2021 BOA Katy (Oct. 2)

[LHSax]

Feels like a mix of Secret World and early 2000's Reagan...which are all my favorite things, so I'm here for it. I think all the pieces are there for this thing to be unstoppable, just need to see if that last bit of magic is added to push it to the top of a stacked field in November. Excited to see a higher quality video this weekend!

[FaultLineBlues]

Hoping for the sun to have an underdog victory and for this contest to not get rained out. 

[gmtb617]

Glad to see the weather should be cooperative after all. Welcome to Legacy Stadium everyone!

[FaultLineBlues]

It's a shame about the singer's mic not working, but the snippet of Cedar Ridge's closer that they put in is super cool, really liked that woodwind ensemble layered over the first impact. 

[Rubisco]

Another very cool show from Reagan, and a very difficult one! Technical passages, technical passages for everyone! It seems to have more of a vintage Reagan sound, albeit a little bit busier. I like the content well enough; I just hope that they're eventually able to reach that level of execution that will put them in contention for gold late-season. Music and visual both a liiiittle bit shaky in that prelims performance, at least compared to the high standard Reagan has set for themselves. But this year I wouldn't have expected perfection, given the circumstances.

[Rubisco]

As I suspected might happen, we're getting some major volatility when comparing across contests. Just last weekend Seven Lakes beat Pearland by over 4 points. Seven Lakes was 4th and Pearland was 7th. I caught Pearland a few hours ago in prelims and didn't notice too many major improvements (it's only been a week), so this seems to me like a judge consensus issue. It'll be interesting to see what the final scores look like, but based on this, I think it'll be difficult to draw comparisons between contests.

[principalagent]

  On 10/2/2021 at 11:07 PM, ThomasV. said:

is this the first time Pearland has medaled?

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Yes if they keep it up. 

[FaultLineBlues]

Whoa, the music in SFA's show is awesome!

[FaultLineBlues]

Oh wow, Westlake didn't have most of these props/scrims at Austin did they? At least I don't remember them

[TWHSParent]

  On 10/3/2021 at 3:14 AM, FaultLineBlues said:

Oh wow, Westlake didn't have most of these props/scrims at Austin did they? At least I don't remember them

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Reviewing the video from last week, no, they didn't.

[Guest]

Full disclaimer. I graduated from SFA in 2016. I dont want to sound biased, but this is such a beautiful show. I am trying to hold back tears. 

 

[Texasenthusiast]

Friendswood hasn't made BOA finals since 2009. How was the performance from them?

[principalagent]

  On 10/3/2021 at 3:26 AM, Texasenthusiast said:

Friendswood hasn't made BOA finals since 2009. How was the performance from them?

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I was a fan! I hate that Stephanie Chavez is working with such a small guard, but the work she's giving the girls she has is SO GOOD and they're killing it.

[BandFan59]

  On 10/3/2021 at 3:58 AM, Origin said:

LD Bell’s show is very in-line with what they’ve offered these past few years. The guard is much larger than I thought they would be, and they’re doing a great job. Just comparing them to some of the finalist bands, there are some full band moments that need some cleaning and balancing, but they have a good show to work with.

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Posted this under the wrong thread haha but I agree with you. A pretty typical LD Bell show but they're performing it well.

[FaultLineBlues]

1. Ronald Reagan H.S., TX — 88.15 

2. Cedar Ridge H.S., TX — 86.00

3. Pearland H.S., TX — 84.45

4. Seven Lakes H.S., TX — 84.35

5. Westlake H.S., TX — 84.05

6. Lake Travis H.S., TX — 83.30

7. James E. Taylor H.S., TX — 79.75

8. Dawson H.S., TX — 78.60

9. Stephen F. Austin H.S., TX — 76.95

10. Cy-Fair H.S., TX — 76.60

11. Friendswood H.S., TX — 76.55

12. Oak Ridge H.S., TX — 76.00

 

Outstanding Music Performance — Ronald Reagan H.S., TX

Outstanding Visual Performance — Ronald Reagan H.S., TX

Outstanding General Effect — Ronald Reagan H.S., TX

 

[BandFan59]

Reagan has clearly not slowed down at all in the post-Morrison era. They look primed for a run at the Eagle in November.

[Rubisco]

Some... uh... very sudden shifts in scores over the last week, huh? ?

Based on the prelims performances I saw, these seem a bit inflated, but then when you look at the recaps, the prelims scores were actually a bit lower.

Very hard to make comparisons with last week, as expected. Cedar Ridge's score increased by over 6 points, Pearland's by over 7 points, Westlake's by nearly 7 points, and Seven Lakes' by nearly 3 points. 3 points, okay, that's more understandable. I'd expect 2-3 point increases week to week. Like I said earlier, the consensus just hasn't really formed yet. Anyway, overall, the scores were much higher here.

I am looking with a bit of keener eye toward Richard Saucedo's and Matt McCready's scores, since they judged the exact same captions in prelims and finals here that they did last week at Austin and North Houston, respectively. Looking at the very top: 16.3 and 16.8 at Austin to a 17.0 and 17.4 in West Houston. That's a significant increase. Enough to say that Saucedo liked Reagan more than CTJ (his 1st place group in both rounds at Austin)? I don't know. There may have been increased pressure to raise the scores after the Austin/North Houston gap from last week. Possible differences in contest dynamics. Conversely, McCready's top scores were either lower or the same, despite being a week later: 17.6 and 17.6 at North Houston to 17.0 and 17.6 at West Houston. This makes me think he preferred TWHS to Reagan. But these are just the opinions of single judges and are really pretty useless in the grand scheme of things. But it's fun to pore through the numbers.

[Bad.robot]

  On 10/3/2021 at 5:44 AM, Rubisco said:

Some... uh... very sudden shifts in scores over the last week, huh? ?

Based on the prelims performances I saw, these seem a bit inflated, but then when you look at the recaps, the prelims scores were actually a bit lower.

Very hard to make comparisons with last week, as expected. Cedar Ridge's score increased by over 6 points, Pearland's by over 7 points, Westlake's by nearly 7 points, and Seven Lakes' by nearly 3 points. 3 points, okay, that's more understandable. I'd expect 2-3 point increases week to week. Like I said earlier, the consensus just hasn't really formed yet. Anyway, overall, the scores were much higher here.

I am looking with a bit of keener eye toward Richard Saucedo's and Matt McCready's scores, since they judged the exact same captions in prelims and finals here that they did last week at Austin and North Houston, respectively. Looking at the very top: 16.3 and 16.8 at Austin to a 17.0 and 17.4 in West Houston. That's a significant increase. Enough to say that Saucedo liked Reagan more than CTJ (his 1st place group in both rounds at Austin)? I don't know. There may have been increased pressure to raise the scores after the Austin/North Houston gap from last week. Possible differences in contest dynamics. Conversely, McCready's top scores were either lower or the same, despite being a week later: 17.6 and 17.6 at North Houston to 17.0 and 17.6 at West Houston. This makes me think he preferred TWHS to Reagan. But these are just the opinions of single judges and are really pretty useless in the grand scheme of things. But it's fun to pore through the numbers.

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With these scores wildly increasing from North Houston, where do you think this places bands like Cypress Woods and Klein Oak (who placed high at North Houston, but did not participate in West Houston?)

[BravoBand]

  On 10/3/2021 at 5:44 AM, Rubisco said:

Some... uh... very sudden shifts in scores over the last week, huh? ?

Based on the prelims performances I saw, these seem a bit inflated, but then when you look at the recaps, the prelims scores were actually a bit lower.

Very hard to make comparisons with last week, as expected. Cedar Ridge's score increased by over 6 points, Pearland's by over 7 points, Westlake's by nearly 7 points, and Seven Lakes' by nearly 3 points. 3 points, okay, that's more understandable. I'd expect 2-3 point increases week to week. Like I said earlier, the consensus just hasn't really formed yet. Anyway, overall, the scores were much higher here.

I am looking with a bit of keener eye toward Richard Saucedo's and Matt McCready's scores, since they judged the exact same captions in prelims and finals here that they did last week at Austin and North Houston, respectively. Looking at the very top: 16.3 and 16.8 at Austin to a 17.0 and 17.4 in West Houston. That's a significant increase. Enough to say that Saucedo liked Reagan more than CTJ (his 1st place group in both rounds at Austin)? I don't know. There may have been increased pressure to raise the scores after the Austin/North Houston gap from last week. Possible differences in contest dynamics. Conversely, McCready's top scores were either lower or the same, despite being a week later: 17.6 and 17.6 at North Houston to 17.0 and 17.6 at West Houston. This makes me think he preferred TWHS to Reagan. But these are just the opinions of single judges and are really pretty useless in the grand scheme of things. But it's fun to pore through the numbers.

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The increase in scores in just one week did seem surprising … especially comparing last week Prelims to this week Prelims.  Pearland +8.7, Oak Ridge +8.4, Westlake +7.9, SFA +6.2 with the average of all bands that competed in both being >5.  Bridgeland seemed to be an outlier with a -1.15 vs last week.  I don't know, maybe there is always more variation in Prelim vs Finals comparisons but interesting for sure.  The largest driver of the increases seemed to be in the General Effect - Visual category with several +3 increases.

[Rubisco]

  On 10/3/2021 at 12:17 PM, Bad.robot said:

With these scores wildly increasing from North Houston, where do you think this places bands like Cypress Woods and Klein Oak (who placed high at North Houston, but did not participate in West Houston?)

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If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say Klein Oak around that 3-5 cluster and Cypress Woods near Cedar Ridge. But again, comparing across contests, especially at this early stage, is a bit of a mug's game. When making predictions for later contests, I tend to lean heavily on my own opinions after seeing all the shows -- with maybe a little bit of the general audience's opinion injected as well, which I glean from comments posted on forums (ha). You know, to correct for my own peculiar tastes a little bit. But really, at the end of the day, you need to trust your own educated opinion. Or better yet, just don't make predictions at all and enjoy the ride!

[Tubalord11]

I think we should congratulate Lake Travis! They made about a 10 point jump from Austin, and had 2 amazing shows! Could definitely see this at state, especially since Leander is now 5A