastalgia Cadets are all knocking on top 12 spots with Graffiti having made the leap of the week from 23rd to 16th!

Division III
Kentucky Legends 50.875 (21/14)

Kentucky Legends stayed pretty still score wise and dropped from 14th to 21st.

This week in CLASS Competition: today we have Royal Guardsmen show, Wednesday Kentucky Legends, Thursday Eagle Regiment and Saturday the double whammy show for Modern Antic and Quiksilver giving us a nice full week!

Cool review! I'm pretty sure Eagle Regiment is going to be lower than usual this season.

I take it everyone is having a very busy semester!!! lol

Let them be busy :P

I know---one of the few times I am happy I am NOT a college student...I can win!!!! LOL

Hey, I am a college student and I'm doing well!

Well, I have 18 credits with 3 zero credit classes this semester...

I only have 15 credits, but work, tech a winterguard and I am a part of 2 organizations on campus.

I quit school 12 years ago. lol

I work from home.. pretty much 24/7 on the computer as a website programmer. But I have a gf I live with and a 1 1/2 year old with is a job in itself

I'm in the middle of a job and relocation/transfer to south carolina but nothing holds me back! lol

Very proud of my Graffiti! Good to know that there is some good use from OCD. :)