2025 TCGC thread

[Rubisco]

Ah, I thought you might be at the Houston one. I was hoping for some videos. 😭

[Tubalord11]

Sounds like there was a shooting at the Pasadena Memorial contest, praying and hoping everyone is okay!! The police have attained the suspect and the rest of the comp has been cancelled, please stay safe everyone 🙏

[Sideswiperr]

Based on what we are hearing, everyone is OKAY!!!

[Tubalord11]

Sounds like it was a Pearland Dad, who took down the suspect, whether you’re on these forms or not thank you so much for saving the lives of hundreds of people today! Glad to hear everybody is okay 

[TheSV-001Gamer]

I was working at the contest inside the school as a volunteer not TCGC
Near the entrance of the school in the back where the auditorium is, somebody shot.
 
I heard it once and didn’t think much, but everybody started running towards my direction, cause I was next to the cafeteria in the nearest exit

I ran out with my friends to a near church and to the houses and I got picked up

Some guy that got shot was running with us out but he had to lay down next to the school

I’m okay, the image of people running for their lives is something that’ll forever be burned to my mind.

[Tubalord11]

6 minutes ago, TheSV-001Gamer said:

I was working at the contest inside the school as a volunteer not TCGC
Near the entrance of the parking lot where the auditorium is, somebody shot.
 
I heard it once and didn’t think much, but everybody started running towards my direction, cause I was next to the cafeteria in the nearest exit

I ran out with my friends to a near church and to the houses and I got picked up

Some guy that got shot was running with us out but he had to lay down next to the school

I’m okay, the image of people running for their lives is something that’ll forever be burned to my mind.

Glad you’re okay bro

[packwick]

absolutely horrifying. i was hearing murmurs of an active shooter from others at Morton ranch today but didn't realize it was at a tcgc event.

thank goodness the parent took him down. absolute hero.

waaaay too close to home. the world seems to be getting sicker and sicker. stay safe, everyone!!!

[packwick]

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.

[Rubisco]

Utterly shocked by the news of the shooting at the percussion event. An 81-year-old shooter, too? So bizarre. Hope everyone recovers, both physically and mentally.

[Rubisco]

@packwick, I appreciate your valuable insights. But please also find the time to upload the videos somewhere private, because some of us are parched. 🥵

[Rubisco]

2 hours ago, packwick said:

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 section

There's an okay video on YouTube now. I disagree with this, actually. I find it rather reductive. There's clearly an elevated, intellectual quality throughout -- a quality of strangeness. Wonderful attention to detail as well. Furthermore, I disagree with your "skills of flexibility" statement. There are so many in this show! It's just that there's so much going on at once, you might miss them.

I'm dazzled by them, yet again. Perfect? No. Definitely room for improvement. But no other high school guard achieves from top-to-bottom like they do. No other high school guard asks so much from ALL of their members. None of that, "Oh, here's our one girl who can do fouette turns! Front and center!" or "Oh, here's our three girls who can roll under their tosses! Front and center!" With TWHS, you get a dozen or more at once, and they're friggin' clean. That should count for something. 🤷

[packwick]

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

[WoodlandsMom4ever]

9 hours ago, Rubisco said:

There's an okay video on YouTube now. I disagree with this, actually. I find it rather reductive. There's clearly an elevated, intellectual quality throughout -- a quality of strangeness. Wonderful attention to detail as well. Furthermore, I disagree with your "skills of flexibility" statement. There are so many in this show! It's just that there's so much going on at once, you might miss them.

I'm dazzled by them, yet again. Perfect? No. Definitely room for improvement. But no other high school guard achieves from top-to-bottom like they do. No other high school guard asks so much from ALL of their members. None of that, "Oh, here's our one girl who can do fouette turns! Front and center!" or "Oh, here's our three girls who can roll under their tosses! Front and center!" With TWHS, you get a dozen or more at once, and they're friggin' clean. That should count for something. 🤷

Just watched a video of them without sound first- and had to double check I wasn’t playing it on 1.5 speed… the spinning was so much and so fast.  Was a great first performance and can’t wait to see it develop in the next 2 months. 

[packwick]

2 hours ago, WoodlandsMom4ever said:

Just watched a video of them without sound first- and had to double check I wasn’t playing it on 1.5 speed… the spinning was so much and so fast.  Was a great first performance and can’t wait to see it develop in the next 2 months. 

"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.

[TheSV-001Gamer]

The man shot on last Saturdays TCGC contest is ok! And here’s his interview.

The quick thinking of some of the Pasadena Memorial band students to aid him was truly amazing!

I didn’t aid him, because he was already receiving it by the way if anybody was wondering. I knew he was in good hands.

[packwick]

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

[mussheet]

some pretty interesting stuff that happened at pieper on saturday

piper hs jv got a crazy high score of 76.22 but they hav been dominating the SJVRA class for a little bit now so i see them doing pretty well this season.

dripping springs won nat a class with a over 5 point gap between them and 2nd. they also were beat by brandies last week but this week they were able to get way ahead of them.

westlake hs was the winner of open with a pretty nice point gap between them and reagan.

there were also a good bit of penalties all around the contest so idk what that could be about.

[packwick]

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.

[jmartin1056]

Is there a video of TWHS world? I’m trying to find it but I guess I’m struggling to search the right term 😅

[Rubisco]

On 2/9/2025 at 8:14 PM, jmartin1056 said:

Is there a video of TWHS world? I’m trying to find it but I guess I’m struggling to search the right term 😅

I can't find the full video anymore, too. It must have been deleted or moved to private. I don't see any videos on the Google drive, either. 🤔

[okguard]

Saw lots of guards from both sides of the circuit going head to head for the first time this season at WGI New Braunfels yesterday!

After yesterday, I can't wait to watch IA and SO at State, but I think SA had the most interesting results of the day! Veterans Memorial and Foster stuck out to me in Round 1 of prelims (unfortunately the only SA round I got to watch), while Tomball Memorial, George Ranch, and Louis D. Brandeis scored quite closely, both in Round 2 and Finals. Seems like TCGC won't be promoting anyone from SA to SNA after this competition, but there's still the possibility after the Austin regional in two weeks. However, I've heard murmurings that Tomball Memorial, George Ranch, and Louis D. Brandeis may be under review to get promoted to SO! If anyone has videos of these guards, I'd love to watch!

[quenslays]

3 minutes ago, okguard said:

Saw lots of guards from both sides of the circuit going head to head for the first time this season at WGI New Braunfels yesterday!

After yesterday, I can't wait to watch IA and SO at State, but I think SA had the most interesting results of the day! Veterans Memorial and Foster stuck out to me in Round 1 of prelims (unfortunately the only SA round I got to watch), while Tomball Memorial, George Ranch, and Louis D. Brandeis scored quite closely, both in Round 2 and Finals. Seems like TCGC won't be promoting anyone from SA to SNA after this competition, but there's still the possibility after the Austin regional in two weeks. However, I've heard murmurings that Tomball Memorial, George Ranch, and Louis D. Brandeis may be under review to get promoted to SO! If anyone has videos of these guards, I'd love to watch!

the top 3 get reviewed to get promoted but i don’t think any of them will just from scores and how close they were to each other. i’ve  seen  brandies and tomball memorial and i doubt they will get promoted, there shows are very good A class shows but I could be wrong

[Parkwoodmom]

On 2/10/2025 at 10:53 PM, Rubisco said:

I can't find the full video anymore, too. It must have been deleted or moved to private. I don't see any videos on the Google drive, either. 🤔

It’s funny. After I watched a show it would disappear from the shared file, but they showed up in my suggested/recently viewed stuff in my drive? It’s magic! 🤷‍♀️

[packwick]

8 hours ago, Parkwoodmom said:

It’s funny. After I watched a show it would disappear from the shared file, but they showed up in my suggested/recently viewed stuff in my drive? It’s magic! 🤷‍♀️

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?!!

[WoodlandsMom4ever]

3 hours ago, packwick said:

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?!!

No chance - Pearland band dad’s will have it covered…