With just two days left to the DCI season, everyone's eyes are on finals night and what it might take to get there. But some of the best surprises of the night aren't even the medals; they're the caption awards. Caption awards are actually based on the average recap score category of the three nights combined, so this is just one day's worth of info. Here are the front runners heading into Semi-Finals. 

Best Brass

This award is based on the Music - Brass sub-caption which went to Carolina Crown last night. No surprises here. In the last 10 years, Carolina Crown has won this award 6 times. The first time being 10 years ago in 2009. They scored a 19.55 last night, with the Bluecoats just 0.05 behind them, with a 19.50. 

Best Percussion

Just like the brass award, Best Percussion is awarded based on the Music-Percussion sub-caption, and goes to the group with the highest average score of the three nights. Last night's top score of 19.80 went to the Santa Clara Vanguard, our reigning DCI world champions. Santa Clara has won this award for the last 3 years straight. With a 19.55, the Blue Devils are the next closest scorer in that caption. 

Best Visual

Instead of being overall visual, this award is based on the Visual Proficiency score. This is a tight race between the Blue Devils and the Bluecoats. The Blue Devils are currently in first with a 19.70 here, but the Bluecoats are trailing by only 0.10. If you look at the recap, the Bluecoats did come ahead of the Blue Devils in achievement, also by 0.10, but they were ranked third in content. While content scores typically won't change too much at this point in the season, judging can be subjective and even a change in 0.10 can mean so much. In this category, Santa Clara and Carolina Crown are not far behind, with scores of 19.40 and 19.30 respectively. 

Best Colorguard 

Naturally, this award is based on the color guard sub-caption and is going to be one of the most interesting to watch this weekend. The Boston Crusaders have been a fan favorite for this category and did win this caption last year, while the overall corps finished in 5th. However, the Blue Devils pulled ahead last night. This is a little surprising, as the Boston Crusader's guard did win at last two shows where the corps went head to head: NightBEAT and at the Southeastern Championships. But, the Blue Devils also have a long history of taking home this caption award including an astonishing win-streak in the late-2000's to early-2010's.

Best General Overall Effect

Unlike the other captions, the best general effect award is done by combining the 4 general effect scores. Last night's front runner is the Bluecoats with a score of 39.275 and the Blue Devils close behind with a 38.925. While that's just the closest corps, just a hair over 1.50 points separates 1st from 5th place in the category. Also of note, the Bluecoats did get one of the only perfect scores of the night, earning a 10 in performance from a GE 1 judge.