Blue Devils are 2015 DCI World Class champions

The season of close finishes amongst the four top corps was unlike anything DCI has ever witnessed, driving up attendance to record-breaking numbers at many shows. But when the smoke cleared, Blue Devils finished in a spot they’ve been 16 times before: 1st place.

The high caption awards were based on scores averaged from Prelims, Semi Finals, and Finals, and as such, may not reflect the top caption placements from Finals alone. Blue Devils took top honors for Visual Performance, Percussion Performance, and Color Guard. Carolina Crown won the award for General Effect, and the Cadets attained the award for Brass Performance.

Blue Devils (1st-97.650) added 1.025 to its score from Semi Finals. Though Crown won the combined GE captions, BD was only 0.10 behind in 2nd place. The corps won all three Visual captions, scoring 0.45 over Crown in Total Visual, accounting for most of the 0.575 spread over Crown in the total score (0.30 of that Total Visual score was due to BD’s lead in Visual Analysis). Brass took 3rd, but was only 0.20 under Crown’s 2nd-place caption finish (which accounted for only a 0.10 difference once that caption was divided in half). Percussion took 1st, 0.75 over Crown’s 5th-place score, accounting for 0.375 of the total spread over Crown. Despite ending 3rd in Brass and 2nd in Music Analysis (by just 0.10), BD won Total Music, 0.225 over Crown.

Add that 0.30 advantage over Crown in Visual Analysis (after dividing in half) to the 0.375 spread for which Percussion accounted (also after dividing in half), and those two captions alone accounted for a 0.675 lead over Crown. That was 0.10 more than what BD needed to pass up Crown for the title. Therefore, it can be stated that the Visual Analysis and Percussion scores steered the championship to the Blue Devils.

Carolina Crown (97.075) added 0.30 to its Semi Finals score, winning Total GE and Music Analysis. Visual Proficiency, Color Guard, and Brass placed 2nd. (In Prelims, the Crown Color Guard beat BD by 0.60, then took 2nd in Semifinals.) Visual Analysis finished 4th and Percussion 5th.

Bluecoats (3rd, 96.925) added 1.15 from Semi Finals, the most of any corps in the Finals. While the focus may be on Blue Devils beating Crown for the title, it shouldn’t be discounted that Bluecoats closed up the gap with Crown by 0.85, coming within 0.15 of matching Crown’s score (despite winning no captions) and 0.20 of taking 2nd place away from Crown. In addition, Bluecoats came within 0.725 from matching BD’s score.

The corps was 2nd in Visual Analysis and Percussion, 3rd in Total GE, Visual Proficiency, Color Guard and Music Analysis, and 4th in Brass. Total Visual and Total Music finished 3rd. The 0.15 deficit to Crown in Total GE was exactly the spread by which Crown stayed in 2nd place, and Bluecoats’ lead of 0.05 in Total Visual was matched by Crown’s lead over Bluecoats in Total Music.

Read the full report at the DCI website.