The Golden State is a part of the country that absolutely brings the fire across all classifications at the WGI Percussion World Championships.

But it's often tough to get a complete read on California groups heading into the month of April. Generally speaking, in a given WGI season, there are only one or two percussion events based in California. So, once it comes time to head to Dayton, there's still some gray area, competitively speaking, on how groups might fair coming out of the Golden State.

In short, there aren't always a ton of opportunities to get the full scope of California's miles-deep list of percussion groups, on a WGI stage, prior to the ultimate WGI stage.

This weekend provides that chance.

With just over 50 percussion groups scheduled to perform in the two-day WGI San Bernardino Percussion Regional, here's everything to check out from the west coast:

Independent World

It's hard not to start with the PIW groups in California, especially when three of them are perennial top-five finishers. Beyond that, though, part of the reason this specific event is so pivotal is because it's the first WGI event of the year that features all three of those groups in one place — Broken City (1st in 2019), Pulse Percussion (2nd), and RCC (5th).

Not only does that trio almost exclusively finish among the top five every year, but they also just so happen to be three of the last four Independent World gold medals, and — here's a crazy one — nine of the last 12 total medals awarded, dating back to 2016.

On the WGI season to date, there have been two California-based events. The most recent was in Merced on March 12, and featured zero Independent World ensembles. The first — held February 26 in Temecula — featured just two PIW groups, Pulse Percussion and POW Percussion (8th in 2019). So, yeah, the 2022 WGI sample size on California's PIW lineup is, to date, small. 

Of course, that's set to change, and thankfully that's not just because of the three heaviest-hitters. In total, this weekend will feature eight Independent World groups, five of which earned finalist bids in 2019 — the other two being POW Percussion (8th) and Dark Sky Percussion (11th). Vessel, which will also compete this weekend, just missed Finals, earning 16th, just 0.112 points off the Top 15.

The other two groups joining the PIW fray — Flux Indoor Percussion and Red Wave Indoor — are both new to their classification, so it'll be interesting to see how they fare in their first WGI event as World Class competitors.

Scholastic World

Okay, pause. All of the above as it relates to Independent World? Rinse and repeat.

Essentially, the PSW lineup is equally stacked, features almost the same number of ensembles, pretty much none of which have met head-to-head on a WGI floor in 2022.

So, here's a quick primer of the nine-deep PSW lineup. 

You've got Chino Hills, which owns each of the last three, and five of the last seven, PSW gold medals. Then you've got Ayala, which owns one of the two that doesn't belong to Chino Hills — the most recent, 2016 — in that span. There's Arcadia, which — while none were gold — has earned a medal at five consecutive WGI World Championships. And you've also got Homestead, which finished eighth in 2019.

Breathe.

From there, you're looking at Rowland — which was a PSW finalist as recently as #### — Sunny Hills, West Ranch and Amador Valley, all of which — while maybe not as decorated as their fellow competitors, are still appointment viewing.

Let's stop here to note — all of the above? That's less than half of this weekend's performing groups. So, yeah, this event is a little bit stacked.

Proven Competitors

Looking at the Open and A Class competition at this weekend's event, there's a slew of groups that have proven themselves in recent years on the national stage. So, here are a handful of highlights:

• Bakersfield College still stands as the defending PIO World Champion from 2019 and will compete amongst eight PIO peers this weekend. Gold Indoor was also a 2019 finalist, scoring 15th.
• Los Alamitos HS, which was a top-five PSO finisher in 2019, will compete in A Class this weekend.
• One of the weekend's 10 PSO groups, Fountain Valley HS nabbed a top-six Open Class finish in 2019. 
• Arcadia HS (Open) has earned a PSO finalist position in each of the last two World Championship events.