Welcome to FMA news, and good afternoon, I’m Aaron Sickmeier reporting live from the FMA news room. Yesterday it was championship day in the world of FMA as 7 of the most active leagues competed to crown their season 45 champions.


In Boston, 18 CLASS corps met for their seasonal throw down with Nemesis taking the crown over their longtime rivals, Lexington Legends in division 1. Many were not surprised that Corps IBEX took the division 2 crown beating the Goldcoats by more than 10 points, and CLASS division 3 saw much more action this season with the second-season corps Inferno Crusaders claiming the top spot by just 0.2 over Augusta Greencoats.


The rain did not hinder the intense competition in Riverside, CA as 48 FAME corps competed for the title of league champion. More than 11,000 spectators watched as Arsenal Drum & Bugle Corps took the win in division 1 over Dark Knights to win their third FAME championship, the first being in season 40 and the second in season 42. In division 2, The Panthers claimed their place in history winning their first league championship, and it was a great comeback for The Archmen who, for their second season on FMA, won the division 3 championship after placing 9th at the FAME championships last season.


Although they had their official championship event on August 22, BoA hosted The BoA Contest of Champions with 30 competitors and more than 7,000 spectators. Lincoln Springs did a “Shadow Dance” to claim the division 1 gold medal; Lincoln Springs is a six time BoA champion. Marching Mathletes took home the division 2 gold medal, and impressively the Parkview Viking Band slaughtered the competition in division 3 scoring an 80.240, more than 16 points over the 2nd place marching band Los Toreros.


The audience cheered “BRAVO” several times at Rogers Centre in Toronto as 44 of the best marching bands competed for the BRAVO! BANDS title. One of BRAVO’s newest groups, Robinson Secondary School Marching Rams, put up an impressive 97.300 sweeping almost all captions, with the exception of percussion, to take home the division 1 gold medal. No stranger to BRAVO, Hollands Hope High School claimed the division 2 title for the second season in a row, and MN Tiger Band in their second season of competition took the gold medal in division 3. We caught up with MN Tiger Band director, cjbuckley, for a brief interview.

Reporter: “How does it feel to come back for your second season and win BRAVO’s division 3 title?”

Cjbuckley: “It's really cool honestly! Having joined only about 2 months ago, I wouldn't have thought we would be competing at such a high level so soon.”

Reporter: “What can we expect in the future for the MN Tiger Band?”

Cjbuckley: “Expect even more improvement, there's no way we want to stop at a D3 league title! There's no real timeline for us, but we hope to be competing for the D1 title as soon as we can!”

Reporter: “Is there anything you'd like to say to your fans and students?”

Cjbuckley: “To fans and students, as well as fellow directors, I would like to say that even as cliche as it sounds, anything can be achieved if you really want to do it! Sometimes it might take longer than you expect, but as long as you have patience and determination, success will come eventually!”

Reporter: “Okay, thank you very much, and best of luck to your group in the following seasons. Now back to Aaron Sickmeier in the studio.”


Yesterday, fans around the world welcomed 34 ROTC guards at The Olympic Indoor Sports Centre in Athens, Greece. The Indoor Sports Centre, also known simply as the Indoor Hall, is the home to several of Greece’s professional basketball teams and has hosted events and acts such as the Athens Summer Olympics, Lady Gaga, and Cirque du Soleil. ROTC founder AAustin19 spoke after the event.

“We were extremely honored to perform at such venue in front of a crowd who mostly was being introduced to this sport. It was truly an overwhelming experience and one that ROTC will always remember.”

Dark Knights Guard took first place in division 1 just slightly ahead of Pandemonium NZ. Purple Power took the division 2 title, and Illumination Winterguard took the gold medal in division 3.


On the other side of the map, rival guard league FLAG held their championships. Four of FMA’s powerhouses battled for the top spot in division 1, but it was Tarasque from Ogunquit, ME who finished 1st place with an amazing score of 98.910. In division 2, Shining Red saw “light through the darkness” as they claimed the 1st place spot. The division 3 championship went to The Color Guys from San Francisco who won their first league championship.


Audience members packed Philips Arena in Atlanta to watch what many fans claimed “the most epic drum line battle they’d ever seen.” 54 drum lines from around the world competed at the PEARL championships, but only 3 could be crowned PEARL champions. Knights Drumline wowed the audience with their show La Mer to become season 45’s division 1 champion. Gasper sticks had heads spinning with their show “Spin” intriguing spectators and judges with their division 2 championship show. Sounds of rolling thunder filled the arena as the up and coming drumline Archmen Indoor competed to snatch the gold medal in division 3.


Congratulations to all groups who performed yesterday. Good to have you with us, and we hope to have you back. This has been FMA news. I’m Aaron Sickmeier saying so long.

I think having FMA News is an excellent idea. I like how you incorporated all the major leagues into your report and not just the ones you are in. you remained objective as a reporter is supposed to. very creative and well done Aaron

Yo aaron...youre freakin awesome! Nice write up man, im looking forward to more of this stuff cx

Thanks for reading. I want to do a weekly report unless there is breaking news :-D

This is fantastic.

Great job! Made championship day very exciting

Great job on this write up. It's been a long time coming since someone has done anything news worthy on this section of the forum and you delivered!

Great job!

Now I wish my group wasn't on tour in Europe so that we could have been there!

Wow, thank you everyone for the positive responses. I want FMA news to be on going. Definitely expect more news worthy write ups in this thread.

I hope it's alright that I do this but I got bored and nobody else has done it for a while so why not?

Hello everybody, I'm Tyler Brown and I'm here to give you a mid-season analysis of the exciting events that has been happening in FAME in season 51 so far.
Ever since the FAME kickoff in Buffalo, competition in all 3 divisions have been intense. The Atlantic Clarinet Choir clenched the first place spot in division 1, followed closely behind the Dark Knights, with their show "Lullabies." The tables turned at FAME competition in Pittsburgh, where the Dark Knights and their show "Dark Knights Rising" took 1st with a .15 point lead and maintained that score all the way till the Washington DC competition, leaving the Atlantic Clarinet Choir in 2nd. Those two corps will continue to fight for the 1st in FAME in Burlington and throughout the rest of the season.
On to division 2. The Spirit of Atlantis has kept an amazing 1st place lead in FAME with their show, "Stonehenge." They are also maintaining a huge first place lead in FMA's overall 2nd division. Aria Corps has kept a second place spot with their show, "What if?", and Argentum has kept their solid 3rd place show, "Aprilis Nubila". The Spirit of Atlantis is looking to have an amazing successful season this season with a very good chance of taking a gold medal in championships.
Division 3 has been a nail-biter. The Red Kingsmen has maintained their 1st place spot throughout the season with their show, "9.11". They've been closely trailed by The Vanguard Knights and their yet-to-be-named show (unless "Coming Soon is actually their show name). The Couchmen has kept their 3rd place spot in division 3 FAME with their... controversial show named, "The Comfort Zone." And I would like to be the first to congratulate the Couchmen for their very successful 1st season in FMA. There has also many great late-comers throughout the season that has a lot of potential. Brahman, Bluecoats, Redcoats, 007 Regiment, Blue Thunder and more, welcome to FAME.
As you can tell FAME has had a very successful season so far... I hope everybody has a great day and a great rest of the season.

Tyler Brown---

Ps. If anybody would like me to do a write up like this one for their league, I'd be happy to do them! I've had a lot of free time lately and this was actually pretty fun :)

(lol) Coming soon is not the title of their show. That's my B group. We're performing in exhibition at the moment. Vanguard Knights will enter the field in competition next season after we get our staff situated. Thanks for the mention, though.

On the other hand, Dark Knights Rising is surprisingly doing better this season than I ever expected. If you haven't already figured it out, Dark Knights show is based on the movie The Dark Knight Rises with music by Hans Zimmer. Atlantic Clarinet Choir is doing well this season, too. Good luck to ACC as both corps push towards championship night.