Honestly, I feel as though the judging is a little biased. As someone supporting the Prosper Texas Band, I was very excited when they received top 12 and moved onto finals. That being said, after seeing Castle High School’s show, I felt as though we sounded better. When results came, I was actually shocked that Castle got 9th while we got 11th. I’m not saying I’m not grateful to be in the top 12, but the fact that Castle is an Indiana Band which scored higher than us despite many people I know saying they sounded and looked worse than us, makes me a little fishy. Also, these bands all have great shows, I’m not saying they don’t, however the fact that Avon and Carmel have been in the top three for practically decades straight leads me to believe that the judging is baised towards the home bands. That being said, congratulations to any bands who made top 12 and congratulations Avon, for winning this years Grand Nationals.
Also, let me further reiterate that this is my educated opinion based on people I know and their experience with Marching Band and Grand nationals. I do not have any spite towards any of the higher ranking bands and I apologize if this statement does seem as though I do.
Edit: I also want to reiterate that I mean no disrespect towards any bands that have been apart of the BOA Grand Nationals. I am merely pointing out a trend in the results trending back to my parents participating in Grand Nationals and how, in *my opinion* that it is a tad bit unreasonable that the same ( mainly Indianapolis) bands haven’t had a bad year in decades and have consistently made top 5. I’m not saying it isn’t normal for a band to place around the same for years in a row, I just find it unlikely that there haven’t been any noticeable outside circumstances which have kept Carmel and Avon from the top. For example, the Prosper Band likely won’t go to nationals for a few years due to a new High school appearing and dividing their roster. I simply find the data somewhat unlikely considering the data most other bands have had.
Lastly, again, I don’t want to say that any bands don’t deserve their placement, ( especially sorry for the implied shade I may have thrown toward castle. ) And all of the bands which preformed were beautiful, regardless of placement.)
