I promised the members of my league id do a write up of the championship, so here it is. Sorry its a bit late, I've been busy with band and school lately.

It was a beautiful day in Houston, as twenty of the best corps in FAME battled for the first ever league championship. Reliant Stadium, home of the Houston Texans, was the perfect site for this historic event. Before the action kicked off, Aftershock NZ played a beautiful rendition of New Zealand's national anthem, God Save New Zealand. After that, all twenty corps took the field, and played the Star Spangled Banner. It was definitely one of the most spectacular sights of the day.

After the pre competition festivities, the corps got straight down to business. The Warriors took the field first, with their show, "Concert Classics". The opener, "Fantasia in G", was clearly the best part of the show, but the lack of practice showed. The show definitely could have been better, if the corps was more efficient at practice. Overall, it was a solid show, with the end score being a 50.725.

The next corps in Division 3 to perform was Another Blue Group. This corps had a decent show, titled "BLOOOOOOOOOO". It was exciting to watch at times, but the crowd got bored at the midway point of the show. This entire show was a cliche of Drum Corps, and even though this corps is clearly trying to be like other blue groups, it would be nice to see a change in scenery from them. The end result was a 4th place finish, and a solid score of 52.035.

For the first time in the competition, the crowd truly got into it, when the Flyers took the field with their show, "Lost Worlds". It was a nice show all around, but it could have been much better. Still, this show, which was very mysterious, and included many weird visuals and sounds, was clearly a crowd favorite. It was nice to see a corps do something a bit unorthodox, and the judges felt the same way. Flyers got the Bronze, with a score of 56.41.

The next corps to compete was Eagle Corps, and boy did they blow the fans away. Their show, "Soar", was a musical masterpiece for Division 3. There were many great runs and licks, and the chord progression was outstanding. The show, which depicted the life of an eagle, was also very good visually. Many fans found the show to be very inspirational and beautiful, which is why it was a huge surprise to see that this corps did not score a little bit higher. Unfortunately, their efforts were not enough for a Gold medal, but the Eagle Corps gladly took the Silver with a score of 59.215.

The last Division 3 corps of the day to perform completely dominated the early part of the day. The Saboteurs had a very powerful show, titled "Emperialistic", which depicted the reign of a tyrannical empire. It was a typical concert march type show, with a few sections of strong chords and amazing drum breaks. This was clearly the best show in Division 3, and the judges scored this corps well. The Saboteurs sabotaged any plans that the other three corps had of getting first, and took the Gold, and the Division 3 Championship Cup, with a score of 61.475.

The most exciting division to watch was obviously Division 2, and the first corps to take the field were The Red Foxes. This corps disappointed fans with their show, "Jupiter", which included the famous piece by Gustav Holst. Unfortunately, that movement of the show, like the rest of them, was a mess. If practice time was utilized better, this show could have turned out much cooler than it actually did. The Red Foxes earned the worst score of the championship, with a score of 50.67.

After The Red Foxes performed, another San Antonio corps took the field. Genocide shocked the entire crowd with their unusual and downright terrifying show, "Knocking on Death's Door". The first movement, "The Accident", gruesomely depicted a car crash in which all of the passengers were killed. There were many dissonance chords in this section, and they were all played very loud. This show was very crazy and unorthodox, and received mixed reviews from the fans. The judges however, made it clear that they thought this show had far too much going on in it, and scored it as a 51.3.

The bluecoats took the field with their show, "this is a mad world", which featured music from Alice in Wonderland. This was another weird show, and it even included an insane plot twist in which Alice and the Mad Hatter fall in love. Musically the show was not together, but visually, it generated some oohs and ahhs from the crowd. If the musical aspects of the show were better, then this corps would have gotten a better score, but instead, they had to settle for an average 53.945.

The Washington Spiders were next, and performed a very famous musical piece, titled, "Cirque Du Soleil".Overall, it was a very solid show all around, but nothing more than that. It wasn't a particularly innovative show , but it was a nice musical melody that many enjoyed. Surprisingly, the visuals were not as impressive as many people thought they would be, since the theme was a very visual one to begin with. In the end, the show was average, but it was clean and safe, and it got the Spiders a score of 55.73.

Carolina Crown clearly spent most of its practice time dedicated to having a monster hornline, because it was the best musical performance of the day at that point. Their show, "E=MC^2" may not have been the classic it was when DCI Crown played it in 2013, but it was still powerful, and had the crowd on their feet throughout most of the show. The chords were strong, but the runs were not as clean as they could have been. Unfortunately, having a beast hornline was not enough for Crown, because all of the other elements of their show were weak. Still, even though they did not have the best score out of the first ten corps competing in Reliant Stadium, and not all aspects of their show were complete, they clearly put on the best show of the first half of the day. The judges however, did not think this, and gave Carolina Crown a score of 58.21.

Part 2 coming tomorrow, featuring 7-1 in D2 and the top three in D1. Thanks for reading!

you definitely have a knack for writing alex. I hope that these groups find some time to rehearse. You don't have to like every show ;-) No worries though some groups grow at a slower pace than others do, and many of groups have taken time off to fundraise. I am doing that now. If I'm going to sacrifice my sleep to rehearse and compete in d1, I'll need a better staff :-D i look forward to the next part of this write up.