If you saw the scores from DCI Broken Arrow on Tuesday, July 16, you probably felt one of two ways: shocked or affirmed. The show at the home of one of the greatest Bands of America competitive units was also the home of quite a bit of competitive intrigue as 9 of the 2018 DCI Finalists competed head to head for the first time in 2019.

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The show was the first chance to see Bluecoats, Blue Devils, Santa Clara Vanguard, Carolina Crown, and Boston Crusaders all in the same venue, scored by the same judges. Over the past 4 weeks, we've had to get by on drawing weak conclusions built on comparing scores from two or three different shows on the same night. But now, we have it in print—the first read on the highest level of competition in the marching arts.

Let's take a look at what those results mean for the upcoming DCI Southwestern Championship as all 22 World Class corps are in one place.

Medal Run-Off

We now know the scores and spreads of how the top 3 corps sit—Bluecoats, Blue Devils, and Santa Clara Vanguard—and so far, it's reflective of what we saw from head-to-heads between BD/SCV and SCV/Bluecoats. The big question was how BD and Bluecoats would show up against one another. It was close.

Just 0.650 separates the top two blue corps, and .675 separates Blue Devils from Vanguard. They are all within striking distance of the big 90-point mark and could hit it at any point this week. If they all aren't at 90 by the end of Saturday in San Antonio, I'd be surprised.

This is now the third time that Blue Devils have come out on top of the reigning World Champion Santa Clara Vanguard—will they hold tight in #2, move up to #1 and pass the Bluecoats, or will Vanguard make the improvements needed to definitively set them above the Blue Devils?

Boston Crusaders/Carolina Crown

These two East Coast corps have a recent history of biting at each other's heels in the #4 and #5 spots, just on the edge of being in contention for a medal. Since a portion of Carolina Crown's staff left to join the design and teaching staff at Boston, the two have become much closer in competition and created what might be considered as a rivalry—one of very few that have popped up in recent DCI history.

Although at this point it may be expected for the Boston Crusaders to be included in this conversation, I must constantly remind myself that Boston is only in year 3 of being in THIS conversation. Each year, they continue to make history on the field. 

Recap Frenzy

The overall scores are one thing, but my real interest lies within the depths of the sub-captions and caption scores given to each section of these corps. The recaps are one place where judges can't hide behind one big number—they have to be able to justify two numbers at a time.

One of those is usually tied to the ideation/creation of criteria being displayed in the show, while the other is tied to the execution of that criteria.

Important Points

• Bluecoats and Blue Devils are separated by just .1 in GE, Boston and Crown are as well (Boston on top)
• SCV's biggest area of improvement looks to be in the GE category, as they only sit behind BD by 1-2 tenths in every other sub-caption.
• Blue Stars tied The Cadets in Visual and General Effect, giving the Stars the possible fuel to jump the Allentown corps.
• SCV's biggest winner right now is their percussion section, whose score in Broken Arrow has them .15 above BD and .25 above Bloo.
• Carolina Crown's brass continues their reign of excellence into 2019, earning second in the caption behind the Bluecoats by .3. 
• Bluecoats' success in the brass caption is very commendable and seems to be years in the making after showing continued improvement over the last two seasons.
• There's one red flag for the Bluecoats right now in these recaps and it's the fact that in Visual Analysis and Color Guard, the corps is "out-achieving their content" by 0.2. This can be an early sign of peaking, so it's important that they continue to add enhancements that raise the composition/substance scores and push their achievement even higher.
• Boston Crusaders are at the top of their game when it comes to Color Guard, earning 2nd in the caption. 
• Bluecoats have not typically scored this well in the Guard realm but are able to already top last year's Zingali-winner.