Okay we have score sheets proving Tift got 2nd. We beat Oak Mountain by like 8 points and that's just life. Tift got 2nd and Oak Mountain got 3rd. We have the trophy and the score sheets.
Would have to say that is false. Tift and Oak mountain actually tied in placements, however Tift had the higher numerical score. Therefore, Tift got second.
Tift and Oak mountain are both being awarded second place. The rankings were tied, oak mountain scored higher in vocals, but Tift County scored higher overall
The Southern discussion topics are back this year! It really is so cool to see the amount of predictions and discussion taking place as the Southern topics have been a little quiet in years past. Happy to see it.
It seems, for reasons related to eliminating finals, the type division classifications, and format of awards ceremony, that this wasn't exactly folks favorite style of competition? As someone who isn't from the South and has become familiar with competition formats from region-to-region, I can genuinely say the South *generally* does a pretty good job with division classifications. Usually it's either Large/Small (Alabama) or Large/Middle/Small (Mississippi) based on number of singers/dancers. As Joey said, school size is one of the least helpful indicators one could use to determine classifications which is what many Midwestern competitions use, including a lot in Ohio. While number of singers/dancers certainly isn't perfect, it definitely seems more reasonable. (As a side bar, I tend to like how the upper Midwest classifies their divisions. Generally there's a single-gender division, prep division which includes a school's junior varsity choir or new/small/novice level choirs, and then the championship level mixed division - this certainly isn't perfect either but it takes into account skill level instead of just school size.) *shoulder shrug*
As for Tallassee, it seems like complete overkill to have a Large Mixed A and Large Mixed B along with Small Mixed A and Small Mixed B. How different, really, are the "A" from the "B" within Large and Small? Is it measurably a substantial difference? Seems unnecessary, personally, especially considering at any other event Albertville is considered Tier I as is Opelika, etc. Although given the format Tallassee chose, I would disagree with the announcement of the top 5 overall scores. If you're going to throw divisions out the window and just combine all of the scores anyways at the end of the night to see the overall top placing choirs, then what's the point of divisions in the first place? In my humble opinion, it should simply be one way or the other. Do the seemingly overkill approach of 5 mixed divisions and no announcement of overall scores (as Tallassee did) *or* eliminate unnecessary divisions combining into simply Large and Small and then just announce awards from there. This latter point is what several of you have already discussed and is obviously the more common approach throughout the Southern circuit.
At least Tallassee, for better or worse, has it's own distinct competition style within the Southern circuit - hopefully it at least ended at a reasonable hour since there weren't finals.
In my opinion, Albertville could have been in Class A, but I don't believe they would have managed better than 4th. Tift, Oak Mountain and Auburn were within 8 points of each other for the top 3 spots. So, the two classes were fine. It gave an opportunity for more choirs to be recognized.
Generally competitions recognize and thank attending choirs via participation trophies, but I guess if you want to give everyone a placement trophy you can just have 5 divisions.
In a normal competition approach, someone would have had to of placed 4th, 5th, etc. in the daytime and in finals. That's just how it works. I'm sure Albertville, Opelika, and Appling would have liked the opportunity to see how they faired against the class A groups. At the end of the day, that's the point of a competition.
Edit: Also, if you're going to separate classes to give more choirs an opportunity to be recognized, then caption awards should have been presented to both class A and class B separately, not overall for both classes.
The women's division results are wrong. Correct placements, but best show design and best choreography need to be swapped.
1st: Oak Mountain - BV, BC, Best Soloist-Taygen Hartstock
2nd: Auburn - Best Show Design
Thanks for the correction. This seems to have been quite the event and results have been posted by users in various, sometimes contradictory ways. Nonetheless, definitely appreciate y'all commenting and trying to make sense of it all.
My prediction, which is going to be seemingly bold after what happened this weekend, is that Auburn finds a way to win this competition.
Weird that they did not give out top 5 overall. If no finals are scheduled, at least combine the championship division and give out overall placements.
That's garbage.. I get not having finals in some cases but you need a top 5.... Because while Tier II typically means smaller groups that aren't quite there with the bigger groups but can be, this one had all big groups in that second tier and thus you either need finals or all day top 5's.
I agree. If I understand the above comments, it seems as if they gave out caption awards that could have came from both class A and class B. If that were the case, why not give out top 5? Hopefully someone can post the scores for both classes so we can see how they stacked up.
The whole Class A/Class B thing is completely bogus. Homewood and Albertville are both small schools, yet they are typically the two largest programs in the entire region. School size has little to no bearing on the ability of the group in whatever division it is competes in, at least in comparison to the size of the group.
There was a "top 5" on the score sheets, just not called out for some reason. It combined all the larger mixed groups together showed where they placed. I do remember Auburn, Tift, and Oak Mountain being the top 3 but I can't recall the rest after that. But I'm with you. Either do finals, or make an overall placement for everyone.
Edit for clarification**.
The top 5 thing was just a score sheet showing where all the large mixed groups placed together with their overall scores and and such.
Tallassee Capital City Classic 2017
