packwick

warren central over carmel in Indy. not surprising, i thought carmel had a weaker run in finals, whereas wc's performers mostly killed it. still keepin' Carmel in 3rd for now. think the content has legs. juuuust need to get more consistent in the performance, otherwise they WILL be beaten again by Warren late season. there's an undeniable effect from watching Warren's perfomers slaaay, even if im not lovin' the music the design team chose lol. top of the class lookin' kinda unstable tbh.

the cool thing about the Indy regional is that u get to see like 50% of the eventual SW finalists. smallest class, def convenient for getting a big picture view, unlike the bazillion SA guards. rn i see the top 3 as arcadia, then woodlands, then carmel. arcadia has a very clear and connected looking show, something woodlands has some lapses in, particularly in the "opener." need to guide our eyes thru the flagwork and staging a lil better. woodlands is ofc really exciting and has unmatched spinners and tossers. ending... maybe a lil too quirky again?? but respect that they're going against the grain, marching to the beat of their own drum. Carmel is more of a polite clap for me, just like Pride of Cincinnati. lovely show, lovely staging, solid performers, but i feel like ive seen this a lot before. Pearland's show from last yr doesn't help. kinda the world class version of that show. scores trending lower at the top than expected. addition of difficulty and risk?? i'll admit none of the ones i've seen scream "typical gold medalist." bad thing?? i dunno. def more of a designer than a performer thing. otoh maybe we just need to shift our perspectives a bit. def still curious 'bout the FL contingent. have NOT seen Flanagan. maybe they'll swoop in like they did in 2008 and snag the gold from Arcadia/Woodlands like they snagged it from perpetual bridesmaid Avon after James Logan fell off a little.

omg y'all are right. those WERE judges who were wildin'. i subconsciously wrote them off as eager guard parents supportin' their girlies LMAO.

https://m.youtube.com/@ThrowawayGuard here's an account w/ all the vids i got from Pearland tonite, since i had issues w/ the other ones.

maybe Florida is sending their best to Dayton this yr after all!! looks like the upstairs judges really like Flanagan's content, w/ plenty of room for growth in performance. good place to be.

yeah, smh at all of this. Pearland is the real deal imo, and should have easily won tonite. how do you go from a 79.5 in GE in wgi to a 56.5 a week later?!!! 78 in DA to a 57.5?!! woodlands A also should have won tonite, but that gap is lil less egregious, and Tomball has fab individual performers. woodlands world also weird downstairs/upstairs split. 87 in equipment, 85 in movement, then upstairs very low 70s bringing the score way down. again, my opinion = underscored. upstairs should have all been 83+. heck, they got a lower DA score tonite than longtime WGI judge Eric Kitchenmen gave em three weeks ago!! for the record, i thought both Pearland and Woodlands World were better than any of the scholastic opens and worlds i watched via the Indianapolis stream. make of that what u will...👀

well i'm real happy i actually attended the Pearland contest, bc i would have been suuuuper curious about wtf happened. the correct answer is that the judges had a really, REALLY off night tonite, esp the upstairs ones i sat right next to. none of em are active wgi judges, which prob does have something to do w/ it, bc the scores are soooo disconnected from what happened just a week ago in WGI. does kinda call into question tcgc's credibility here, when they use the same sheets. it is what it is i guess. u take who you can get, esp when there are 6 WGI regionals going on the same weekend!! TL;DR - Classic TCGC Twilight Zone judging

if u finish 1st or 2nd in A at a WGI regional, or 1st in Open, u have to submit a vid of your guard to WGI. Dale (guard division director), Karl (education coordinator), and Curtis (chief judge) vote yes or no after carefully considering the skills of the unit. if even one of em votes no, the guard remains in the same class. if all vote yes, the vote expands to the larger steering committee. a simple majority of yes votes there will cause the guard to be reclassified. Emerson should at least make semis in open methinks. that's the rough definition of having "marked success" after reclassification, what the committee aims for.

oh also, when i was remarking about flexibility and interesting shapes w/ the body earlier, look at the opening in Arcadia and tell me u don't see a clear difference!!

heeeere's arcadia world performing their show The Octopus from this past weekend, Feb 15th. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ6LzZgDPxE&pp=ygUZQXJjYWRpYSB3b3JsZCBjaGlubyBoaWxscw%3D%3D gains from fall to winter guard are again suuuuper impressive. performers look stronger yr over yr. the Rosie Q choreo def helps, always a lil dash of originality at the IA level. such an understanding of what's rewarded. they're really starting to look like the old Carmel. on the other hand, the show is kiiiinda boring besides the decorated pool noodles, ngl. like a dry lecture about octopuses lol. i thought it was gonna be so much more fun than this!! with bigger builds and tension and release!! mostly elegant staging tho, some cool upstairs moments for sure. b/w woodlands and arcadia, who will come out on top??? they are SOOO different, but woodlands does grip me more right away and doesn't let up. plus their equipment work is way more insane and distributed across more performers, and the addition of difficulty and risk to the SW sheets this yr should help them. buuut i could also easily see arcadia ending up w/ a clearer, cleaner show, both upstairs and downstairs. hard to compare rn bc the woodlands show i saw was two weeks ago and incomplete. def need to hit mvmnt harder. anywho, def i applaud both design teams for not just chasing the feel of the Avon show from last season. woulda been boring.

uploaded the vids a couple weeks ago. ill have to look into why apparently nobody sees em lol. i mean at this point i might as well just upload Pearland vids, if i feel like driving out to that one. dunno 'bout that. kinda afraid of getting, ya know, like, shot or something. lol. sorry, had to go there. what's the chance of that happening again?!!

A class here will def be interesting, esp that 2nd round w/ hebron, Brandeis, lockhart, grand oaks, and george ranch all there. the other rounds are more easily narrowed to one or two methinks. round 1 - TMHS. round 3 - dripping springs or woodlands. round 4 - azle or jordan. open class also interesting. suspect westlake and bowie's scores will jump a bit moving from tcgc into wgi. enough for one of em to beat Pearland? dunno.

emerson has been reclassed to open, looks like. vanished from top of A standings. expected that. sooo, TMHS is seeded 5th for now. but only 37 seeds out of like 140 total. Melissa now tied for first w/ Grain Valley.

paramour by anna meredith, tho i think twhs is using a more orchestral version. could be the same version honestly, couldn't hear much of it over the girls screaming lol.

think imma be right about the IWs. already lookin better than last yr. i actually reeeally loved Sac's show tonite. the wry way they play against the music at the beginning, then mucho buoyancy and personality w/ the jazz. staging is amaaazing. it's so consistently musical and interesting. dirtier than fusion rn, but my first impression is itll be one of my fave Sac shows ever. buuuut then this fusion show is reeeally something different and interesting and imaginative. looove the machine learning vibes and guitar motifs. it's one of those shows where im just like, im not sure i would have thought to do something like this, which is a high compliment. lovin' the return of the bluecoats music. actually hearing some of woodlands world's soundtrack in there with the brief pizzicato parts. maybe was brought up during the marching design season, dunno.

also cyfair w/ a major glow up. up to the mid 70s after getting a 59.5 just a couple weekends ago at tcgc. glow up + they were significantly underscored in DA two weeks ago, can verify that having been present. hope cy keeps it up and makes a strong push for Dayton finals.

ummm, y'all, Pearland's score in open class just now 👀👀👀 they gonna medal in open or be promoted to world?? and after self promoting to open too!!

access, finally!! tomball memorial dominating A class here post-prelims, winning by a couple points. also the 2nd highest prelims SA score across the 5 regionals this weekend, just over a 78 and a couple tenths down from Lafayette from MO. awesome job. 'nother huge week to week improvement. 70 at TCGC last weekend and could easily hit an 80 in finals here. possibly seeded top 5 nationally after tonite. def scoring like they'll make the cut for Dayton finals if they keep it up. wellll, at least i now know who will win round 1 in SA at Austin, didn't really know before today lol. makes me even more curious about Jordan, who won every judge over TM last weekend. returning to A class after being prematurely reclassed to open by the steering committee 2 years ago. wgi Austin champs maybe?? we shall seeee. lots of A class competition at that one.

wgi's website crashing for the second weekend in a row. lolz.

final scores posted https://recaps.competitionsuite.com/5f58fa14-b54b-4280-89f7-3ce99b3c45ce.htm scores in A class have def shot up a lot w/in a week. massive actually. higher scores than last yr despite being a week earlier. curious to see if the steering committee leaves Emerson in A or not. even if they don't, Melissa, Wylie, and Azle are all attending Dayton, too. open class: lil elm w/ a fab score to begin another Dayton year. scoring like they'll be back in finals and maybe top half. Coppell still doing very well also. where'd Marcus go?!! world class, flomo w/ maybe a lil bit of improvement yr over yr. scoring around where every other SW guard in the country seems to be scoring rn in their local circuits, including the regular Dayton finalists. mirage's score seems lower. TX IWs may have to sneak into finals this yr at Dayton, if they make the cut. weeee shall seeee.

yeah, lots of huge week over week score gains this weekend in TX, both w/in the local circuits and entering wgi. not really surprised. shows should be mostly done by now. the huge shift b/w dripping springs and Brandeis this weekend versus last is def interesting. won't really know b/w those two until wgi Austin.

cute lil music video from last weekend. just a small taste from a different, up close perspective. https://youtube.com/shorts/XG0ng0B0jGA?si=1i6rdF_JyAn6tMuO

"Your attention is essential." seems like a pretty good opening line in retrospect lol. just now noticing the backstage side 2 sabre toss + partner lift + partner catch. super impressive. anywho, uploading vids to drive shortly. might take some timeeee. haven't actually looked at the drive in forever. haven't bothered w/ 2024 marching vids yet lol.

lol okay, well, you're def preaching to the choir on that last part at least.

sooo i got vids starting from Nat A to the end of the contest. not sure where ill upload them, seems kinda time consuming lol. think everyone was incomplete except for maybe 7L w/ their abacus show. like around 3 mins of show for everyone it seemed. lots of units w/o costumes, silks, etc. zoomed out a lot to take in the full floor, bc even at the top of the stands the view wasn't great, at least from a DA judge perspective. my A ordering was woodlands, grand oaks, cy woods, and tomball, who were the 4 that set themselves apart imo. expected the first 3, Tomball was a nice surprise. their show was Out in the Cold. lots of blue glacial imagery. they brought out stiff, "frozen" flags at one point, which was clever. woodlands A did a show called a The Joke w/ again a minimalist floor w/ just a spotlight on it. was sooo afraid it was going to be another stupid Joker show lol. but it was The Joke by Brandi Carlile, which is like a progressive country anthem about celebrating individual differences. so the spotlight here makes quite a bit of sense thematically. they won by like 4 points tonite, they were my clear first as well. there was just a lot more layering and motion to connect the events in this show than the others, which was a reflection of the denser, longer phrasing at the individual level. i love the opening staging, kinda sidereal, little dots around like constellations around the spotlight. so poised and articulate throughout both the movement and equipment skills. the flags were cleeeeaaan for Feb 1st. theyll be a real threat at wgi Austin, methinks. grand oaks was a mixed bag for me. i actually think i might like the staging a lil more than last yr, some cool moments, esp that unwinding pod around the circus top maypole thing at the beginning. they chose a better version of My Name is Carnival, w/ better builds, thankfully. individual perf, not as wowed as last yr. last yr around this time i thought, they might get, like, 5th at Dayton, bc the individuals were killing it + i loved the sheep floor lol. they got 9th. this yr im not so sure. group flag toss into the split was cool tho. Cywoods, i think the show is called Wildfire?? it was, like, a really cute horse show, i think. the fringe on the costumes looked kinda like manes lol. lots of little sautes as they spill out from the top of side 1 into a stage filled w/ barn fences. kinda like galloping? not as much motion to connect the events, aaaand a bit on the shorter side. some dead air in those phrases, but when they were spinning and tossing they did very well. just a cute, fairly clear show. i thought the opens here were works in progress tbh. cy fair was def my 1st place, a lil more elevated in the theming than im used to seeing from them. Somewhere to Belong. they had a lot of different colored see-through plastic screens in different shapes, each bending the floor a little w/ its own gravity. this was a hard one to interpret, but methinks maybe something about different cliques, and figuring out which one fits you. lots of really impressive individual skills, but some performance kinks to iron out. woodlands world is doing a show called Departures, which is about departing from an airport, and im sure hoping not an indication of an upcoming director change LOL. this set design is my favorite since their 2016 show. the floor is black w/ smeary pink and blue lights depicting airport gate signs, as if you're zipping past them in a plane taking off. brilliant. they have lots of airport benches, 3 connected blue seats on wheels. no costumes/custom silks. first improvement i noticed over previous couple years: attention to character!!! finally, i know who the performers are, as they slouch over the benches waiting to take off, pulling up to attention, and then rearranging the benches leapfrog style in a way that's incredibly aesthetically appealing from upstairs. aaaand when they take off, holy speed and fluency in the equipment skills. great continuity of the phrases. easy to see why they've got half a dozen performers heading into the Boston crusaders guard this season. insane difficulty and risk, and so clean for Feb 1st. sooo many moments where i was like, there's no way they're going to be clean on that ensemble toss w/ that many performers doing it, but then they were!! the timing, pitch of the equipment in the air, the placement of the hands, the centering of the body, they nail it waaaaay more often than they don't. i honestly would've given them a 77 or 78 in equipment, Sam gave em a 75... great, but a teeny bit stingy, like all these early scores seem to be. movement... still a lil too loosey goosey for me. the clarity of the lines w/ the body and the feet from person to person, plus all the timing w/ the bajillion things going on at once w/ the benches, not quite there yet. i wanna see them explore more skills of flexibility, pick up their feet a lil bit more, give me interesting shapes w/ the body. the middle slow section seemed pretty sparsely choregraphed rn as well, too much stillness. found myself both wanting more choreo + more distinct, character specific choreo. also think the flags could be brought out earlier in that section, and bring out more of them. lyrical flags are what cyndi does best, imo. ge judge behind me was criticizing them for pacing and clarity. to a degree, yes, lots going on, but not quite to the degree his score reflects, which also seemed a lil ignorant of the talent demonstrated imo. remember, effect is the totality!!! don't think he liked how suddenly the show takes off, whereas i found that appropriately thematic. planes go from 0 to 100 reeeaal fast. thaaat said, there's a distinctly relentless, epic quality to the opening music that almost negatively reminds me of an AMP show, sorry AMP fans!! like a lil bit exhausting, like an action movie, and could use clearer build-ups w/ tension and release. more of a fine wine approach. plus some lapses in staging clarity at this angle, but not that frequent. aaaand again a lil too uneventful in the middle section. bring in more of that goosebumpy emotional impact. overall, hope they figure out how to raise the other scores to the level of their equipment score. the three they got from the active wgi judges were all great rlly, but still a lilll lower than you'd expect given the skills of the performers. the two non wgi judge scores, both effect, were the worst. highest scoring SW guard atm, but room for growth for sure.