Friday Fancies and a Score Recap ....

Aug 07, 2026

Friday Fancies

As another day of corps performances passes, I admit to boring myself with the review process.

I have watched each corps at least 6 times this summer and some … much more. Heck, I started with the Bluecoats back on July 1st, and I have done my best to keep up week to week.

Perhaps in person, one can ascertain the slight differences in performance levels at this juncture. In reality, a specific corps has a range of success available. And that level has been locked by this juncture.

The limitations are a product of the organization

• the ability of the students. ( age, schooling, experience, teachers)

• the program … the design of the show is locked in at this juncture

That combination,

For Carolina Crown, may mean the difference between a 96 and a 98. For the Troopers, it may mean an 87 to a 90

For the Crossmen, it may mean an 83-85

The final ingredient in the evaluation …

The adjudicators.

Therein, based on the seedings of the DCI East … where similar evaluations occurred a week ago … … the probability of similar numbers is very, very high. How high is the probability? Well… most anyone who charts out the numbers can see what is happening and what is going to happen … within those two points variations

Here’s the grouped breakdown by where they’re actually placing, with rank movement: BD had the biggest raw gain in the top 5 (+1.575), but the slot stayed put — they tightened the gap on Bluecoats without passing them. Blue Stars nudged past Phantom. Spirit’s huge jump (+2.675) got them past Troopers but not into single digits. And Music City’s +2.5 was enough to leapfrog Academy but not Crossmen. Madison’s +1.5 was solid — third-best raw gain in the whole field — but everyone around them held serve, so no slot moved.Carolina Crown: 95.275 → 96.475, a full point-plus gain — but they’re still boxed in 95-96 territory, nowhere near that hypothetical 98 you mention. The ceiling on a program-and-personnel level is real.

• Troopers: 87.5 → 88.688 — solid movement, but still sitting well under your 87-90 range’s upper bound.

• Crossmen: 82.538 → 84.363 — the biggest percentage mover of the whole field (+2.21%), and they’re still short of your stated 85 ceiling.

So the movement you’re seeing week to week isn’t the corps becoming something different — it’s the adjudicators finding the last increments of room within a range that the students and the design locked in weeks ago. In short —the score isn’t measuring the show anymore; it’s measuring how much of the show’s fixed ceiling has been “found” yet.

SEE BELOW CHART FOR FRIDAY NIGHT —- keep reading … my cut and paste was weird

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And to close this review, here are tonight’s scores for me and the judges. I did watch this evening… but I just watched … no judgment.

I liked Pacific Crest — they felt improved

I liked the Cavaliers

I liked the Blue Stars

And I always like Carolina Crown — that brassline slays me

So where does that leave us?

The scores are close to locked. The range is set. The corps are inside their ceilings, and the adjudicators are simply excavating what’s already there, tenth by tenth.

Which leaves one real question.

With two additional effects judges now in the mix, plus an ensemble percussion judge — that’s more data points, not fewer. More eyes measuring the same fixed range. And more data points, in theory, should mean more consensus … more agreement … more of the same locked number, reinforced by committee.

So can anything actually move?

Maybe not through the system as designed. The only way out of the box … is a rogue judge. Someone willing to see something the rest of the panel doesn’t, and score it anyway. Or the other variable nobody puts on a scoresheet — the crowd. An audience reaction big enough, loud enough, undeniable enough, that it reaches back down onto the field and into the box, and moves people who are otherwise trained to stay inside the lines.

Everything else is just the same number, arrived at more times.

And here are the Friday results and my guesses …

One more thing… you still reading???

A quick aside before the numbers — got a call today from a staff member at one of the corps, who said his staff had been asking that morning how the heck I keep getting so close on these scores. Wasn’t looking to brag, just made me laugh. It’s not a formula — you watch a corps enough times and look at enough recaps, you start reading the room the same way the panel does.

I may have to return my prognosticating crown :-). HERE ARE THE SCORES

And finally … are you signed up as a subscriber? I am sure you try to avoid extra email, but this is good stuff and will be useful for some time.

and you have two choices … The world of drum corps …. Pick ONE