The Importance of General Effect

Many argue over the notion of which idea wins championships. Is it a brilliant show design, or corps performance? Most of these corps are very close in achievement in all captions, so some say GE is the caption it comes down to. At the same time, many corps have won championships in the form of a comeback story (2008/Quarters, semis, finals of 2013). It seems that the answer is a little bit of both. 2015 is a very competitive season for drum corps, and I can safely say one of the most competitive we’ve seen in recent years. I would like to specifically talk about the top five. The Cadets have a show that relies on a constant idea, similar to TILT of 2014. The audience can understand it, and there is not too much going on with it. The difference is the Cadets are expressing there general affect in such a way that judges notice it in many if not all captions. When a corps can affectively express their program in all captions, that is when the GE scores really soar. The Blue Devils have more of a hybrid theme (complex as well as simple). You can take the show from many angles but the popular angle is there use of letters throughout the show, as well as some innovative drill. They are very close with the Cadets in GE as of right now, and the way they bring out their program in their show just may not be up to the Cadets level yet. As far as all other captions BD is pretty much matched if not better in some categories. The Bluecoats have stepped up their game from 2014 in the effect category. Again, something that you can understand by watching the show, but it still has a little more bite to it. Although they have other captions to work on, GE is actually one of their best categories right now. That makes them dangerous for the top 2, because if they clean up their other captions, which they always do, their GE will be matched up with BD and Cadets, giving us a tight race to the finish at Lucas Oil. Carolina Crown is the polar opposite of coats. They have overall great visual and music scores, beating out the top 3 in a handful of sub categories. The killer in the recap sheet is GE. They have been behind as much as .9 in GE from Vanguard in the last week. Increasing your GE score can be challenging, as it is getting late into the season, and Crown does not have many vacations. However if they do get their GE scores up, they very well could be deadlier than the Bluecoats, because they are already clean in almost every other category. Santa Clara Vanguard is special. Their Visual proficiency category, and their whole GE category is almost matched with Bluecoats. When they clean up their new ending, and their brass as a whole, we may see them get close to if not medaling. Don’t you see? GE is the entity that connects all five of these corps, and the one thing that WILL decide the winner, medalist, and non-medalist of the 2015 Top Five.