O.. M... G... I am no 1 right now? Wow I never expected it, and trust me I know that it can be taken away very easily. I just want my first medal!!! Obviously gold is best, but I'll settle for any spot in the top 3. My trophy case needs a pretty decoration besides regular season and finals participation awards :-)

Oh trust me I know how that feels, I barely squeaked by into 3rd last season with my Drumline in D2, getting my first medal in the process. Good luck to you, I think you will for sure get a medal if you keep up rehearsing!

I love that we are doing so well with a Shostakovich show :-) His compositions are powerful and always an effective choice for the field. I totally imagine this show in the style of Phantom Regiment, who consistently rocks the house with Shostakovich and upsets the competition.

Hey ALM, congrats. You and ASCoasters are so close. ASCoasters, yah, I remember last season drumline. As much as I pressured, you edged me out a medal, while my drum corps slowly moved to 3rd. I'm in same position with my drumline this season, just hanging in 4th rigtht now, though I hope that will change. On another note, we go head to head tomorrow night. Will be a hot show. Best of luck. ALM, keep up the rehearsals. Like ASCoasters said, all it takes is for someone to miss a rehearsal, even an hour can make a difference.

Correction, my drumline is sitting 3rd right now. It is my guard hanging out in 4th. Still proud, their 1st season in DII.

Kiwi, dear, you are way ahead of me. I appreciate the modesty, but I am not quite sure I can catch you. I don't know what the flaw is in my rehearsal strategy, but I'm not gaining the points that you are. Whatever you are doing, keep it up. it's working for you. Someone told me about this current strategy. It's working okay, but it's keeping me from being strongly on top. I 'm only no 1 because you didn't have a show yesterday :)

alm, your marching band is doing well too. Ya'll are nipping at us. I've missed a few hours because I overslept and it shows.. ouch.. back off a bit.. I can't breathe LOL

Aaron and ALM, I find it quite amazing how the three of us have basically come in together, grown together, and usually raise each other's level of competition. If Dark Knights were in DII, where they should be, we would all be at each other for a title. Still don't understand why DK jumped 2 divisions when last season my marching band won DIII gold and only went to DII, while my color guard went undefeated in DIII and only went to DII, go figure. DII marching band is just as tight as drum corps is this season. Will be a nail biter to say the least.

ALM, not sure about your rehearsal strategy, I basically do mine on how it would be in the real world. I always improve my staff when the money is there, even ranking up helps. Actual rehearsals, the way I see it, you can't get the higher Ensemble scores until the Performance scores are there, likewise, the GE scores will have bigger gains when the other scores are there. I always choose highest difficulty levels for my captions too. If you have high difficulty levels, are super clean, then you will be rewarded. And I do it in the order of how a real life rehearsal would be. But then I have heard of a DI powerhouse who does it opposite, has the GE scores there and needs only to click on his music winds/percussion/visual etc. Maybe it is the possibility that the judges just seem to like my rock group themed shows, music they grew up on, and awesome visual shows to tell our stories. haha. TBH, am only in my 3rd season, so still experimenting, no drastic changes in how I rehearse as it has given me consistent results, yet still refining when I see a good pattern.

Umm wow, what the hell just happened?! ASCoasters, did you miss a rehearsal? I really thought we would have been closer. I do see the point gains overall are dropping to around .9, but only a .4 gain? Makes me wonder just how much rehearsal strategy does come into play.

ALM, you are closer than you think. Got me constantly watching my mirrors now. And marching band DII....wow. I think you will medal there definately. We had the night off last night, but really looking forward to hitting the turf tonight.

ASCoasters....oooh, home show tonight. Nice, both my drum corps are there. I see DI has 3 powerhouses to battle it out, while DII has it's own powerhouse corps. Looks to be a good lineup with great variety for your home drum corps fans.

Best of luck...looking forward.

My rehearsal schedule is just killing Berlin Fieldsmen, tbh.

Finals week upon us....final push. Any surprises? Look out, Aftershock NZ just might have something up their sleeve....dieing to be unvieled.

I think you've got this one kiwi, no way i'll be catching up at this point haha. Good luck!

Thanks ASCoasters, but I'm not taking anything for granted. Last year I was 1 point behind Ivory Brigade after prelims. That gap closed to .2 something by finals. Right now top 5 are within a point, so yeah, someone could pull a surprise, especially if they decide to upgrade some staff at this point, the unknown factor. I can't upgrade, no finances, but will in off-season. I am looking forward though for this season as I smell DI coming up next.

Good luck the rest of the week. How did your real life band do in your comp over the weekend?

It was pretty good, we got second behind Tarpon Springs which is the highest we've ever gotten at the Atlanta super regional. Thanks for asking!

awesome job ascoaster. I saw the results on Facebook. I'm subscribed to the BOa page. I thought that I recognized the name William Mason. It's not just a fantasy. They really do exist :)

Hey ASCoasters, congrats! I kind of remember BoA back in the day when I was in high school. Back then, seemed like all the powerhouses were from midwest or Tx. My high school band was involved in ToB comps, it was always a thrill when we made ACC, Atlantic Coast Championships. Unfortunately, we were not that good at all. In my senior year, we got a new band director who was more in tune to competitions. After graduation, I did the percussion arranging/instruction. Took a couple years, but efforts started to pay off.

Anyways, though 1st would have been cool, 2nd is still pretty awesome considering the level of competition these days. Again.....CONGRATS!!!

Well I'm out of the question for top 3 this season then I guess, something has to be wrong with the system because I haven't missed a single rehearsal since my last show. I also spent all of my money on staff today yet I only went up 2 points in almost 4 days! It's possible that I might not even make finals now if I miss a rehearsal so I don't know how I'll catch up to the top guys.

What barnburner! Congrats to the corps that made Finals. The spread from 1st to 12th is less than 4 points! To the corps that did not make it, you guys gave it your all, put on some awesome shows, and truely have a lot to be proud of, setting corps records in the end, and in my book, you are all winners.