2021 BOA Grand Nationals (Nov. 11-13)

[Origin]

Avon certainly know how to throw down a finals performance. They were on fire tonight. 

[BandFan59]

Blue Springs was really, really good. They're a finals caliber band for me here no doubt.

[cjm715]

I really hope avon really can pull ahead of carmel!

[Rubisco]

I'm not watching any more videos, but I do think Blue Springs will be in finals at Nationals based on what I saw earlier. I'm also starting to think there might be more than 1 finals spot up for grabs.

[Nny14]

Yeahhh Broken Arrow is gonna win Nationals. I'm usually not their biggest fan but man that show is relentlessly good.

[BandFan59]

Broken Arrow is insane. I don't see them finishing out of a medalist position in November, and I have them winning it all right now. Absolutely incredible performance that flows so well together.

[Rubisco]

What an exciting set of results at Indianapolis! Carmel and Avon duking it out yet again. Captions seem a bit reverse of what I would have had based on the prelims performances, but it is what it is.

That three point gap between Mason and the others... Well, I can't speak for the other bands I didn't see, but compared to Brownsburg, that's an absurd gap, and it's my first major disagreement with the judges this season. I'm sure there will be more! But it does illustrate how close the groups in the "bubble" are to each other.

[Rubisco]

Yeah, prelims panel at Indianapolis did a better job with the spreads, in my opinion. A much closer 3-6 grouping.

[cjm715]

just remember, finals retreat is gonna be around this time in exactly 3 weeks. it’s that close.

[LeanderMomma]

12 hours ago, WILKINSON said:

Since you've seen Broken Arrow live, how do they stack up against the other top groups that you've seen live this year, like Vandegrift, CTJ, and Ronald Reagan? 

I would have Vandy over them and CTJ & Reagan would be right close to even with them.  
 

Edit:  I haven’t seen CTJ or Reagan in a few weeks so I don’t truly know what to think about where anyone will place but my gut is telling me Broken Arrow is going to medal at Indy. 

[Rubisco]

I'm bored waiting on St. Louis results. I'm looking through the prelims recap at Indy. If Tim is judging effect in semis at Nats, that could be good news for Brownsburg, which he had in 2nd place in ensemble visual over Avon (!). Also probably good for Reagan, but that's a different story.

[Rubisco]

St. Louis results probably confirm a National finals containing both Broken Arrow and Blue Springs. Actually, the gap between those two isn't as large as expected. Only 1.75 points. Still, a very solid win for Broken Arrow.

[BandFan59]

Though I have Blue Springs solidly in finals here, I actually expected a larger gap between them and Broken Arrow (2+) and a smaller gap between them and Coppell. Broken Arrow's show is a monster this year.

[LeanderMomma]

We left after Mustang and headed back to our hotel. I’m already in my pajamas. 

[zoomer]

 

[BandFan59]

I saw that video a couple hours ago. While I'm still not the biggest fan of the show design and there is some visual dirt that needs to be cleaned up, Vista Ridge is much improved and I have them solidly in finals here, probably in the 8-10 range as of right now.

[Rubisco]

I've been waiting forever to see Vista again! The only top group I hadn't seen recently. Definitely some major performance improvements in that Vista show compared to Austin. Obviously, the closer needs some work, but they've got some time left. Overall, I'm not jumping up and down about the design of the show, but the band does occasionally reach some pretty spectacular heights musically.

I think the only major change in my opinion based on this weekend's results (or, rather, my own opinion watching the shows) is moving William Mason closer to the bubble group. (I really hope they add something to those uniforms to pull the kids out of the color of the field!) So, the bands I would be surprised to see miss National finals going into the contest are Avon, Blue Springs, Broken Arrow, Carmel, Claudia Taylor Johnson, Flower Mound, Marcus, Ronald Reagan, The Woodlands, and Vista Ridge. That leaves two spots for William Mason, Round Rock, Brownsburg, Fishers (whose show I haven't seen), Castle, Dobyns-Bennett, and Wando. Am I missing any? It's a big bubble this year.

[Origin]

50 minutes ago, zoomer said:

 

I was excited to see how their show was coming along! What a big and challenging production! Their visual designs and staging always feels fresh. I love all the big drill sets. The reflective blue orbs look so good too. They just need to clean, clean, clean! Now I’m going to have “you’re so hypnotizing” stuck in my head the rest of the day.

[Rubisco]

Is Vista Ridge a Vento design? I think the Blue Springs guard was as well this past WGI season, and they also had a pretty unusual musical mashup of Whitney Houston and Charles Ives. I wasn't a huge fan of the music, but the overall show was great, and was "1st place" in Scholastic A, which is to say Blue Springs was the only Scholastic A group to get a master designation.

[Samuel Culper]

@Rubisco that is an affirmative on the Lindsey Vento design.

[BandFan59]

Just watched William Mason's show for the first time and I liked it. I don't love it, but I think they do a good job with the Top Gun theme of the show. The show does lose me a little towards the middle of the show in the ballad, and I wish there were more full ensemble moments especially with the brass as it seems the show is overly reliant on woodwinds and soloists at certain points. A little bit of visual dirt throughout, but nothing that can't be cleaned up before Grand Nationals. I see this pretty solidly in the bottom half of finals, maybe towards the bottom given the extremely high level of competition this year. I wonder what LD Bell would've looked like if they had done this show instead of giving it away.

[cjm715]

On 10/25/2021 at 10:41 PM, BandFan59 said:

Just watched William Mason's show for the first time and I liked it. I don't love it, but I think they do a good job with the Top Gun theme of the show. The show does lose me a little towards the middle of the show in the ballad, and I wish there were more full ensemble moments especially with the brass as it seems the show is overly reliant on woodwinds and soloists at certain points. A little bit of visual dirt throughout, but nothing that can't be cleaned up before Grand Nationals. I see this pretty solidly in the bottom half of finals, maybe towards the bottom given the extremely high level of competition this year. I wonder what LD Bell would've looked like if they had done this show instead of giving it away.

fun little fact, mason’s closer this year is bell 2010’s closer which makes sense because top gun was going to be the sequel to our 2010 show. I can’t say exactly what it was but the music we were playing was just insane and epic. They execute their show really well but i’m with you It’s great but I don’t love it, should be much cleaner by nats

[Michael0599]

Yeah I just watched broken arrow for the first time for this year, and my gosh, I'm speechless. I have nothing else to say really. I mean, it's near flawless and somehow will only be getting better. They are coming for the throat this year and I'd be shocked if they don't eagle it is that intense. So loud and pure, great visual acuity, and the show is entertaining and flows from each moment to the next. wow

[itsjaredh97]

this is going to be the most wild grand nats i think we will ever see. there will be potentially 5-10 bands that are going to be left out of finals that likely would've made it in any other year. plus i don't think anyone at this point right now can predict a top 10, everyone is just so close. i could not be more excited to see the developments in the next two weeks and for this competition.

[AlphaOmega]

Texas bands going:

Marcus, CTJ, Reagan, Vista Ridge, FloMo, Woodlands, Round Rock. That's seven. And all of them are probably going to make finals. 

Non Texas bands who have historically made finals in recent years:

Homestead, Dobyns-Bennett, William Mason, Avon, Carmel, Blue Springs, Broken Arrow, Marian Catholic (though not since 2017 if I remember correctly), O'Fallon Township, Wando, Castle.

Now let's get this on one list...

Marcus

Homestead

CTJ

Dobyns-Bennett

Reagan

William Mason

FloMo

Avon

Woodlands

Carmel

Round Rock

Blue Springs

Vista Ridge

Broken Arrow

Marian Catholic

O’Fallon Township

Wando

Castle

So that's eighteen bands who all have the capability to make finals. Seven of them are from Texas. If we took the seven Texas bands out, the eleven remaining bands who are strong enough to make finals will all make it, including one other band.

In 2019, six Texas bands went, and all six made finals. There’s a chance that will happen again. I kind of feel bad for the other bands who’d make finals if the Texas bands didn’t go. I want to feel proud, but at the same time it's getting absurd. This will probably be the craziest Grand Nats we've ever had. Good luck, y'all.