2017 DCI Minnesota Presented By The U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps

Is SCV Poised To Win First DCI Championship Since 1999?

Jul 9, 2017 by Michael Gilley

Following Bluecoats' debut of Down Side Up in Indianapolis, the talk amongst many within the marching arts community was not who will win the 2016 DCI World Championship, but who would finish 2nd. On June 22, 2017, Bluecoats debuted Jagged Line and for many it was the same debate all over again.

Who's up for 2nd? However, after DCI Minnesota, the question has changed.

The Santa Clara Vanguard came out of the tunnel from under TCF Bank Stadium and absolutely lit up the Minnesota night. Backed by a powerful percussion section, a hornline that has shown immense improvement, and a guard that continues to wow, SCV ended the Bluecoats dominant run and re-ignited the question.

Who will win the 2017 DCI World Championship?

Over the past several years Vanguard has been executing at a very high level but was not getting the GE reward they may have been expecting. While they did not win GE last night, 32.30 to Bluecoats' 32.40, it was close enough to allow their excellence in execution to push them past Bluecoats.

The mathematical nature to their drill and mesmerizing circular figures all point back to their show concept of Ouroboros. With a 15.800 in visual proficiency, their clean feet beat out Bluecoats by .200 of a point. With an additional .200 lead from the color guard section, that gave SCV enough margin to make up for Bluecoats beating them in visual analysis by .300 points.

In the music captions, Bluecoats were able to secure brass with a 16.000 to SCV's 15.800 but music analysis went to Santa Clara by .200 of point and canceled each other out.

Here is where Santa Clara secured the win. Both percussion judges had the Vanguard's percussion section .300 over Bluecoats.

PUSHING TO INDIANAPOLIS

What does last night's results mean in the long term? In reality, absolutely nothing.

Bluecoats beat Santa Clara by .700 at the Show of Shows just 24-hours before DCI Minnesota. So, will SCV's upset just be a "flash in the pan" or is it a sign of things to come for the rest of the summer?

Santa Clara came close but could not beat the Blue Devils on the West Coast earlier this season. On Saturday night in Washington, Blue Devils also broke the 80 mark with an impressive 81.900. So if Blue Devils were consistently beating SCV and Santa Clara just upset the Bluecoats, one has to think that the Blue Devils are now the favorites moving forward.

But you can not forget what Carolina Crown have been doing on the East Coast. In Orlando on Saturday night, Crown matched BD's score with their own 81.900. If you are just taking in scores that means that Crown and BD have the highest scores of the season to date and should equally be considered favorites.

However, the Bluecoats have seen Crown on a couple of different occasions this season already and have not lost to Carolina Crown yet.

So we have our own ouroboros in effect at the top of World Class. The Blue Devils have beaten Santa Clara. Santa Clara have beaten the Bluecoats. The Bluecoats have beaten Carolina Crown. And Carolina Crown have tied BD for highest score of the season.

The 2017 DCI season is shaping up to be one of the most highly competitive seasons of drum corps the world has ever seen. Who will be named the DCI World Champions on Saturday, August 12? The race has been completely blown wide open! Look for our updated rankings to come out on Tuesday, July 11. Then watch on Saturday, July 15 as FloMarching will be live-streaming both the Drums Along The Rockies and the Northern Illinois Tour of Champions.

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