That's what I said... I was surprised that Brownsburg - and Lafayette beat them. They were for sure in top three. Otherwise the scores were relatively expected.
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I’m not surprised. I was there for prelims today, and Lafayette Jeff had one of my favorite shows all day, with incredible energy and powerful vocals to back it up. Brownsburg also had a super fun show. Both third and fourth place definitely deserved their placements, but Oak Mountain was definitely incredible as well. It was simply the case of several great groups meeting up at the same place, and unfortunately somebody has to come in fifth.
every group that beat them sang better. Oak mountain's showhad a lot going on....being busy...doesn't make the show better. difficult choreo, difficult singing with said choreo, 8 part harmonies, unity, tone, timbre, etc all account for great shows. on the surface oak mountain seems dope in comparison....not so much...they do not sing better than Carmel, CG, to Jeff and in Indiana vocals have more scoring potential than visual.
I’m not gonna dispute Carmel and CG having better vocals. Forgot how big of a deal vocals are in the Midwest. Sort of like how another Southern group 10 years ago had a surprisingly low finish here — again because the vocals couldn’t compare to Zionsville and whoever else was there.
It's really more of an Indiana thing than a Midwest thing. Historically, Indiana competitions have around a 60% to 40% vocal/visual weight due to ISSMA. Although it's worth noting, Franklin Central is not an ISSMA sanctioned qualifying site this year. Franklin Central uses Carmen Scoring and according to Carmen's website, Franklin Central's weighting is 40% vocals, 30% visuals, 20% show, and 10% accompaniment.
If this is true, going over time really would have killed their score. I overheard someone in the audience say that they were deducting a point for every second over time. Even going over by a minute would be enough to tank them if this was the case, which is super unfortunate. One point per second seems a bit excessive to me, but I guess it’s a strong impetus for groups to stay on time.
To be honest, I'm surprised that they haven't gotten time penalties before (Auburn 2020, Jasper 2022 to name a few contests that they avoided it). I don't believe that time is counted while reconfiguring the risers, which I'm sure they had to do since Oak Mountain uses the California sized risers. Would certainly help them if there was a more time-friendly way to get all 18 TVs, plus lights onto the stage.
They stack on top of the pre-existing risers. Southern comps typically do not allow for riser reconfigurations. It’s not often an established rule, but enough comps do have the rule that only the fourth row is movable, so all of our groups stack risers on top of the base set. I would be all about riser reconfigurations if we could do it consistently.
GC: Center Grove (BV, BC)
1RU: Ambassadors
2RU: Oak Mountain
3RU: Brownsburg
4RU: Lafayette
Here's Why-
Center Grove:
Sound System leads in MWPR (Midwest Power Ranking) at 129, so predicting them for first is easy. The top three will be close, as Carmel is 2nd in power ranking (127), and Oak Mountain's only loss this year is to Attache. CG's combination of incredible classical vocal technique and a choir that consistently puts the show in show choir, first place seems like their most likely outcome.
Carmel:
I have the Ambassadors at 2nd for two reasons: they trail only Center Grove in MWPR and they placed ahead of Oak Mountain the only time these two groups competed against each other, albeit back in 2018. Don't be surprised to see them take the cake on Saturday, but their most likely placement is second.
Oak Mountain:
While I have them last amongst the "big three" in this competition, don't be surprised if they place higher than 3rd. The only teams that consistently beat the Singers are Attache, The Network, and Auburn. That's a pretty darn good list. Also, expect travel to play a role in this contest. I'd love to see them upset the top two MWPR teams, but for now, third seems like their most likely outcome.
Brownsburg:
Brownsburg has consistently been competitive amongst Indiana's finest show choir programs. However, they do feel like "little brother" to the top teams in Indiana as they are 1-11 against CG and 0-5 against Carmel. 3RU is their best-case scenario.
Lafayette:
First Edition is fresh off of a second-place finish, and usually places ahead of Minstrel Magic and Rhythm Masters when they have competed against those teams. I really could go either way with Lafayette and Brownsburg, but I'll give it to Brownsburg.
Good luck to all teams competing. This should be a fantastic competition.
Thank you, I totally forgot about that. I'll edit.
The MWPW is a scoring system that ranks teams based on this year's placements and captions. It's the most predictive tool that I know of that doesn't utilize raw scores from the competitions themselves.
No. It’s just info from a spreadsheet I made. I can share it with you if you’d like. It’s not an exhaustive list of choirs, mostly ones that are consistently placing top 5 and are from IN/IL/OH and a few from WI,OH and IA.
Thank you all for the interest. I’m a bit busy right now as my college is approaching midterms, but I will try to find an opportunity in the next few days to make it public. In the event that I do and certain choirs aren’t represented, I sincerely mean no harm. While I enjoy making the rankings, I do it by hand so it’s a lengthy process and thus it would take too long to make rankings for 200 or so show choirs. Thank you for understanding.
Franklin Central Hoosier Show Choir Classic 2022
