Drum Corps International voted to release the detailed recaps after each show beginning in 2017. The decision to release the recaps comes after a series of discussions at the DCI winter business meetings in Atlanta. 

Before the 2016 season launched, in a surprise move it was announced that recaps were not going to be released to the public. 

"Number one, we wanted to see how it effected things overall from a judging perspective," Chris Komnick, Executive Director of the Madison Scouts said. "From a membership standpoint, we felt like it created a different environment for them where they weren't to worried about the recaps or seeing them."

The decision to withhold the recaps was met with mixed reactions last year. The overall thought process was to prevent scores being influenced based on the previous contests. Forcing judges to score the corps based purely on what they saw that any given night and without any preconceived notion as to what the corps was scoring heading into a contest.



It was also to free the minds of the performers from worrying about the numbers so they could solely focus on performing at the highest possible levels.

From a fans perspective, it was preventing them from breaking down scoring while trying to follow their favorite corps. 

Komnick said in a video released on DCI's Facebook page that the discussion amongst directors and staff brought up key points about withholding the recaps. DCI Hall of Fame member Michael Cesario was mentioned in video has having brought up the point of judicial transparency. 

"We want to be completely transparent with our adjudication system," Komnick said. "So it was overwhelmingly in support of making [the recaps] available again publicly."

This also reconnects the fans to DCI in a very unique way. Similar to baseball, fans of DCI love to break down the overall scores to see how corps are stacking up against each other. Show designers also study the recaps to find out how certain design trends are being scored by the judges.

"We know the fans really love to dig into the numbers," Komnick said in closing. "We think it's important we have that type of engagement with them. So the recaps will be back for this year."

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