Frisbees, Not-So-Superfans, and Elsa

Day 4(b)

DCI Finals -- World Class

Saturday, August 9, 2008

We had a couple of hours to kill before the gates would reopen for the World Class competition, and walked the Marketplace about 5 times before sitting in the shade behind the SCV souvie trailer. I think we were offered frisbees from the Aerobed guy about 8 times. No, we had not changed our appearance any one of those times. It was kinda like Groundhog Day, but we never really changed the outcome. We were too tired to walk to McDonald's for lunch, and didn't want to lose our primo parking space, so there we sat. The line to the gate just grew and grew until it approached our area, so we decided to stand in the line when it finally reached us. Thankfully, we didn't have to stand for very long before they let us into the stadium. We thought that maybe TODAY would be the day that they would award us for wearing a SuperFan button, since we had been wearing them every day with no reward. They used to throw free stuff at the SuperFans, and we hadn't seen any kind of activity like that. Unless you count the Aerobed frisbee guy.

Bro and I headed for the ramp, and on to the Chik-fil-A stand for chicken sandwiches and sweet tea. (Did you have any doubt about our drinks?). Our seats were at about the 20-yard line, about 5 rows higher than our semifinals seats. I was sitting by the aisle, which kinda made me dizzy when I looked at all of the stairs, because, remember, I was still tired. I was worried that I'd doze off and fall, and Bro would just stare at me like, "How dare you embarrass me at finals?!" instead of helping me to my feet. A guy finally sat in front of me to block my view of the stairs, though, and I was fine again.

The program opened with a performance by the United States Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Corps -- "The Commandant's Own."

Repertoire included: 1801, Happy Feet, Malaguena, Symphony #5, and Jersey Boys, and ended with Stars and Stripes Forever. I just plain love that march. They then played the Star-Spangled Banner before leaving the field while playing their anthem.

The Volunteers of the Year were announced: award winners were volunteeers for the Blue Knights, Carolina Crown and Pioneer.

The Leadership Award was presented to the director of the Crossmen,

We were then treated to an exhibition performance by today's Open Class champion: Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets. YAY! So they got their encore performance after all! I would have loved to hear "Send in the Clowns," but maybe that's an A-corps thing.

The sponsors were then recognized before Voice of DCI dude announced the order for the competition, which had been done already by Mr. Potter when he was vamping earlier, but that's OK.

Madison Scouts

I like dancing to their music. I can't believe that my camera's batteries were dying during this corps again! The lady behind us called those things "Beehive Boxes." Perhaps if bees would actually fly out of them, I'd actually hear something while they were drumming on them. This DM used a baton. Did he come from Phregiment or something? What was up with that?

Glassmen

I told Bro that I think those chests were actually holding the dead bodies of the other Phregiment Drum Majors. This time I saw the multi-tenor player hit the horn player on the head with his mallet. Violence has started again. Kinda like the violence against the invisible animals during this show. Does PETA get upset when the violence is just implied?

Boston Crusaders

What is up with the red headdresses? I don't think the CG was wearing those yesterday. What do they have to do with "Neocosmos"? I like the way that the company front made a pathway for the CG couple. The crowd really liked the space sounds. They did "Conquest" twice: once slowly, and the other time as they traditionally play it. I didn't hear people doing the Conquest "huh"s, though.

Blue Knights

The crowd liked the contra low notes at the beginning of the show. I like their handpainted flags, as usual.

Blue Stars

One of the DM's names is Terryl Banta. You see? BANTA! W?! Anyway, a dude on the other side yelled out "LIVE STRONG!" Was Lance Armstrong here or something? I thought that the cyclist was going to run into the corps because he seemed to be riding too slow at first. He made it, though, thank goodness.

Bluecoats

Bro told me earlier today that his favorite part of all of the shows was Bloo's horn echo diminuendo. I had never noticed it before. He said that the crowd "oohs" at it. I honestly didn't remember it. Then I heard it (because he tapped me) during the show, and I like it, too! I also love that horn block during "The Boxer," as they play beautifully and loudly, then sing the rest of the verse. Very nice effect. When the narrator said to the contendor, "You have a choice..." one of the guys behind us said, "Boxing or Color Guard!" Ha ha. The other boxer had a horn at one point and played it from his boxing ring while the contender was dancing around. Where is the drum boxer?!

Santa Clara Vanguard

YAY! Great job, Vanguard! Good CG work, except for that one drop that really stood out. I enjoyed their show this year, and only wish they'd have placed ahead of that OTHER corps, but at least the B corps is there to keep us all proud. Hopefully, they'll stay with the Vanguard way and not defect to one of those blue guys. ;)

Cadets

In my pursuit of happiness, I did not watch this show. Instead, I went to the restroom, checked my home voice mail, and enjoyed the view of Bloomington from behind the stands.

Carolina Crown

I hear some different notes/chords tonight. I don't know what that's about. Was it because of where we were sitting, or did someone not remember their music? Nice show, and congratulations on a great season.

Cavaliers

Hmmm.... saw a couple of errors in the drill...thankfully not during all of the jumping over the people portion. I love the crowd reaction to the blood streamers. and the way the CG flags run past one of the samurai as if they were wind. Great show.

Phregiment

Gorgeous music, especially the dynamic contrast. The color guard was ON. Most gorgeous solo of the entire day: that mellophone solo during the ballad. Bro wondered if this soloist was part of last year's Lakme duet. Hmmm....it's possible. Awesome, awesome, awesome show!

Blue Devils

Sopranos seemed to be having a little trouble, at least to me. Otherwise, very well done show.

There were a couple of times during the night when prizes were given to some of the fans whom had signed up as Super Fans at the DCI booth. But they never went around and threw free shirts at us or anything! What is up with that?! What's the use of wearing these buttons and poking holes in our shirts if they don't even look for them?! LAME.

FINALE

The USMC played a bunch of marches ("A World of Cheeses...") as all of the finalist corps marched onto the field. The audience did the wave a LOT of times, and blue Aerobed frisbees were flying all over the place. SCV, as usual, took its time to get their corps looking just perfect, and finished barely a minute before the scores were announced. Bro said that Crown looked like the Jedi Training Academy with their neon lightsaber-looking things. I don't even remember those from their show, but whatever.

Spirit of Disney Award: Phantom Regiment

We couldn't believe it. We thought that with all of the violence, Disney wouldn't possibly award this corps, even though it was the most entertaining show to me. Perhaps if Mickey was here, they might have awarded this to someone who didn't hit anyone or kill people. I was stunned, but happy for the corps. Hmmm...maybe it should be called the Spirit of Touchstone Award instead.

SCORES:

12) 85.225 Madison Scouts

11) 87.2 Glassmen

10) 87.275 Boston Crusaders (wow! .075 spread?!)

9) 88.250 Blue Knights

8) 90.425 Blue Stars

7) 93.025 Santa Clara Vanguard (aw, they got jumped -- SCV and Bloo had been duking it out all season, so this isn't a surprise, but still, sadness)

6) 93.175 Bluecoats

5) 94.75 Cadets

4) 96.8 Carolina Crown (big applause, as this was their highest placement -- and score -- ooin corps history)

There was then a big pause, as the crowd took a collective breath.

3) 97.325 Cavaliers

Big applause, then a big HUSH, as BD reached out to each other and held hands for the next score. Now, had they been told that BDB did the same thing and did not win earlier today, maybe they wouldn't have done this.

2) 98.1 (way big dramatic pause)

................Blue Devils

The crowd went IN-SANE. *I* went IN-SANE. I think I lost my voice for a few minutes due to all of my cheering. I think a few people lost their voices. Phregiment stood still, like a good drum corps does.

1) And with a score of 98. 1 - 2- 5 (collective gasp), PHANTOM REGIMENT!!!!!!!

Even more applause and cheering and throwing of frisbees. I don't think I've seen this much excitement at DCI since 1999. Phregiment had finally won a title all by itself, and by the smallest margin possible. I wondered if they had tied, but had a tiebreaker to give them the extra 0.025, but the recaps proved otherwise. Take a look at these caption awards.

Caption awards are based on an average of Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Finals. If there is a tie, then the award goes to the highest score at Finals.

General Effect: Phregiment (ooh, presented by Mrs. World)

Visual: Blue Devils

Color Guard: Blue Devils

Brass: Blue Devils

Percussion: Phregiment (Why are they awarded with a little drum? If you've won the *percussion* award, doesn't that mean that you already HAVE a drum?) W.

Drum Major/Leadership: Megan Huber of the Crossmen (I guess for not getting herself killed)

A video was shown which was a lot of images of Finals Week, then all of the corps, led by the resurrected Phregiment DM, played that weird rendition of "America The Beautiful." I didn't mention in my report from earlier in the day that when the Open Class corps played this, Beatrix did not play. But Dutch Boy (from Canada) did? Well, I guess they have a couple of bars from "O Canada" in there. I like it better now that it's loud, but it's still not great.

Afteward, the corps all went nuts (except the always military and always leaving the field right away Cadets). The SCV DMs hugged Phregiment's DM, then told him to stand where he was, so they could do their traditional salute thing. They stepped back 10 yards, started to march forward, but then stopped and had to start over again because somebody had messed them up. They did get it right, though, and saluted him properly. I just LOVE SCV, and always look forward to that part, although I prefer to see them being the winners. ;)

Finally, the announcer told Phregiment, "The field is yours!" and they went to get their guard equipment and warm up. You'd think that if anyone is in the top 3, they would keep their CG equipment a little bit closer, but OK. At least they weren't cocky about it.

Loved hearing, "SUTA!!!!!!!!!"

They warmed up with Ave Maris Stella from behind the end zone stands. I'm sure they would have normally done this on the field, but they needed to be back there for all of the drama with the DM and the slaves and such. They performed their whole show, killing and all, and the mellophone solo was still spectacular. They then finished with their theme song, Elsa. Gorgeous.

And so I leave y'all with the final image of the DCI Trip Blog:

Phantom Regiment, in their Victory Concert, playing their anthem.

Congratulations to Spartacus and the rest of the cast of Phregiment! SUTACUS!