View a complete recap of scores from this event.
Wow…where to begin…where to begin. We have never seen a winning margin as small as 0.025, one-quarter of a single tenth. Until the DCI World Championship World Class Semifinals, Phantom Regiment hadn't even beaten the Cavaliers this season.
Phantom Regiment (1st, 98.125) won by adding 0.45 to its total score, while the Blue Devils added a smaller margin of 0.05. Considering the Semifinals margin of BD over Phantom was 0.375, as minor as it might seem, that made all the difference in the outcome. Phantom's Visual Effect score was 0.35 under that for BD, but Music Effect was 0.30 above, almost a wash in total Effect. But the corps' total Visual score was 0.65 less than BD's and Phantom's Percussion score was 0.85 greater after being 0.55 above in the Semis. The corps won Music Effect, Music Ensemble and Percussion. The Rockford corps' Visual Performance score was 1.10/0.55 under BD in Semifinals, but only 0.10/0.05 behind in Finals. Closing the gap of 1.00/0.50 in that caption was a major reason Phantom passed up BD. (Remember that all captions except for Visual Effect and Music Effect are divided in half before being added to the final score.) However, that spread was largely negated by Phantom's Color Guard score, which was 0.70/0.35 behind the Blue Devils after it was only 0.20/0.10 behind in Semifinals. Phantom's Brass caption closed up a 0.30/0.15 gap in Semifinals to 0.10/0.05 in Finals. Their Percussion, strong all season, outscored BD's line by 0.85/0.425 in the Finals after doing so by 0.45/0.225 in Semifinals. The total Music score, (combining Brass, Music Ensemble and Percussion) was 0.725 above that of Blue Devils. It helped make up for the corps being 0.65 under BD in total Visual, (the combination of Visual Performance, Visual Ensemble and Color Guard). Throw it all together and you get a scoring scenario that almost defies plausibility.
Blue Devils (2nd, 98.100) picked up 0.30 in total Effect, lost 0.10 in total Visual, and lost 0.15/0.075 in total Music. Their Percussion score slipped to 5th after tying for 3rd, but only lost 0.10/0.05 in the process. The spread in Percussion was 0.85/0.425 to Phantom's advantage. In total Visual, the corps slipped 0.10/0.0520 from Semifinals. The two top corps did a good job of mixing up the captions each won. Phantom won Music Effect, Music Ensemble and Percussion. Blue Devils won Visual Effect, Visual Ensemble, Color Guard and Brass. (The Cavaliers won Visual Performance.)
The Cavaliers (3rd, 97.325) lost 0.225 from their Semifinals score. Total Effect accounted for 0.20 of that amount. The 0.80 gap between the corps and Phantom came mostly in the 0.60 advantage Phantom had in Music Effect. The 0.775 gap between the corps and Blue Devils happened mainly in the 0.65 spread BD enjoyed in total Effect. They were 2nd in Percussion, Visual Effect, Visual Ensemble and Color Guard.
Carolina Crown (4th, 96.800) gained 0.10 from Semifinals, losing 0.10 in total Effect and gaining the same amount in both total Visual and total Music. They took 2nd, in Music Ensemble, 3rd in Brass and 4th in Percussion, making total Music (2nd place) the strongest caption for the corps.
The Cadets (5th, 94.750) lost 0.70 from Semifinals. Half of that, 0.35, came in the 6th place Music Effect caption, with another 0.20 coming in the 5th place Visual Effect caption. The corps scored 1.00 under Crown in total Effect. They were 3rd in Visual Ensemble, but all other captions were either 4th or 5th.
Bluecoats (6th, 93.175) passed up Santa Clara Vanguard by 0.15 after being 0.825 behind in Semis, a scoring difference of 0.975. The 1.15 advantage that SCV enjoyed in total Visual in Semifinals was practically cut in half down to 0.55. The two corps tied in total Effect and the Bluecoats were up 0.80 in total Music. Other than a 3rd place finish in Percussion, all other captions ranged between 5th and 7th.
Santa Clara Vanguard (7TH, 93.025) fell 0.50 under the Bluecoats after being 0.825 ahead. 0.70/0.35 of the Finals deficit came in total Music. All captions finished in 6th or 7th.
Blue Stars (8th, 90.425) lost 0.15 from Semifinals, with a 10th place finish in Percussion, 7th in Color Guard, and all other captions finishing in 8th. The corps increased its 0.875 spread over Blue Knights to a margin of 2.175. The corps' total Effect spread of 0.40 increased to 1.00 largely due to Blue Knights dropping 0.40 in Visual Effect and 0.55 in Music Effect.
Blue Knights (9th, 88.250) dropped 1.40 from Semifinals, largely due to a 0.95 drop in total Effect. 0.55 of that came in Music Effect. With the exception of 8th place in Percussion and 11th place in Color Guard, all other captions were 9th or 10th.
Boston Crusaders (10th, 87.275) dropped 1.70 from Semis, with 1.50/0.75 of that coming from their Visual Performance score. The corps' Percussion caption stayed at the same score, but every other caption fell in score from Semifinals.
Glassmen (11th, 87.200) fell 0.925, with 0.45 of that coming in Music Effect and another 0.575 deficit in total Music.
Madison Scouts (12th, 85.225) scored 1.15 lower than in Semifinals, with 0.65 of that coming in Music Effect. Another 0.70 of the drop occurred in total Music.
