Starting a new forum due to the size of the old one! We are truly active!

Also I am announcing something new to be in experiment this season and continued going forward, the CLASS Grand Prix Tour! This tour will give corps a rank based on their scores from participating shows. For this season all CLASS shows listed on the league site will be included in the Grand Prix, including individual corps shows as well as CLASS sponsored shows. At CLASS Finals along with CLASS Championships will be a Grand Prix Champion, who averaged the highest score from the shows. Next Season we will have a Grand Prix Championships prior to CLASS Championships. Also next season in order to qualify, CLASS will have to be in the title of the show and the show needs to be added to the official league schedule.

I believe this will encourage corps to participate in all league shows to benefit the members and the corps and I ask members to make sure to give CLASS corps priority when accepting corps to shows going forward (if not already done).

Through this season I welcome ideas to strengthen the new Grand Prix that we may adapt to make it an even stronger series!

After two CLASS sponsored shows--here are the current Grand Prix results:

Division 1

Bluecoats 1 80.4375
Nemesis 2 79.815
Corps IBEX 3 79.18
Carolina Royals 4 77.455
Leviathan 5 77.4325
Lexington Legends 6 77.4175
Ragin Cajuns Drum & Bugle Corps 7 74.4325
The Holy Regiment 8 72.535
Pure Insanity 9 72.015
Vincent Storm 10 71.26
Swiss Regiment 11 70.835
New Star of Indiana 12 70.71
Ivory Brigade 13 69.045
NIWA Drum & Bugle Corps 14 67.07
unstoppable 15 66.67
Red Hand 66.6225
West Texas Thunder 17 66.0575
Fixed Arrow 18 60.6075
The Holy Regiment B 19 60.205
Vemix Vanguard 20 59.235
Goldcoats 21 53.615

Division 2

Firestorm 1 59.5775
Revolution 2 55.4225
Warriors 3 54.55
Cadets of Hennepin County 4 52.7025

Division 3

Pride of Peachtree 1 50.685

First on the new CLASS forum :D

technically i am lol

I like the idea. My only concern is people getting their shows up fast. I like to apply to shows early.

I also like that we are encouraging members to give CLASS groups priority in our shows but it doesn't rule out accepting other groups. Essentially this means that no CLASS group is denied. It does NOT mean that non-CLASS groups can't also be accepted. I've already seen that implied by someone who has a habit of not accepting CLASS groups in their own shows.

With that said: Yes, CLASS groups should support one another and go to each others shows and accept each other into our own shows. That's the benefit of a league in my view. CLASS however, is not exclusive. I believe that we are, in fact, inclusive of anyone who is interested. I believe people have the opinion that we are some elite, exclusive club who are only out for ourselves. This is not true. We just don't recruit people who are already in a league. I see other leagues recruiting from other leagues all the time. CLASS has a policy against that. We accept anyone who is interested in joining and only actively recruit members not already in a league.

"We just don't recruit people who are already in a league. I see other leagues recruiting from other leagues all the time."

curious .. and sorry for intruding.. but which leagues do you see do this all the time? What if a member decides on his own to leave a league and join another? Should that other league not accept them? Perhaps what you see isn't a league recruiting from other leagues but simply a league accepting someone who leaves one league and wants to join another.

I was in MaoMa for 2 seasons. I didnt care for it, for various reasons and when fame came along I left and joined fame. I have seen that happening a lot. I know you've been on this site longer than I have, but in the 5 months i've been on this site, I've only blatantly seen one league, a drum line league, poach from another. It was addressed and I believe cleared up. So again who does this all the time?

I don't think anyone has an issue with someone deciding to leave a league and either going independent or joining another league. No reason you should be stuck somewhere you don't like . Bluedeviled Eggs left us years ago and we hold no ill will (though they haven't been the same since lol)...I also saw your reasons you left and while I've been a MAOMA support, I understood your reasons completely. Stealing other corps is often a back door deal and while maybe not as big now as it used to be, it's happened a lot, some of those leagues ironically don't really exist anymore even. We have just always kept the policy to not do that and most of the leagues saw that as an honorable thing and have started following suit. We have also welcomed or merged with shut down leagues in an effort to give a corps a real home including our one time rival unspecified, who with MAoMA gave us the biggest challenge (though they also would beat us).

His main point is about people seeing us as elite group thinking we are above all, however I know many of us have worked with young corps and young leagues to help them get their barring etc, not some power hungry group. Our goal is simply to make FMA the best it can be.

As a relatively new corps in our 5th season on FMA, I believe we are a better fit for a newer league. I started out in CLASS and I recall being told in response to my request to join, "CLASS usually is open for people who have previously earned the spot. So consider it an honor!"

CLASS is a strong league with many powerful division 1 corps, and some are not shy about expressing it :) However, I've read many posts regarding the history of CLASS and have read the numerous success stories of its members. So of course, you should be proud. Before you take offense, it is not an attack on CLASS. I know that CLASS's success took a lot of hard work and dedication, but I'm not a part of CLASS's success. I didn't earn the spot. So, to me, it's more exciting helping a new league grow and reach new heights than sitting in the shadows of all these elite corps in a league which stands at the top unchallenged.

And all the power to you for it. FAME is certainly a very active and up and coming league and I'm excited to see where they can take it. I was happy to welcome FAME corps to my show. You have great leadership there that are determined to make it a great league! I'm sorry you felt in anyone's shadow. I don't however recall you being very active while here so perhaps that's why you felt that way. Each experience in life is what YOU make it, so make it your own.

To answer your question, Moongard- I see no problem whatsoever with people leaving a league and joining elsewhere. I do think it is in poor taste when leagues reach out to people who are still currently in another league to recruit. That's what I was referring to there.

ok so here are the updated standings...one thing i was worried about was proven correct! a corps who has not competed will have an advantage over corps who already have and would have subsequent lower scores. In this case Tullahoma hadnt competed at the 2 previous CLASS events (which will happen) and so they only have one score from last night to average in. This automatically moves them to the top though in last nights show they were beaten by both Nemesis and Bluecoats....im keeping as is now for discussion and review (remembering this is a test season). if anyone has suggestions, please feel free to share. as is now, even if I dropped the two lowest scores, it would only encourage corps to skip the first two shows.

there was some interesting movement as Red Hand moved up! division 2 and 3 were not included as no CLASS corps competed in those divisions at the most recent show, so there is no change.


current previous
The Tullahoma Azure Force 83.08 1 NR
Bluecoats 82.02 2 1
Nemesis 81.29 3 2
Corps IBEX 79.18 4 3
Carolina Royals 79.02 5 4
Leviathan 77.43 6 5
Lexington Legends 77.42 7 6
Ragin Cajuns Drum & Bugle 74.43 8 7
The Holy Regiment 73.66 9 8
Pure Insanity 72.02 10 9
Vincent Storm 71.26 11 10
Swiss Regiment 71.12 12 11
New Star of Indiana 70.71 13 12
Ivory Brigade 69.05 14 13
Red Hand 68.28 15 16
NIWA Drum & Bugle Corps 67.07 16 14
unstoppable 66.67 17 15
West Texas Thunder 66.06 18 17
Fixed Arrow 62.74 19 18
The Holy Regiment B 61.55 20 19
Vemix Vanguard 59.24 21 20
Goldcoats 53.62 22 21

I was very active in division 2 and 3. I've got a couple little medals to show it. When I made the jump to division 1, the spotlight faded very quickly. I spent all of last season fundraising. That's why it might seem as if I wasn't very active. It's okay. CLASS division 1 is big shoes to fill. I'd just get more excitement growing as a newer corps with a newer league, helping it reach new heights. Nothing against anyone. You gotta admit it thought that CLASS is intimidating :-P

I saw the talk about changing leagues and wanted to address why I switched. There was no backdoor dealings or whatever with my move. I truly believe that aaron and FAME would not stand for the dirty dealings. I definitely agree with you sax it's tacky and desperate to recruit other leagues' members. On the other hand, I know that when some friends change leagues, they ask their buddies to come along. I'd want my friends to come too but I couldn't force them and I wouldn't bug them but I might ask. Is that still in poor taste?

oh i know you did very well on the field, no doubt--i just meant off the field working to change things about CLASS you didnt like--i always encourage members ideas for sure (as a matter of fact that was really the start of this thread with my new sweepstakes like standings). and yes in CLASS division 1 is a bit on the heavy side--everyone works so hard it doesnt take long for them to get there and then its a fight for the top!

Aaron and I are actually good friends at this point and I applaud what he is doing--i think members sometimes would be surprised how well us league leaders get along. friendly rivalry is great--key word friendly and I think we all strive for that. Few people take it to a place I dont really tolerate but they tend to fade out quickly!

i dont want to speak for Sax, but i can for myself--I have switched leagues before (not in drum corps but others) and when I do I also ask my friends along--some go, some dont...some CLASS corps for example switched to SWG or FBOA but some didnt...the leader or BOD didnt ask them to switch, I as a member did--I do think thats different--also no one asked me to do it--again it was me asking my friends--i do agree thats very different!

Pandora- I don't think what you did to change or bring your friends was in poor taste at all. I wish you and yours the best of luck and I hope FAME goes the distance as it seems like a great new league!

Fixed Arrow is going to go on a fundraising mode for the rest of the season. With $4 left in the bank more money is sorely needed

Good luck! Open a bingo hall!

The administration rather decided a Subway sandwich would be purchased and distributed among the corp with the last $4. They will be trained to steal food sneakily from MAoMA corps for the remainder of the season.

haha they got plenty of money!!!

I totally feel where you're coming from Zombie haha, I went into fundraising a couple weeks ago and it's very clear because my gains suddenly cut down by half. Next season I'm just going to drop out into total fundraising because I don't think I'll be going anywhere higher than last season without it.

And by a couple weeks ago I actually mean around the 7th

We'll just donate 20% of our total earnings :D That's still about 2 million bucks xD

i did propose once that leagues be able to give some of their funds to help corps members. i suppose that gives people in a league an unfair advantage though